Authorship
and Date
The text of Proverbs attributes
most of the book to Solomon himself (1:1; 10:1; 25:1), but some parts to
anonymous sages (“the wise,” 22:17; 24:23) or the two otherwise-unknown
Gentiles Agur (30:1-14) and King Lemuel (31:1-9). Certain scribes working for Hezekiah gain
credit for compiling chs. 25-29 (25:1).
In
modern critical scholarship, Solomonic authorship of Proverbs is usually dismissed,
for a variety of stated reasons, at the heart of which is a general
skepticism about the historicity of
Solomon and his reign, due to the rise of
biblical minimalism. Since scholars are
hesitant to say anything definite about the biography of Solomon, they are likewise
reluctant to accept his authorship of any documents.
The
usual stated reasons for disputing Solomonic authorship, such as supposed (1) lateness of language or literary form, (2) absence of
literacy in 10th-cent. BC Israel, (3) prevalence of
pseudepigraphical attributions of authorship in wisdom literature, or (4) lateness of the concept of the personification of wisdom, have been
exploded by Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen and others largely through an
extensive comparison of Proverbs with the Egyptian wisdom literature from the
second and first millennia BC. Kitchen
argues that the basic literary form of Proverbs shows elements typical of both
second- and first-millenia wisdom compositions, which would suggest it is a transitional
form between the two, appropriate to the Solomonic reign, which straddled the
millennia (10th cent. BC).
Solomonic
authorship cannot be proven, too be sure, but neither are any of the arguments against
it compelling. There is no great reason
to doubt the Solomonic origin of the two collections attributed directly to him
(10:1–22:16; chs. 25-29). It is not
entirely clear that Prov. 1:1 is claiming Solomonic authorship for the
Prologue—it may just indicate the predominant authorship of the book as a
whole, for which a different author wrote the introductory chapters 1-9. There is no reason to doubt the attributions
to Agur and Lemuel, since there is no discernible motivation for attributing
compositions to these otherwise-unknown Gentiles unless there was, in fact, an
historical connection to them. The
collection of numerical proverbs (30:15-33) and the Song of the Noble Woman
(31:10-31) are anonymous.
Solomon
reigned in the tenth century BC (900’s), during a period in which international
trade made Israel and its capital Jerusalem a cosmopolitan society. The influence of Egyptian thought (esp.
between 22:17–24:22 and Amenemope) and the contributions of easterners (Agur,
Lemuel) makes sense during this time period:
Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the
wisdom of all the people of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt ... And men
came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of
the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.
(1 Kgs 4:30,34)
The superscription of Prov. 25:1
indicates further editorial work done on the book during the reign of
Hezekiah. Although we do not know when
the book reached its final form, the reign of Hezekiah is an attractive option,
since the early part of his reign seemed to witness an economic and cultural
renaissance of Judean society and a spirit of optimism about the future, at
least until the Assyrian campaign devastated the land. Features of Proverbs would fit this period:
it exhibits an optimistic tone, seems to assume a righteous king is reigning,
and reflects nothing yet of the trauma of the exile.
The
Application of Proverbs to the Christian Life
Proverbs are observations on life
and exhortations to practice the natural virtues (prudence, fortitude,
temperance, justice) and the natural law.
Most hold true even in the situation of the New Covenant and in
contemporary culture. They often take
the form of general rules or principles that, all things being equal, do
describe “how things are.” For example:
A slack hand
causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. (10:4)
This
holds true as a general principle; but there are lazy persons who inherit
wealth or come to it by chance.
Likewise, in many parts of the world there are hard-working poor who are
kept in poverty by injustice, oppression, or an undeveloped economic
system. Nonetheless, all things being
equal, diligence brings a better result than poverty.
Proverbs need to be accepted as
general principles to which there are exceptions, but not as absolute diving
promises on par with, for example, Jesus’ affirmation, “Whoever lives and
believes in me shall never die” (Jn 11:26).
The
Place of Proverbs, and the Wisdom Literature Generally, with Biblical Theology
Proverbs and other wisdom books
pose a problem for biblical theologians, because the covenant-historical
perspective that dominates the theology of the law, prophets, and historical
books seems absent. In Proverbs, for
example, almost nothing is said about covenant, law, salvation history, Sinai,
the cult, etc. For this reason some
biblical theologians have despaired of integrating the wisdom literature with
the rest of the Old Testament, and simply concede that it presents an
alternative theology to the other books.
Such
a radical disjunction between the wisdom and other books is not necessary. The key to understanding the role of the
wisdom literature, and Proverbs in particular, is the attribution of authorship
to Solomon. Solomon anchors the wisdom
literature to the covenant history of Israel, linking it to the Davidic
covenant as the form of instruction suitable for his empire. Just as Moses provided Israel with the Law,
which was particular, nationalistic, and cultic, appropriate to their role as a
separate and priestly people; so Solomon later provided his international
empire (1 Kgs 4:21,34) with Wisdom, which was universal, international, and
“secular” (properly understood).
Although Proverbs firmly insists that reverence for the LORD, the God of
Israel, is the foundation for accumulating wisdom, nonetheless the proverbs
themselves are largely observations and exhortations of the natural law with
regard to daily living. One need not be
an Israelite, nor reside close enough to the Temple to make regular
pilgrimages, in order to put the exhortations of Proverbs into practice. When, through Christ the Son of David, the
empire of David and Solomon was restored and transformed as the Church, the
universality of the wisdom literature would prove useful for moral catechesis
within the Church.
The
Covenantal Nature of Wisdom
The word covenant (Heb. berith) occurs only once in Proverbs,
and with reference to a marital covenant (2:17), not to one of the great
covenants of salvation history.
Nonetheless, Proverbs does have important covenantal themes.
First,
there is theological significance to the fact that the reader is addressed
throughout the Prologue as “son.”
Solomon is the presumed speaker (1:1); therefore, in his address of the
reader as “son,” he invites the reader into a covenant relationship with
himself. “Son” is a covenant category,
and Solomon himself enjoyed divine sonship by virtue of his being heir of the
Davidic covenant (1 Sam 7:14; Ps 89:26-27).
Solomon offers to extend that blessing to us, his readers. If we accept his invitation to sonship,
through him we will indirectly experience the blessings of divine filiation. So, in Proverbs, every reader is invited into
the blessings of the Davidic covenant by entering in to a relationship with
David’s heir Solomon through the embrace of the gift of divine wisdom which
Solomon himself received from God and offers in turn to us. This model of becoming a “son of the Son,” or
a “son in the Son,” is analogous to the reality of the New Covenant, in which
we enter into relationship with Christ through the embrace of the Gospel and
his Spirit, which he himself received from the Father. The Christian reader, therefore, can hear
through the voice of Solomon the voice of Solomon’s greater Son (Matt 12:42).
Second,
the covenantal significance of the nuptial presentation of Lady Wisdom needs to
be unpacked. We have already noted in
the Overview how strong the nuptial theme is in the Prologue and Epilogue. The sacred author frequently uses spousal
language to describe Lady Wisdom:
3:13 Happy is the
man who finds wisdom, and the man who gets understanding, 14 for the gain from
it is better than gain from silver and its profit better than gold. 15 She is more precious than jewels, and
nothing you desire can compare with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and
honor. 17 Her ways are ways of
pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold
her fast are called happy.
4:13 Keep hold of
instruction, do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.
7:4 Say to wisdom,
“You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend; 5 to preserve you
from the loose woman, from the adventuress with her smooth words.
On the other hand, descriptions of
wisdom are applied to the ideal wife in the Epilogue, as seen above. So there is a fluidity in Proverbs between
the image of Wife and the image of Wisdom: the two are mutually illuminative.
In
this way, the young man or “son” who is the ideal reader of the book is exhorted
on two levels. On a natural level, he is
encouraged to remain faithful to the “wife of his youth,” or, if not yet
married, to seek a wise woman as the ideal partner rather than one who is
merely alluring. On a theological level,
Wisdom herself is presented to the young man as the ideal spouse; therefore a
young man might be justified in foregoing natural marriage altogether in order
to give himself fully to the pursuit of divine Wisdom.
In
both cases, the “son” who is the reader is exhorted to enter into, or embrace more fully, a covenant relationship; the
covenant with his wife, and a covenantal relationship with divine Wisdom. In fact, all readers of the book are
implicitly encouraged to enter into a spousal relationship with the Wisdom of
the LORD.
In
a Christian reading of Proverbs, this invitation to a spousal embrace of Wisdom
is fulfilled in the nuptial embrace of Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom of God,
through the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, which is the Eucharistic banquet.
However,
strong motifs also link Lady Wisdom to the third person of the Trinity, the
Holy Spirit. “Spirit” (Heb. ruach) is feminine in Hebrew, and the
Spirit of God is presented under a feminine, or specifically maternal, aspect
in several places in the Old Testament.
Lady Wisdom is virtually identified with God’s Spirit in later wisdom
literature (Wis 7:25). Thus, the call to
the nuptial embrace of Wisdom can also be understood as a call to commit
oneself to the Holy Spirit, who also comes to us through the Sacraments.
We
should not be surprised that Lady Wisdom may serve as a type both of the Second
and Third Persons of the Trinity, for their missions are closely united. The Second Person is “the Christ,” meaning
“the Anointed One,” and that with which he is anointed is none other than the
Third Person, the Holy Spirit. Thus,
The notion of
anointing suggests . . . that there is no distance between the Son and the
Spirit. Indeed, just as between the surface of the body and the anointing with
oil neither reason nor sensation recognizes any intermediary, so the contact of
the Son with the Spirit is immediate, so that anyone who would make contact
with the Son by faith must first encounter the oil by contact. In fact there is
no part that is not covered by the Holy Spirit. That is why the confession of
the Son's Lordship is made in the Holy Spirit by those who receive him, the
Spirit coming from all sides to those who approach the Son in faith. (Catechism of the Catholic Church §690, quoting St. Gregory of Nyssa)
Finding
Christ in the Book of Proverbs
We have already mentioned that Lady
Wisdom typifies Christ, who is God’s Wisdom incarnate: “Christ [is] the power
of God and the Wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:24).
This is especially the case with Prov. 8, the hymn of Wisdom the
companion of God in creation, which was universally accepted among the Fathers
as a description of the Second Person and the background for various New
Testament images of Christ, such as the prologue of the Gospel of John.
Christ
is typified in Proverbs in other ways. The
voice of the author, who addresses us as his “sons,” is presented to us as
Solomon the Son of David. Yet Christ is
the better Son of David; “something greater than Solomon is here” (Lk
11:31). The Christian can hear his voice
as the one that addresses us in Proverbs.
Christ
is also the ideal wise man, whose description is built up bit by bit as the
Book progresses. About him it is most
truly said:
Bloodthirsty men hate one who is
blameless,
And the wicked seek his life.
(29:10)
To his passion one can apply these
words:
Blows that wound cleanse away
evil;
Strokes make clean the innermost
parts. (20:30)
The following may be applied to his
kingdom:
If a king judges the poor with
equity
His throne will be established
forever. (29:14)
He is the king described by
Lemuel’s mother, who did not give his strength to wine or women (Prov. 31:3-5) but
gave “strong drink” to those who were “perishing, and wine to those in bitter
distress” (31:6) i.e. the Eucharistic wine, which we may “drink and forget” our
“poverty, and remember [our] misery no more” (31:7), because our sins are
forgiven.
2 comments:
Excellent post. Would you have any recommendations on secondary literature?
Roland Murphy's Tree of Life is good on wisdom lit. Also most of what Raymond C. Van Leeuwen writes, and Michael V. Fox has made important contributions to wisdom lit. Craig Bartholomew co-authored a book on wisdom lit which is decent. The Navarre Bible has a commentary volume on the wisdom books. All have good contributions to make, but there's no one volume that I think puts it all together, from the literary to the historical to the theological, from a consistently Catholic perspective.
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