Proverbs: Israel’s Quest for Wisdom, Discernment and Daily Conduct Strategy

The lecture starts by presenting the overall structure of the book and the literary forms that are to be found in it, such as: instruction, wisdom sentence, poems, number sayings, better than proverbs, macarisms, and other stylistic and literary forms. This is followed by a thematic study of words, which includes such terms as: the liar, the whisperer, the gossip, the flatterer, the scoffer, the righteous and the wicked, the wise and the fool, the wise use of words and the helpful use of words. Further topics to be discussed include: the compilation of the book of Proverbs, the arrangement of the sentences, Amenemope and Prov 22,17-24,22 and woman wisdom in Proverbs. Within the theology of the book, such aspects are examined as: the fear of the Lord, wisdom and creation and reward and retribution. Further topics to be discussed include: the meaning of mashal, contradictory proverbs and the nature of proverbs.

Reading: