Introduction to Wisdom Writings

 

Wisdom literature is one of the areas of the Bible that tends to be the most neglected, yet for the people of Israel, it reveals insight to their religious ideals. This ideal is not the same as the fidelity to the law of Moses nor is it the same as obedience to the prophets.

 

There are certain characteristics that set Wisdom literature apart from the other books in the Old Testament. There are two things that Wisdom literature is not; it has very little interest in the major traditions of the Pentateuch, such as the Law of Sinai, the covenant, the cult or the special call of Israel and there is little or no concern with the history of the people of Israel.

 

Wisdom literature does have the following characteristics; it searches for the meaning of life as it is known through the lived experience and not from faith alone; it shows and eagerness to explore the unknown and the difficult problems of sickness, suffering, death, the inequality of the rich and the poor and what seems to be an arbitrary divine blessing; it has a curiosity about the whole world and the universal experience of all people and nations;  and it has a commitment to discover the proper moral behavior and the way to live it out.

 

To live these ideals, the people had to think for themselves, they had to understand that following the letter of the law was not going to help them in their daily life. They had to use reason before making decisions and they had to control their passions. They had to question life and at the same time analyze the common experiences that they lived through and create rules to live by from those experiences.

 

Those experiences were not always just what they experienced, but they included the experiences of other nations, of other religions, of other people. In other words, they would borrow from other societies those things they thought would make their life better as an individual and as a society as a whole.

 

These values they adopted are spread throughout the Old Testament and can be seen even as far back as the Book of Genesis where Joseph acts with discretion and prudence to the people without being direction by the Lord. He is doing God's will and yet has not been given the revelation to do so by God.

 

Other signs of wisdom can be seen in some of the prophets, like Isaiah and Amos, where they place emphasis on knowing the divine counsel or wisdom.  Wisdom thinking can also be found in Genesis 2:3 in the story of the Garden of Eden, in the life of King Solomon in 1 Kings 3-11 and in the Book of Daniel, chapters 1-6. There are also a number of Psalms that are considered as wisdom writings; 1,32, 34, 37,49, 73, 111-112, and 128.

 

The main books of the Old Testament that focus on entirely on intellectual reflection from the point of view of the humanist are Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth), Ecclesiasticus, (Sirach), and the Wisdom of Solomon.

 

As we pointed out earlier, Israel borrowed from other nations and people’s wisdom sayings. Many nations like, Egypt and Babylonians had their own wisdom sayings and it can clearly be seen where Israel borrowed wisdom sayings from these nations and their wisdom traditions. This should not seem unusual or a surprise to us because wisdom's focus is on the common questions of every human being, everywhere. Those who were the sages in their time were observers of the world where they lived and tried to find patterns and predictable events that would help people cope with the world around them. They knew little about what caused disease and sickness, or what caused the weather to change or the extent of other civilizations that existed outside of their normal sphere of influences. But they sought interlinking connections to all things to form what understandings they could. They were convinced that the world was orderly and could be understood well enough to form norm of moral behavior.

 

Despite the attempts to put the world in order so all could understand, there were the experiences of failure, of uncertainly, and trying to understand the human suffering they experienced and having to deal with human pain. They asked how can this be when our beliefs are based on the divine good order and questioned why nature acted the ways it did and asked what did God intend for us?

 

The questions they asked then are no different than we ask today. Why did this person have to die, what did that little child do to deserve this, how can someone seem to be so evil and commit unspeakable acts of violence and aggression? All we need to do is to read our newspapers, watch the news on TV and at least weekly you will see someone question the why and the how's.

 

The Old Testament followers of the Mosaic practices stressed salvation came from a personal relationship with Yahweh, while those who moved in the wisdom circles stressed that order can be found in the very plan of creation. This wisdom tradition is full of hymns of praise for the divine goodness and the majesty of God as found and revealed in creation. Job 28, Proverbs 8, Sirach 16 and 43 and Wisdom 7 all point to the greatness of creation.

 

While scholars do not agree on a single source of the wisdom tradition, one theme that appears frequently is that of the family. Many sayings can be seen as being passed on from father to son or from mother to son. On a broader context, these are sayings that are passed on from parents to children.

 

While much of an individual’s education came from the home, there were sources of formal education where the young were sent to learn the alphabet, short verses from scripture and finally longer scripture verses. This formal education was probably aimed at creating a professional class of scribes and individuals who could function in the royal governments, act as administrators in the temple, and act in the business world.

 

Above all else, wisdom is associated with kings and royal administration. David is called wise in 2 Samuel 14:20 and Solomon’s wisdom can be found in 1 Kings 3-11. Kings were thought to have all knowledge and could rule successfully because of the wisdom and knowledge they possessed. What they had actually done was to employee people who were wise and smart in a great variety of areas, those who could advise them on the decision-making processes and rules for the kingdom, and laws to implement to see that the kingdom ran smoothly. Even today this model is still employed by good leaders in business and government.

 

From what scholars can determine, the Wisdom of Solomon is the latest book in the Old Testament to be written and reflects a reaction to Greek philosophy in Alexandria and the challenges the Jewish faith community faced in the 1^st century BCE. Because of the date and language used, it was never entered into the Hebrew canon, the books the Jews recognized as making up the Old Testament.

 

The main purpose of the books was to reassure the Jewish community in Egypt that keeping the faith is worth the effort they had to use despite the hardships they faced in a pagan culture. It makes use of salvation history as a lesson to be used by the wise and the as an explanation of God’s care for the suffering of the just.

 

Wisdom has many major contributions to the religion of Israel, but the following 10 are some of the most important:    

 

1)     Emphasis on cause and effect. Acts have consequences and moral decision making cannot be made outside of the context of society.

2)     Appreciation of time. Israel did not try to erase time and go back to the way things were, but learned to move on always looking for God acting in their lives.

3)     Confidence in order. Wisdom taught them to look and search for the hidden order of the divine purpose for the world.

4)     God revealed in creation. The law and the prophets taught Israel an awareness of God as a personal savior, but wisdom showed them Yahweh as the Creator.

5)     Humans are responsible. The prophets stressed divine mercy, but wisdom said that there is always another chance after misfortune or failure.

6)     Personification of wisdom. Used as a literary device to express how God was present in a personal way to the people.

7)     Wisdom as divine gift. While wisdom acknowledged the value of human reasoning, it placed a higher initiative on the divine.

8)     The meaning of suffering. Wisdom always wrestles with the challenges humans face when it comes to suffering and acknowledges that it is ultimately in the hands of God.

9)     Trust as a basic virtue. Knowing its limits, wisdom put trust as the basic virtue of the wise.

10)   The value of community. While it seems contradictory, wisdom understood the value of the universal human and the value of the contributions of others.

 

Wisdom should make us ask the hard questions, the questions that make us uneasy, the questions we normally would want to avoid and let someone else handle. Wisdom should be making you reflect on the values in your life, what you support, what you do with your time talent and resources. We need to learn to question God and then to sit and let Him answer us through the silence we think is around us. God is always present to us if we listen.