STUDIA JUDAICA 1 THE FORM AND FUNCTION OF PROVERBS IN ANCIENT ISRAEL by JOHN MARK THOMPSON Kalamazoo College 1974 MOUTON THE HAGUE • PARIS © Copyright 1974 in The Netherlands Mouton & Co. N.V., Publishers, The Hague No part of this book may be translated or reproducid in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 72-94508 Printed in The Netherlands ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want here to express my sincere appreciation to my mentors, whose counsel and encouragement were so very helpful in my original work on this subject: Dr. J. Philip Hyatt, whose recent death is a consider- able loss to the world of biblical research, Dr. Lou H. Silberman and Dr. Walter Harrelson. I also thank my wife, who has contributed her considerable typing skill to this enterprise, and who has been faithful- ly supportive in my work. Kalamazoo College John Mark Thompson CREDITS Quotations from Babylonian Wisdom Literature by W.G. Lambert are used by permission of the Clarendon Press, Oxford. Quotations from Sumerian Proverbs by Edmund Gordon are used by permission of The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania. Selections from "Proverbs and Precepts", and "Fables and Didactic Tales", transl. John A. Wilson in James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd. rev. edn., with Supplement (copyright © 1969 by Princeton University Press). Re- printed by permission of Princeton University Press. The Scripture quotations in this publication are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1946 and 1952, and from the Revised Standard Version of the Apocrypha, copyrighted ©1957 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and used by permission. PREFACE THE PROBLEM Among the books of the Old Testament which have suffered loss of prestige over the years, perhaps Proverbs has suffered most. The prophets are seen as speaking relevantly to our time as well as to their own; the historical themes of election and covenant are highly valued as keystones to the understanding of biblical theology; even the book of Esther can be commended as a good story; and the Song of Songs, de-allegorized at last, has won a certain esteem as a reflection of the Hebrew's enjoyment of sex. But Proverbs, alas, remains either un- noticed or scorned, "a potpourri of sayings and short poems, generally mediocre as literature, tedious as ethics, banal as religion".1 Such ignominy has not always been Proverbs' portion, or certainly it never could have won its place among the sacred scriptures of Judaism and Christianity. Nor could it have gained the popularity it has continued to enjoy until comparatively recent years. Martin Luther held the work in high esteem. Ruskin, who was compelled by his mother to memorize four chapters from the book, later claimed them to be "the most precious and on the whole essential part of all my education".2 John Paterson has written that it "has always been the favorite book of Scotsmen: probably no other book of the Bible has had a more lasting influence on the character of that people".3 He 1 Norman K. Gottwald,.4 Light to the Nations (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959), p. 472. 2 William A.L. Elmslie, Studies in Life from Jewish Proverbs (London: James Clark & Co., 1917), p. 30. 3 John Paterson, The Book That is Alive (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1954), p. 72. 8 PREFACE even suggests that Proverbs played a significant role in the establish- ment of the British Empire.4 With Luther now as popular as ever in Protestant circles, and with no notable increase in the number of Anglophobes within the ranks of biblical scholars, it does seem that someone ought to search out the reasons for Proverbs' sad fate and endeavor to establish what it is that led to its continued influence through the centuries. It is the conviction of the writer that, properly understood, Prov- erbs well deserves both its place within the Canon and the high regard which it formerly received. And it is the defense of this con- viction which constitutes the burden of our study. The major research for this book was done during the early sixties, a time when scholars were just beginning to re-examine carefully the Wisdom heritage of Israel. My study was submitted to Vanderbilt University in the form of a Ph. D. dissertation in 1965; and now, some eight years later, I still find myself in essential agreement with what I wrote then. Since 1965, of course, Wisdom's cry has become increasingly loud in the academic arena; and the search for Wisdom's influence through- out the Bible has become the passion of more than one or two scholars. In these pages I, too, see Wisdom's far reaching influence through the pages of the Old Testament. Yet I must express apprecia- tion for the critical observations and admonitions of J.L. Crenshaw and Roland E. Murphy as they have viewed the contributions and excesses of this new research.5 Among the scholars who have published important works during the past few years, two have shared my view that the origins of Israel's apodictic law are to be found in Wisdom: Erhard Gerstenber- ger and W. Richter.6 Their works are rather more precisely focused 4 Ibid. s J.L. Crenshaw, "Method in Determining Wisdom Influence Upon 'Historical' Literature", Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. LXXXVIII (June, 1969), pp. 129-42; Roland E. Murphy, "Assumptions and Problems in Old Testament Wis- dom Research", Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. XXIX (July, 1967), pp. 101-12; See also J.L. Crenshaw, "The Influence of the Wise Upon Amos; the Doxologies of Amos and Job 5:9-16, 9:5-10", Zeitschrift fiir die alttestament- liche Wissenschaft, Vol. LXXIX (1967), pp. 42-52. 6 Eîhard Gerstenberger, "Covenant and Commandment", Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. LXXXIV (March, 1965), pp. 38-51; and Wesen und Herkunft PREFACE 9 than my somewhat broad treatment, and center their attention upon the form and function of the Mahnwort, which they see as being antecedent to the prohibitive apodictic legal injunction. While they see the line of development as preceding from Israel primarily (from tribal schools, according to Richter; from ancient clan fathers, accord- ing to Gerstenberger), my own work points more in the direction of Israelite court schools, greatly influenced by Egyptian Wisdom. It isn't our intent here to deal precisely with all the various types of proverb or saying that can be found in the Old Testament: Aussage- wort, Mahnwort, etc., but to focus attention upon the esthetic dimen- sion. And so it is much more appropriate for our purposes that we understand that the general character of proverbs is frequently poetic than that it may be classified into a number of distinct and identi- fiable types. For more detailed classification the reader is referred to the standard Old Testament introductions and the more recent works on biblical proverbs, especially those of R.B.Y. Scott and Hans-Jiirgen Hermisson.7 METHOD We shall begin our study by noting briefly some of the factors which would seem to be responsible for the recent eclipse of Proverbs. It will be noted, among other things, that we no longer appreciate the form of our biblical proverbs, that we fail to perceive their importance within the context of Hebrew life and faith, and that we are captive to the Hebrew skeptic's caveat vis a vis much proverbial wisdom. Since these would seem to be serious problems, we shall devote the des 'Apodiktischen Rechts' (=Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament, Vol. XX) (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchen Verlag, 1965); W. Richter, Recht und Ethos (=Studien zum Alten und Neuen Testament, Vol XV) (München: Kösel-Verlag, 1966). 7 R.B.Y. Scott, Proverbs, Ecciesiastes (=The Anchor Bible, Vol. XVIII) (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1965); Hans-Jürgen Hermisson, Studien zur Israelitischen Spruchweisheit (=Monographien zum Al- ten und Neuen Testament, Vol. XXVIII) (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Ver- lag, 1968). 10 PREFACE major portion of the work to dealing with them. In the course of our inquiry we shall first of all examine proverbs in general: their universal features and the role they play in the life of man. Secondly, we shall look at the proverbs of the ancient Near East and investigate their role in Egyptian, Babylonian and Canaanite culture. Next we shall, by looking at Hebrew proverbs in relation to the proverb form in general, to the proverbs of surrounding civilizations and to other elements of Hebraic culture, attempt to assess their importance in Hebrew life and thought. And finally we shall deal with the skeptical element in an- cient Hebrew Wisdom, relating it to the skepticism of ancient wisdom in general and to the optimistic tenor of Israel's proverbs, with which it seems to be so frequently at odds.