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Wisdom
Literature is a term applied to the Old Testament canonical books of
Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and sometimes to the
Song of Songs (Song of Solomon). It also includes the Apocryphal
books of Sirach (The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira or Ecclesiasticus)
and the Wisdom of Solomon. These books all share characteristics
and points of view that are somewhat different than other biblical
books, and those differences should be kept in mind when reading and
studying them. Wisdom perspectives are also evident in other places in
Scripture, such as the Psalms, the teachings of Jesus, and the Epistle
of James.
Wisdom is really
an approach to life, a way of looking at the world and, for Israelites,
a way of living out in very deliberate, rational ways their commitment
to God. While Wisdom's roots go back to the early days of Israelite
history, it began to flower in the latter part of the Old Testament
period, and flourished in the Intertestamental period and the era of the
New Testament (400 BC to AD 100).
The wisdom perspectives did not
replace the other two major strands of though in Ancient Israel, that of
prophets and priests. It was simply a different focus that was
complementary with the other perspectives. While it is easy for us to
assume in reading the historical accounts of Samuel of Kings, or the
prophetic writings of Amos or Jeremiah, that Israel lived in constant
crisis. Yet, if we stop and think about the time span of the major
upheavals in Israel's history, there were many periods of several
generations at a time where there was no crisis. During those times
there was not great prophetic voice booming "thus says the Lord." There
was just the daily routine of life that preoccupied most of the ordinary
people of the land with the mundane questions of how to get along in
life.
They were simple questions of
living: how to discipline an unruly child, how to teach children what
they need to know to survive as an adult, the dangers to the community
of gossip and slander, the need for hard work and providing the
necessities of life, why wicked people seem to prosper, the arrogance of
sudden wealth. These are all life questions that most of us face today
in the course of living. To realize that ancient Israelites faced these
same questions, and grappled with them rationally from the perspective
of experience and community wisdom, may say more to us today as modern
Christians than we are used to hearing. Perhaps listening carefully to
the Wisdom traditions as Scripture may help us bring an "earthy" balance
to our tendency to be preoccupied with the metaphysical and the
supernatural as a way to live life daily. Dennis Bratcher...
The Character of Wisdom
An Introduction to Old Testament Wisdom Literature
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