Exegetical Essay 3: Hebrew Wisdom

Proverbs is a book based on metaphor. It is packed with word-pictures of universal truths. Throughout Proverbs, wisdom is anthropomorphized as a woman. As early as Proverbs 1:20, wisdom is compared to a woman who shouts in the streets, chastising fools and scoffers. Proverbs 31 provides a detailed metaphor of feminine wisdom in the context of a family and a community.

First let us look at what the Old Testament has to say about wisdom. The book of Job says that wisdom can not be found on land or in the sea. It can

The book of Proverbs and The Teachings of Amenemope have many parallels and similarities. To some this may come as a shock, but it should not be alarming. These books are considered wisdom literature. Wisdom is defined as knowledge put into practice; simply retaining knowledge is useless if it is not put to good use. Wisdom itself is not exclusive to the Christian faith; rather it is available to anyone who is willing to learn. There are different types of wisdom such as biblical wisdom and worldly wisdom, but wisdom cannot be limited to a certain belief or view. Worldly wisdom is not entirely bad, instead, it can be helpful to understand to better interact with the world; to put it simply, worldly wisdom is an understanding of how the world

The book of Proverbs is tilted in Hebrew Mishtey Shelomoh “The Proverbs of Solomon”; however, the book of Proverbs does not mention the history of Israel, but it focuses on everyday human interactions in the community (dCW Lecture #31). In Kings 4:29 we observe a tribute to Solomon, it reads, “God gave Solomon great wisdom, discernment, and breadth of understanding…so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed all the people of the east,” however Solomon did not author the book of Proverbs (dCW Lecture #31). The book of Proverbs is an anthology a “collections of collections” which achieve its final form during the latter part of the postexilic period (dCW Lecture #31). It is divided into seven parts with a heading for every part (dCW Lecture #31). In

I have been teaching doctoral seminars on the Hebrew Bible for ten years and have directed seven doctoral dissertations to completion. My model of a seminar is reading and critical study of the Masoretic text, supplemented with the ancient versions, as well as archaeological and textual sources from elsewhere in the Ancient Near East. We read an extensive amount of secondary scholarship and theory. Although there is much enthusiasm today for learning about biblical research by doing it, yielding to the temptation to abandon courses dealing with prescriptions and precedents leaves students vulnerable to chic ideas and passing persuasions. Exclusive focus in formative graduate study on the text, its establishment, criticism, and exegesis, leaves student prone to pseudo-theory and citations of “All Things Considered.” By extensive reading and critical analysis—with the deepest respect for previous achievement—of recognized writers and thinkers, ancient and contemporary, inside and outside the mainstream, we seek, in Matthew Arnold’s words, “the best that is known and thought” for the purpose of creating a “current of new and fresh ideas.” In writing their own papers, students grow

The Lord only answers prayers that are asked with a humble disposition and will result in greater glory for his kingdom. Unlike Saul, King Solomon comes before the Lord with humility, admitting that he is “only a little child” (1 Kings 3:7). He requests wisdom from the Lord, acknowledging that he is unable to obtain it on his own strength. Furthermore, Solomon acknowledges that the Israelites are “Your [the Lord’s] great people” (1 Kings 3:9). He gives to God what is God’s and accepts his lowly position of authority. On the other hand, Saul addresses the Israelites as “my people”, claiming ownership and kingship over God’s chosen people (1 Samuel 15:30). Like many of the Israelites, Saul craves power and control, as expressed through initially

The Hebrew accounts of creation is the way that I was taught when growing up. I am always open to other points of view, but to me this is how I am able to process creation with it making sense in my own mind. To others who did not grow up from the same background as I, I think it would be equally as strange as any other scientific theory of creation. Although I believe this account of creation, it is so hard for me to imagine that God, knowing what He did, still created this perfect world for humanity. God knew that we were going to sin and mess things up, yet He still created things the way He did. To me this says a lot about who God is and how much He loved/loves humanity. I think the purpose of these accounts are to give Hebrews the main idea that God is

The Old Testament consisted of a set of documentations of religious scriptures, which were written by different people at various times for a different audience. Most of the Old Testament contains short stories of traditional stories and those stories of distinguished ways God established mankind. These stories are often told to the people in narrative form, which are guidelines often referred to as laws, songs, genealogies, and a list from these authors that composed the Old Testaments. The pressing of set documentation is essential because it is the framework for the lives of God 's followers. The term “Old Testament” originated as a means to express spoken traditions and God 's creation of that particular era. It is an method of philosophical investigation was designed to answer the why questions within these spiritual text documentations. These religious documentations consisted of four parts. These four sections retrieved from the Old Testaments are the laws, history, wisdom and prophecy. The laws are a rule of behavior enforced within the community. The rules are sometimes called “Torah.” When analyzing this Torah, these rules viewed within the first five spiritual books of the Bible. For example, in the first Torah in Genesis, it explains the creation, Noah’s Flood, Abraham and Isaac, and Joseph’s coats of many colors. However, the laws in Exodus were in regards to the going out. The going out took about 40 plus years, until the people led to

The collections of gnomic verse, which existed in the Anglo-Saxon literature, have at its very beginning small amounts of proverbs. But the oldest collection is “ Proverbs of Alfred” which is a collection of religious and moral precepts [http://www. britannica. com/ EBchecked/ topic/ 480608/ proverb]. In her introduction to the first edition of the “Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs”, Jenet Heseltine has pointed out that proverbial sayings can be found in religious manuscripts from the first half of the eighth century beginning with brief collections of proverbs included half in the vernacular, the whole in Latin, probably with the reason to facilitate the teaching of Latin. Some sources, however state that the proverbs appeared for the first time in the 12th or even in 14th century. [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proverb

The Old Testament is tied together by a string of five major covenants that God made with His people. These five covenants are the Covenant with Noah, the Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic and the New covenant. The covenant with Noah was God’s promise that He would never destroy the earth and humankind with floods again. This sign of this covenant is the rainbow, this was after God sent a flood to destroy the wickedness that had become widespread on earth after the Fall of man: Genesis 9:11 “I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth”

The Old Testament can be very hard for many people to look to for guidance. The difficulty often comes because the questions they have in today’s society may not relate to the Old Testament. “Much biblical scholarship is narrowly historical-critical and does not seek to draw out the ethical-theological dimensions of the text.” (297) Pastors have the task of relating the Old Testament to today’s problems and it can be quite a challenge. Addressing moral issues is a difficult issue that pastors are faced with when addressing them through the Old Testament. This article addresses many factors that contribute to pastors not effectively addressing morals because of the complexity of relating them to Old Testament context.

Wisdom Tradition is a term applied to the Old Testament books of Proverbs, Job, Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes. Wisdom Tradition books all share characteristics and points of view that are somewhat different than other biblical books. Wisdom tradition has very prominent characteristics from other books in the Old Testament such as a search for the goal of life, how to master it and questioning the problems of life, showing interest to human experiences that affect all people, joy of creativity and creation, and very little interest in the great acts of divine salvation. These qualities appear in a few books in the Old Testament. All of them show wisdom, but only some show both wisdom and tradition. Books such as Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes values the beauty of creation and the confidence of human life and nature. This was a new concept to Israel. They learned about wisdom tradition through other nations. They were influenced from Mesopotamian literature and took their ideas of meditations of sufferings and God’s justice into their Old Testament Books. Suffering can be seen in Job, but in the next essay and upcoming classes, we will be relating this to women suffering. The wisdom perspectives did not replace the other two major strands of thought in Ancient Israel, that of prophets and priests. It was simply a different focus that was complementary with the other perspectives presented in the Bible.

Life, as it is, has really greatly regressed since the age of the Biblical times, until one would wonder if the Word of God still has root in the life of man in this current generation. This essay aims to answer the question, “What is the major theme of Hebrews and does it apply to the individual Christian today?” While looking keenly into the Book of Hebrews, this essay will highlight the major theme of the epistle, and bring into perspective the practicality of the Word of God in the life a Christian today. Lastly, It will breakdown to detail who a modern-day Christian is, what his life principles are, and lastly if the theme of Hebrews is applicable with his life today.

In its most basic definition, biblical hermeneutics refers to the art and science of biblical interpretation. It is considered an art because understanding, which is required for interpretation, requires a feel for the subject matter being interpreted, not just an analyzation of data. Biblical hermeneutics is also considered a science due to the fact that some aspects of the interpretation process resemble the activities of natural science. Because of this dual nature of hermeneutics, it is almost impossible for an interpreter to arrive at a neutral conclusion. Good or bad, most biblical interpreters translate scripture based upon

Our ancient Hebrews left us many legacies, we as a society still utilize today, for instance; religion. The old testament of the bible is composed of select writings originating from the Jewish Hebrew testimonials. No matter what religion we practice, our beliefs originated from Ancient Hebrews who believed in one God also known as ( monotheism).