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Easton's Bible Dictionary
A collection of moral and philosophical maxims of a wide
range of subjects presented in a poetic form. This book sets forth the "philosophy
of practical life. It is the sign to us that the Bible does not despise common
sense and discretion. It impresses upon us in the most forcible manner the value
of intelligence and prudence and of a good education. The whole strength of the
Hebrew language and of the sacred authority of the book is thrown upon these homely
truths. It deals, too, in that refined, discriminating, careful view of the finer
shades of human character so often overlooked by theologians, but so necessary
to any true estimate of human life" (Stanley's Jewish Church).
As to the origin of this book, "it is probable that Solomon gathered and recast
many proverbs which sprang from human experience in preceeding ages and were floating
past him on the tide of time, and that he also elaborated many new ones from the
material of his own experience. Towards the close of the book, indeed, are preserved
some of Solomon's own sayings that seem to have fallen from his lips in later
life and been gathered by other hands' (Arnot's Laws from Heaven, etc.)
This book is usually divided into three parts:
(1) Consisting of chaters 1 - 9, which contain an exhibition
of wisdom as the highest good.
(2) Consisting of chapters 10 - 24.
(3) Containing proverbs of Solomon "which the men of Hezekiah, the king of Judah,
collected" (chapters 25 - 29).
These are followed by two supplements,
(1) "The words of Agur" (chapters 30); and
(2) "The words of king Lemuel" (chapters 31). |
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Solomon is said to have written three thousand proverbs, and those contained in
this book may be a selection from these ( 1 Kings 4:32 ). In the New Testament
there are thirty-five direct quotations from this book or allusions to it.
Hitchcock's Dictionary of Bible Names
(no entry)
Smith's Bible Dictionary
The title of this book in Hebrew is taken from its first
word, mashal, which originally meant "a comparison." It is sometimes translated
parable, sometimes proverb as here. The superscriptions which are affixed to several
portions of the book, in chs. ( Proverbs 1:1 ; 10:1 ; 25:1 ) attribute the authorship
of those portions to Solomon the son of David, king of Israel. With the exception
of the last two chapters, which are distinctly assigned to other author it is
probable that the statement of the superscriptions is in the main correct, and
that the majority of the proverbs contained in the book were uttered or collected
by Solomon. Speaking roughly, the book consists of three main divisions, with
two appendices:--
(1) Chapters. 1 - 9 form a connected didactic
Wisdom is praised and the youth exhorted to devote himself to her. This portion
is preceded by an introduction and title describing the character and general
aim of the book.
(2) Chapters. 10 - 24 with the title "The Proverbs of Solomon," consist of three
parts: ( Proverbs 10:1 - 22 ; 10:16 ) a collection of single proverbs and detached
sentences out of the region of moral teaching and worldly prudence; ( Proverbs
22:17 - 24 ; 22:21 ) a more connected didactic poem, with an introduction, ( Proverbs
22:17 - 22 ) which contains precepts of righteousness and prudence; ( Proverbs
24:23 - 34 ) with the inscription "These also belong to the wise," a collection
of unconnected maxims, which serve as an appendix to the preceding.
(3) Then follows the third division chapters. 25-29, which, according to the superscription,
professes to be collection of Solomons proverbs, consisting of single sentences,
which the men of the court of Hezekiah copied out.
The first appendix, chapter 30, "The words of Agur the son of Jakeh," is a collection
of partly proverbial and partly enigmatical sayings; the second, ch. 31, is divided
into two parts, "The words of King Lemuel," vs. 1-6, and an alphabetical acrostic
in praise of a virtuous woman, which occupies the rest of the chapter. Who was
Agur and who was Jakeh, are questions which have been often asked and never satisfactorily
answered. All that can be said of the first is that he was an unknown Hebrew sage,
the son of an equally unknown Jakeh, and that he lived after the time of Hezekiah.
Lemuel, like Agur, is unknown. It is even uncertain whether he is to be regarded
as a real personage, or whether the name is merely symbolical. |
The Proverbs are frequently quoted or alluded to in the New Testament and the
canonicity of the book thereby confirmed. The following is a list of the principal
passages:--
( Proverbs 1:16 ) compare Romans 3:10,15
( Proverbs 3:7 ) compare Romans 12:16
( Proverbs 3:11, Proverbs 3:12 ) compare Hebrews 12:5,6, see also Revelation 3:19
( Proverbs 3:34 ) compare James 4:6
( Proverbs 10:12 ) compare 1 Peter 4:8
( Proverbs 11:31 ) compare 1 Peter 4:18
( Proverbs 17:13 ) compare Romans 12:17 ; 1 Thessalonians 5:15 ; 1 Peter 3:9
( Proverbs 17:27 ) compare James 1:19
( Proverbs 20:9 ) compare 1 John 1:8
( Proverbs 20:20 ) compare Matthew 15:4 ; Mark 7:10
( Proverbs 22:8 ) (LXX.), compare 2 Corinthians 9:7
( Proverbs 25:21 Proverbs 25:22 ) compare, Romans 12:20
( Proverbs 26:11 ) compare, 2 Peter 2:22
( Proverbs 27:1 ) compare, James 4:13 , 14 |
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
prov'-erbz:
The Scripture book which in both the Hebrew and the Greek arrangements of the
Old Testament Canon immediately succeeds the Psalms. In the Hebrew Canon it stands
second in the final or supplementary division called kethubhim (Septuagint Paroimiai),
"writings"; placed there probably because it would be most natural to begin this
section with standard collections nearest at hand, which of course would be psalms
and proverbs. This book is an anthology of sayings or lessons of the sages on
life, character, conduct; and as such embodies the distinctively educative strain
of Hebrew literature.
I. THE BOOK'S ACCOUNT OF ITSELF
1. Title and Headings
At the beginning, intended apparently to cover the whole work, stands the title:
"The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel." It seemed good to
the compilers, however, to repeat, or perhaps retain an older heading, "The proverbs
of Solomon" at Proverbs 10, as if in some special sense the collection there beginning
deserved it; and at Proverbs 25 still another heading occurs: "These also are
proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out." All
these ascribe the proverbs to Solomon; but the heading (Proverbs 30:1), "The words
of Agur the son of Jakeh; the oracle," and the heading (Proverbs 31:1), "The words
of king Lemuel; the oracle which his mother taught him," indicate that authorship
other than that of Solomon is represented; while the mention of "the words of
the wise" (Proverbs 1:6 ; 22:17), as also the definite heading, "These also are
sayings of the wise" (Proverbs 24:23), ascribe parts of the book to the sages
in general. The book is confessedly a series of compilations made at different
times; confessedly, also, to a considerable extent at least, the work of a number,
perhaps a whole guild, of writers.
2. Authorship or Literary Species?
It is hazardous to argue either for or against a specific authorship; nor is it
my intention to do so. The question naturally arises, however, in what sense this
book, with its composite structure so outspoken, can lay claim to being the work
of Solomon. Does the title refer to actual personal authorship, or does it name
a species and type of literature of which Solomon was the originator and inspirer--as
if it meant to say "the Solomonic proverbs"? We may work toward the answer of
this question by noting some literary facts.
Outside of the prophets only three of the Old Testament books are provided in
the original text with titles; and these three are all associated with Solomon--two
of them, Proverbs and the Song of Songs, directly; the third, Ecclesiastes, by
an assumed name, which, however, personates Solomon. This would seem to indicate
in the composition of these books an unusual degree of literary finish and self-consciousness,
a sense on the part of writers or compilers that literature as an art has its
claims upon them. The subject-matter of the books, too, bears this out; they are,
relatively speaking, the secular books of the Bible and do not assume divine origin,
as do law and prophecy. For the original impulse to such literary culture the
history directs us to the reign of King Solomon; see 1 Kings 4:29-34, where is
portrayed, on the part of king and court, an intense intellectual activity for
its own sake, the like of which occurs nowhere else in Scripture. The forms then
especially impressed upon the literature were the mashal (proverb) and the song,
in both of which the versatile young king was proficient; compare 1 Kings 4:32.
For the cultivation of the mashal these men of letters availed themselves of a
favorite native form, the popular proverb; but they gave to it a literary mold
and finish which would thenceforth distinguish it as the Solomonic mashal (see
PROVERB). This then was the literary form in which from the time of Solomon onward
the sages of the nation put their counsels of life, character, conduct; it became
as distinctively the mold for this didactic strain of literature as was the heroic
couplet for a similar strain in the age of Dryden and Pope.
It is reasonable therefore to understand this title of the Book of Proverbs as
designating rather a literary species than a personal authorship; it names this
anthology of Wisdom in its classically determined phrasing, and for age and authorship
leaves a field spacious enough to cover the centuries of its currency. Perhaps
also the proverb of this type was by the term "of Solomon" differentiated from
mashal of other types, as for instance those of Balaam and Job and Koheleth. |
II. THE SUCCESSIVE COMPILATIONS
1. The Introductory Section
That the Book of Proverbs is composed of several collections made at different
times is a fact that lies on the surface; as many as eight of these are clearly
marked, and perhaps subdivisions might be made. The book was not originally conceived
as the development of a theme, or even as a unity; whatever unity it has was an
afterthought. That it did come to stand, however, for one homogeneous body of
truth, and to receive a name and a degree of articulation as such, will be maintained
in a later section (see III, below). Meanwhile, we will take the sections in order
and note some of the salient characteristics of each. The introductory section,
Proverbs 1 - 9, has the marks of having been added later than most of the rest;
and is introductory in the sense of concentrating the thought to the concept of
Wisdom, and of recommending the spiritual attitude in which it is to be received.
Its style--and in this it is distinguished from the rest of the book--is hortatory;
it is addressed to "my son" (Proverbs 1:8 and often) or "my sons" (Proverbs 4:1
; 5:7 ; 7:24 ; 8:32), in the tone of a father or a sage, bringing stores of wisdom
and experience to the young. The first six verses are prefatory, giving the purpose
and use of the whole book. Then Proverbs 1:7 lays down as the initial point, or
spiritual bedrock of Wisdom, the fear of Yahweh, a principle repeated toward the
end of this introductory section (Proverbs 9:10), and evidently regarded as very
vital to the whole Wisdom system; compare Job 28:28 ; Psalms 111:10 ; Sirach 1:14.
The effect of this prefatory and theme-propounding matter is to launch the collection
of proverbs much after the manner of modern literary works, and the rest of the
section bears this out fairly well. The most striking feature of the section,
besides its general homiletic tone, is its personification of Wisdom. She is represented
as calling to the sons of men and commending to them her ways (Proverbs 1:20 -
33 ; 8:1 - 21 , 32 - 36); she condescends, for right and purity's sake, to enter
into rivalry with the "strange woman," the temptress, not in secret, but in open
and fearless dealing (Proverbs 7:6 - 8:9 ; 9:1 - 6 ,13 - 18); and, in a supremely
poetic passage (Proverbs 8:22 - 31), she describes her relation from the beginning
with God and with the sons of men. It represents the value that the Hebrew mind
came to set upon the human endowment of Wisdom. The Hebrew philosopher thought
not in terms of logic and dialectics, but in symbol and personality; and to this
high rank, almost like that of a goddess, his imagination has exalted the intellectual
and spiritual powers of man.
See WISDOM.
2. The Classic Nucleus
The section Proverbs 10:1 - 22:16, with the repeated heading "The proverbs of
Solomon", seems to have been the original nucleus of the whole collection. All
the proverbs in this, the longest section of the book, are molded strictly to
the couplet form (the one triplet, 19:7, being only an apparent exception, due
probably to the loss of a line), each proverb a parallelism in condensed phrasing,
in which the second line gives either some contrast to or some amplification of
the first. This was doubtless the classic art norm of the Solomonic mashal.
The section seems to contain the product of that period of proverb-culture during
which the sense of the model was a little rigid and severe, not venturing yet
to limber up the form. Signs of a greater freedom, however, begin to appear, and
possibly two strata of compilation are represented. In Proverbs 10 - 15 the prevailing
couplet is antithetic, which embodies the most self-closed circuit of the thought.
Out of 184 proverbs only 19 do not contain some form of contrast, and 10 of these
are in Proverbs 15. In Proverbs 16:1 - 22:16, on the other hand, the prevailing
form is the so-called synonymous or amplified couplet, which leaves the thought-circuit
more open to illustrative additions. Out of 191 proverbs only 18 are antithetic,
and these contain contrasts of a more subtle and hidden suggestion. As to subject-matter,
the whole section is miscellaneous; in the first half, however, where the antithesis
prevails, are the great elemental distinctions of life, wisdom and folly, righteousness
and wickedness, industry and laziness, wise speech and reticence, and the like;
while in the second half there is a decided tendency to go farther afield for
subtler and less obvious distinctions. In this way they seem to reflect a growing
and refining literary development, the gradual shaping and accumulation of materials
for a philosophy of life; as yet, however, not articulated or reduced to unity
of principle.
3. A Body of Solicited Counsel
In the short section Proverbs 22:17 - 24:22, the proverb literature seems for
the first time to have become as it were self-conscious--to regard itself as a
strain of wise counsel to be reckoned with for its educative value. The section
is introduced by a preface (Proverbs 22:17 - 21), in which these "words of the
wise" are recommended to some person or delegation, "that thou mayest carry back
words of truth to them that send thee" (Proverbs 22:21). The counsels seem intended
for persons in responsible position, perhaps attached to the court (compare Proverbs
23:1 - 3), who, as they are to deal officially with men and affairs, need the
prudence, purity, and temperance which will fit them for their duties. As to form,
the detached couplet appears only occasionally; the favorite form is the quatrain;
but proverbs of a greater number of lines are freely used, and one, the counsel
on wine drinking (Proverbs 23:29 - 35), runs to 17 lines. In tone and specific
counsel the section has many resemblances to the introductory section (Proverbs
1 - 9), and provokes the conjecture that this latter section, as the introduction
to a compiled body of Wisdom, was composed not long after it.
4. Some Left-over Precepts
The little appendix (Proverbs 24:23 - 34) is headed, "These also are sayings of
the wise." They refer to wise intercourse and ordered industry. The little poem
on the sluggard (Proverbs 24:30 - 34), with its refrain (Proverbs 24:33 , 14),
is noteworthy as being apparently one stanza of a poem which is completed with
the same refrain in the introductory section (Proverbs 6:6 - 11). The stanzas
are of the same length and structure; and it would seem the latter named was either
discovered later or composed as a supplement to the one in this section.
5. The Hezekian Collection
The long section (Proverbs 25 - 29) is headed, "These also are proverbs of Solomon,
which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out." The collection claims to
be only a compilation; but if, as already suggested, we understand the term "proverbs
of Solomon" as equivalent to "Solomonic proverbs," referring rather to species
than personal authorship, the compilation may have been made not merely from antiquity,
but from the archives of the Wisdom guilds. If so, we have a clue to the state
of the Wisdom literature in Hezekiah's time. The collection as a whole, unlike
secs. 3 and 4, returns predominantly to the classic form of the couplet, but with
a less degree of compression and epigram. There is a tendency to group numbers
of proverbs on like subjects; note for instance the group on the king (Proverbs
25:2 - 7). The most striking-feature of the collection is the prevalence of simile
and analogy, and in general the strong figurative coloring, especially in Proverbs
25 - 27; it reads like a new species of proverb when we note that in all the earlier
Solomonic sections there are only two clearly defined similes (Proverbs 10:26
; 11:22). In Proverbs 25 - 27 are several proverbs of three, four, or five lines,
and at the end (Proverbs 27:23 - 27) a charming little poem of ten lines on husbandry.
Proverbs 28 ; 29 are entirely of couplets, and the antithetic proverb reappears
in a considerable number. As to subject-matter, the thought of this section makes
a rather greater demand on the reader's culture and thinking powers, the analogies
being less obvious, more subtle. It is decidedly the reflection of a more literary
age than that of section 2.
6. Words of Agur
Proverbs 30 is taken up with "the words of Agur the son of Jakeh," a person otherwise
unknown, who disclaims expert knowledge of Wisdom lore (Proverbs 30:3), and avows
an agnostic attitude toward theological speculations, yet shows a tender reverence
before the name and unplumbed mystery of Yahweh (Proverbs 30:6 , 9 , 32). His
words amount to a plea against a too adventurous, not to say presumptuous, spirit
in the supposed findings of human Wisdom, and as such supply a useful makeweight
to the mounting pride of the scholar. Yet over this peculiar plea is placed the
word "Massa" (ha-massa'); "burden" or "oracle," the term used for prophetic disclosures;
and the word for "said" ("the man said," ne'-um ha-genjer) is the word elsewhere
used for mystic or divine utterance. This seems to mark a stage in the self-consciousness
of Wisdom when it was felt that its utterances could be ranked by the side of
prophecy as a revelation of truth (compare what Wisdom says of herself, 8:14),
and could claim the authoritative term "oracle." For the rest, apart from the
humble reverence with which they are imbued, these words of Agur do not rise to
a high level of spiritual thinking; they tend rather to the riddling element,
or "dark sayings" (compare 1:6). The form of his proverbs is peculiar, verging
indeed on the artificial; he deals mostly in the so-called numerical proverb ("three
things .... yea, four"), a style of utterance paralleled elsewhere only in Proverbs
6:16 - 19, but something of a favorite in the later cryptic sayings of the scribes,
as may be seen in Pirqe 'Abhoth.
7. Words of King Lemuel
Proverbs 31:1 - 9 (possibly the whole chapter should be included) is headed, "The
words of king Lemuel; the oracle which his mother taught him." Here occurs again
the mysterious Word "oracle," which would seem to be open to the same interpretation
as the one given in the previous paragraph, though some would make this otherwise
unknown monarch a king of Massa, and refer to the name of one of the descendants
of Ishmael (Genesis 25:14), presumably a tribal designation. The Hebrew sages
from the beginning were in rivalry and fellowship with the sages of other nations
(compare 1 Kings 4:30 , 31); and in the Book of Job, the supreme reach of Wisdom
utterance, all of the sages, Job included, are from countries outside of Palestine.
King Lemuel, if an actual personage, was not a Jew; and probably Agur was not.
The words of Lemuel are a mother's plea to her royal son for chastity, temperance
and justice, the kingly virtues. The form is the simple Hebrew parallelism, not
detached couplets, but continuous.
8. An Acrostic Eulogy of Woman
The Book of Proverbs ends in a manner eminently worthy of its high standard of
sanity and wisdom. Without any heading (it may possibly belong to the "oracle"
that the mother of Lemuel taught her son) the last 22 verses (Proverbs 31:10 -
31) constitute a single poem in praise of a worthy woman, extolling especially
her household virtues. In form these verses begin in the original with the successive
22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet; a favorite form of Hebrew verse, as may be
seen (in the original) in several of the psalms, notably Psalms 119, and in Lamentations
1 - 4. |
III. MOVEMENT TOWARD A PHILOSOPHY
It has been much the fashion with modern critics to deny to the Hebrews a truly
philosophic mind; this they say was rather the distinctive gift of the Greeks;
while for their solution of the problem of life the Hebrews depended on direct
revelation from above, which precluded that quasi-abeyance of concepts, that weighing
of cosmic and human elements, involved in the commonly received notion of philosophy.
This criticism takes account of only one side of the Hebrew mind. It is true they
believed their life to be in direct contact with the will and word of Yahweh,
revealed to them in terms which could not be questioned; but in the findings and
deliverance of their own intellectual powers, too, they had a reliance and confidence
which merits the name of an authentic philosophy. But theirs was a philosophy
not of speculative world-making, but of conduct and the practical management of
life; and it was intuitive and analogical, not the result of dialectical reasoning.
Hence, its name wisdom, the solution itself, rather than philosophy, the love
of wisdom, the search for solution. This Book of Proverbs, beginning with detached
maxims on the elements of conduct, reveals in many suggestive ways the gradual
emergence of a philosophy, a comprehensive wisdom, as it were, in the making;
it is thus the pioneer book of that Hebrew Wisdom which we see developed to maturer
things in the books of Job and Ecclesiastes. Some of its salient stages may here
be traced.
1. Liberation of the Mashal
We may first note it, or the literary preparation for it, in the opening up of
the mashal, or proverb unit, toward added elements of illustration, explanation,
amplitude, a development that begins to appear, in the oldest section (the classic
nucleus, section 2) at about Proverbs 16. The primitive antithetic mashal contrasted
two aspects of truth in such a way as to leave the case closed; there was nothing
for it but to go on to a new subject. This had the good effect of setting over
against each other the great elemental antagonisms of life: righteousness and
wickedness, obedience and lawlessness, teachableness and perversity, industry
and laziness, prudence and presumption, reticence and prating, etc., and so far
forth it was a masterly analysis of the essentials of individual and social conduct.
As soon, however, as the synonymous and illustrative mashal prevails, we are conscious
of a limbering up and greater penetrativeness of the range of thought; it is open
to subtler distinctions and remoter discoveries, and the analogies tend to employ
the less direct relationships of cause and effect. This is increased as we go
on, especially by the greater call upon the imagination in the figurative tissue
of the Hezekian section, and by the decidedly greater tendency to the riddling
and paradox element. The mashal increases in length and amplitude, both by the
grouping of similar subjects and by the enlargement from the couplet to the quatrain
and the developed poem. All this, while not yet a self-conscious philosophy, is
a step on the way thereto.
2. Emergence of Basal Principles
One solid presupposition of the sages, like an axiom, was never called in question:
namely, that righteousness and wisdom are identical, that wickedness of any sort
is folly. This imparts at once a kind of prophetic coloring to the Wisdom precepts,
well represented by the opening proverb in the original section (after the prefatory
one about the wise son), "Treasures of wickedness profit nothing; but righteousness
delivereth from death" (Proverbs 10:2). Thus from the outset is furnished an uncompromising
background on which the fascinating allurements of vice, the crooked ways of injustice
and dishonesty, the sober habits of goodness and right dealing, show for what
they are and what they tend to. The sages thus put themselves, too, in entire
harmony with what is taught by priests and prophets; there is no quarrel with
the law or the word; they simply supply the third strand in the threefold cord
of instruction (compare Jeremiah 18:18). From this basal presumption other principles,
scarcely less axiomatic, come in view: that the fount and spring of wise living
is reverence, the fear of Yahweh; that the ensuring frame of mind is teachableness,
the precluding attitude perverseness; that it is the mark of wisdom, or righteousness,
to be fearless and above board, of wickedness, which is folly, to be crooked and
secretive. These principles recur constantly, not, as a system, but in numerous
aspects and applications in the practical business of life. For their sanctions
they refer naively to the Hebrew ideal of rewards on the one hand--wealth, honor,
long life, family (compare Proverbs 11:31)--and of shame and loss and destruction
on the other; but these are emphasized not as direct bestowments or inflictions
from a personal Deity, rather as in the law of human nature. The law that evil
works its own destruction, good brings its own reward, is forming itself in men's
reason as one of the fundamental concepts out of which grew the Wisdom philosophy.
3. The Conception of Wisdom
From times long before Solomon sagacity in counsel, and. skill to put such counsel
into maxim or parable, gave their possessor, whether man or woman, a natural leadership
and repute in the local communities (compare 2 Samuel 14:2 ; 20:16); and Solomon's
exceptional endowment showed itself not merely in his literary tastes, but in
his ability, much esteemed among Orientals, to determine the merits of cases brought
before him for judgment (1 Kings 3:16 - 28), and to answer puzzling questions
(1 Kings 10:1 , 6 , 7). It was from such estimate of men's intellectual powers,
from the recognition of mental alertness, sagacity, grasp, in their application
to the practical issues of life (compare Proverbs 1:1 - 5), that the conception
of Wisdom in its larger sense arose. As, however, the cultivation of such sagacity
of utterance passed beyond the pastime of a royal court (compare 1 Kings 4:29
- 34) into the hands of city elders and sages it attained to greatly enhanced
value; note how the influence of such sage is idealized (Job 29:7 - 25). The sages
had definite calling and mission of their own, more potent perhaps than belonged
to priests and prophets; the frequent reference to the young and the "simple"
or immature in the Book of Proverbs would indicate that they were virtually the
schoolmasters and educators of the nation. As such, working as they did in a fellowship
and collaboration with each other, the subject-matter with which they dealt would
not remain as casual and miscellaneous maxims, but work toward a center and system
of doctrine which could claim the distinction of an articulated philosophy of
life, and all the more since it was so identified with the great Hebrew ideal
of righteousness and truth. We have already noted how this sense of the dignity
and value of their calling manifested itself in the body of precepts sent in response
to solicitation (3 above), with its appendix (4 above) (Proverbs 22:17 - 24:34).
It was not long after this stage of Wisdom-culture, I think, that a very significant
new word came into their vocabulary, the word (tushiyah, a puzzle to the translators,
variously rendered "sound wisdom," "effectual working," and called by the lexicographers
"a technical term of the Wisdom literature," BDB, under the word). Its earliest
appearance, and the only one except in the introductory section (Proverbs 18:1),
is where the man who separates himself from others' opinions and seeks his own
desire is said to quarrel with all tushiyah. The word seems to designate Wisdom
in its subjective aspect, as an authentic insight or intuition of truth, the human
power to rise into the region of true revelation from below, as distinguished
from the prophetic or legal word spoken directly from above. Outside of Proverbs
and Job the word occurs only twice: once in Micah 6:9, and once in Isaiah 28:29,
in which latter case the prophet has deliberately composed a passage (Proverbs
28:23 - 29) in the characteristic mashal idiom, and attributed that strain of
insight to Yahweh. Evidently there came a time in the culture of Wisdom when its
utterances attained in men's estimate to a parity with utterances direct from
the unseen; perhaps this explains why Agur's and Lemuel's words could be boldly
ranked as oracles (see above, 6 and 7). At any rate, such a high distinction,
an authority derived from intimacy with the creative work of Yahweh (Proverbs
8:30 , 31), is ascribed to Wisdom (chokhmah, in the introductory section; "counsel
is mine," Wisdom is made to say, "and tushiyah" (Proverbs 8:14). Thus the Book
of Proverbs reveals to us a philosophy, as it were, in the making and from scattered
counsels attaining gradually to the summit where the human intellect could place
its findings by the side of divine oracles. |
IV. CONSIDERATIONS OF AGE AND LITERARY KINSHIP
To get at the history of the Book of Proverbs, several
inquiries must be raised. When were the proverbs composed? The book, like the
Book of Psalms, is confessedly an anthology, containing various accumulations,
and both by style and maturing thought bearing the marks of different ages. When
were the successive compilations made? And, finally, when did the strain of literature
here represented reach that point of self-conscious unity and coordination which
justified its being reckoned with as a strain by itself and choosing the comprehensive
name Wisdom? What makes these inquiries hard to answer is the fact that these
proverbs are precepts for the common people, relating to ordinary affairs of the
village, the market, and the field, and move in lines remote from politics and
dynastic vicissitudes and wars. They are, to an extent far more penetrative and
pervasive than law or prophecy, the educative literature on which the sturdy rank
and file of the nation was nourished. 'Where there is no vision, the people let
loose,' says a Hezekian proverb (Proverbs 29:18); but so they are also when there
is no abiding tonic of social convention and principle. Precisely this latter
it is which this Book of Prey in a large degree reveals; and in course of time
its value was so felt that, as we have seen, it could rank itself as an asset
of life by the side of vision. It represents, in a word, the human movement toward
self-directiveness and self-reliance, without supine dependence on ruler or public
sentiment (compare Proverbs 29:25 , 26). When and how was this sane and wholesome
communal fiber developed?
1. Under the Kings
When Solomon and his court made the mashal an elegant fad, they builded better
than they knew. They gave to the old native form of the proverb and parable, as
reduced to epigrammatic mold and polish, the eclat of a popular literature. This
was done orally at first (Solomon spoke his proverbs, 1 Kings 4:32 , 33); but
the recording of such carefully expressed utterances could not be long delayed;
perhaps this brief style coupe was the most natural early exercise in the new
transition from the unwieldly cuneiform to the use of papyrus and a more flexible
alphabet, which probably came in with the monarchy. At any rate, here was the
medium for a practical didactic literature, applied to the matters of daily life
and intercourse to which in Solomon's time the nation was enthusiastically awake.
There is no valid reason for denying to Solomon, or at least to his time, the
initiation of the Solomonic mashal; and if, as has been suggested, the name "proverbs
of Solomon" designates rather literary species than personal authorship, the title
of the whole book (Proverbs 1:1), as well as the headings of sections (Proverbs
10:1 ; 25:1), may be given in entire good faith, whatever the specific time or
personal authorship of the utterances. Nor is there anything either in recorded
history or the likelihood of the case to make improbable that the activity of
the "men of Hezekiah" means just what is said; these men of letters were adding
this supplementary collection (Proverbs 25 - 29) to a body of proverbs that already
existed and were recognized as Solomon's. This would put the composition of the
main body of the Proverbs (chapters 10 - 29) prior to the reign of Hezekiah. They
represent therefore the chief literary instruction available to the people in
the long period of the Kings from Solomon onward, a period which otherwise was
very meagerly supplied. The Mosaic Law, as we gather from the finding of the Law
in the time of Josiah (2 Kings 22), was at best a sequestered thing in the keeping--or
neglect--of priests and judges; the prophetic word was a specific message for
great national emergencies; the accumulations of sacred song were the property
of the temple and the cult; what then was there for the education of the people?
There were indeed the folk-tales and catechetical legends of their heroic history;
but there were also, most influential of all, these wise sayings of the sages,
growing bodies of precept and parable, preserved in village centers, published
in the open places by the gate (compare Job 29:7), embodying the elements of a
common-sense religion and citizenship, and representing views of life which were
not only Hebrew, but to a great extent international among the neighbor kingdoms.
Understood so, these Solomonic proverbs furnish incomparably the best reflection
we have of the religious and social standards of the common people, during a period
otherwise meagerly portrayed. And from it we can understand what a sterling fiber
of character existed after all, and how well worth preserving for a unique mission
in the world, in spite of the idolatrous corruptions that invaded the sanctuaries,
the self-pleasing unconcern of the rulers and the pessimistic denunciations of
the prophets.
2. The Concentrative Point
For the point in the Hebrew literary history when these scattered Solomonic proverbs
were recognized as a homogeneous strain of thought and the compilations were made
and recommended as Wisdom, we can do no better, I think, than to name the age
of Israel's literary prime, the age of Hezekiah. The "men of Hezekiah" did more
than append their supplementary section (Proverbs 25 - 29); the words "these also"
(gam 'elleh) in their heading imply it.
See HEZEKIAH, THE MEN OF.
I apprehend the order and nature of their work somehow thus: Beginning with the
classic nucleus (Proverbs 10:1 - 22:16) (see above, II, 2), which may have come
to them in two subsections (Proverbs 10-15 ; 16 - 22:16), they put these together
as the proverbs most closely associated with Solomon, without much attempt at
systematizing, substantially as these had accumulated through the ages in the
rough order of their developing form and thought; compiling thus, in their zeal
for the literary treasures of the past, the body of educational literature which
lay nearest at hand, a body adapted especially, though not exclusively, to the
instruction of the young and immature. This done, there next came to their knowledge
a remarkable body of "words of the wise" (Proverbs 22:17 - 24:22), which had evidently
been put together by request as a vade mecum for some persons in responsible position,
and which were prefaced by a recommendation of them as "words of truth" designed
to promote "trust in Yahweh" (Proverbs 22:19 - 21)--which latter, as we know from
Isaiah, was the great civic issue of Hezekiah's time. With this section naturally
goes the little appendix of "sayings of the wise" (Proverbs 24:23 - 34), added
probably at about the same time. These two sections, which seem to open the collection
to matter beyond the distinctive Solomonic mashal, are, beyond the rest of the
book, in the tone of the introductory section (Proverbs 1 - 9), which latter,
along with the Hezekian appendix (Proverbs 25 - 29), was added, partly as a new
composition, partly as incorporating some additional findings (compare for instance
the completion of the poem on the sluggard, Proverbs 6:6 - 11). Thus, by the addition
of this introductory section, the Book of Proverbs was recognized as a unity,
provided with a preface and initial proposition (Proverbs 1:1 - 6 , 7), and launched
with such hortatory material as had already, on a smaller scale, introduced the
third section. This part not only contains the praise of Wisdom as a human endowment,
sharing in the mind and purpose of the divine (Proverbs 8:22 - 31), but it has
become aware also of the revelatory value of tushiyah (Proverbs 2:7 ; 3:21 ; 8:14),
or chastened intuition (see above, III, 3), and dares to aspire, in its righteous
teachableness, to the intimacy or secret friendship of Yahweh (codho, 3:32). All
this indicates the holy self-consciousness to which Wisdom has attained.
I see no cogent reason for postponing the substantial completion of the Book of
Proverbs beyond the time of Hezekiah. The words of Agur and of King Lemuel, with
the final acrostic poem, may be later additions; but their difference in tone
and workmanship is just as likely to be due to the fact that they are admitted,
in the liberal spirit of the compilers, from foreign stores of wisdom. For spiritual
clarity and intensity they do not rise to the height of the native Hebrew consciousness;
and they incline to an artificial structure which suggests that the writer's interest
is divided between sincere tushiyah and literary skill. For the sake of like-minded
neighbors, however, something may be forgiven.
3. Its Stage in Progressive Wisdom
It is too early in the history of Wisdom to regard this Book of Proverbs as an
articulated and coordinated system. It is merely what it purports to be, a collected
body of literature having a common bearing and purpose; a literature of reverent
and intelligent self-culture, moving among the ordinary relations of life, and
not assuming to embody any mystic disclosures of truth beyond the reach of human
reason. As such, it has a vocabulary and range of ideas of its own, which distinguishes
it from other strains of literature. This is seen in those passages outside of
the Book of Proverbs which deliberately assume, for some specific purpose, the
Wisdom dialect. In Isaiah 28:23 - 29, the prophet, whom the perverse rulers have
taunted with baby-talk (Isaiah 28:9 , 10), appeals to them with the characteristic
Wisdom call to attention (Isaiah 28:23), and in illustrations drawn from husbandry
proves to them that this also is from Yahweh of hosts, 'who is transcendent in
counsel, preeminent in tushiyah' (Isaiah 28:29)--teaching them thus in their own
vaunted idiom. In Micah 6:9 - 15, similarly, calling in tushiyah to corroborate
prophecy ("the voice of Yahweh," qol Yahweh, wethushiyah, Micah 6:9), the prophet
speaks of the natural disasters that men ought to deduce from their abuse of trade
relations, evidently appealing to them in their own favorite strain of thinking.
Both these passages seem to reflect a time when the Wisdom dialect was prevalent
and popular, and both are concerned to call in sound human intuition as an ally
of prophecy. At the same time, as prophets have the right to do, they labor to
give revelation the casting vote; the authentic disclosure of truth from Yahweh
is their objective, not the mere luxury of making clever observations on practical
life. All this coincides, in the Wisdom sphere, with what in Isaiah's and Micah's
time was the supreme issue of state, namely trust in Yahweh, rather than in crooked
human devices (compare Isaiah 28:16 ; 29:15); and it is noteworthy that this is
the venture of Wisdom urged by the editors of Proverbs in their introductory exhortations
(compare Proverbs 22:19 ; 3:5 - 8). In other words, these editors are concerned
with inducing a spiritual attitude; and so in their literary strain they make
their book an adjunct in the movement toward spirituality which Isaiah is laboring
to promote. As yet, however, its findings are still in the peremptory stage, stated
as absolute and unqualified truths; it has not reached the sober testing of fact
and interrogation of motive which it must encounter in order to become a seasoned
philosophy of life. Its main pervading thesis--that righteousness in the fear
of God is wisdom and bound for success, that wickedness is fatuity and bound for
destruction--is eternally sound; but it must make itself good in a world where
so many of the enterprises of life seem to come out the other way, and where there
is so little appreciation of spiritual values. Nor is the time of skepticism and
rigid test long in coming. Two psalms of this period (as I apprehend) (Psalms
73 and 49) concern themselves with the anomaly of the success of the wicked and
the trials of the righteous; the latter pointedly adopting the Wisdom or mashal
style of utterance (Psalms 49:3 , 4), both laboring to induce a more inward and
spiritual attitude toward the problem. It remains, however, for the Book of Job
to take the momentous forward step of setting wisdom on the unshakable foundation
of spiritual integrity, which it does by subjecting its findings to the rigid
test of fact and its motives to a drastic Satanic sifting. It is thus in the Book
of Job, followed later by the Book of Ecclesiastes, that the Wisdom strain of
literature, initiated by the Proverbs of Solomon, finds its Old Testament culmination.
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John Franklin Genung
Tags:
bible commentary, bible history, bible reference, bible study, book of proverbs, kethubhim, mashal, old testament, parable, paroimiai, praise of a worthy woman, proverbs, proverbs mentioned in the new testament, proverbs of solomon, solomon, wisdom, words of agur, words of king lemuel
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