Forming Wisdom: Biblical and African Guides

Temba L. J. Mafico

Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out: "To you, O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live." —Proverbs 8:1-4

There is much that challenges us in our third millennium world. Struggles abound in our families, in and across our churches and denominations, within and between class and cultural groups, and in the wider global community. There is a hunger among us for answers to the trials and tribulations of life, and to questions about hope in the midst of oppression and even under the threat of untimely death. The quest in our communities is also for responses to deep wonderment about the activity of God in the midst of life's realities. The concerns resound: Where may wisdom be found to address the challenges of our day? How may we act wisely along the journey of life we are set upon? What do we say to our young to inspire their wisdom formation?

The queries of our communities today parallel those raised in traditional Israelite and African culture. And there is much from both traditions that can enliven the discussion on wisdom and the formation of wisdom of Africans and Africans in the Diaspora. In this opening chapter, we will explore the Israelite and African conceptualization of wisdom by giving several examples from the Israelite and African religiocultural lives. The Israelite perspective will be based primarily on Wisdom Literature of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. The African perspective will be based on the general African practice of eldership and its relationship to wisdom. The chapter will end with a summary of the striking similarities that exist between the Israelite and African concept of wisdom and knowledge.

Israelite Concepts of Wisdom and Wisdom Formation

Four books of the Bible present the essence of the Israelite concept of wisdom: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, and the apocryphal book of Sirach. The wisdom that these books present is most particularly a practical capacity for coping with life, and the pursuit of a principled life. Moreover, wisdom's source is God. The wisdom found in these books contrasts with the strong emphasis on knowledge that often pervades current-day conceptions of wisdom. Indeed, Lawrence O. Richards makes the pointed statement that "the scriptures do not make the mistake of confusing wisdom with other mental capacities or of giving wisdom less than its central place." role of the sage is important. According to Hebrew tradition, the sage's purpose is to communicate the messages of wisdom gleaned from experience in order that the receivers will gain insights for coping with life.

The most striking aspect of wisdom in the ancient Middle East is its universalism. It is for this reason that biblical Wisdom Literature is devoid of important biblical concepts such as covenant, commandments, the Exodus, or even the patriarchs. Wisdom, as Roland E. Murphy noticed, "is an international heritage in which Israel had a share." The book of Proverbs regards wisdom as God's greatest attribute. It is by wisdom that God created the world (Proverbs 3:19). The equation of wisdom and God led the Israelites to affirm that "the fear of the LORD is the beginning of [wisdom]" (Proverbs 1:7). Proverbs indicates further that the person who finds wisdom and has understanding is very blessed and happy (Proverbs 3:13-14). Indeed, wisdom is not simply identified as a person, but as one with feminine qualities. Wisdom, like the earth, is portrayed as a woman who is desired because, like the earth, wisdom sustains life. This feminine quality of sustenance or of being the lifeline for human existence is pivotal to views on both understanding and wisdom. Thus, understanding (Heb., binah) and wisdom (Heb., hokmah), are feminine.

Promotion of Wisdom Formation in the Young

An important emphasis in Israelite culture regards the teaching of wisdom to the young. The book of Proverbs is replete with short stories, proverbs, observations, and the elder's instructions given to the youth through pithy statements. In Proverbs 4:1-9, for example, we read of a father's instructions to his child. Instead of telling the child to sit and listen to orders, the father asked the child to listen to a story pertaining to the father's childhood and what his own father said to him:

When I was a son with my father, tender, and my mother's favorite, he taught me, and said to me, "Let your heart hold fast my words; Keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever else you get, get insight. Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a fair garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown." (Proverbs 4:3-9)

This didactic discourse story is very revealing of the Israelite transmission of wisdom to children. By this short biographical sketch, the parent enabled the child to learn wisdom through a powerfully engaging dual narrative approach: storytelling/story-listening and visualization. The storytelling enabled the children to hear the story of their parent's past and to construct a "picture" wherein they could "see" that their parents were also once children of their own parents. The storytelling /story-listening and visualization were channels for the children's wisdom formation.

There are texts in Proverbs that explicitly emphasize that children should observe natural phenomena in order to form wisdom. For example, in Proverbs 6:6-9 we read:

Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider [her] ways, and be wise. Without having any chief or officer or ruler, [she] prepares [her] food in summer, and gathers [her] sustenance in harvest. How long will you lie there, O lazybones? When will you rise from your sleep?

As in the biographical sketch appearing in Proverbs 4:3-9, the method for bringing about the children's wisdom formation was that of storytelling/story-listening and visualization. There is one addition, however. The question that appears in verse 9 is a logical...