Hebrew Teaching on Diligence and Laziness

* 19 Explain the biblical support for cultivating intellectual virtues. ROMANS 12:3, EPH. 4:14, 2 TIMOTHY 4:3-4

One of the main themes present in the rise of monarchy in Ancient Israel has to be the concept of royal ideology. Royal Ideology is the practice of believing that the king is considered to be at the same level of power as Yahweh, and vice versa. Throughout our studies of Ancient Israel there are many pieces of evidence to support this idea, and it had a great influence on the monarchal structure that developed throughout the time. Dealing with this subject matter, focusing on Wisdom is undoubtedly one of the prime methods of being able to interpret these Old Testament texts.

Christopher Morley’s article “On Laziness” took a much different approach to narrate his thoughts on laziness than expected. He lists the benefits that come from it, instead of scolding us on why we shouldn’t be lazy. Though Morley does emphasize on the positives that come from laziness, he does warn us even if we’re lazy, we must still eventually be able to accomplish your given tasks. Throughout this essay “On Laziness,” Christopher Morley supports his claim that the world would be a better place if we were more lazy by appealing to logic, appealing to logic, appealing to emotions, and including irony.

Proverbs 14:8 The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit.

Philosophers are known to question, analyze and evaluate everything but do not always end with concrete conclusions. Plato’s Euthyphro and Apology, to no surprise, highlight one of such debate: the human characteristics of wisdom. Though Plato was one of the earliest philosophers, the topic of wisdom is still debated by modern philosophers today, contemplating questions such as “What are the classifications of ‘wisdom’?” According to Plato’s two dialogues, the characteristics of wisdom have a strong correlation with the characteristics of “being a good person”. This concept highlights the values of virtue and selflessness and at the same time juxtapose views on virtue while taking into account the different forms of rationality. In this paper, I will highlight how Plato uses his two dialogues to enforce his own opinion about the relationship between being wise and being a good person, and evaluate the inconsistencies within this claim.

It is one of the most underrated troubles. For it causes many issues in the world, though the blame always seems to fall upon some other reason of cause. Laziness causes people to not want to fulfill their wildest dreams to refusing to do necessary duties. On the island of the lotus eaters, Odysseus faces laziness at its most extreme. The lotus flowers cause people to magically lose their longing for home. Sailors don’t have much control over their laziness, for it was forced upon them by way of magic lotus flowers from the natives. My troubles with laziness come from giving up because something is “too hard”, when really I just am being lazy. It causes me to not work as hard as I should to achieve my goal of having a happy and healthy lifestyle. Laziness in Odysseus’ story and mine are similar because we both lose the lust for our goal. Luckily we can both overcome laziness with hard work and determination, even if Pandora releases it from the box

The foolish do not disperse (or give) knowledge and instruction to others. They do not raise their children in Godly ways. In all understanding the Old Testament tells us that the basic foolish man does not want or give knowledge and delights in disobeying the teaching's of God's word.

We know that our labour in the Lord is not in vain – the only dream that comes to the lazy person is unrewarded fantasy. Unless he follows Solomon’s practical wisdom from his words – “From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him.”* Proverbs

A proverb (Hebrew marshal) is a short poetic sentence conveying wisdom in a concise and memorable form. (p.259) Solomon the writer of proverbs, was told by God” he could ask for anything he wanted and God would give it to him. Solomon asked for wisdom to lead the people, so they would know the difference between right and wrong.”(1Kings 3:5-9 paraphrased) According to Hindson and Yates “Hebrew wisdom literature taught people not only how to make good choice s in life but how to make godly choices.” (p.259) Proverbs shows many parallels and contrasts, usually in a two sentence form. In this essay we will look at the teachings of Hebrew wisdom on diligence and laziness, and how it corresponds with the contrast between wisdom and folly.

In Timothy Keller's Every Good Endeavor, we read that at times work can become fruitless and even pointless. Work is a good thing and that is how God created it, but the sinfulness of this world can disguise and twist its goodness. Sin degenerates every aspect of life, the soul, mind, and body, causing nothing to work as it was originally designed. The two greatest elements in life that sin has corrupted are love and work. Just as love under sin can be painful and life draining, so can work. Work under sin can be a painful toil as well. Fruitlessness is the production of frustration and lack of fulfillment at work. Conflicts, unfortunate circumstances, human errors and poor results in our field of work will weigh us down with the thought that

For example, in Proverbs 10:4-5, we see that working hard will lead us to a better life, but slacking off will cause us shame.

Christopher Morley presents the topic of laziness as fascinating and rewarding through the use of rhetorical effect and appeal to human nature. Laziness, which is typically portrayed in a negative light, is introduced as something that could help “enlighten” living. He advertises the attractiveness of laziness by appealing to human desire, ethos, and pathos while using a sophisticated diction and amicable tone.

The focus of my paper for the book of Hebrews will attempt to investigate the usage and meaning of “rest” inside of the text. Rest may be referred to as a literal resting or a symbolic rest or both and must be thoroughly addressed in order to differentiate the three. The usage of rest may also refer to a different state of existence for those who are faithful of unfaithful. Primarily chapter three and four elaborate on this idea of rest and man not being able to enter it due to their disobedience. I will look at the different meanings of rest through various interpreters and flesh out the meanings that may arise from the text. I will also investigate this concept through the reference of the Old Testament to understand differences/similarities

The problem of laziness stems not just from a daily physical laziness but also from a spiritual lack. In medieval times little was known about the world and technology was just developed enough to allow survival. They had to work hard just to survive and the only thing that sustained them was their faith in higher powers.

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.