Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

David Penchansky is Professor Emeritus at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of Twilight of the Gods (2005), What Rough Beast? (1999), and Understanding Wisdom Literature (2012).

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Understanding Wisdom Literature

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Contents

Abbreviations.........................................................................................ixAcknowledgment........................................................................................xiiIntroduction..........................................................................................11. Who Are the Sages?.................................................................................112. What Unity in Proverbs?............................................................................223. The Meaning of the Book of Job.....................................................................354. Wisdom, Madness, and Folly: The Three Qoheleths....................................................505. Sounds of Silence: The Absence of Covenantal Theology in the Wisdom Literature.....................646. Sophia and Simon: The Two Poles of Ben Sira's Affection............................................867. The Conservatism of Pseudo-Solomon.................................................................96Conclusion............................................................................................111Bibliography..........................................................................................114Subject and Author Index..............................................................................125Scripture Index.......................................................................................127

Chapter One

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. GENESIS 3:1

"But my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God to know all things that are on the earth." 2 SAMUEL 14:20

The sage, or wizard, takes prominent place in the stories of many cultures. From Merlin, Gandalf, and Dumbledore in the Anglo-American tradition to the placid Zen monks who lived in Japanese villages, there have been individuals with a deeper understanding of things, people who give advice. They knew how things worked and the right thing to do.

Wisdom begins in the family, in the villages and tribes. This happens three ways. First, parents share their wisdom and experience with children. Second, older people in the community serve as a source of wisdom to the younger generations. Finally, the villagers regard certain individuals within their community as wise, and a source of good judgment. People go to them with problems, disputes, and questions. Among the wisdom books, certain parts of the book of Proverbs reflect these early forms of wisdom. This localized, informal wisdom activity continued throughout Israel's history, but except for the book of Proverbs, no one preserved their insights in written form.

During the Israelite monarchy there emerged a professional sage class. Many biblical wisdom scholars question this, but the circumstantial evidence supports their existence. This professional class wrote and edited early forms of the books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. The authors of these wisdom books were sages, "the wise," who served as the "wizards" of ancient Israel. They wrote the wisdom books during a period that spanned no more than a few hundred years. It should have been relatively easy to examine these works and determine who wrote them, why, and what was happening at the time. It should be easy, but it is not. The authors of the first three wisdom books deliberately concealed their identity.

Why would these authors not want people to know who they were? Perhaps the sages thought that by avoiding specific references to their identity and time of writing, they demonstrated the more universal nature of their work. They did not intend their writing for Israel only. It was meant for all peoples and for all time. It was not meant for Israel in particular, so the first three books scarcely give a hint of the authors' own national identity. For example, Job was an Edomite (from a land due south of Israel), and from even further south, in Egypt, the Israelite sages freely borrowed Egyptian proverbs for their collections.

This makes it difficult to determine the identity and nature of these authors. Therefore, one finds out more about the characteristics of the sages, "the wise," by looking at things written about them, rather than what they wrote themselves. The group responsible for the wisdom books made its presence felt in other Israelite literature of the same period. The following features in nonwisdom books suggest the presence of a wisdom ideology: use of wisdom vocabulary; reference to individuals known as "the wise" (Heb. Fakam); individuals who give advice, wisdom, or counsel to kings; narratives where characters stand out as especially wise; or members of a guild who are initiate in secret wisdom, such as magicians.

There are two different, broad ways that scholars have regarded the presence of "wisdom" perspective in the rest of the Bible. Some claim that the sages influenced the composition of many biblical books. An alternate approach claims that individuals who wrote the wisdom books were not "the wise," but rather were part of a broad intellectual movement, not a wisdom "class" but an intellectual tradition. Whether these wisdom books were written by "the wise" or by otherwise employed, educated Israelites, wisdom and wisdom influence were to be found in many parts of the Bible. For instance, British scholar Norman Whybray wrote about wisdom influence in the David story (1 Samuel 16–1 Kings 1). Because the narrative dealt in morally ambiguous ways with a whole host of situations, he claimed it would be especially useful for the instruction of scribes. Eager young students who read the courtly advice in Proverbs would consult these novelistic treatments about Joseph and David (now in Genesis and 2 Samuel), which functioned as "case studies." Whybray and others believe that wisdom tradition is the invisible hand that formed much of the Hebrew Bible. After Whybray, scholars began to see wisdom influence in many places in the Bible. They claimed that wisdom perspective pervades the whole of the Hebrew canon, noting, for instance, proverblike language in the prophets. For instance, in both Proverbs and Amos we find the same type of numerical proverb:

The leech has two daughters; "Give, give," they cry. Three things are never satisfied; four never say, "Enough." (Prov 30:15)

Similarly in Amos one reads:

Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. (Amos 2:6)

These wisdom scholars find in the Joseph story in Genesis an exemplary tale of a courtly sage:

So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has shown you all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. (Gen 41:39-40)

In the story of David, wise counselors appear at moments of crisis in both David's political and family dramas. (I examine them in detail below.)

Both the books of Proverbs and Job contain accounts of the creation of the universe. In Job it says:

"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements ......