Table Of ContentTHE WISDOM BOOKS OF THE BIBLE -
PROVERBS, JOB, ECCLESIASTES, BEN SIRA,
WISDOM OF SOLOMON
A Survey of the History of Their Interpretation
Sean P. Kealy
With a Foreword by
Martin McNamara
The Edwin Mellen Press
LewistonoQueenstonoLampeter
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kealy, Sean P.
The wisdom books of the Bible: Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Ben Sira, Wisdom of
Solomon: a survey of the history oftheir interpretation! Sean P. Kealy; with a foreword
by Martin McNamara.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-I3: 978-0-7734-2601-6 (hardcover)
ISBN-IO: 0-7734-2601-9 (hardcover)
1. Wisdom literature-Criticism, interpretation, etc.--History. J. Title.
BS1455.K432012
223'.0609-dc23
2012002728
hoI's serie.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copyright
©
2012 Sean P. Kealy
All rights reserved. For information contact
The Edwin Mellen Press
Box 450
Lewiston, New York
USA 14092-0450
The Edwin Mellen Press
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The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd.
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Printed in the United States of America
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD by Martin McNamara, MSC
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1: PROVERBS
35
Chapter 2: JOB
77
Chapter 3: ECCLESIASTES (QOHELETH)
145
Chapter 4: THE BOOK OF BEN SIRA OF ,JERUSALEM
211
Chapter 5: THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON
255
Chapter 6: AFTERWORD
289
Index
293
Fathers and mothers have lost the idea that the highest aspiration they
might have for their children is for them to be wise - as priests,
prophets or philosophers are wise. Specialised competence and
success are all that they can imagine .... When a youngster like Lincoln
sought to educate himself, the immediately available obvious things
for him to learn were the Bible, Shakespeare and Euclid. Was he
really worse off than those who try to find their way through the
technical smorgasbord of the current school system, with its utter
inability to distinguish between important and unimportant in any
other way than by the demands of the market?
Allan Bloom, '111e Closing of tire American Mind'
Despite Solomon's example, however, I suspect that few of us, if
given the same opportunity, would make the same choice today.
Wisdom has gone out of fashion. The very word is one of a number in
the English language that we find frequently in works of literature but
seldom in everyday life. For the half-century that has passed since I
reached the use of reason, I can scarcely remember ever having heard
a philosopher, statesman or indeed anyone else described as wise. Our
most common terms of approbation tend to be 'intelligent'. 'clever'.
'astute', 'shrewd' or 'high powered'. The skills of our rulers lie in
reading the runes of focus groups and opinion polls, and the image
they want to project is of someone vigorous, forceful, youthful,
dynamic - not wise. in the academic world, professors are appointed
for their specialist knowledge, not their overall sagacity. and
university chancellors are chosen more for their abilities as
administrators and fundraisers than as the eiders of their people. Even
philosophers, who, from the etymology of the word that denotes their
calling (love of wisdom), might be expected to give it some meaning,
are no longer wise ...
Piers Paul Read in Revelations, 2005, pp 191-2
All our wisdom is lost in knowledge
All our knowledge is lost in infonnation.
T.S. Eliot, Choruses from the Rock
The deepest, the only theme of human history, compared to which all
others are of subordinate importance, is the conflict of scepticism with
filith.
Goethe
Only the suffering God can help.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his Nazi prison cell, 1944
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle,
willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of
partiality or hypocrisy.
James 3:17
The habit of the active utilization of well-understood principles is the
final possession of wisdom.
Alfred North Whitehead
FOREWORD
Fr. Sean Kealy has already treated the reading public with a fine presentation of the
understanding of the four Gospels down through the centuries in volumes very well
received as indicated by revisions and reprints. He has now, in this work, turned his
attention to the Near Eastern and Israelite Wisdom tradition. In this volume, he
gives an excellent introduction to the wisdom tradition itself and to each of the five
Wisdom books, Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth), Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus),
and the Wisdom of Solomon, ending with a very thoughtful 'Afterword.' Sean has
read widely and wisely on his subject The index lists about three hundred authors.
His method is to give, together with his own insights and reflections, abundant apt
citations from, and references to, the leading authorities on the subject, mainly
contemporary. The reader is thus introduced both to the subject of Wisdom and the
message of the five individual wisdom books and the understanding of these by the
leading lights of contemporary exposition of the subject. We are thus introduced to
this rich tradition in its original setting and in its bearing on modern cultural and
ethical questions. This is a writing that should enlighten researchers, biblical
students, theologians, and the general reader for decades to come.
Martin McNamara, MSC
Sacred Heart Missionaries, Dublin
INTRODUCTION
Modem scholars use the tenn "wisdom" literature to include the books of
Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, some psalms and also Ben Sira, the Wisdom of
Solomon. Such books differed clearly from the rest of the OT in style and find
their closest parallels outside the Bible, especially in Egyptian and Mesopotamian
literature. Generally they are marked by the artistic use of parallelism, the
balanced and symmetrical use of phrases peculiar to Hebrew poetry. In particular
scholars note that the word "wisdom" is popular in all the books of the Wisdom
Literature - found 183 times in Proverbs. Job and Ecclesiastes and over 100
times in Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon. It is found some 42 times in Proverbs,
18 times in Job, 28 times in Qohelet, 60 times in Sirach (a total of 91 times
including derivatives), and 30 times in the book of Wisdom. However, as Richard
J. Clifford SJ. points out in his introduction to Wisdom Literature (The New
Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 5, p2), there is quite a variety of distinct literary genres
included as each genre develops in a distinctive way:
Proverbs includes the distinct genres of wisdom poem, instruction,
and proverb. Job is a dialogue on divine justice set within a
narrative; Qohelet is (among other things) a royal pseudo-
autobiography; Sirach is a vast compendium of instructions and
proverbs and the book of wisdom is a philosophical exhortation to
a way of life.
2
It should be noted also that the OT words for wisdom and wise do not correspond
exactly to the English words used to translate them. Therefore English translations
sometimes use English words such as "ability" and "skill" to translate words such
as the Hebrew "hokmah". Wisdom is more likely to be used with "the humble" or
with "those who listen and take advice" than with the proud and insolent (11 :2;
13:10). The wise listen to warning (15:31) and cherish precious things (31:10).
They wear themselves in efforts to become rich (23:4) but tum back anger
(29:8,11). They have the basic qualities of a good leader or judge (8: 15-! 6; Deut
1:15). They pay attention to counsei, good advice and teaching (8:33; 12:15;
13: 10; 19:20). Intelligence lets a person see beneath the surface of behavior (20:4;
28:11) and to learn from correction (19:25; 20:5). The goal ofa wise person is to
bring humans into tune with the divine so that the Spirit of the Lord will rest on
them:
Those who oppress the poor insult their maker,
But those who are kind to the needy honor him (14:3 J).
St. Jerome (+420) attributed the unity of these books to their (somewhat loose)
connection with the biblical patron of wisdom, Solomon. St. Augustine and
Western tradition after him would use a wider horizon and read the whole 73-
volume Bible, tbe fruit of many cultures from three different continents, as a
source of true wisdom for all peopJe - a view based on such bible texts as 2 Tim
3: 15-16; Prov 10-J 5,28-29. Some others in the Catholic tradition included Psalms
and Song of Solomon (a collection of love poems) to make seven wisdom books.
Here we will follow the narrower grouping. This in theological history became
somewhat isolated from the full canon because it did not emphasise such
historical traditions as exodus, covenant, conquest, prophecy and exile. Other
biblical books have been widely recognised as containing similarities to wisdom
literature: Gen 2-3 on sin and creation, Gen 37-46 the story of Joseph, the
introductory four chapters of Deuteronomy, the Song of Moses in Deu!. 32, the
succession Narrative of David in 2 Sam 9-20, the model story of Solomon in I K
3-11; Amos the prophet from wisdom circles; Ezek 28 on the king of Tyre; the
Song of Songs and some psalms including Ps 1,19,49,73,111,112,119, Laurence
Boadt, writing in Eerdmans 'Dictionary of the Bible, (p138J) notes that, even
though the wisdom books are different in form and style, they have certain
elements in common:
1) Little interest in the history of Israel or such aspects as the torah as a
body oflaws, the covenant, the possession of the land, the temple or cult.
2) Strong interest in the order of the universe and its rules of cause and
effect, the nature of time, the limits to human mastery of the world and the
ability to find God revealed in creation.
3) A willingness to explore the difficult and painful mysteries oflife
experience: death and divine reward and punishment, the inequity of fate
and destiny in people's lives, the apparent arbitrariness of divine blessing.
4) The inscrutability of God's intention and plans
5) The education of tile young in the tried and true ways of tradition
6) An interest in developing skilled administrators, leaders and good
citizens
7) eu Itivation of a life of prudent behaviour and virtue.
For Boadt certain literary genres are prominent: the proverb (Proverbs,
Sirach and Ecclesiastes); the dialogue (Job, Wisdom); didactic lesson
(Proverbs 1-9 and Ecclesiastes); the metaphor or allegory found often in
hymns and poems (Prov 8-9; Wis 7; Sirach 24; Ezek 28).
For Walter Brueggemann (Theology of the Old Testament, Fortress Press,
Minneapolis, 1997, p680) perhaps the most important thing, to note about the
sage is "that the sage is included at all along with Torah, king, prophet and cult".
He summarizes the current consensus among scholars in six points:
Wisdom theology is theology reflecting on creation, its requirements, orders and
gifts.
The data for such theology is lived experience that is not, for the most part,
overridden by imposed interpretative categories or constructs.
Experience is understood and seen to have a reliability, regularity and coherence.
The reliability,
regularity
and coherence of lived experience has an
unaccommodating ethical dimension.
4
The valuing of lived experience as a coherence of ethical requirement and ethical
assurance is seen to be something like "natural theology".
As "natural theology" this deposit of sustained reflection is indeed revelatory; it
reveals and discloses the God who creates, orders and sustains reality.
The Common Theology ofihe Ancient Near East
In ! 950 l.A. Pritchard edited the results of some 30 years of unprecedented
archaeological discovery, 'Ancient Near Eastem Texts Related to the Old
Testament' (third edition, Princeton University Press, 1969) , a volume which
would become a basic source book for Biblical study. In a provocative study 'The
Common Theology o/the Anciellt Near East' (J.B.L. Vol 77, 1952, ppI35-147)
Morton Smith, of Brown University, published a seminal dissenting article. In this
he concludes that Israel had far more in common with the beliefs of the ancient
Near East than contemporary proponents of the uniqueness of Israel's salvation
history were granting. To demonstrate this claim he relates the theological
material in Pritchard's collection to that of the Old Testament. Smith concluded
that there was a common theology shared by Israel and the ancient world.
Particularly in pre-exilic times, Smith added, one cannot draw a clear boundary
between the religion of the Israelites and the religion of its surrounding peoples.
While the cult of Yahweh is the main focus and concern of the O.T. it may not
have been the main concern of the historical Israelites. In fact. the standard
assumptions and religious claims of the Near East included the following six
points:
I) All worshipped a god who was flattered in worship as the only god,
even if he or she were a minor member of the pantheon.
2) This god is claimed to have power in all areas of history, nature and
morality both legal and civil.
3) This god is represented by symbols of power such as sun, bull, father,
king.
4) This god is just and merciful, deserving love and fearful obedience.
5) This god rewards and punishes human actions according to a strict
pattern of retribution - there is a direct relationship between
obedience/disobedience and the fortunes of people.
