The Form and Function of Proverbs in Ancient Israel

156 Pages·1974·32.29 MB·English

by  John M. Thompson

STUDIA JUDAICA
1

THE FORM AND FUNCTION
OF
PROVERBS IN ANCIENT ISRAEL
by
JOHN MARK THOMPSON
Kalamazoo College
1974
MOUTON
THE HAGUE • PARIS
© Copyright 1974 in The Netherlands
Mouton & Co. N.V., Publishers, The Hague
No part of this book may be translated or reproducid in any form, by print,
photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the
publishers
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 72-94508
Printed in The Netherlands
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want here to express my sincere appreciation to my mentors, whose
counsel and encouragement were so very helpful in my original work
on this subject: Dr. J. Philip Hyatt, whose recent death is a consider-
able loss to the world of biblical research, Dr. Lou H. Silberman and
Dr. Walter Harrelson. I also thank my wife, who has contributed her
considerable typing skill to this enterprise, and who has been faithful-
ly supportive in my work.
Kalamazoo College John Mark Thompson
CREDITS
Quotations from Babylonian Wisdom Literature by W.G. Lambert are
used by permission of the Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Quotations from Sumerian Proverbs by Edmund Gordon are used by
permission of The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.
Selections from "Proverbs and Precepts", and "Fables and Didactic
Tales", transl. John A. Wilson in James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near
Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd. rev. edn., with
Supplement (copyright © 1969 by Princeton University Press). Re-
printed by permission of Princeton University Press.
The Scripture quotations in this publication are from the Revised
Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946 and 1952, and from
the Revised Standard Version of the Apocrypha, copyrighted ©1957
by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the
Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and used by permission.
PREFACE
THE PROBLEM
Among the books of the Old Testament which have suffered loss of
prestige over the years, perhaps Proverbs has suffered most. The
prophets are seen as speaking relevantly to our time as well as to their
own; the historical themes of election and covenant are highly valued
as keystones to the understanding of biblical theology; even the book
of Esther can be commended as a good story; and the Song of Songs,
de-allegorized at last, has won a certain esteem as a reflection of the
Hebrew's enjoyment of sex. But Proverbs, alas, remains either un-
noticed or scorned, "a potpourri of sayings and short poems, generally
mediocre as literature, tedious as ethics, banal as religion".1
Such ignominy has not always been Proverbs' portion, or certainly
it never could have won its place among the sacred scriptures of
Judaism and Christianity. Nor could it have gained the popularity it
has continued to enjoy until comparatively recent years. Martin
Luther held the work in high esteem. Ruskin, who was compelled by
his mother to memorize four chapters from the book, later claimed
them to be "the most precious and on the whole essential part of all
my education".2 John Paterson has written that it "has always been
the favorite book of Scotsmen: probably no other book of the Bible
has had a more lasting influence on the character of that people".3 He
1 Norman K. Gottwald,.4 Light to the Nations (New York: Harper & Brothers,
1959), p. 472.
2 William A.L. Elmslie, Studies in Life from Jewish Proverbs (London: James
Clark & Co., 1917), p. 30.
3 John Paterson, The Book That is Alive (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1954), p. 72.
8 PREFACE
even suggests that Proverbs played a significant role in the establish-
ment of the British Empire.4
With Luther now as popular as ever in Protestant circles, and with
no notable increase in the number of Anglophobes within the ranks of
biblical scholars, it does seem that someone ought to search out the
reasons for Proverbs' sad fate and endeavor to establish what it is that
led to its continued influence through the centuries.
It is the conviction of the writer that, properly understood, Prov-
erbs well deserves both its place within the Canon and the high
regard which it formerly received. And it is the defense of this con-
viction which constitutes the burden of our study.
The major research for this book was done during the early sixties,
a time when scholars were just beginning to re-examine carefully the
Wisdom heritage of Israel. My study was submitted to Vanderbilt
University in the form of a Ph. D. dissertation in 1965; and now, some
eight years later, I still find myself in essential agreement with what I
wrote then.
Since 1965, of course, Wisdom's cry has become increasingly loud
in the academic arena; and the search for Wisdom's influence through-
out the Bible has become the passion of more than one or two
scholars. In these pages I, too, see Wisdom's far reaching influence
through the pages of the Old Testament. Yet I must express apprecia-
tion for the critical observations and admonitions of J.L. Crenshaw
and Roland E. Murphy as they have viewed the contributions and
excesses of this new research.5
Among the scholars who have published important works during
the past few years, two have shared my view that the origins of
Israel's apodictic law are to be found in Wisdom: Erhard Gerstenber-
ger and W. Richter.6 Their works are rather more precisely focused
4 Ibid.
s J.L. Crenshaw, "Method in Determining Wisdom Influence Upon 'Historical'
Literature", Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. LXXXVIII (June, 1969), pp.
129-42; Roland E. Murphy, "Assumptions and Problems in Old Testament Wis-
dom Research", Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. XXIX (July, 1967), pp.
101-12; See also J.L. Crenshaw, "The Influence of the Wise Upon Amos; the
Doxologies of Amos and Job 5:9-16, 9:5-10", Zeitschrift fiir die alttestament-
liche Wissenschaft, Vol. LXXIX (1967), pp. 42-52.
6 Eîhard Gerstenberger, "Covenant and Commandment", Journal of Biblical
Literature, Vol. LXXXIV (March, 1965), pp. 38-51; and Wesen und Herkunft
PREFACE 9
than my somewhat broad treatment, and center their attention upon
the form and function of the Mahnwort, which they see as being
antecedent to the prohibitive apodictic legal injunction. While they
see the line of development as preceding from Israel primarily (from
tribal schools, according to Richter; from ancient clan fathers, accord-
ing to Gerstenberger), my own work points more in the direction of
Israelite court schools, greatly influenced by Egyptian Wisdom.
It isn't our intent here to deal precisely with all the various types of
proverb or saying that can be found in the Old Testament: Aussage-
wort, Mahnwort, etc., but to focus attention upon the esthetic dimen-
sion. And so it is much more appropriate for our purposes that we
understand that the general character of proverbs is frequently poetic
than that it may be classified into a number of distinct and identi-
fiable types. For more detailed classification the reader is referred to
the standard Old Testament introductions and the more recent works
on biblical proverbs, especially those of R.B.Y. Scott and Hans-Jiirgen
Hermisson.7
METHOD
We shall begin our study by noting briefly some of the factors which
would seem to be responsible for the recent eclipse of Proverbs. It will
be noted, among other things, that we no longer appreciate the form
of our biblical proverbs, that we fail to perceive their importance
within the context of Hebrew life and faith, and that we are captive to
the Hebrew skeptic's caveat vis a vis much proverbial wisdom.
Since these would seem to be serious problems, we shall devote the
des 'Apodiktischen Rechts' (=Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und
Neuen Testament, Vol. XX) (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchen Verlag, 1965); W.
Richter, Recht und Ethos (=Studien zum Alten und Neuen Testament, Vol XV)
(München: Kösel-Verlag, 1966).
7 R.B.Y. Scott, Proverbs, Ecciesiastes (=The Anchor Bible, Vol. XVIII)
(Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1965); Hans-Jürgen
Hermisson, Studien zur Israelitischen Spruchweisheit (=Monographien zum Al-
ten und Neuen Testament, Vol. XXVIII) (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Ver-
lag, 1968).
10 PREFACE
major portion of the work to dealing with them. In the course of our
inquiry we shall first of all examine proverbs in general: their universal
features and the role they play in the life of man. Secondly, we shall
look at the proverbs of the ancient Near East and investigate their role
in Egyptian, Babylonian and Canaanite culture. Next we shall, by
looking at Hebrew proverbs in relation to the proverb form in general,
to the proverbs of surrounding civilizations and to other elements of
Hebraic culture, attempt to assess their importance in Hebrew life and
thought. And finally we shall deal with the skeptical element in an-
cient Hebrew Wisdom, relating it to the skepticism of ancient wisdom
in general and to the optimistic tenor of Israel's proverbs, with which
it seems to be so frequently at odds.