THE OLD TESTAMENT
PART IV THE WISDOM BOOKS
Charles P.
Poole, Jr.
1. The
Wisdom Books of the Bible
2. The Nature of Wisdom
3. Types of Wisdom Books
4. The Song
of Songs
5. The
Psalms
6. The Book
of Job
7. The Theme
of Wisdom
8.
Ecclesiastes or Qoheleth
9. The Book
of Proverbs
10. The Book of Wisdom
11. Sirach or Ecclesiasticus
12. Reading the Wisdom Literature
1. The Wisdom Books of the Bible
In
our first class we discussed some general aspects of the Old Testament, in the
second class we covered the historical books, last Wednesday we talked about
the prophets, and today the topic for discussion is the remaining books of the
bible, namely the so-called wisdom books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth in Hebrew), Song of Songs
(formerly called Canticle of Canticles), Wisdom, and Sirach
(formerly called Ecclesiasticus). The latter two books
are deuterocanonical (apocryphal) since they appear
only in the Greek Septuagint bible, and are absent from the Hebrew Masoretic text.
2. The Nature
of Wisdom
Five
of these books (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom, and Sirach)
are concerned with wisdom proper rather than with the themes of covenant, the
Law, history, prophesy, Yahweh guiding his people, etc., which prevail
throughout the remainder of the Old Testament writings. These five properly so-called wisdom or sapiential books search for wisdom, meaning an
understanding of an individual and his destiny, and the world from a secular as
well as from a religious point of view.
They seek the meaning of life and how to master it. They examine situations such as suffering,
sickness and death, and question why some people are endowed with many talents
and riches, while others are incompetent and poor. There is a curiosity about the world in
general, about
human behavior, and about what constitutes a morally upright life style.
Mention is also made that real wisdom is fear of the Lord, and this will be
discussed below. There are many
similarities between the biblical wisdom books and the wisdom literature of the
surrounding secular civilizations of the
3. Types of Wisdom Books
The
remaining two books Song of Songs and the Psalms are included in the Wisdom
Book category for the lack of a better place to classify them. The Song of Songs has been referred to as a
nuptial hymn, and only a few of the psalms can be considered in the wisdom
category. There are other books of the
Old Testament which have some wisdom themes, such as Amos, Isaiah, Daniel, and
the life of Solomon in 1 Kings, 3-11.
We will discuss the Song of Songs first, and then the Psalms. After this we will talk about Job which does
not treat the generalities of wisdom as such, but rather the more specific
topic of the wisdom of suffering. The
other four Wisdom books all range over various aspects of Wisdom, and together
they provide a real insight into the need for, and the benefits of, acquiring
wisdom.
4.
The Song of Songs
The
expression Song of Songs means the greatest of all songs. The book is an allegory, a collection of love
songs, with no mention of the word God, most probably written after the
Babylonian exile. In many bibles there
are letters in the margin to indicate who is speaking: B for the bride, D for the daughters of
5. The Psalms
There
are 150 psalms differing in length from 2 verses to 176 verses in the Book of
Psalms or Psalter. They are of various
types arranged in a somewhat irregular, but not completely random order. The 150 Psalms are distributed among five
books. The first book contains psalms 1
to 41, is called Davidic with psalms labeled “Of David”, and uses the word
Yahweh, Lord or Lord God for God, as in the second chapter of Genesis. The second book contains psalms 42 to 72.
They make use of the Hebrew word Elohim which is
translated as simply God, as in the first chapter of Genesis. Thus these two
books reflect Yahwistic and Elhoistic
sources, respectively. At the beginning of the second book psalms 42 to 49 are labeled “Of the Sons of Korah”
and seem to be written for a choirmaster.
In the remainder of this book the psalms are labeled “Of David.” The third book has psalms 73 to 89, with the
first eleven labeled “Of Asaph”. The fourth book consists of psalms 90 to 106,
and the fifth book has 107 to 150. Numbers
120 to 134 are called Songs of Ascents, most likely because they were sung on
the journey up to
Many of the psalms were written for use at
religious services in the
1) A
hymn of praise (8, 104) is a call to worship, often with an introduction to set
the tone, a list of reasons for praise, and a conclusion.
2) A
song of
3)
Enthronement psalms (e.g. 49, 96-99) celebrate the kingship of God.
4)
Psalms of Lamentation mourn a loss. A
lament psalm is like a drama with three actors, a psalmist, God, and the wicked
one. There are often has six parts: a cry to Yahweh, a complaint, an expression
of trust, a petition, and words of assurance and praise. A lament can be
individual (e.g. 3-7, 22) or communal (e.g. 74, 79).
5) A
thanksgiving psalm (e.g. 18, 21, 30, 33, 34, 40, 65-68, 92, 116, 118, 124, 129,
138, 144) usually begins with an expression of thanks, describes a rescue from
the hands of the wicked one, and ends by acknowledging the glory of Yahweh. A
thanksgiving psalm can be individual or communal.
6) A liturgical psalm (e.g.
15, 24) might be a rite for entrance into the temple.
7) A
royal psalm (e.g. 20, 21, 47, 72, 93, 96, 98) has the
king as the speaker or the focus of attention.
8) A
wisdom psalm (e.g. 1, 32, 34, 37, 49, 73, 11, 112, 127, 128)
is characterized by teaching, by proverbs, by the use of the "Happy the
one who ...." formula.
9) A
Torah psalm (e.g. 1, 119) praises the law.
10)
An entreaty or calling on God for help can be individual (e.g. 3, 5, 13, 17,
22, 25, 26, 28, 35) or couumual
(e.g. 12, 44, 60, 74, 79, 80, 83, 85, 106, 123, 129, 137),
11)
There are seven penitential psalms (6, 31, 38, 51, 102, 130, 142)
with an emphasis on sin, suffering, and repentance.
12)
There are also historical, messianic, acrostic and mixed categories of psalms,
and some psalms that cannot be readily classified.
Psalm
117 is the shortest with only two verses:
Praise
Yahweh all nations, extol him all you peoples!
For
his love is strong; his faithfulness eternal.
Psalm
25 has 22 verses with each having two lines starting with successive letters of
the Hebrew alphabet in the Hebrew text: aleph, beth, ghimel, .......
tau, as indicated on the selection from the
In addition to being
acrostic Psalm 119 has another distinguishing characteristic. Almost every
verse contains the word law or a synonym for it. The Greek Septuagint seems to be consistent
in using only eight words: *46"4T:" [iustificatio,
mandatum; statute, decree], ¦<Jo80 [praeceptum,
mandatum; command, precept], 6D4:" [iudicium;
ordinance], 8o(oH [sermo,
verbum; word], 8o(4" [eloquium;
promise], :"DJLD4" [testimonium;
decree], <o:oH [lex;
law] and Ò*oH [via; way]. As we see by the words in square brackets
neither the Latin Vulgate
nor the New American English translations are consistent about
using one particular word for each of the original eight. Since I cannot read Hebrew I do not know what
the original Hebrew text does, and I could not find any pattern in the
occurrences of these eight words. In the
Liturgy of the Hours and in the Responsorial Psalm at Mass only one eight-verse
selection of Psalm 119 is read or sung on any occasion.
The
Book of Psalms or Psalter is a collection put together from several sources
which is now divided officially into five books. Each book ends with a doxology such as
(41:13; 72:18; 89:51; 106:48) “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from all
eternity and forever.” Psalm 150
constitutes a doxology for the entire collection. Some partial collections are
the Songs of Ascents, the psalms Of David, Of Asaph ,
of the Sons of Korah, some labeled Alleluia, and
others. There are psalms from Yahwistic and Elhoistic sources
judging by the word that is used for ‘God’.
Some psalms are acrostic, and a number of them have musical notations at
the beginning. There is a great
diversity in length and theme.
6. The Book of Job
The
book of Job is named after its chief character Job, not its author, who is
unknown, and when it was written is also unknown. It is a very difficult book to translate
because the Hevrew text is confusing in places, with
words that occur nowhere else in the bible.
It begins with a prologue written in prose, followed by a several
elongated dialogues and speeches between Job and his three friends expressed in
poetic language, and it ends with a prose epilogue. The prologue explains how God gave Satan
power to inflict many calamities on Job, a just and upright man with many
possessions, by taking away his health and wealth. Then it introduces the three friends who came
to console Job: Eliphaz who is elderly and
experienced in life, Zophar who is youthful and vivacious, and Bildad who insisted that Job admit his faults.
The
book deals with the sufferings of Job, and the basic problem posed by the book
is that of theodicy, namely: How can a just God permit evils to inflict people
whose lives are blameless? Job’s initial
reaction to the loss of everything was (
7. The Theme of Wisdom
The remaining four Wisdom books all deal with
thoughts expressed in proverbs, and they all treat wisdom in general, as well
as various aspects of it. Ecclesiastes,
however, is written from a very particular point of view, whereas the other
three wisdom books are more coherent in their perspectives on the concept of
wisdom. Therefore we will discuss
Ecclesiastes before Proverbs, Wisdom or Sirach.
8. Ecclesiastes or Qoheleth
The
name Ecclesiastes can be interpreted as meaning a speaker in an assembly. Ecclesiastes is also the title in the Latin
Vulgate, and a transliteration of it z+6680F4"FJ0H
is the title in the Greek
Septuagint. These two words are derived
respectively from the Latin ecclesia and the Greek z,6680F4", both of which mean
assembly. The Greek title is a
translation of the Hebrew word Qoheleth. The book is a search for meaning with an
emphasis on the concepts “Nothing is new under the sun; vanity of vanities, all
is vanity.” The author also makes clear (
The
first verse of the book reads: “The words of Qoheleth
son of David, King of Jerusalem. Vanity
of vanities, all is vanity! For all his
toil, his toil under the sun, what does each man gain by it? A generation goes,
a generation comes, yet the earth stands firm forever. The sun rises, the sun sets; then to its
place it speeds and there it rises” (1:1-5).
The thought continues “What has been done will be done again; there is
nothing new under the sun (1:9)” .
There are remarks which emphasize pessimism: “Much wisdom, much grief;
the more knowledge the more sorrow”; there are also remarks of optimism: “The
wise man looks ahead, the fool walks in the dark” (
Vanity of
vanities, Qoheleth says, all is vanity.
Be
warned that writing books involves endless hard work,
and that much study wearies the body.
To
sum up the whole matter: fear God and keep his commandments,
since this is the whole duty of man.
For
God will call all hidden deeds, good or bad, to judgment.
9.
The Book of Proverbs
The book of Proverbs considers the blessings
of wisdom, and consists of groups of short sayings. The first seven verses (1:1-7) set the tone
for the book:
The
proverbs of Solomon son of David and king of
for learning what wisdom and discipline are,
for understanding words of deep meaning,
for acquiring an enlightened attitude of mind,
virtue, justice and fair dealing:
for teaching sound judgment to the ignorant
and knowledge and sense to the young
for perceiving the meaning of proverbs and obscure sayings
the sayings of the sages and their riddles.
Let
the wise listen and he will learn much more
and the man of discernment will acquire the art of guidance
The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge
fools spurn wisdom and discipline.
The statement toward the end ‘fear of the Lord’ recurs many times throughout the scriptures,
such as in 2 Chronicles, Job, Psalms, Proverbs (14 times), Isaiah and the Acts
of the Apostles. It is the last of the
seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, Wisdom being the first of these gifts. The
expression seems to mean that we should
pay attention to what God reveals to us, and respond to it. In other words we must be reverent and loving
in our obedience to the will of God.
The book Proverbs is a
compilation of collections of wise sayings, many of them in two line and four
line formats, without a systematic order of topics. Only a small percentage of
the proverbs are religious, and God is only occasionally mentioned. The majority of the proverbs in Chapters 1
through 9 concern a father addressing his son on the value of wisdom, which is
sometimes personified as in Chap. 8.
Chapters 10 to 22 and 25 to 29 are attributed to Solomon, and from
the middle of Chap. 22 through 24 is attributed to Sages or wise men. Half of Chap. 30 is the sayings of Agur of Massa (not mentioned
elsewhere in OT), a third of Chap. 31
gives the sayings of Lemuel, king of Massa (not mentioned elsewhere in OT), and the book ends
with an acrostic poem on the perfect wife.
Some examples of proverbs are::
Idler,
go to the ant,
ponder her ways and grow wise (6:6).
Hatred
provokes disputes
Love
covers over all offences (
Pride
comes first, disgrace comes after
with the humble is wisdom found (11:2).
The
idler yearns, but there is no food for him,
hard workers get their fill (Prov.
13:6).
For
the man who rejects discipline: poverty and disgrace.
For the man who accepts
correction: honor (
A
good name is more desirable than great wealth.
The
respect from others is better than silver or gold (22:1).
10. The Book of Wisdom
The
book of Wisdom is called the Wisdom of Solomon in the Greek Septuagint. Our name comes from the Latin Vulgate
translation of
There
is support for the notion of an afterlife (3:1-3): “But the souls of the
virtuous are in the hands of God, no torment shall ever touch them. In the eyes of the unwise they appear to die,
their going looked like a disaster, their leaving us like annihilation, but
they are in peace.”
The
book begins: “Love virtue you who are judges on the earth.” The word ‘virtue’ used here in the Jerusalem
Bible version is rendered as ‘justice’ by the New American Bible. The second part of the book, Chap. 6 to 9,
has lengthy passages praising wisdom, but I was unable to find a meaningful
definition of wisdom even though the writer claims (6:22) “What Wisdom is and
how she came to be I will now declare, I will hide none of the secrets from
you; I will trace her right from the beginning and set out our knowledge of her
plainly.” A subsequent section in praise of wisdom provides a number of what
might be called qualities of wisdom (7:22-8:1): “Within her is a spirit intelligent,
holy, unique, manifold, subtle, active, incisive, unsullied, lucid,
invulnerable, benevolent, sharp, irresistible, beneficent, loving to man,
steadfast , dependable, unperturbed, almighty, all-surveying, penetrating all
intelligent, pure, and most subtle spirits.”
Some further ‘Qualities’ are: “she can do all”, “she makes all things
new”, “she deploys her strength from one end of the world to the other”, “she
knows the past, she forecasts the future”, “by means of her company immortality
shall be mine.” Chapters 10 to 19 discuss the action of Wisdom in history. In these chapters the author seems to use the
word ‘wisdom’ as a synonym for ‘God” or the ‘providence of God’. This rises more questions about “How can, or
how should, wisdom be defined?” We will return to this in the discussion below
on Sirach.
11.
Sirach or Ecclesiasticus
The
translator from the original Hebrew to Greek appended a prologue which refers
to the author as his grandfather Jesus, who in verse 50:27 is identified as “Jesus
son of Eleazar son of Sirach..” The prologue is
not considered an official part of the scriptures. The Septuagint names the book the Wisdom of Sirach, and the Latin Vulgate calls it Ecclesiasticus. Chapters 1 to 42 are a collection of sayings,
many of them with a wisdom theme.
Chapters 42 to 50 elaborate on the glory of God, and the last chapter 51
comprises a song of thanksgiving followed by a poem on the search for
wisdom. One aim of the book is to show
that the Jewish way of life is superior to the secular way.
Various
verses in Chap. 1 identify Fear of the Lord as “the beginning of wisdom”, “the
fullness of wisdom”, “the root of wisdom” and ”wisdom
and culture.” As in the case of the Book
of Wisdom the word wisdom is again used repeatedly and praised highly in many
successive verses, but is never really defined.
Here in Sirach the expression ‘fear of the
Lord’ is also mentioned repeatedly, but not defined. It is clear, however, that the two concepts
are strongly correlated to each other, and on occasion they have been equated
to each other. A footnote in the
Jerusalem Bible mentions that the expression‘fear if
the Lord’ does not refer to
physical fear of God, but rather yo
devoted obedience and reverence. Another
footnote mentions that wisdom is an attribute of God, and for humans wisdom and
observance of the Law go together. A footnote in the New American Bible speaks
of true wisdom as God’s eternal revelation of himself. Sometimes Sirach
considers wisdom as divine, sometimes it is treated as human, and on other
occasions it means the law of God. The
Collegeville Bible Commentary says that fear means devotion, reverence or awe
in God’s presence. Elsewhere in the Old
Testament wisdom relates to common sense, adroitness or deep knowledge, but
according to Sirach it is associated with or hidden
in God. These comments gathered from
three sources do not provide a definition, but do perhaps give us some insight
into the meaning of the somewhat elusive terms wisdom and fear of the
Lord. .
The book of Sirach has a number of wise sayings similar to the types
that appear in the books
Proverbs and Wisdom. Some
examples are:
My
son, if you are to serve the Lord
Prepare
yourself for an ordeal (2:1).
Let
your acquaintances be many
but your advisers be one in thousand (6:6).
Do
not kindle the coals of the sinner
lest you scorch yourself in his blaze (
Do
not desert an old friend.
The
new one will not be his match (
The
lion lies in wait for its prey,
as does sin for those who do wrong (27:10).
No
riches can outweigh bodily health;
no enjoyment surpasses a cheerful heart (30:16).
12. Reading the Wisdom Literature
The
book of Job is inspiring and consoling to read when one is mourning the loss of
a loved one, or is facing any tragic situation in life. I never found the Son of Songs particularly
beneficial to read. I read several
psalms or parts of psalms every day when I pray the Office of the
Acknowledgment
I
wish to thank Doris Christley for her helpful
comments on all four of these Old Testament handouts.