preview

The Between Wisdom, Righteousness And Religious Devotion

Better Essays

Wisdom literature has long been part of the Jewish tradition with a large section of the Old Testament devoting itself to it. Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Sirach, the Wisdom of Solomon, and the Wisdom Psalms such as 33 and 107 make up this literature. Job, dates from the tenth century B,C and has a philosophical and theological reflection on why the righteous suffer. The proposition is that this is an orderly made cosmos and ultimately all injustices will be turned to good. Proverbs, written in its final form in the third century B.C. is a collection of aphorisms and poems within the relationship between wisdom, righteousness and religious devotion. In tone and form wisdom literature differs from divine revelation and is grounded in observation of and human reflection upon experience. Furthermore, unlike the laws of the Pentateuch, which were proposed in coming from God, and unlike the prophets, who claim to speak the ‘word of the Lord’, on God’s behalf, this wisdom does not purpose to be truth (Borg: 2001:148).

Wisdom literature comes in two major categories: Proverbial wisdom consisting of short, succinct sayings which provide basic rules for personal happiness and welfare. The book of Proverbs is a classic example of this within Holy Scripture. Speculative wisdom consists of monologues (e.g. Ecclesiastes) or dialogues (e.g. Job). This form of wisdom literature is practical and empirical rather than theoretical. It examines such problems as the meaning of life and the

Get Access