The Study of The Wisdom Literature: Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Princeton University

The Study of the Wisdom Literature
R. B. Y. SCOTT
Professor Emeritus of Old Testament
Princeton University
Scholarly work in the area of the wisdom movement and its literature
has opened up, in the last half-century, new vistas in Old Testament
religion and theology. The research has progressed on such different fronts
and intensified so rapidly that a survey charting its movement
and achievement is necessary to appreciate the
achievement and sense its implications.
I N RECENT YEARS interest in the phenomenon of wisdom, its litera-

ture, and its significance for Old Testament studies has become more
widespread. Evidence of its influence has been cropping up in unexpect-
ed places—in the creation stories and the patriarchal narratives,
in the law codes and historical books, and, above all, in prophecy—to
which it had seemed antithetic. It is even demanding recognition in
the structure of Old Testament theology, in spite of the fact that it has
little or nothing to say on the peculiarly Israelite tenets of the exclusive
deity of Yahweh, covenant, and salvation-history. Its focus is on man as
man rather than as a member of the chosen people. It deals with the
practical morality of daily living, as well as with profounder problems
raised for the thoughtful individual by the apparent anomalies of reli-
gious belief. How is a man to make a success of life? asks Proverbs. How
is he to satisfy his conscience and his thirst for God? asks Job. How can
he make his existence bearable, asks Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes), in face of
life's apparent meaninglessness and man's inscrutable fate?
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Interpretation
Speaking in broad terms, we might say that Old Testament scholar-

ship in the century from Eichorn to Wellhausen concerned itself primarily
with literary-critical and historical problems, especially of the Penta-
teuch. In the last decades of the nineteenth century and the opening
decades of the twentieth, the nature and meaning of Hebrew prophecy
came to the fore almost as a new discovery, while interest in and dis-
cussion of Pentateuchal and related questions continued unabated. Only
in the last forty or fifty years has the Wisdom Literature been exten-
sively investigated. Again, this has taken place without diminution of
scholarly activity in other areas of biblical studies. Consequently, until
very recently the Wisdom Literature has tended to be left on one side in
comprehensive treatments of Old Testament religion and theology
and in the curricula of theological seminaries. Individual Wisdom books,
especially the Joban masterpiece, have been given attention, but largely
in isolation from related works. This may be due in part to the long tra-
dition of producing commentaries on individual books of the Bible as
separate entities.
There are, however, more decisive reasons for the relative neglect of
the wisdom tradition. The first is that this is only one element in a vast
and constantly expanding field of study—textual, literary-critical, form-
critical, historical and tradition-historical problems, the nature of the cult
and the meaning of prophecy, archaeology as illuminating the Old
Testament scene and theology as assessing the ultimate significance of it
all. A second reason is that the wisdom element and tradition have
proved difficult to integrate with the peculiarly historical quality of the
central affirmations of Old Testament theology, as is evident from the
peripheral place given to wisdom in many theological statements. In-
deed, Roland Murphy may be correct in suggesting that it was Gerhard
von Rad's attractive presentation of Wisdom Literature in his Theo-
logie des Alten Testaments, Volume I (1957), which gave an impetus
to the present wider appreciation of the contribution of the sages.1
A third reason is that some of the more significant Wisdom Literature,
notably Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon, are not found in the Hebrew
canon but in the wider Greek and Latin canons, and hence have been
relegated in the Jewish and Protestant traditions to the lesser status
of apocryphal works. (Parenthetically, it is not obvious to the present
1. CBQ, X X I X (July, 1967), 407, n. 2.
21
writer why, in the light of new knowledge and different criteria, the Re
formers' rejection of the larger canon of the undivided church should be
retained as Protestant dogma.) In any case, these books, together with
Tobit, Baruch, and the tale of the contest of wits inserted at 3 : ι ff. in
First Esdras, are important in themselves and for the understanding of
the wisdom movement as a whole.
The Hebrew canon itself contains, of course, other material from
the wisdom school besides Proverbs, Qoheleth, and Job. There is first
of all the tradition of the superlative wisdom of King Solomon as ex
pressed in proverbs and songs,2 which led to the ascription to his author
ship of such diverse works as Proverbs, Qoheleth, the Song of Songs, and
the Wisdom of Solomon. This tradition is preserved in First Kings in leg
endary form, but there is historical substance in it, as we shall see later.
Riddles such as the Queen of Sheba put to Solomon are found in Judges
14:10-18 and, in somewhat different form, in the stories of mysterious
messages (Dan. 5:24 ff.) and dreams (Gen. 40:1—41133; Dan. 2:1 ff.;
4 : 4 0 . ) which only a divinely endowed wise man could interpret. Fables
of talking creatures appear in Judges 9:7-15 and II Kings 14:9; there
are fabulous features in the story of the Fall (Gen. 3:1 ff.) and that of
Balaam's ass (Num. 22:2i ff.). The designation "wise55 is applied in I I
Samuel 14:2 ff. and 20:16 ff. to local sages, and, on the other hand, to
royal counselors ( II Sam. 15:31; 16:15—17:23). Moreover, the anony
mous sayings of folk wisdom are quoted incidentally here and there in
the narratives, for example, in Genesis 10:9; I Samuel 24:13; I Kings
20:11; and also in the Prophets, for example, Isaiah 10:15; Jeremiah
17:11; 23:18531:29;Ezekiel i6:i4;Hosea4:9·
Psalms and the Song of Songs have been included among the Wisdom
books in Roman Catholic tradition, presumably in part because King
Solomon is credited in Kings with the composition of "songs55 as well as of
proverbs, so that his name has become attached to the title of the latter
book. Some of the psalms (the number is disputed) are marked by the
phraseology and ideas of the wisdom school, and some indeed reflect
the theological identification of the Torah as embodying the divine
wisdom (cf. Deut. 4:6-8; Sir. 24:23-29). Psalm 19:7 reads:
"The law of the LORD is perfect,... making wise the simple,55 with which
we may compare Proverbs 1:2a, 4a : "That men may know wisdom
2-1 Kings 4:29-34 ( M T 5 : 9 - 1 4 ) ; 10:1-10, 13.
22
Interpretation
and educational discipline,. . . that the wits of the simple may be sharp-
ened.55 Psalm 34:11 (MT 34:120.) is a series of admonitions resem-
bling those of Proverbs 1—7, with the characteristic opening: "Come,
O sons, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the LORD.55 Psalm 49:3 f.
(MT 4 9 : 4 ! ) includes five wisdom terms in two verses. In Psalm
i n : 10a the keynote of the Book of Proverbs is struck again (cf. Prov.
1:7 ; 9:10). Psalm 73 is a reflection on the problem which troubled both
Job and Qoheleth—the anomaly of the prosperous wicked.
I
The groundwork for the present fuller appreciation of the wisdom
movement was laid in an intense burst of scholarly activity in the twen-
ties and thirties,3 followed after the hiatus resulting from World War II,
notably by Rylaarsdam and Ringgren.4 Meanwhile, a comprehensive
introduction to the Wisdom Literature in two volumes making use of
the new knowledge had come from the pen of Hilaire Duesberg, Les
Scribes inspirés, 1938-39 (rev. ed., 1966).
What occasioned this remarkable degree of attention to one corner
of the Old Testament field which had previously been neglected or inade-
quately tilled, is quite clear. It was the publication in 1923 by Wallis
Budge of The Teaching of Amén-ém-opé from the Hieratic papyri in the
British Museum, and its republication in German by Adolph Erman in
1924 and by H. O. Lange in 1925. This document, with its obviously
close yet problematical relationship to a distinct section in the Book of
Proverbs, 22:17—24:22, opened the eyes of scholars to the fact that the
literary forms, ideas, motives, and emphases of the biblical Wisdom
3. Hugo Gressmann, Israels Spruchweisheit im Zusammenhang der Weltliteratur (Berlin: Karl
Curtius, 1925) ; W.O.E. Oesterley, The Wisdom of Egypt and the Old Testament (London:
S.P.C.K., 1927) ; Antonin Gausse, "Sagesse Égyptienne et sagesse juive," RHPhR, X I X (1929),
149-69; Paul Humbert, Recherches sur les sources égyptiennes de la littérature sapientale d Israel
(Neuchatel: Secrétariat de l'Université, 1929); Johannes Pedersen, "Scepticisme Israelite,"
RHPhR, X X (1930), 317-70; Harry Ranston, The Old Testament Wisdom Books and Their
Teaching (London: Epworth Press, 1930) ; Lorenz Dürr, Das Erziehungswesen im Alten Testa-
ment und im Antiken Orient (Leipzig: J. G. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, 1932) ; Walter Baum-
gartner, Israelitische und altorientalische Weisheit (Tübingen: J.G.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck],
1933)3 and "Die israelitische Weisheitliteratur," ThR, NF V (1933), 259-88; Johannes Fichtner,
Die altorientalische Weisheit in ihrer israelitisch-jüdischen Ausprägung (Giessen: A. Töpelmann,
1933) i Walter Zimmerli, "Zur Struktur der alttestamentliche Weisheit," ZAW, LI (1933),
177-204; R. H. Pfeiffer, "Wisdom and Vision in the Old Testament," ZAW, NF X I (1934),
93-101; O.S. Rankin, Israel's Wisdom Literature (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1936).
4. J. G. Rylaarsdam, Revelation in Jewish Wisdom Literature (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1946) ; Helmer Ringgren, Word and Wisdom (Lund: H. Ohlssons boktr., 1947).

23
books were not peculiarly Hebrew. Rather—with allowance for diversity
of settings—these books provided what might be called the Hebrew ver-
sion of an intercultural phenomenon shared with Egypt and Mesopota-
mia. In both these centers the cultivation of wisdom was much more
ancient, as well as contemporary. The question naturally arose as to
whether Amén-ém-opé or its Proverbs counterpart had priority. The
predominant view has favored the Egyptian work, but as recently as
1961-63 there was another flurry of discussion when R. J. Williams and
B. Couroyer refuted the proposal of Etienne Drioton that the Hebrew
version was the original.5
An illustration of the suddenness of the change in outlook stemming
from the discovery of such close parallels between the Book of Proverbs
and Amén-ém-opé is the fact that the leading British scholars who con-
tributed to Peake's Commentary (1919) are as unaware of them as was
Johannes Meinhold in 1908. The latter, in Die Weisheit Israels, found
the first signs of such external influence in the emergence of apocalyptic.
Yet within fifteen years the seminal work of scholars from Budge and
Erman to Rankin had uncovered a wide range of extrabiblical connec-
tions with Qoheleth and Job as well as with Proverbs. Equally important
was the breaking down of the isolation from each other of the biblical
works, whether in the Hebrew or in the wider Septuagint collections.
Important, too, was the recognition of wisdom elements in the Psalms,
the Prophets, and elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Since the thirties the nature and significance of this distinctive stream
of thought and literary expression has been gradually but increasingly
recognized in Old Testament studies. An indication of this can be seen
in a rough count of index references in the periodic assessments of current
Old Testament scholarship produced by the British Society for Old
Testament Study. In The People and the Book (1925) there are 91 en-
tries under "priesthood, cult, etc.,55 71 under "prophecy,55 but only 4
under "wisdom.55 In Record and Revelation (1938) the comparable
figures are 90, 46, and 7. In The Old Testament and Modern Study
( 1951 ) they are 89, 102, and 39, and there is a separate chapter on "The
5. Etienne Drioton, "Sur la Sagesse d'Aménémopé," in Henri Gazelles, ed., Melanges bibliques
rédigés en l'honneur de André Robert, Paris, 1957, pp. 254-80; and "Le Livre des Proverbes
et la Sagesse d'Aménémopé," in Joseph Coppens et al. eds., Sacra Pagina, I, Paris, 1959, pp.
229-41 ; R. J. Williams, "The Alleged Semitic Original of the Wisdom of Aménémopé," JEA,
XLVII (1961), 100-06; B. Couroyer, "L'origine égyptienne de la Saggesse d'Aménémopé,"
R B , X L I V (1963), 208-24.
24
Interpretation
Wisdom Literature." A similar pattern appears in successive treatments

of Old Testament religion from Rudolf Kittel (1921, Eng. trans. 1925),
W. O. E. Oesterley and T. H. Robinson (1930), T. J. Meek (1936) and
Yehezkel Kaufmann (1937-48, Eng. trans, i960) to H. Ringgren (1963,
Eng. trans. 1966), and Th. C. Vriezen (1963, Eng. trans. 1967). The
Interpreter's Bible, Volume I (1952) gives 21 columns to the Prophetic
Literature and 15 to the Wisdom Literature. In The Interpreter's Dic-
tionary of the Bible (1962 ), the space given to prophecy is proportionally
greater, 46^2 columes to 16.
Strangely enough, both Kraeling and Kraus in their surveys have
little or nothing to say about wisdom.6 The centenary volume of the
Society for Biblical Literature, The Bible in Modern Scholarship (J. P.
Hyatt, ed., 1965) has chapters on Hebrew history, the cult, and prophecy
and apocalyptic, but nothing on wisdom. Even more striking is the fact
that the last survey of work in this general area (as distinct from work
on separate books) in the Theologische Rundschau appeared in 1933.
Although wisdom thought and language now have an established place in
Old Testament studies, that they did not have fifty years ago, plainly
that place is not dominant. The principle of mëden agan applies, a prin-
ciple that lies at the heart of the wisdom tradition itself. "It is best to
grasp the one thing but not let go of the other," says Qoheleth (7:18).
The main lines of present-day understanding of the Wisdom Literature
were staked out, as already noted, in about a dozen years following the
publication of The Teaching of Amén-ém-opé in 1923. Scholarly work
in this area since then has been pretty much an amplification of those
earlier basic studies. The results may be summarized under the following
headings :
1 ) Hebrew wisdom is a part of the wider context of older and con-
temporary Near Eastern cultures. As Walter Baumgartner put it (p. 19 ),
". . . from the Nile to the Tigris an essentially similar Wisdom literature
existed and was cultivated." The account of Solomon's wisdom itself
suggests something of the sort when the boast is made that it surpassed
"the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.7
Although The Teaching of Amén-ém-opé is the only work which appears
6.Emil Kraeling, The Old Testament Since the Reformation (London: Lutterworth Press,
x
955) I H. J. Kraus, Geschichte der historisch-kritischen Erforschung des Alten Testaments
(Neukirchen, Kreis Moers: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Erziehungsvereins, 1956).
7.1 Kings 4:30.
25
to have an actual literary connection with the Hebrew Bible, a goodly
number of such "Instructions" addressed by a king or high official to his
son and presumptive successor are found in Egyptian literature from as
8
early as the Pyramid Age, and persisting for two millenia. These admoni
tions with respect to character and behavior—to modesty, self-control,
honesty, reliability, diligence, careful speech, respect for superiors, con
cern for truth and justice—again and again recall the admonitions of
the Book of Proverbs. Even the pedagogical style of the opening words,
"Listen, my son," are characteristic of the ten discourses in Proverbs ι—9.
Morality is defined as that which "pleases the god"; falsehood is "the
abomination of the god" (cf. Prov. 6:16-19). Here the idea of God is un
defined and to all intents and purposes monotheistic. This in turn cor
responds to the observed fact that, although the Hebrew wisdom works
sometimes speak of "Yahweh" and sometimes simply of "God," they
never speak of Yahweh in the context of his peculiar relationship to Israel,
his covenant people.
The Egyptian Instructions have come down to us, in some cases, in
copies apparently made by pupils in scribal schools, so that their educa
tional use was much broader than their purported origin would suggest.
In a somewhat similar composition, the so-called Satire on the Trades,
a sailor advises his son who is on his way to one of these scribal schools,
encouraging the reluctant schoolboy by deprecating other professions
than that of the scribe. The Eloquent Peasant is a tale of a poor man
whose goods have been stolen and whose demand for justice from the
authorities is so effectively expressed (in the figures and proverbs of
folk wisdom) that it comes to the ear of the Pharaoh. Touches of caustic
humor make the story entertaining as well as instructive. At the same
time it introduces an element of reflection on the human condition that
goes beyond the conventional didactic wisdom of the orderly life; the in
dividual's cry for justice at the hands of the dominant power is at least
a distant echo of the Joban theme.
Another Egyptian work of philosophic tone is the Dispute over Suicide,
a dialogue-with-his-soul of a man who sees death as a release from the
intolerable burden of life. Again we are reminded of Job's initial out
burst in chapter 3 : "Why is light given to him that is in misery, and
8.For a selection of these, cf. J.B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts (Princeton: Prince
ton University Press, I955 2 ), pp. 412-25.
26
Interpretation
life to the bitter in soul?" It becomes clear that non-Israelite wisdom,

like its biblical counterpart, comprises both optimistic and pessimistic
strains—the one conservative, practical, and didactic (so Proverbs), and
the other skeptical of traditional values and beliefs (so Job and Qohe-
leth).
The same distinction can be observed in the literature of Sumero-
Accadian wisdom.9 The collection of moral exhortations which has been
given the English title Counsels of Wisdom, in tone and content recalls
at many points the precepts of the Book of Proverbs and the Egyptian
Instructions. "Let your mouth be controlled and your speech guarded."
"Requite with kindness your evil-doer." ". . . (the) feeble, show him
kindness." In another text we read : "If a king does not heed justice, his
people will be thrown into chaos."10 Many popular proverbs have been
preserved (mostly of Sumerian origin) ; they set out practical observa-
tions from daily life and the cautions of experience—sometimes with a
touch of cynical humor, as in folk proverbs everywhere. "You find some-
thing, but it gets lost. You throw something away, but it is preserved
indefinitely."11 Fables of debates between nonhuman creatures like the
ox and the horse, the bird and the fish, are a favorite form with which
we may compare the fables in Judges 9:8-15 and II Kings 14:9.12
The skeptical, philosophic strain of wisdom thought appears also in
Mesopotamian wisdom. The problem of the suffering of the just man,
which was to receive its most famous treatment in Job, is treated in a
document which has been called The Babylonian Job: A good man who
suffers from disease is led to wonder whether gods and men have different
ideas of right and wrong, but remains confident of deliverance. In another
work the same problem is debated between the sufferer and a friend; in
still another, a debate between master and slave affirms the ambiguity of
morals.13
9. As W.G. Lambert points out in Babylonian Wisdom Literature (Oxford: The Clarendon
Press, 1960), p. i, the term "wisdom" in Accadian "refers to skill in cult and magic lore," and
rarely has any moral content; but there is nevertheless a body of literature which does not use
the term, but in content does correspond to the Hebrew wisdom writings—proverbs based on
practical experience and longer compositions dealing more radically with intellectual problems.
10. Ibid., pp. 101, 113.
11. Ibid., p. 267.
12. Cf. Williams, "The Fable in the Ancient Near East" in A Stubborn Faith, E.C. Hobbs, ed.
(Dallas: S.M.U. University Press, 1956), pp. 3-26.
13. Cf. Pritchard, op. cit., pp. 434-40.
27
Two further points in the account of the international context of Solo-
mon's superlative wisdom in I Kings 4:29-34 (MT 5:9-14) call for brief
comment. Together with the wisdom of Egypt, that of "the people of
the east" is a standard of comparison. These are not the peoples of Meso-
potamia (as might be supposed from what has been said above), but
the nomads and semi-nomads of the steppe and desert country east of
Palestine (cf. Ezek. 2514; Job 1: 1-3). In this connection must be noted
the references to the fame of Edomite sages in Jeremiah 49:7 and
Obadiah 8; one of Job's interlocutors, Eliphaz, is an Edomite from
Teman (Job 2:11). Pfeiffer argues that an Edomite source underlies
parts of Genesis, and that the Book of Job originated in Edom.14 The
evidence is sparse, but the theory is tenable. The second point is the
curious one (to be discussed further below), that the subject matter of
Solomon's proverbs here is what might be called natural history, whereas
in the Book of Proverbs it is human relationships and the character of the
individual.
2) The category €€Wisdom Literature" extends beyond the principal
works of the Hebrew canon—Proverbs, Job, Qoheleth—and of the Apo-
crypha—Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon. It includes other examples
of the same mode of thought and forms of expression elsewhere in the Old
Testament. Evidence of successive stages in a wisdom tradition appears
sporadically from first to last—from the "proverbs of the ancients" quoted
in narratives and prophecy to the esoteric wisdom of apocalyptic, and the
scribal learning of the interpreters of the Torah. We have psalms from
the pious wing of the movement and passages in prophecy like Isaiah
28:23-29 and Jeremiah 17:5-8, 11 which are cast in sapiential diction.
Tobit is a pious tale providing a setting for two series of admonitions
(4:3-19; 12:6-10) in the wisdom manner, and, incidentally, introducing
the name of Ahiqar, the Assyrian sage. Baruch is another work which
includes a characteristic wisdom element—the poem in praise of divine
wisdom revealed in the Torah, 3:9—4:4, a passage which echoes Deu-
teronomy 4:5 f. and Sirach 24:1-29.
3) Hebrew wisdom had features in common with its counterparts in
Egypt and Mesopotamia. Most of these parallel features have already
been suggested above, but may be summarized as follows :
14.Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old Testament (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1941), pp.
159 f., 680 f.
28

Interpretation
Origins. A wisdom tradition seems to have had at least six sources : ( a )

the accumulated folk wisdom of a coherent traditional culture, based
on the observation and evaluation of human experiences and expressed
chiefly in brief common sayings; (b) the educational process in the home
and later in schools, where admonition is added to observation; (c) the
emergence of specially gifted counselors whose advice was sought at dif-
ferent levels by commoners and kings; (d) the intellectual curiosity and
moral concern of individuals engaged in a search for knowledge of the
physical environment, and for understanding of a divine order encom-
passing human existence; (e) the institutionalizing of wisdom through
a scribal profession associated with temples and royal courts; and (f ) as
a later development, the adaptation of oral and literary wisdom forms
such as proverbs, poems, hymns, debates, and tales for the purposes of
conventional religious expression and instruction.
Forms. Popular adages, paternal admonitions, fables, fictional tales

told for entertainment but also to make a point—these give place at a
later time to collections of such material suitable for moral instruction,
to reflective discourses and debates on religious and ethical issues, specu-
lative and didactic poems, and the attempt to organize knowledge of
phenomena in encyclopedic fashion (as in the Egyptian onomastica).
Content. At different levels, wisdom is presented (a) as native intelli-
gence and shrewdness; (b) as a particular acquired skill, whether pro-
fessional, literary, philosophic, or the more general understanding of how
to live with satisfaction; (c) knowledge; and (d) superior understanding
of the issues of life and of a man's relationship with the divine powers.
It is thus in the first instance a practical philosophy of the good life and
of the personal and ethical standards requisite to attain it. The focus is
on the individual and on his training. Its encircling horizon is this world
as a man knows it from experience. But as wisdom becomes a search for
understanding, a man's eyes are lifted above the horizon of his tribe or
city; he seeks to undergird his traditional social order with understanding
of its origins and its relationship to a universal divine order of justice
and truth. Here we note the relative independence of beliefs associated
with particular cults. There is a kind of generalized reference to the
divine order, an implicit nonspecific monotheism with which wisdom is
closely associated. In Hebrew religion, as in Proverbs 8, this attribute or
29
aspect of God is poetically personified, whereas in other religions it is giv-
en identity as a god or goddess of wisdom.
II
A good place to begin a survey of more recent developments is with
the Festschrift for H. H. Rowley, Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient
Near East, edited by Martin Noth and D. Winton Thomas, and published
in 1955. The twenty papers in the broad area of the title provide a
cross section of typical studies that have been carried on following the
basic work of the late twenties and early thirties. Alt returns to a literary
analysis of Amén-ém-opé. Kramer offers the text and translation of a
newly recognized Sumerian poem on the Job motif (all men are guilty;
the sufferer's only recourse is to admit his fault and beg forgiveness; cf.
Bildad in Job 8: 3 ff.) .15 Von Rad interprets Job 38 in the light of the
Egyptian onomastica or encyclopedic classification lists, and compares
Psalm 148, Sirach 43, and the hymn inserted after Daniel 3:23 in the
Apocrypha. Albright pinpoints the philological indications of a Cana-
anite-Phoenician background in Proverbs and Qoheleth. In addition to
five papers on the text or interpretation of particular Wisdom books,
four deal with significant terms and concepts, four with the history of
Israelite wisdom, two with the sapiential element in mythology, one with
wisdom psalms, and one with wisdom in relation to prophecy. These
twenty papers are fairly representative of the range of interest in recent
study of Old Testament Wisdom Literature in the light of its intercultural
background—with a single omission : the place of wisdom in Old Testa-
ment theology.
Some of the more significant developments in the field are the follow-
ing:
1) Additional comparative material has been published.16 Several
additional examples of the Egyptian Instructions have come to light, in-
15. A slightly revised introduction and translation is given by S. N. Kramer in The Ancient
Near East, Supplementary Texts and Pictures Relating to the Old Testament, J. B. Pritchard, ed.
( Princeton : Princeton University Press, 1969 ) , pp. 589-91.
16. Cf. Jean Leclant, "Documents nouveaux et points de vue récents sur les Sagesses de
l'Egypte ancienne"; Nougayrol, "Les Sagesses babyloniennes: Études récentes et textes inédits";
Georges Posener and J.S.F. Garnot, "Sur une Sagesse égyptienne de basse époque," in Les
Sagesses du Proche-Orient ancien (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1963); H.H.
Schmid, Wesen und Geschichte der Weisheit (BZAW, 101; A. Töpelmann, 1966), pp. 9-17,
88-94.
SO

Interpretation
eluding one found by Posener among the papyri in the Brooklyn Museum,
and another from a similar collection in the British Museum, published by
Glanville. A new form of wisdom writing was brought to the notice of
biblical scholars with the publication of A. H. Gardiner's Ancient Egyp-
tian Onomastica ( 1947). These noun lists attempt to classify all pheno-
mena as a kind of outline of knowledge. As noted above, von Rad finds
something similar in Job 38, Psalm 148, and other passages. Alt sees
here the explanation of the "natural history" content of Solomon's pro-
verbs and songs, according to I Kings 4:33 (MT 5:13) and notes the
value of the topographical references to Syria-Palestine.17
Significant new material has come also from Mesopotamia. In 1933
Baumgartner was still uncertain whether the Sumerians had produced any
wisdom literature, whereas it is now evident that they were its originators
and the Babylonians were their heirs.18 The various types of wisdom
writings—classification lists of phenomena, proverbs and proverb col-
lections, contest fables, moral instructions of father to son, treatments of
the theme of the suffering just man—appear first in Sumerian and later in
Accadian. Of the proverbs published by E. I. Gordon (see n. 18), some
seem to be popular sayings, others to have been composed by scribes for
the purpose of moral instruction—a combination found in the Book of
Proverbs. As, doubtless, in ancient Israel, they served as copybook max-
ims both for literary and moral instruction in scribal schools. One of the
father-to-son instructions published by Kramer has to do with agriculture,
as in Isaiah 28:23-29, where the teacher claims divine inspiration for his
advice. An additional treatment by Kramer of the suffering just
man theme has already been mentioned. Another of Babylonian
provenance has been published by Nougayrol19 from a tablet in the
Louvre. The piece apparently is incomplete, since it opens with a prayer
by a friend of the sufferer depicting the latter's sufferings, protesting
his innocence, and pointing to his faithfulness under trial. The prayer is
heard, and the deity responds with the promise of blessings greater than
17. Albrecht Alt, "Die Weisheit Salamos," ThLZ, LXXVI (1951), 139-44; also Kleine
Schriften zur Geschichte des Volkes Israel (Munich: C.H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung,
I
959)j II3 9°-99; and "Syrien und Palästina im Onomastikon des Amenope," Festschrift für
Ludwig Köhler, Schweizerische Theologische Umschau, Nr. 3,4. 20 Jahrgang, August 1950, 10-26.
18. Lambert, op. cit., pp. 1-20; Kramer, History Begins at Sumer (London: Thames &
Hudson, 1958), Chaps. 14—17; Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs (Philadelphia: University of Pa.
Museum, 1959) and "A New Look at the Wisdom of Sumer and Akkad," BiOr, XVI (i960),
122-52.
19. Jean Nougayrol, "Une version ancienne du Juste souffrant," RB, LIX (1952), 239-50.
31
the suffering. This is what Job's friends promise him will happen if only
he will abandon his defiance (Job 5:17-27; 11:13-20; 22:21-30). To
these must be added parts of two collections of precepts found at Ras
Shamra written in Ugaritic but of Babylonian origin, and evidently there
20 1
are others awaiting publication. Philologica and stylistic evidence of
Ugaritic influence on biblical Hebrew appears to be concentrated largely
21
in the Wisdom books and the Psalms; from this it is reasonable to sup
pose that there existed a Canaanite poetic and wisdom literature which
has many echoes in the Bible.
2) It is recognized that other known topics are also relevant to the
22
study of wisdom. The Babylonian omen lists, Schmid contends, rep
resent a kind of "cultic wisdom" because the sequence of portent and
coming event implies knowledge, gained by experience, of the workings of
a world order. When the world order is conceived as moral, the omen
form is adaptable to moral instruction. At least two documents of this
23
type are known, a Canon of Morals and Advice to a Prince. "If he al
ways does good, one will do good to him," says the former; and, again,
"If he is fond of cursing (others), it will come back on him." The resem
blances to Proverbs 12:14; 14:14; Qoheleth 10:8 are obvious. This form
was well suited, as Lambert remarks, to warning a king, because the pro
tasis is hypothetical—"If a king does not heed justice, his people will be
thrown into chaos." In Proverbs 30:2-9 such deference is less needed
because the speaker is the queen mother, but the moral limitation of royal
behavior puts this passage in the same category (cf. also Deut. 17:14-20).
Lambert includes in the Babylonian wisdom literature two "prescrip
tive" hymns, of which the hymn to Shamash, the sun god and god of
24
justice, is better preserved. Shamash is praised for his universal light
and providential care, for his punishment of evil-doers, and his blessings
on just judges and honest and kindly merchants. We are reminded in
places of Psalm 104 and again of Proverbs 11:1 ; 12:2, 22; 15:3-
20. Nougayrol, Les Sagesses du Proche-Orient ancien, pp. 47-50; Mitchell Dahood, Ugaritic-
Hebrew Philology ( R o m e : Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1965), p . ι , η . 2.
21. Cf. W.F. Albright in the Rowley Festschrift (Leiden: E J . Brill); C.J.K. Story, " T h e
Book of Proverbs and Northwest Semitic Literature," JBL, L X I V (1945), 319-37; Dahood,
op. cit.; "Hebrew-Ugaritic Lexicography, I — V I , " Bibl (1963-68); Psalms I, Psalms II
(Anchor Bible; Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday & Company, 1966, 1968).
22. Op. cit., p. 127.
23. F.R. Kraus, " E i n Sittencanon in Omenform," ZA NF I X (1936), 77-113; Lambert,
op. cit., pp. 110-15.
24. Op. cit., pp. 118-38.
32
Interpretation
3) The origins and history of the wisdom tradition in ancient Israel

have received considerable attention. The existence of parallel traditions
in other cultures and the broad similarities in their literatures do not
mean that Hebrew wisdom was wholly borrowed. Living conditions
were sufficiently alike th^t similar folk proverbs, for instance, comment-
ing on daily experience and human foibles, would appear spontaneously
in different communities. The distinction in form and content between
such sayings and the symmetrical couplets deliberately composed for in-
structional purposes is soon apparent when biblical proverbs are com-
pared.25 In an important study of "apodictic" legal prohibitions in the
Pentateuch, Gerstenberger has argued for their derivation ultimately
from the taboos essential to the preservation of a tribal society. These
in turn find their closest analogy in the admonitions and warnings ad-
dressed to youth by wisdom teachers seeking to inculcate the principles
of the good life as traditionally understood. Such principles and stan-
dards were in the main not peculiar to Israel, but in Israelite practice
were brought under the aegis of Yahweh as guardian of his people.26
Gerstenberger's proposal has much to commend it with respect to the
admonitory element in wisdom, but hardly applies to the folk adages
that comprise so large a part of Proverbs 10—22:16; 25—29; and Qohe-
leth 7:1 ff. and 10:1 ff. Here the social background is town and village
life, and the attitude of the speaker is that of the acute and sometimes
cynical observer rather than the authoritative custodian of morals.
The beginnings of a wisdom literature in Israel were undoubtedly asso-
ciated with Solomon's court. The king himself is pictured in our sources
as a paragon of wisdom, and his name continued to be attached to wis-
dom writings—even down to the first century B.C. when the Wisdom of
Solomon was composed in Greek. That such liberties continued to be
taken indicates both the persistent strength of the tradition and the need
for critical examination of the historical evidence.
Three different meanings are given to Solomon's wisdom in First
Kings. The first is the discernment needed to administer justice, in
3:5-12,16-28. The second, in 4:29-34 (MT 5:9-14) ; 10:1-10, 13, 23 f.,
25. Cf. R.B.Y. Scott, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (Anchor Bible; Garden City, N. Y. : Doubleday
& Company, 1965), pp. xxvi-xxix, 18-20.
26. Ehard Gerstenberger Wesen und Herkunft des "Apodiktischen Rechts/9 (Neukirchen-
Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag des Erziehungsvereins, 1965). Examples of "the intrinsic coherence
of legal practice and wisdom or proverbs" has earlier been noted by Berend Gemser, "The Im-
portance of the Motive Clause in Old Testament Law," VT Suppl. I (1953), pp. 62-66.
33
is encyclopedic knowledge surpassing that of all others, and the wit to ex-
press this in proverbs and songs. The third is the statesmanship praised
by Hiram of Tyre in 5:7 (MT 5:21). Our concern here is with the sec-
ond of these, as one element in the tale of Solomon's glory expressed in
the extravagant language of adulative legend.27
On the other hand, it is apparent from several pieces of indirect evi-
dence that there is historical substance underlying the legend. Alt has
pointed out the unlikelihood of ascribing nature wisdom to Solomon with-
out some firm basis in tradition, since the subject matter of the later Pro-
verbs of Solomon deals rather with human character and behavior. He
thinks also that Solomon's claim to superiority may rest on the poetic
formulation of this nature wisdom in contrast to the bare listing of
phenomena in Babylonian and Egyptian wisdom.28 Literary productivity
of a high order was to be expected at Solomon's court with its Egyptian
connections and its full-fledged organization ( I Kings 3:1 ; 4:1 -5 ), which
included both a "king's friend" or confidential adviser, and a scribe or
principal secretary. The latter must have headed a department con-
cerned with royal correspondence and the records of the kingdom; pro-
bably he or one of his assistants composed the brilliant succession story
in II Samuel 9—20; I Kings 1—2. Whybray29 recently has argued that
this carefully constructed narrative with its dramatic movement and
penetrating psychological insights is intended as a vehicle of moral in-
struction even more than as a dynastic history. In doing so he follows
the precedent of von Rad's demonstration that the Joseph story, unlike
the other patriarchal narratives, has the form of a novel;30 its hero
triumphs over his vicissitudes because he has learned to master himself
as the wisdom teachers taught, and to trust in God. Joseph displays
those very qualities of character that both Egyptian and Hebrew sages
taught were requisite for success—shrewdness, diligence, modesty, pa-
tience, trustworthiness, magnanimity, skill in speech and in giving coun-
sel, resistance to sexual temptation. This is teaching by example. Since
the historical setting is so much more remote from the author's time than
27. Cf. Scott, "Solomon and the Beginnings of Wisdom in Israel" in the Rowley Festschrift,
pp. 262-79. Martin Noth, in Könige (BKAT, 9; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag,
1968), p. 81 agrees that the emphasis on world-wide recognition of Solomon's wisdom must
come from a time when immediate memory of his times had disappeared.
28. "Die Weisheit Salamos."
29. R.N. Whybray, The Succession Narrative (London: SGM Press, 1968).
30. "Josephgeschichte und ältere Ghokma," V T Suppl. I, 120-27.
34
Interpretation
is that of the succession narrative, the treatment is more imaginative

and the story less useful as a historical source. Both display the Hebrew
gift for vivid narrative at its best, and both are early. The succession nar-
rative loses much of its point unless its terminus ad quern is the reign of
Solomon, or, at the latest, that of Rehoboam. The Joseph story is a
distinct unit woven into the accounts of Israel's beginnings in the J and E
documents, and hence is earlier than either. T h a t it too dates from
Solomon's time is more than possible.
If this be granted, our attention is drawn next to another and different
kind of narrative material in the J creation and paradise stories of
Genesis 2—3. This is not wisdom literature in the accepted sense, but
its points of contact with that literature are so many and remarkable
that it implies a highly developed wisdom school of thought in the back-
ground. On the speculative side it explores the idea of creation of the
world and the relationship of man to the world and to God, as in Pro-
verbs 8. It tells of knowledge which man desires but which is reserved
to God, as in Job 28. It is concerned with good and evil, and with the
human condition and its miseries of toil and pain, of death and aliena-
tion, as is Qoheleth. Its outlook is not Israelite but universal in scope.
Its characters are pictured as individuals, even though representative
ones, and it conveys a moral lesson on the spurious attractions of tempta-
tion and the disastrous results of yielding to it (cf. Prov. 1:10-19). The
subtlety of the serpent and the credulity of Eve are in Proverbs the marks
of the rogue and the fool.31
The historical substance of the tradition of Solomon's supreme wisdom
is that a productive school of scribes and wisdom writers was established
at his court and, under his patronage, as at the court of Hezekiah, of which
we hear in Proverbs 2 5 : 1 . Just as material assistance was rendered by
Tyre and Egypt to the new Hebrew monarchy which had risen to promi-
nence through David's military conquests, so doubtless there was at this
time a marked inflow of cultural influence from these older kingdoms.
T h e wisdom of Egypt was famous, as we have already observed. Phoenicia
and the Canaanites to the north also were homes of wisdom; we note in
Ezekiel 28:3-5 that the great wisdom and wealth of the Prince of Tyre
are spoken of in terms reminiscent of the claims made for Solomon. But
31. Cf. L. Alonso-Schökel, "Motives sapiencales y de Alianza en Gn 2—3," Bibl XLIII ( 1962),
195-316; A.M. Dubarle, Les Sages d'Israël (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1946).
35
Hebrew wisdom was not merely imitative. It dealt with the same practi-
cal issues and the same high themes, yet with a literary genius surpassing
all other contemporary wisdom literatures of which we know. It is an
important historical conclusion that, even though the achievements of his
servants have been made to redound to the glory of King Solomon, his
court establishment did include a body of scribes and thinkers capable of
producing the succession narrative and the tale of Joseph, and of contri-
buting to the J stories of creation and paradise.
4) The relationship of the wisdom teachers to the prophets has con-
tinued to attract the attention of scholars in recent years. Twenty years
ago Fichtner could say :
In the intellectual life of Israel there are few phenomena which are so in con-
trast as prophetism and Chokma (Wisdom). Here two worlds stand over against
east other . . . . One reads perhaps some passages from the Book of Amos and then
some proverbs from Prov. 10 or 27 to perceive how vast is this difference.
Yet in 1964 Wolff was to argue from impressive evidence of literary

style and subject matter that Amos' intellectual home was the traditional
wisdom of tribal society.32
The contradiction is not so complete as it seems, when the main thrust
of the two studies is taken into account. Fichtner is arguing that it was
Isaiah who came to prophecy out of the wisdom tradition, and his refer-
ence to the contrast between Amos and Proverbs is only incidental. Wolff,
on the other hand, is combating the claim of Reventlow and others that
the message of Amos is to be understood in the cultic setting of the cove-
nant festival. He agrees with Fichtner that Isaiah shows affinities with
wisdom style and thought. The earlier scholar could hardly have made
his off-hand remark about Amos if he had had Wolff's analysis before
him; the truth is that what the one has demonstrated about Isaiah, the
other has demonstrated about Amos.
Fichtner begins by pointing out that prophecy and wisdom share es-
sentially the same ethic and have a similar independent attitude to the
32. Fichtner, "Jesaja unter den Weisen," ThLZ, Vol. LXXIV (1949), cols. 75-80; reprinted
in Gottes Weisheit (Stuttgart: Galwer Verlag, 1965), pp. 18-26; H.W. Wolff, Amos' Geistige
Heimat (WMANT, 18; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1965). Cf. Samuel Terrien,
"Amos and Wisdom" in Israel's Prophetic Heritage (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers,
1962), pp. 108-15; J· L. Crenshaw, "The Influence of the Wise upon Amos," ZAW, LXXIX
(1967), pp. 42-52.
36
Interpretation
cult. Their basic difference is in the nature of the authority with which
they claim to speak. This is the point of Isaiah's call to change from a
teacher whose words men hear but do not comprehend, to a messenger
who speaks God's own word. Isaiah's polemic against the secular wisdom
of self-confident politicians and courtiers (29:13-16; 30:1 ff.; 31:1 ff.)
who are no different from the counselors of Pharaoh (19:11-15) is
sharpened by his own former role as a teacher of wisdom—a role which
in 28:9 f. his opponents mock. For the first and only time in preexilic
prophecy, wisdom is predicated of Yahweh himself (28:29; 31:2)—as
in Proverbs 3:19; 8:22-31 ; Job 28; Psalms 104:24; Sirach 24:1-3; Wis
dom of Solomon 7:15—8:4. Fichtner supports his case by citing many
examples of characteristic wisdom terms, phrases, and stylistic marks.
Wolff lays the main weight in his argument for wisdom as Amos' in
tellectual home on features of style and phraseology, many of which are
shared by First Isaiah: (a) rhetorical questions with didactic purpose, as
in Amos 3:3-6, 8; 6:2, 12 (cf. Isa. ι :5; 10:25) ï (b) the formula "Woe
to . · ·" or "Alas for . . . , " Amos 5:18; 6 : 1 ; compare Isaiah 5:8ff.;
10:1 ; 28:1 (Wolff makes the plausible claim here that this form origi-
nated in the warnings against evil consequences in tribal instruction) ;
(c) the numerical "x-i, x" idiom "for three . . . , for four . . . , " Amos
1 .-3—2:8;33 (d) the admonition-and-warning utterances such as 5:14 ff.,
resembling in form many didactic sayings in Proverbs, for example, 3:25-
35; 4:23; 20:13; 22:22-29. Wolff adds a number of additional points
of vocabulary and word-usage common to Amos and wisdom writings,
and points to the prophet's international outlook, his emphasis on retri-
bution, and even to the closeness of Tekoa to the area of tribal life as fur-
ther support for his thesis. He believes that Amos is more properly to be
spoken of as a seer (ro9 eh; cf. 7:12) rather than a nabi\ which too
easily could be taken to mean a cult prophet. This may well be the point
of Amos' famous retort to the priest of Bethel in 7:14.
A broader survey is given by Johannes Lindblom in his article "Wisdom
in the Old Testament Prophets" in the Rowley Festschrift. He points out
first that the Hebrew prophets were well aware of the claims of foreign
peoples to a special kind of wisdom and of the importance accorded to
33. The idiom is derived from Semitic poetic parallelism, successive numbers being used as
approximately synonymous, 2/3, 3/4, 6/7, and so on. The larger figure represents the number of
items with a common characteristic, as in Prov. 6:16-19; 30:15-31. Plainly it served as a
teaching device.
37
their sages. Both abroad and in Israel itself this was a quality associated
with the kingly ideal. The author then turns to the existence in Israel
of a group (or differing groups) of "wise men." Jeremiah 9:23 (MT
9:22) and 18:18 indicate that these formed a definite group in society, as
did priests, prophets, soldiers, and the wealthy. Within the larger body of
sages had arisen a special body of scribes devoted to the interpretation of
the recently promulgated Deuteronomic law-book. These rejected any
new word of prophecy (8:8-11; cf. 2:8). Strangely enough, Lindblom
has little to say about the politically-minded royal counselors with whom
Isaiah had come into conflict.
Turning to the question of possible influence on the prophets by the
wisdom teachers, the theocentric emphasis of the former is stressed in
contrast to the anthropocentric concern of the latter. One group ad-
dresses the nation, the other, the individual and his daily problems.
Hence Lindblom's grudging concession : "It is conceivable that the pro-
phets may occasionally have taken up some ideas from Wisdom" (p.
197). "The essential attributes of Yahweh in the prophets are holiness
and power, love and mercy, wrath and righteousness, but not wisdom"
(p. 198). Hence what is said in Isaiah 23:29 and 31:2 is exceptional.
The wisdom of the messianic king is another matter, and "has nothing
to do with the wisdom of the Wisdom schools" (p. 199). Nevertheless,
Lindblom finds that some of the prophets, especially Jeremiah, have
thoughts colored by the ideas of wisdom, and admits that favorite liter-
ary forms of the sages were used—such as parables, proverbial expres-
sions, similes, and metaphors. On the whole he minimizes the influence
of the wisdom teachers on prophetic thought and language.
In a cogent historical study, Prophets and Wise Men (1965) William
McKane sets out first to clarify the meaning of the "old wisdom" of the
royal court to which von Rad attributes the origin of the Joseph story,
and which he takes to have been "a blend of anthropocentricity and
piety." McKane holds instead that in the time of David and Solomon
the "wise men" of the court were mainly royal counselors like Hushai
and Ahitophel, sagacious officers of state whose wisdom was "primarily
a disciplined empiricism engaged with the problems of government and
administration" (p. 53). "Scribe" was here loosely used as in Egypt to
designate a responsible official, not necessarily one whose duties were re-
lated to correspondence or book learning. He belonged to an intellectual
38
Interpretation
elite and served in a necessarily highly literate profession. He might or

might not be a pious man, but religious belief and its ethic were not a part
of—or even a limit to—his professional responsibility.
This is an important correction to the view that the wise men of Solo-
mon's court were primarily ethical and religious teachers, as they later
became. The morally neutral political officers of the state with whom
Isaiah came into conflict were of the type that McKane describes. But
he goes too far in affirming that "the wisdom literature, for the most part,
was a product . . . of men of affairs in high places of state" ( !). He
leaves unresolved the question of the source of that combination of
ethically didactic wisdom with religious piety in the Joseph story which
von Rad has shown must go back to the early kingdom. There were
wise, that is, educated, men whose skills were used in the fields of politics
and administration, and there were surely others, probably also enjoying
royal patronage, who thought and taught how men should live well.
5) The place of the Wisdom Literature in Old Testament theology
has received perhaps less attention than is its due. This is largely be-
cause its themes have appeared peripheral, if not incompatible with the
dominant idea of a "history of salvation" of God's chosen people and of
his special revelation through mighty acts of salvation and judgment.
Certainly this is the main stream of thought in law and prophecy, the di-
dactic histories and the psalms. Old Testament theologies structured
around this theme, or on the lines of Christian systematic theology, gen-
erally ignore the wisdom writings or treat them as a kind of vermiform
appendix.
The fact is that there is no single comprehensive theological system
in the Old Testament. Its writers do not set out to present a systematic
articulation of belief; they are content to affirm it, and their theology
is implicit. The literature they have left us came into being over a period
of centuries, in the course of which their religious experience was formed
and re-formed. Hence, a statement of their theology is necessarily de-
scriptive rather than definitive. Yet each important element and idea is
part of the whole and contributes to the total apprehension of the mean-
ing of man's life and of the ways of God with man. The thought of the
wisdom writers has its own distinctive contribution to make.
A notable foray in this area was made by Rylaarsdam in 1946, work-
39
ing with the concept of revelation.34 Hebrew wisdom, he says, was at
first empirical only. It shared with the wisdom movements in Egypt and
Babylonia a belief in a rational order behind phenomena, in human
creaturehood, and in reward and punishment as an operative principle
observable in human society. When rational and empirical thinking
proved incapable of answering ultimate questions of justice, the result
could be pessimism and despair. This in turn opened the way for a recog-
nition of the necessity of grace, through a divine initiative. Rylaarsdam
sees Job and Qoheleth as final efforts to hold on to human reason in the
face of the inscrutability of a transcendent God. This tension was par-
tially resolved with the incorporation of wisdom thought in the national-
religious tradition in Sirach, Baruch, and 4 Maccabees. Yet man's in-
telligence still had a place in a synergistic balance of reason and grace.
Wisdom, Word, and Spirit became almost indistinguishable, as semi-
independent agencies of God at work in creation, in his providential rule,
and in revelation.
One of the more successful attempts to integrate the thought and im-
plied theology of wisdom into a comprehensive scheme (though in a
rather disparaging way) is that of Eichrodt.35 The author divides his
scheme into three parts, following Otto Procksch : God and the People,
God and the World, God and Man. Part I is an exposition in terms of
the special covenant with Israel, in which wisdom has no place. In Part
II wisdom is correlated with Word and Spirit as "cosmic powers of God."
In Part III it is considered under "the effect of piety on conduct," where
the author suggests that "morally inferior motives were introduced," with
borrowings from foreign wisdom (p. 82). Indeed, Eichrodt finds the
theological significance of wisdom chiefly in its later flowering in the
Persian and Hellenistic periods when wisdom came to be identified with
the special revelation to Israel, commenting that for a long time it "made
virtually no contribution to Israel's religious understanding" (p. 80).
The contribution to Hebrew thought about creation is acknowledged,
but with the insistence that this was "from the very first integrated into
history" (pp. 100-101). "It was from the history of his own nation that the
O.T. believer first grasped what God's providence was about" (p. 168).
The social origins of general social morality are recognized, but again
34. Rylaarsdam, op. cit.
35. Walther Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament, trans, by J. A. Baker (Philadelphia:
The Westminster Press, 1961-67).
40
Interpretation
the author sees here a "pride in the distinctive character of Israel com-
pared with her neighbors" (p. 317 ).
The Wisdom Literature is examined by von Rad more fully and with
greater appreciation.36 His first volume is concerned chiefly with the
basic theme of the history of salvation as presented in the Hexateuch;
the second deals with prophecy and its "conviction that Israel's previous
history with Jahweh has come to an end . . . ; [henceforward] she must
move in faith into a new saving activity of Jahweh" ( I, p. 128). Wisdom,
both preprophetic and postprophetic, is treated together with the Psalms
at the end of the first volume under the heading "Israel Before Jahweh
(Israel's Answer)." This arrangement is somewhat misleading, since,
unlike the Psalms, the Wisdom Literature (at least in the Hebrew can-
on) cannot be considered a response to the dominant theme of the saving
history.
The older empirical gnomic wisdom which Israel shared with other
peoples was based on the feeling that there was a hidden order to be dis-
cerned in things and events, making for balance. But this was not under-
stood systematically. A man found himself able to order his life only
within certain limits, and God's will was understood as a limitation, defy-
ing human calculation.37 "What this wisdom teaching has to say only
passes over into theology where the subject matter contains some kind
of pointer or reference to Jahweh, his activity, or what pleases or dis-
pleases him" (p. 437). "The (later) theology of the Wisdom literature
can properly only move in utterances about creation" (p. 418).
Von Rad holds that in Canaan "where the religious atmosphere was
saturated with creation myths" Israel's identification of the creator as
Yahweh must have been much earlier than its specific formulation, for
example, in II Isaiah 44:14; compare Genesis 14:19, 22. The signifi-
cant theological achievement of the later Wisdom writings like Sirach
and the Wisdom of Solomon was a new interpretation of creation as
a soteriological act of God, by which it was incorporated within a course
of history leading to the call to Abraham (p. 138).
36. Theology of the Old Testament, trans, by D.M.G. Stalker (2 vols.; Edinburgh: Oliver
and Boyd, 1962 ) .
37. Cf. Zimmerli, "The Place and Limit of Wisdom in the Framework of Old Testament
Theology," SJTh, XVII (1964h 146-58.
41
6) The remarkable passage in Proverbs 8:22-31, with its echoes in
Sirach 24 and later writings, has continued to occasion much discussion.
In these verses wisdom is personified and pictured as present with Yah
weh at the time of creation. The question is, Is this simply a poetic per
sonification of a kind not uncommon in Hebrew poetry (cf. Prov. ι :2ο-
33; Ps. 96:11 f.; Hos. 13:14) ? Or is it here something more, an hypos
tasis, that is, an attribute or activity of Yahweh thought of as having an
independent personal identity? If the latter, is there here a reminiscence
of an older pagan conception of a god or goddess of wisdom like the
Egyptian Maat or the Babylonian Ishtar?
The most thorough treatment of this topic in the light of older myths
and religious concepts is that of Ringgren in his Word and Wisdom.
His conclusion is that, although the earlier sections of the poem in
Proverbs 8 might be taken as poetic personification only, in verses 22-31
wisdom is definitely hypostatized. In this he follows the views of the earl
38
ier scholars Kautzsch, Siegfried, Schenke, and Bousset-Gressmann.
These held that in Proverbs 8 the description of wisdom passes from that
of symbolism and personification to that of an independent being, God's
master builder and assistant in creating the world. In the most recent
39
study of the Wisdom Literature as a whole, Schmid agrees, but stresses
the guarded definition of hypostasis given by Ringgren in Die Religion in
40
Geschichte und Gegenwart: "a divine reality often only half indepen
dent, which exhibits a more or less complete personification of a property,
activity or single attribute of a higher deity." Other scholars are still
more cautions. Marcus says that here we have in one sense a hypostasis,
but not of a kind which might develop into an independent deity. Wheel
er Robinson speaks of a "quasi-hypostatic" wisdom as present and active
from the remotest beginnings. Stecher declares that in Proverbs 8 rheto
rical language is used to affirm the divine worth of wisdom; this is the
play of poetic fantasy with a practical rather than a speculative object;
it was never worked out theoretically, De Savignac sees here a poetic pic-
38. Emil Kautzsch, HDB ex. vol. (1907), p. 729; Carl Siegfried, HDB, I V (1902), 924 f.;
Wilhelm Schenke, Die Chokma in der jüdischen Hypostasenspekulation (Christiana: J. Dybwad,
I I
9 3 ) Î Ρ- 24; Wilhelm Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im spâthellenistischen Zeitalter, H.
Gressman, ed. (Tübingen: J.G.B. Mohr [P. Siebeck], 1926 3 ), p. 343.
39. Op.cit.,p. 149.
40. Tübingen: J.G.B. Mohr [P. Siebeck], 19593, Vol. I l i , col. 504.
42
Interpretation
ture of wisdom as a primary manifestation of God in his prior plan for

41
creation.
A pertinent suggestion is made by de Boer, following on a note by
42
Gaster. The latter visualizes wisdom as serving Yahweh, even before
the dawn of creation, like one of the court "experts" (Bab. ummanu)
whose function it was to advise and entertain Oriental monarchs. De
Boer similarly holds that the imagery is that of Yahweh's heavenly court,
where wisdom is a royal counsellor. But he emphasizes that there is "no
trace of speculation over unity and distinction in the world of God. A
pluriformity is taken for granted. . . . At the same time the world of God
can be considered a unit.55 Hence theories of hypostatization and even
personification of wisdom are unnecessary. The Creator is Yahweh, Yah-
weh-in-council, so to speak. "Let us make man in our i m a g e . . . . So God
created man in his own image55 (Gen. ι : 26 f. ).
In conclusion, space will permit only the sketchiest indication of other
recent studies of value to the student of the biblical Wisdom books. Gen
eral surveys in brief compass are to be found in the Old Testament In
troductions of Otto Eissfeldt (Eng. trans. 1965) and Ernest Sellin-Georg
Fohrer (Eng. trans. 1968) ; in Seven Books of Wisdom (i960) by R. E.
Murphy and the same author5s Introduction to the Wisdom Literature
(a Reading Guide, 1965) ; in the articles by W. A. Irwin in The Inter-
preterms Bible, Volume I (1952), by S. H. Blank in The Interpreter's
Dictionary of the Bible, Volume IV (1962), by J. C. Rylaarsdam in
Peake's Commentary (1962), by R. B. Y. Scott, Proverbs and Ecclesi-
astes, General Introduction (Anchor Bible, 1965), and by R. E. Murphy
in the Jerome Biblical Commentary (1968). Fuller treatments are Les
Scribes inspirés, by H. Duesberg-I. Franken (rev. ed., 1966), H. H.
Schmid, Wesen und Geschichte der Weisheit (1966) ; James Wood, Wis-
dom Literature, an Introduction (Studies in Theology), London, 1967.
Philological contributions by the well-known scholars G. R. Driver,
D. W. Thomas, Robert Gordis, H. L. Ginsberg, and Mitchell Dahood
have thrown light—not always of equal clarity—on the vocabulary and
41.Joseph Marcus, "On Biblical Hypostases of Wisdom," HUCA, X X I I I (1950-51), 165;
Robinson, Inspiration and Revelation in the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946),
p. 113; R. Stecher, "Die persönliche Weisheit in den Proverbien Kap. 8," ZKTh, L X X V
χ 2
( 953)ΐ 4 7> 449 > J· de Savignac, "Note sur le sens du verset viii 22 des Proverbes," VT, IV
(1954), 429-32, and "La Sagesse en Proverbes viii 22-31," VT, X I I (1962), 211-15.
42.T.H. Gaster, "Old Testament Notes: Prov. 8:30," VT, IV, 77 f.; P.A.H. de Boer, "The
Counsellor," Rowley Festschrift, pp. 69-71.
43
syntax of many wisdom passages. Most of this has been in articles scat-
tered among scholarly publications, though Dahood has published also
two relevant monographs, Proverbs and Northwest Semitic Philology
(1963) and Ugaritic-Hebrew Philology (1965).
The distinctive literary forms utilized by the wisdom writers are dis-
cussed in the Old Testament Introductions mentioned above—by Eiss-
feldt on pages 81-87 a n d by Sellin-Fohrer on pages 311-15. The mashal
or "pregnant utterance" has been taken up again by Jean Pirot (1950),
A. R. Johnson (1955), and A. S. Herbert (1954) ; the fable by R. J.
Williams (1956) ; the parable by R. A. Stewart (1964) ; the riddle by
J. R. Porter (1962), and the beatitude by C. A. Keller (i960).
Among recent commentaries may be mentioned: (a) On Proverbs—
W. G. Plaut ( 1961 ), H. Ringgren (1962 ), B. Gemser (rev· ed., 1963), A.
Barucq (1964), G. Kayatz on Proverbs 1—9 (1966), together with arti-
cles on the structure of the book by P. W. Skehan in the Catholic Biblical
Quarterly, 1948-67. (b) On Job—N. H. Torczyner or Tur-Sinai ( 1957 ),
G. Hölscher (rev. ed., 1952), Α. Weiser (3d ed., 1959), F. Horst (i960),
G. Fohrer (rev. ed., 1963), M. H. Pope (Anchor Bible, 1965), and R.
Gordis (Vol. 1,1965 ). Of the many other studies in Job we may note—H.
W. Robinson, Job and His Friends ( 1954), S. Terrien, Job, Poet of Exis
tence (1957), H. H. Rowley, The Book of Job and Its Meaning (1958),
M. B. Cook, The Cruel God ( 1959 ), A. Jepsen, Das Buch Hiob und seine
Deutung (1963), and R. N. Carstenson, Job, Defense of Honor (1963).
(c) On Qoheleth-Ecclesiastes—H. L. Ginsberg (1950, 1955), W. Zim-
merli (1962), H. W. Hertzberg (2d ed., 1963), Κ. Galling (2d ed.,
1969 ), R. Gordis ( 3d ed., 1968 ).
The relative scarcity of recent commentaries (d) on Sirach (ben Sira)
—of which those of H. Duesberg-P. Auvray (1958), V. Hamp (1951),
and O. Schilling (1956) may be mentioned—may be due in part to the
problem of evaluating the textual evidence. The authenticity of four
fragmentary manuscripts of the book in Hebrew found in the Cairo
Geniza seventy years ago was long disputed. In 1931 and 1958-60 further
fragments came to light. The whole question was carefully reexamined
by A. A. di Leila in The Hebrew Text of Sirach (1966), but before the
texts of a Qumran fragment and a scroll containing parts of chapters
39—43 from Masada were available to the author, (e) The Wisdom of
Solomon was commented on by J. Fichtner (1938), and more recently
44
Interpretation
by J. Fischer (1952), J. Reider (1957) and J. Geyer (1963). The arti-

cles by T. H. Weber on Sirach and by A. G. Wright on wisdom in the
Jerome Biblical Commentary (1968) provide up-to-date summary treat-
ments of these books.
Scholarly work in the area of the wisdom movement and its literature
has opened up, in the last half-century, new vistas in Old Testament re-
ligion and theology. The present writer is aware of the inadequacy of
his attempt to cover so much ground within the bounds of a single article.
But perhaps it will serve as introduction and background for a new ap-
preciation of this distinct element in biblical religion. It is an element,
incidentally, which has a bearing on New Testament studies as well.
45

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The Study of The Wisdom Literature: Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Princeton University

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The Study of the Wisdom Literature

I N RECENT YEARS interest in the phenomenon of wisdom, its litera-

Speaking in broad terms, we might say that Old Testament scholar-

Downloaded from int.sagepub.com at CORNELL UNIV on July 13, 2015

Wisdom Literature." A similar pattern appears in successive treatments

life to the bitter in soul?" It becomes clear that non-Israelite wisdom,

Downloaded from int.sagepub.com at CORNELL UNIV on July 13, 2015

Origins. A wisdom tradition seems to have had at least six sources : ( a )

Forms. Popular adages, paternal admonitions, fables, fictional tales

Downloaded from int.sagepub.com at CORNELL UNIV on July 13, 2015

3) The origins and history of the wisdom tradition in ancient Israel

is that of the succession narrative, the treatment is more imaginative

Yet in 1964 Wolff was to argue from impressive evidence of literary

elite and served in a necessarily highly literate profession. He might or

ture of wisdom as a primary manifestation of God in his prior plan for

by J. Fischer (1952), J. Reider (1957) and J. Geyer (1963). The arti-

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