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Wisdom Theology and the Centre of Old Testament Theology by Waiter C

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Wisdom Theology and the Centre of Old Testament Theology by Waiter C 132 Wisdom Theology and the Centre of Old Testament Theology by Waiter C. Kaiser. Jr. Dr. Kaiser is a newcomer to the ranks of our contributors, but he is well known to many of us, if not personally then as Professor of Semitics and Old Testament in Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois, as author of The Old Testament in Contemporary Preaching, editor ~f Classical Evangelical Essays in Old Testament Interpretation and contributor to a variety ofsymposia and periodicals. His present article adds weight to the happily growing acknowledgment that the wisdom literature of the Old Testament does not belong to its theological periphery. AT last, wisdom literature has begun to receive some of the much deserved attention it has needed. From such slow beginnings as Walther Zimmerli's article in 1933 1 and J. Coert Rylaarsdam's 1946 monograph,2 the area suddenly sprang to life with such recent monographs as those of Gerhard von Rad,3 Patrick Skehan,4 R.B.Y. Scott,5 and William McKane's extensive introduction on "International Wisdom," in his Old Testament Library Commentary on Proverbs. 6 Special mention should also be made of Hartmut Gese's 1958 Ttibingen thesis, Lehre und Wirklickeit in der alten Weisheit, and Martin Noth and D. Winton Thomas's editorial work in 1955 on that important assemblage of essays entitled Wisdom in Israel and the Ancient Near Easf.1 Now the literature has leaped out of all proportions as articles and monographs pour forth in such rapid succession that one can 1 Walther Zimmerli, "Zur Struktur der alttestamentlichen Weisheit," ZA W 51(1933), pp. 177-204. In this article he stressed the fact that wisdom was advice ('e$ah) and not authoritative commands. 2 J. Coert Rylaarsdam, Revelation in Jewish Wisdom Literature (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago, 1946). He attempted to discover how empirical and rational wisdom became associated with a religious character and developed such close correspondence with the teachings of the prophets and Deuteron­ omy. 3 Gerhard von Rad, Wisdom in Israel (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1972). Note already his Old Testament Theology, I (London: Oliver and Boyd, 1962), pp. 370-459. 4 Patrick W. Skehan. Studies in Israelite Poetry and Wisdom (Washington, D.C.: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1971). 5 R. B. Y. Scott, The Way of Wisdom in the O.T. (N.Y.: Macmillan Co., 1971). 6 William McKane, Proverbs: A New Approach (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1970), 51-208. See his pp. xi-xxii for an excellent bibliography as it affects Proverbs. 7 Vetus Testamentum Supplement, III (Leiden: Brill, 1955). Wisdom Theology 133 hardly keep pace with them. However, one aspect of the subject still remains safely out of bounds for most writers. This aspect remains the Achilles' heel to most recent Q.T. theologies: the successful integration of Wisdom Theology with the rest ofthe Q.T. The reason for this state of affairs varies from scholar to scholar, but it always leads to the same result: there is no unifying theology to be found between wisdom litetature and Pentateuchal or prophetic literature. More disheartening still are those results which conclude there is no unifying theology to be found even within the wisdom literature itself. This essay deliberately explores the challenge of these denials. I. THE WISDOM LITERATURE Usually Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs are classified as wisdom books. While Catholic scholarship adds the extra-canonical books of Ecclesiasticus (= Ben Sirach) and the Wisdom of Solomon,s Jewish and Protestant scholars have tradi­ tionally restricted their investigations to the former. To these four books can be added a number of Psalms. The criteria for distin­ guishing wisdom Psalms falls into two categories: formal (literary style) and thematic (content).9 Some of the distinctive literary styles are (1) alphabetic structure (e.g., acrostic Psalms), (2) numerical sayings ("3 yea 4," etc.), (3) "blessed" sayings ('asre), (4) "better" sayings, (5) comparisons and admonitions, (6) the address of father to son, (7) the use of wisdom vocabulary and turns of phraseslo and (8) the employment offorms such as proverbs, similes, rhetorical questions and words like "listen to me." Examples of notable wisdom themes are: (1) the problem of retribution, (2) the sharp division between the righteous and the wicked, (3) exhortations to trust person­ ally in the Lord, (4) the fear of the Lord and (5) the study of written Torah as a source of delight and meditation. Using these criteria, Psalms 1, 37,49, and 112 are easily classified as Wisdom Psalms. To these may be added Psalms 32, 34, Ill, 127, 128 and 133. When meditation on the Torah is used as a category, then Psalms 119, 19: 7-14 may also be included. Perhaps Psalm 78 with its invitation to "Give ear, my people, to my teaching" along with its proverbial (miisiil) and riddle (bidot) form qualifies it to also 8 Roland E. Murphy, Seven Books of Wisdom (Milwaukee, 1960); Introduction to the Wisdom Books of the O.T. (Collegiateville, 1965); "Introduction to Wisdom Literature," in the Jerome Biblical Commentary (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968), pp. 487-94. 9 These lists were compiled from Roland E. Murphy, "Psalms" in Jerome Biblical Commentary, p. 574; "The Classification of 'Wisdom Psalms"', Vetus Testamentum 5uppl. IX (1963), pp. 156-67; cf. S. Mowinckel, "Psalms and Wisdom," Vetus Testamentum Suppl. III (1955), pp. 205-24; and R. B. Y. Scott, The Way of Wisdom, pp. 193-210. .. 10 For a good list of such terms, see R. B. Y. Soott, ibid., pp. 121-22. 134 The Evangelical Quarterly be designated as wisdom. Thus we conclude that Psalms I, 19B, 32, 34, 37, 49, 78, Ill, 112, 119, 127, 128 and 133 should be included in the wisdom category. 11. THE QUEST FOR A UNIFYING THEME The sentiment expressed by F. C. Prussner is almost universal: "The question of identifying the theological unity of the Old Testa­ ment remains one of the most controversial issues in biblical inter­ pretation today."ll However, this writer believes that such a centre can be identified, notwithstanding the difficulties involved. In an article in Themelios,12 this centre was identified with the promise theme which commences in Genesis 3: 15; 12: 1-3 and continues through the Sinaitic, Davidic and New Covenants! Among the first to trace the possibilities of the promise as an integrating theme was Willis J. Beecher's Stone lectures at Princeton entitled The Prophets and the Promise. 13 Mention should also be made of Paul and Elizabeth Achtemeier's semi-popular treatment in The Old Testament Roots of Our Faith (N.Y.: Abingdon Press, 1962). In yet another work, Walther Zimmerli espouses large aspects of the promise theme, even though he is committed to a promise/ fulfillment type of hermeneutic and theology.14 The most recent addition is Foster R. McCurley, Jr., Proclaiming the Promise (Phila­ delphia: Fortress Press, 1974).1 5 Caution must be exercised, however, to distinguish the use of the promise theme from any key-word approach, topical study, or promise/fulfillment hermeneutic. By "promise," we mean the seminal salvific idea announced by God to Eve which continues to build by accumulated details and specifications. Promise theology 11 F. c. Prussner, "The Covenant of David and the Problem of Unity in O.T. Theology," in Transitions in Biblical Scholarship, ed. by J. C. Rylaarsdam (1968), p. 29. See also R. C. Dentan, Preface to O.T. Theology, 2nd. ed. (N.Y.: Seabury Press, 1963), p. 117: "No question is more vexing to writers of O.T. theology than the practical one of arranging its materials." Gerhard F. Hasel. "The Problem of the Center in the O.T. Theology Debate," ZAW 86 (1974), p. 65; "One of the most vexing questions in the current debate on O.T. Theology ... is the one that concerns the center and unityoftheO.T." See also Hasel's Old Testament Theology: Basic Issues in the Current Debate (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972), pp. 49-63. 12 Waiter C. Kaiser, Jr. "The Centre of Old Testament Theology: The Promise," Themelios 10 (1974), pp. l-IIJ. 13 Willis J. Beecher. The Prophets and the Promise (New York: Thomas F. Crowell, 1905, repr. by Baker Book House, 1963 and 1975). 14 Walther Zimmerli, "Promise and Fulfillment," in Essays on Old Testament Hermeneutics, ed. by Claus Westermann (Richmond: John Knox Press, 1971), pp. 89-122. 15 Also see Foster R. McCurley, Jr., "The Christian and the O.T. Promise" Lutheran Quarterly 22(970),401-10; F. C. Fensham, "Covenant, Promis~ and Expectation in the Bible," Theologische ZeitschriJt 23 (1967), 305-22. Wisdom Theology 135 is at once and always a disclosure of the person, work and plan of God. It prefers to emphasize the contents of the covenants rather than their forms. In our judgment, the latter emphasis only leads to a stress on discontinuity, since there are many variegated covenants -witness the discussion over a conditional Sinaitic versus an uncondi­ tional Abrahamic-Davidic covenant. It selects the word promisel6 not just because the N.T. has done so in some forty different refer­ ences to the content of the Q.T. material (though this is impressive to say the least), but rather because the place occupied by the announced divine word of hope and judgment is exceedingly large in the Q.T. It is just such a word of promise which connects the revelation of the divine person and the revelation of the subsequent divine works. The significance, meaning, value, and worth of each of these two revelations collapses apart from the interpreting presence of these words of promise. Finally, these words of promise cannot be understood as scattered disconnected comments on unrelated events, persons and places; rather, they form a detailed, unified and fixed divine plan which encompasses all men and all of history in one of the world's greatest summas ever written.
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