What is Wisdom?

W

isdom is the ability to perceive the order of the universe and to live in accord to it.

The wisdom writings of the Old Testament include a wide variety of books that are often overlooked by modern readers but reflect a very important side of Israel’s religious faith.

The wisdom books differ among themselves in both style and subject matter, but they all have in common certain characteristics which set them off from other biblical books:

  • A minimum of interest in the great acts of divine salvation proclaimed by the Torah and the prophets;
  • Little interest in Israel as a nation or in its history;
  • A questioning attitude about the problems of life: why there is suffering, inequality and death, and why the wicked prosper;
  • A search for how to master life and understand how humans should behave before God.
  • A great interest in the universal human experiences that affect all people and not just believers in Yahweh;
  • A joy in the contemplation of creation and God as Creator.

What are the Wisdom Books?

Few books can be specifically labeled “wisdom” because they maintain a consistent focus on the intellectual reflection about life’s problems, the quest for universal truth, the rules for live, and the nature of created reality before God. These books are:

1.Proverbs – An anthology of mostly short sayings in poetical form, whose purpose is to teach wisdom to successful living.

2.Ecclesiastes – A treatise on the vanity, or emptiness, of all things. The book is concerned with the purpose and value of human life.

3.The Song of Songs – A collection of love poems full of sensuous imagery. It could be seen as a portrayal of ideal human love.

4.Wisdom – Oratory from the Jewish community of Alexandria about one hundred years before the coming of Christ, the author explaining traditions and themes familiar to Judaism but reinterpreting them from the experience of living in a Hellenistic culture.

5.Sirach – A collection of proverbs dealing with moral instructions, written to show that real wisdom was to be found in the traditions of Israel and not in the godless philosophy of the day.

Certain Psalms also must be classified with the wisdom literature. Psalms 1, 19:8-15, 37, 49, 73, 111, 119 and perhaps others as well. Many scholars have pointed to strong wisdom elements in the prophetic books, especially Isaiah and Amos. Both prophets use typical wisdom expressions and are concerned with knowing God’s counsel or plan, but only in a general sense. Besides these, there are echoes of wisdom thinking in such passages as the Garden of Eden story in Genesis 2-3, the life of Solomon in 1 Kings 3-11, the Joseph narrative of Genesis 37-50, and the Book of Daniel.

The World of Wisdom

This special wisdom tradition is not unique to Israel. In fact, the evidence points to the opposite: Israel borrowed and learned its wisdom questions (but not its answers!) from other nations of the Ancient Near East. There are collections of proverbs from Sumeria and Babylon that date before 2000 B.C. Many sounds like their counterparts in the Book of Proverbs. Since Babylonian wisdom was well-established long before Israel existed, we must conclude that many biblical authors borrowed common wisdom themes when writing their own books.

The Origin of Wisdom in Israel

Two major sources for Israel’s interest in wisdom have been suggested by scholars:

  1. Family - the lists of proverbs, in particular, often dwell on the relations of parents and children, education, and moral instruction of the young. Here and there we find special evidence that fathers passed on golden nuggets experience to their children.
  2. Formal education – especially in the royal administration. No one doubts that some education took place at home, but a professional class of wise men (and women) would require formal schools. Both Sumerian and Babylonian societies had schools where young boys learned to be scribes to prepare them for careers in the royal courts or temples.

The king himself was considered to be the chief possessor of wisdom and judgment in the kingdom. David is called wise in 2Samuel 14:20 and Solomon is famed for his wisdom. 1 Kings 3-11 describes his reign as the model of the royal wisdom. He first asks God for wisdom above wealth and power. (1 Kings 3) and then judges accurately and wisely in the case of two mothers claiming the same child. His temple and its beauty are considered the product of his wisdom and the rulers of the far corners of the world, such as the queen of Sheba, come to hear his wisdom. Even his government of the country is portrayed as wisely ordered. The authors of his story have included a summary of Solomon’s complete mastery of wisdom in 1Kings: 4:29-34.

The Way of the Wise

Wisdom literature uses many distinctive literary forms such as the proverbs, the riddle and fables. These are especially common in the Mesopotamian and Egyptian wisdom writing. But only the proverb is common in Hebrew.

The proverb was an important element in Israelite wisdom, as it was in other nations, for it distilled the lessons of the past, of human experience that seemed to be always the same, and it did so in a practical and clever manner with a little bit of the sermon about it for teaching purposes. This was ideally suited to a society which learned by memory and had only a few educated professionals who actually read books.

Reference:

Reading the Old Testament, an Introduction,

L. Boadt, pp. 472-479

Prayers

God of my fathers, Lord of mercy, you who have made all things by your word, and in your wisdom have established man to rule creatures produced by you, to govern the world in holiness and justice and to render judgment in integrity of heart: Give me Wisdom, the attendant at your throne, and reject me not among your children. For I am your servant, the son of your handmaid, a man weak and short-lived and lacking in comprehension of judgment and of laws. Indeed, though one be perfect among the sons of men, if Wisdom, who comes from you, be not with him, he shall be held in no esteem.

Wisdom 9:1-6

Wisdom BooksPage 12