Wisdom As A Spiritual Practice Pt. 1- Matthew Kiehl
The Call of Wisdom in Proverbs 1:20-33 is part of the introduction to the Biblical Book of Proverbs, which was written by King Solomon close to 1000BC. It gives a dramatic call to wisdom, but what is that? What is Wisdom?
Before I get too far into talking about Proverbs, let me just mention a little about Solomon. He is the son of King David and Solomon was the last king of of a unified Israel (he is also in the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew). He oversaw the building of the first temple in Jerusalem and ruled over Israel for a very peaceful 40 years (perhaps one of the most peaceful periods in the history of the Middle East). Much of this is attributed to his wisdom. He is usually depicted as a very wealthy king. (Image 1: Sir Edward John Poynter, The visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon )
The question is often raised as to if Solomon ever really existed, or if Solomon even had anything to do with writing the book of Proverbs. It seems that most people didn’t really ask or try to address this question until the 1800s, and people at that time concluded that Proverbs was probably written at some point in the third century BC under the influence of Greek philosophy. And, this conclusion was made, possibly in part, because of the existence of other works that attribute their authorship to Solomon (“Wisdom of Solomon,” “The Odes of Solomon,” “The Psalms of Solomon”). Also, the seemingly “pragmatic” and “non-theological” content of Proverbs seemed to set it closer to Greek thought, especially with Wisdom being depicted as a woman like Athena. This conclusion has stuck around to this day, despite archeological evidence to the contrary. (Recently Thomas Cahill, in The Gifts of the Jews, dismissed Proverbs in one sentence, saying it was written during or after the Exile, in Babylon, after 607BC, under the influence of “foreign thinking”).
Most of you may have heard of the Rosetta Stone, or Hammurabi’s Code. The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799 and Hammurabi’s Code was discovered in 1901, and since then numerous (thousands and thousands of) ancient texts have been uncovered (sometimes whole/intact libraries like the one in Ebla that is estimated to have 17,000 tablets, discovered in 1970). Among all the discoveries are works containing proverbs and proverb collections. One collection of proverbs found in Babylon/Sumer, “The Instructions of Shuruppak” (2600BC), is basically the oldest known surviving work of written literature (a thousand years older than Hammurabi’s code). In all, over 2000 Sumerian proverbs have been discovered, from many fragments. Some of them do have commonalities to Solomon’s Proverbs, but they are generally simpler. [In Image 2, Shuruppak is on the left, and another fragment of it is on the right. In the middle is a collection of 40 proverbs, a fable and a folk tale.] This is one proverb that gets close to the kind of structures used by Solomon in his Proverbs:
“A loving heart maintains a family; a hateful heart destroys a family.”
-Shuruppak, line 202
Discoveries in one archeological site in ancient Sumer, which seemed to be a classroom, suggested that the writing of proverbs was a method of teaching children to write, by beginning with these single sentence structures. So it appears that teachers hoped to teach writing and ethics simultaneously.
So, the writing of proverbs is ancient. But not just connected to Babylon. Archeology has also uncovered numerous Proverb-like-works in Egypt. In the Early 1920s “The Instructions of Amenemope” [Third Image] was discovered. This one is important because it has a number of proverbs that are almost identical to those in Proverbs, and it is much closer to being his contemporary than Shuruppak. What the discovery of this text suggests is that the author of Proverbs had access to a form of this text, which isn’t impossible for Solomon, because his (first) wife was Egyptian. This is a proverb that I like from Amenomope:
“Do not go to bed fearing tomorrow, For when day breaks what is tomorrow?
Man knows not what tomorrow is!” Amenemope 18:1
So, the general gist is that archaeology has discovered proverb-writing as a common literary technique in the ancient Middle East, and that the works that have the most in common with Solomon’s proverbs are also the most contemporary to him. Solomon’s Proverbs fit right in to what would have been possible in the era, and what was expected of wisdom literature of the time. But after this point in history proverbs were used less and less as a literary form.
One of the oldest known copies of The Book of Proverbs is in the Alepo codex (900AD)[Image 4], and the oldest fragments are from the Dead Sea Scrolls (250BC)[Image 5].
Now, let me show you a map of The Book of Proverbs that I made. Because “The Book of Proverbs” is really not a single thing; as a work of literature it is not simply a single text, but a whole group of works that have been brought together and curated in a specific way. As many as 30 different works compose what we call “The Book of Proverbs.” It is very hard when reading the book to see what is going on at this meta-level.
So imagine each one of the 917 verses as a little box. They are clustered here as you find them, in your Bible, in “31 chapters”. [See Image 6]
Now, in this second map [Image 7] I’ve colored them based on their Context. So, you can see here six major scrolls and smaller ones that are in each. The first one has about 16 different little “letters” or “speeches,” from a father to a child/son {in blue). The second and third scrolls are entirely proverbs, and they have been tied together to appear like one (in red). About seven more small documents are together after this–“The Words of the Wise” and “Also Words of the Wise” (in green are a cluster of verses most directly from the Egyptian Amenemope). This is followed by another document of 138 more of Solomon’s proverbs, “Copied by the men of King Hezekiah” (orange) (Probably added to the collection some 3-400 years later – but Hezekiah may have also been involved with curating together the whole collection of 30 texts as we find them in contemporary Bibles ). And after this is “The Words of Agur,” “The Words of King Lemuel’s Mother,” and “The Good Wife.” So, what we can see is six major scrolls, and each one of those is composed of some parts.
What I’ve also done is made a map of the proverbs based on Topic [Image 8]. And you can see that for the most part there is no linear structure. And I think this is what makes the book so difficult for us as moderns. While it is a mix, we can see that the book has approximately ten major themes. If we group them all together by type we can get a feel for the text in another way [Image9]:
The ten topics rank like this:
1st is Wisdom and Folly (who has wisdom, what is it, etc.)
2nd is Righteousness and Wickedness (or what we might call “conduct ethics”)
3rd is Money (including issues like generosity and debt)
4th is Civic Concerns (The conduct of a king, emissaries, messengers, etc.)
5th is Domestic Concerns (children, spouse, agriculture, etc.)
6th is Speech
7th is Adultery
8th is Theological
9th is “The Heart” (psychological and emotional concerns)
10th is Alcohol (drunkenness)
(I’ve done this in a rather loose way; others might see something slightly different than this because many of the proverbs are on multiple topics. For example, I’ve taken special notice of anything Theological (orange) marking some with two colors.)
So, I’d like to try to address what Wisdom might be, as it is the main topic of Proverbs.
A major hangup that we have is that we are also steeped in a culture that has different concepts of what Wisdom is, with too many schools of philosophy (literally meaning “the love of wisdom”) to count. So let me briefly go through four of these possibly misleading archetypes, and with each one I’ve set a kind of “caricature” [Image 10]:
The Ant – Representing “Pragmatism” (Often called an “American Philosophy”) with special interest in efficiency or practicality, and centered around “what works.” (with close relatives in “Utilitarianism” and the culture of “Self Help”).
The Fox – Representing “Skillful Wit” (Intuitive creative problem solving, trickery, Eloquence, artfulness. Often seen in comedians and witty TV commentators/personalities. I recently read a folk tale called “The Wise Old Woman” and she really fit this idea of “skillful wit”).
The Owl – Representing “Right Answers,” knowledge, learning facts and information – Highly Theoretical (non-existential).
The Oracle (Sage) – Representing the thinker who engages in highly “Profound” or “speculative” ideas, thoughts, feelings, questions (sometimes wielding a kind of anti-knowledge, unknowing, or deconstruction) “You must unlearn what you have learned,” or questions like, “What is real?”
I don’t mean to say that there is anything wrong with each of these things, but that they may have nothing to do with what Solomon calls “Wisdom.” So, we’re going to read a collection of Proverbs I put together that may guide us to what Solomon thought Wisdom was. We are going to try and see from this context what Wisdom might be. I call this collection “The Way of the Wise”:
An inquiring heart obtains knowledge,
and the ears of the wise seek understanding.[18:15]
The hearts of the wise will accept commands,
but the lips of the foolish thrusts them away.[10:8]
Those who are wise have the prudence to discern their way,
but the thoughtlessness of fools leads astray. [14:8]
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
but one who listens to advice is wise. [12:15]
Whoever trusts in their own mind is a fool,
but one who walks in wisdom shall be delivered. [28:26]
The wise are reverent, cautious, and turn away from evil,
but a fool is reckless and bold. [14:16]
The aggravation of a fool is known at once,
but an insult is ignored by the prudent.[12:16]
Men who ridicule set fire to a city,
but the wise turn anger away. [29:8]
A king’s wrath is like a messenger of death,
but one who is wise will pacify it. [16:14]
A wise person builds up their house,
but the foolish person tears it down with their own hands. [14:1]
The lips of the wise scatter knowledge like seed;
not so the hearts of fools. [15:7]
The heart of the wise makes their mouth discerning,
and on their lips they wear persuasiveness. [16:23]
The tongues of the wise dress in knowledge,
but folly pours from the mouths of fools. [15:2]
The wise store up knowledge, they conceal their opinions,
but the rash words of a fool bring ruin near.[10:14]
A fool takes no pleasure in understanding,
only in expressing their opinion. [18:2]
Whoever restrains their words has knowledge,
and one cool in spirit is a person of understanding.[17:27]
A fool gives full vent to his breath,
but the wise quietly hold it back. [29:11]
One who keeps quiet is thought to be intelligent;
even a fool when silent is considered wise. [17:28]
Do you see a man who is quick with his words?
There is more hope for a fool than him. [29:20]
If one gives an answer before they listen,
it is their folly and shame. [18:13]
There is a method of rash speech, like sword thrusts,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing. [12:18]
Wisdom and good insights are in the gates of the wise.
The Wise do not turn aside from the law of the Lord,
but they deliberate in council,
while the uninstructed ones conspire with Death.
[24:7 Septuagint]
Wise is a son who has been instructed,
and he makes use of fools as servants. [10:4b Septuagint]
Wisdom is better than jewels,
and no delight can be compared to her. [8:11]
The discerning set their sight on the face of Wisdom,
but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth. [17:24]
Questions to Consider:
How is Solomon’s Wisdom different from the other four that are commonly seen in our culture?
Who is/was a wise person in your life? How would you describe their presence? What kinds of things would they do or say? (Perhaps someone you did not previously think of as “wise”.)
To set you on your way read Proverbs 3:1-9, 23:15, 23:16, 23:19, and 23:26.
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