Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

WISDOM LITERATURE*

Literature in the OT that has wisdom as its central theme. It comprises principally the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes and may also be found in portions of the Psalms and Prophets. The Wisdom Literature contains both the moral substance of true wisdom (as in Proverbs) and also the intellectual explorations of wise men seeking to understand the fundamental problems of human existence (as in Job, Ecclesiastes).

Wisdom Literature forms an important part of the OT. It falls within the third division of the Hebrew canon, called the Writings, and comprises basically three books: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes (or Koheleth), and Job. There are also wisdom psalms (e.g., Pss 1, 32, 34, 37) and wisdom-type passages in the Prophets (such as the parables of Isaiah). In the Greek OT (and the English Apocrypha), two additional books of wisdom are found. There is Ecclesiasticus, a second-century BC work of Jesus ben Sirach, which has certain similarities to the book of Proverbs, and the Wisdom of Solomon, an anonymous work representing the flowering of Jewish wisdom in the Hellenistic period.

Proverbs

The starting point for an understanding of OT Wisdom Literature is Proverbs. Its wisdom concerns morality—the knowledge of how to live properly. It has a theological foundation, though much of its wisdom is secular in form. The starting point, as for all wisdom, is the reverence of God. But for the most part, the concern of the book is to convey the fundamentals of morality, the virtues of integrity, discipline, justice, and common sense, and to show by way of contrast the failure in life that awaits the fool. The book has a strongly didactic nature. Nowadays it can be read as a piece of literature, though its wisdom was designed to be learned, memorized even, by the young persons who received their education at the feet of the wise men. For those who learned its truth, for whom the short poetic sayings became a part of the subconscious mind, the wisdom of the proverbs served as a moral and spiritual guide throughout life. There was a way to live successfully, a way governed by morality, and success lay in the fact that the morally good life was the life lived according to the wisdom of the Creator of all life. Thus, the wise men of the proverbs functioned as guides, in both their teaching and their writing; they provided no new philosophical theories, no advanced intellectual speculation, but communicated that most valuable of all human kinds of knowledge: wisdom on how to live. Wisdom is “more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace” (Prv 3:15-17, rsv).

Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes reflects the wisdom of a man who had lived long and seen the world from all perspectives. His faith was not the superficial faith of a man who lived easily and believed lightly. The man had seen that the righteous do not always prosper and the wicked suffer. Too often the righteous suffer, with no relief from their suffering, and the wicked enjoy their lives in carefree abandon. The writer of Ecclesiastes sought justice, but as he observed the world through honest and objective eyes, he could not see that justice was always done. More than justice, he sought truth, but even truth in its ultimate perspectives eluded him. All was vanity, a grasping after wind! Yet for all the skeptical and apparently negative tenor of Ecclesiastes, it is a magnificent monument of faith, a faith that held on to God despite the agony and pointlessness of a world filled with evil and vanity. This wise man could not soar with hope like that of the prophets, but he could hold on to the fundamental truth of God when all else, including understanding, failed. So the book of Ecclesiastes may become an intimate companion to those who see the world as it really is, in all its agony and apparent vanity.

Job

Whereas the writer of Ecclesiastes described the grief and sadness of the world from the perspective of an observer, Job grasped the problems from within, from the perspective of the sufferer. Job knew the ancient proverbial wisdom and had lived his life by that wisdom, but he had an experience that called into question conventional morality and wisdom. He was a pious man, an upright man, whose life embodied the precepts of Proverbs. Prior to his experience, he had no cause to doubt a simple interpretation of proverbial wisdom: righteousness led to prosperity and happiness. But then Job’s world collapsed, and with it the wisdom by which he had lived. The loss of possessions, property, and prestige; the death of his children; the pain and suffering of terrible illness—all these things conspired to raise an enormous question as to the validity of traditional morality. But the wisdom of the book of Job raises an even more fundamental question than the validity of morality; Job questioned the premise of all wisdom, God himself. In what sense can God be just in the face of such apparent injustice? In what sense can God be just, when unjust men flourish and prosper (Jb 21:7-15)? Does God’s creation really reflect structure, order, and goodness, if the experience of Job is the measure of human life? Such are the radical questions evoked by Job, and they receive no simple solution. Yet in the great climax of the book of Job, namely, the encounter between God and Job (chs 38–42), wisdom is set in its proper perspective. There remains always a mystery in God and in God’s ways that lies beyond the grasp of the human mind. Wisdom is pursuit of the knowledge of God, but wisdom as intellectual knowledge can never grasp ultimate truth in all its depth, for God is always greater than the human mind and human wisdom. Yet Job adds a further truth to the knowledge of conventional wisdom. While Job’s questions were not explicitly answered, they were effectively removed; it was the encounter of God with Job that transformed the man. Thus, the ultimate wisdom lies not in finding an answer to the ultimate questions but rather in the encounter with the living God.

Conclusion

The teaching of the Wisdom Literature has manifold dimensions and in its totality is a compound of the various perspectives on the truth contained in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. There is a fundamental knowledge and morality that is vital to proper and successful living and that must be communicated to the young as their basic rule of life. It will lead not always to material prosperity but to that more profound prosperity that transcends adversity—the prosperity of the person whose life is lived in reverence of God. With the passage of time and advancement of years, there comes to those educated in conventional wisdom the understanding that life and the world are not so simple. Faced with the temptation to jettison conventional morality and wisdom, a person may find that the more worldly wisdom of Ecclesiastes provides an anchor. Life may seem pointless, the world may seem to be essentially a place of vanity, but the truth of God and reverence for God must be maintained in the face of radical doubt (Eccl 12:13-14). To those who experience in some fashion the plight of Job, wisdom reaches its limits and points beyond itself; humans cannot always find an answer to the questions, and the last resort is simply the experience of the living God.