Leaven Volume 8 Issue 2 Wisdom Article 11 1-1-2000 Biblical Wisdom Literature for Preaching and Teaching Alyce M. McKenzie Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation McKenzie, Alyce M. (2000) "Biblical Wisdom Literature for Preaching and Teaching," Leaven: Vol. 8 : Iss. 2 , Article 11. Available at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol8/iss2/11 This Resource Guide is brought to you for free and open access by the Religion at Pepperdine Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Leaven by an authorized editor of Pepperdine Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. McKenzie: Biblical Wisdom Literature for Preaching and Teaching 100 LEAveN,SprinG 2000 Biblical Wisdom Literature for Preaching and Teaching A Reader's Guide BY ALYCE M. McKENZIE The self-help shelf is packed of steering through daily life. Two from Egypt, the Mosaic covenant, the tight with appealing titles at the mall wisdom writings appear in the centrality of Jerusalem and the bookstore. There is a lot of talk about Apocrypha: the Wisdom of Jesus Ben Davidic dynasty, and the prophetic character, or the lack thereof, from Sira (Ecclesiasticus) and the Wisdom word. Wisdom literature is devoid of politicians, and there is a full menu of Solomon. explicit references to God's election of New Age seminars from which to After decades of neglect, biblical of Israel and other saving events. For choose in most communities. Yet wisdom literature is finally receiving this reason many scholars in the first Job's question still haunts preachers the attention it deserves. This is good several decades of the twentieth and people alike. "Where shall news for ministers. We desperately century incorrectly theorized that wisdom be found? And where is the need guidelines from biblical wis- wisdom was the result of the Hebrew place of understanding?" (Job 28:12 dom for faithful living in times of nation's disillusionment and distrac- NRSV). Our people crave wisdom good fortune as well as bad within a tion in exile. As this theory went, the without quite being able to identify theological context of a gracious, yet theological witness was diluted as and define it. Our culture is far better mysterious, God. But a scholarly wisdom literature that focused on at defining fortune and recognition explosion of articles and books, while day-to-day survival. than wisdom. enriching, can also be overwhelming. In 1923 an Egyptian "Instruction In such a cultural context, This reader's guide offers a map of of Amenernope" was discovered and ministers, in our varied roles as the recent terrain. These are the published. It bore an uncanny teachers, preachers, leaders, evange- books and articles I have found most resemblance to Prov 22:17-24:22. lists, and counselors, need all the helpful in my years of pastoral This opened scholars' eyes to the fact wisdom we can get! In the biblical experience, my research into preach- that biblical wisdom was a Hebrew context, wisdom (hokmah in Hebrew; ing wisdom literature, and my version of an intercultural phenom- sophia in Greek) refers to an order ministry of teaching seminary enon shared with Egypt and placed by God in the natural world students, pastors, and lay people. Mesopotamia. In the years that by which we discern truth and live The wisdom literature stands out followed World War II, scholars our lives. Within the biblical canon, from the narrative and legal material uncovered a wide range of wisdom literature generally refers to of the Pentateuch, as well as from extrabiblical connections with the books of Job, Ecclesiastes, and prophetic and apocalyptic literature. Ecclesiastes and Job, as well as Proverbs, of which the latter is It is silent with regard to the promise Proverbs. They began to appreciate concerned with the practical business to the patriarchs, the deliverance the theological context of biblical wisdom rather than to deny it. Published by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 2000 1 Leaven, Vol. 8 [2000], Iss. 2, Art. 11 WisDOM 101 Scholars began to see biblical achievements, of wisdom research meaning of Ecclesiastes. Crenshaw wisdom literature as a whole, with over that fifty-year period. He also deals with the Wisdom of Ben patterns of theme and literary forms, surfaces insights that continue to Sira, the Psalms, and the Wisdom of rather than as isolated books. As inform our present-day understand- Solomon, as well as the influence of wisdom's distinctive, pragmatic ing of wisdom literature. Second, Egyptian and Mesopotamian wis- voice began to be heard, scholarship Maurice Gilbert, in his introduction dom traditions on that of the Israel- began to recognize wisdom elements to LA Sagesse DE L'aNCIENTEstamEnt, ites. A new edition published in 1998 in the Psalms, the Prophets, and BETL 51 (Leuven: Leuven University updates this helpful classic. elsewhere in the Old Testament. Press, 1990) presents a brief sum- Roland Murphy has written two Wisdom scholarship over the mary of wisdom publications from introductory overviews of the past thirty years has progressed by 1979 to 1989. And last, James wisdom literature. The first is leaps and bounds, enriched by Crenshaw, "Wisdom Literature: WisDOM LitErAture: JOB, PrOverBs, Ruth, parallel studies in literary criticism, Retrospect and Prospect," in UrGEnt CantiCLEs, EcCLesIAstes, AND EsthEr folklore studies, and archaeology. AdviCE AND PrOBING QuestiOns: CollECtED (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981). New insights have been unearthed Writings ON Old TestamEnt WisDOM After an introduction that deals with regarding the social location of the (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University basic wisdom genres, the setting of sages and the literary forms of Press, 1995; pp. 78-89) brings the wisdom literature, and the signifi- wisdom, particularly the proverb. reader up to date on the status of cance of extra biblical literature of the Theologians have explored the wisdom research in the mid-1990s. ancient Near East, Murphy offers a centrality of wisdom for counseling Beyond these three articles, there treatment of individual wisdom and preaching, and the significance are a number of works dealing with books. A second overview by of personified Wisdom for contem- general treatments. David L. Bartlett, Murphy is The TrEE OF Life: An Explora- porary christological reflection. "The Authority of Wisdom," in ThE tiON OF BIBLICAL Wisdom LitErAture, New Testament scholarship has SHAPE OF SCriPturAL AuthOrIty (Phila- Anchor Bible Reference Library moved wisdom to the center just as delphia: Fortress, 1983; pp. 83-111) (Doubleday: New York, 1990). This surely as has that of the Old Testa- presents a study of the authority of introduction deals with the identity ment. For many years the consensus wisdom's insights in relation to other of the sages and the language and was that apocalyptic was primary in biblical genres and honors biblical literary forms of wisdom literature. Jesus' message. Scholars incorrectly wisdom as an experiential, yet Murphy includes a brief chapter on assumed that wisdom in the New uniquely authoritative, form of Lady Wisdom, which traces her Testament was the early church's revelation. He includes an illuminat- appearance beyond Proverbs in response to the cold reality of the ing treatment of wisdom in the New apocryphal works. An appendix lists delay of the parousia. Recent re- Testament. James G. Williams, Those nonbiblical wisdom literature of the search has revealed that the wisdom WhO PONDEr Proverbs: APHOristiC ancient Near East. Murphy depicts element was integral to Jesus' ThinkinG AND BiBLICAL LitEraturE wisdom as a gift of God and as a teachings and that the role of sage (Sheffield,England: Almond, 1981) human search to which God sum- was part of his own self-identifica- characterizes Proverbs as a wisdom mons us. tion. of order. Job, Ecclesiastes, and the Two essays by James Crenshaw, synoptic Jesus, he believes, are "Wisdom Literature: Biblical Books" Bibliographies and General wisdoms of counterorder. and "The Wisdom Literature," Treatments James L. Crenshaw, OLD TestamENt provide insightful overviews. They Three key articles follow the WIsDOM:AN IntroDuctiON (Atlanta: are included in a compendium of history of wisdom scholarship from John Knox, 1981) offers insights into thirty-seven of his essays published the 1920s to the end of the 1980s. the basic dynamics of wisdom between 1969 and 1994 entitled First, R. B. Y. Scott,"The Study of literature, the differences in emphasis UrGEnt ADvICE AND Probing Questions: Wisdom Literature," INterprEtatiON 24 between the confident search for CoLLECtEDWritings ON OLD TestamENt (1970) traces the progress of wisdom knowledge of Proverbs, the relentless WIsDOM (Macon, Ga.: Mercer Univer- research from the 1920s to 1970. He demand for Divine Presence of Job, sity Press, 1995). The former article offers reasons for the neglect, as well and the plaintive chasing after features a bibliography of recent as a charting of the themes and studies in the field of wisdom. https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol8/iss2/11 2 McKenzie: Biblical Wisdom Literature for Preaching and Teaching 102 LEAveN, SprinG 2000 An article by R. E. Clements, What was the social setting of the Robert Tannehill, The Sword OF His "Wisdom and Old Testament Theol- sages? Most interpreters acknowl- Mouth: ForCEful AND ImAGinative ogy," in WisDOM IN ANCient IsraEL: edge an early period in which LanGuaGE IN SynoptiC SayinGs, Semeia EssAys IN HONOur OF]. A. EmErtON, ed. wisdom's origin and transmission Supplements 1(Missoula, Mon.: John Day, Robert P. Gordon, and H. occurred within family units and a Fortress and Scholars Press, 1975) G. Williamson (Cambridge: Cam- later period in which wisdom was examines the rhetorical force and use bridge University Press, 1998), is an taught by teachers in private schools, of hyperbole in Jesus' aphorisms.