Session 1 Basic Questions About Wisdom Literature

Wisdom Literature in Ancient Israel RANDOLF FLORES, SVD LOYOLA SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY 2007

Basic Questions about Wisdom Literature

1. Which books? Hebrew Bible   

Proverbs, Job & Qoheleth (or Ecclesiastes) Song of Songs? [5:4-5] Psalms?

Old Testament     

Proverbs, Job, Qoheleth Sirach (or Ben Sira or Ecclesiasticus) Wisdom of Solomon (or Book of Wisdom) Tobit? (Tob 4:3-21; 12:6-13) Baruch? (3:9 – 4:4)

Qumran  

Proverbs, Job, Qoheleth & Sirach 1 Enoch?

2. A Wisdom Collection? Common Characteristics: 

Absence of any reference to Ancient Israel’s traditions Promises to the Ancestors, Moses, Sinai, Covenant, the Land, etc. BUT see Sirach 44-50 and Wisdom 10-19!!

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A certain international flavor “people of the East”

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Frequent use of Hokmah /Sophia /Wisdom or other synonyms or wise person (sage) and of course its opposite, “fool” BUT Hokmah his a wide-ranging term, ( see Murphy, NJBC, p. 447).

Persian Period, ca. 583-400 BC , early post-exilic

period 

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“One of the most productive eras in the history of Israelite religion” (R. Albertz, 1994). Multiplicty of “theological currents” Priestly, Chronistic, wisdom, prophetic and psalm, traditions”

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Tripartite Division ca. 132 BC, see Prologue of the Book of Sirach

Achaemenid Empire (648–330 BC)

Collection of Wisdom corpus in stages 

I. Proverbs Some date back to the time of the monarchy  Influence of Deuteronomy and Jeremiah

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II. Job First half of the 5th century BC (height of Persian empire)

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III. Qoheleth – middle of the 3rd century BC (time of the Lagids/ Ptolemies Egyptian successors of Alexander the Great)

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IV. Ben Sira Hebrew text written in Jerusalem I ca. 175 B.C. Preserved in Greek

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V. Wisdom of Solomon Diaspora (Alexandria)  in GREEK  Hellenistic influence  Time of Augustus (63 B.C)

Greek Empire

3. Where did it come from? wisdom movement? (Ceresko, pp. 15ff) Two proposed origins: 

Family: Tribe or Clan? Read Prov 4:1-5; Deut 25:7-8 2 Sam 14:1-3

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Court: Scribal School? 2 Sam 20:23-25 Three functions of Scribes (Ceresko, p. 19) Poetry and Propaganda, (Ceresko, p. 9fff)

4. Other Wisdom Texts? Solomon in 1 Kgs 3-10 (esp. 1 Kgs 3:9 and 1 Kgs 5:9-

14) Gen 1-3 Psalm 1 Gen 37-50 (Joseph’s Story) Isaiah 5:1-5 ETC…

5. Role in the so-called Salvation History? Problematic Cf. Gerhard von Rad (1901-71) 

Old Testament Theology 2 vols (1957, 1960 –German; 1962, 1965 --English) Historical Credo: Deuteronomy 26:5-9

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Wisdom in Israel (1970 German; 1972 English).

Related “theologies”   

Creation / Order Retribution Problem of God and Evil (Theodicy)