the meaning of wisdom

The Wisdom Books.

There are five books that are called “Wisdom Books”. They are the books of Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes (or Qoheleth), Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus) and Wisdom. The Hebrew word for wisdom is ḥoḵmᾱh; and in Greek, it is Sophia. By extension, the book of Psalms, which contains a lot of wisdom teaching, is added to the corpus. Some other fragmentary texts that belong to this corpus because of the sapiential counsels they contain are: Tobits 4:3-21, 12:16-13 and the poem in Baruch 3:9-4.

The Meaning of Wisdom: The Hebrew term ḥoḵmᾱh has a wide range of meanings:

1.      Wisdom refers to the cleverness of some negligible organisms (e.g., ant, badger, locust, lizard) that enable them achieve great fortunes (Prov 30:24-28). It also refers to human cleverness.

2.      It designates the skill of artisan (Exod 36.8).

3.      Wisdom is also associated with rudiments of coping with life here and now. (Prov 10:1-22:16).

4.      Wisdom entails equally the ability to give sound royal judgment (1 kings 3:28)

5.      Wisdom offers the proper rules of conduct that is in consonant with the divine intention. (Prov 2:1-22)

6.      Ultimately, wisdom begins with the recognition of the indispensable role of God in human existence; hence the expression: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of ḥoḵmᾱh (wisdom); and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Job 28:28)

However, wisdom is a property of rational beings only. It is not limited to any race, nation or religion. The nature of wisdom proves that “there is no conflict between the saving God of history and the God of human experience.

Characteristics of Wisdom Literature

The characteristics of the Biblical Wisdom Literature, can be itemized as follows:

A.    One of the characteristic features of the sages is their “pursuit of insight”, the unknown. The sages believe that God had hidden the essential reality from humans; and that God’s glory lies in this tendency to concealing secrets (Prov 25:2). The sages search from angles for this hidden reality. The object of the whole search is for the meaning of life.

B.     An absence of any elements that are typically Israelites such as Patriarchal promises, Exodus, Sinai covenant, the Conquests, etc.

C.     Wisdom Literature has a lot in common with the international world. This is shown by the mentioning of non-Israelites: e.g., Agur and Lemuel of Massa (Prov 30-31) and Job with three friends, by the explicit comparison of Solomon’s wisdom to that of people of East and of Egypt (1 kings 4:29) and by the obvious influence of extra biblical wisdom.

D.    Since the goal of all wisdom is the formation of character, parents tried to shape the behavior of their children into the right form; teachers their disciples; and sages the men of the royal courts. All is marked by success orientation that lies at the heart of every sapiential enterprise.

E.     The ultimate character of Wisdom Literature is that it seeks a proper relationship with God, the author of all that is in being. Here the questions concerning justice, the reward of the just and the retribution of the unjust come to the fore. Thus, the fear of the Lord is Wisdom (Job 28:28)

Kinds of Wisdom in the Wisdom Literature

1.      Experiential Wisdom: This is the simple human response, experience and moral exhortations to the happenings in his/her environment. It enables humans to understand their environment and relate with it creditably. For example, Qoheleth, from his own experience comments on the rigour that is involved in studying and writing of Books (12:12).

2.      Nature Wisdom: This is the wisdom saying that could be derived from the nature of things, just as Solomon did (1 Kings 4:33).

3.      Judicial or Political Wisdom: Royal counsellors were trained in judicial wisdom. This is the type of wisdom that Solomon prayed for (1 Kings 3:9).

4.      Theological Wisdom: This aspect deals with the nature of wisdom. This type declares finally what wisdom is ultimately.

The Origins and Development of Wisdom in Israel

In Israel wisdom were originally transmitted in families (i.e. parents to children), schools (i.e. teachers to pupils) and royal courts (i.e. court sages to courtiers).

Transmission of Wisdom in the Family

In the family different wisdom saying were transmitted from parents to children in different clans or tribes, at their homes. In Proverb 1-8, there are many wisdom teachings beginning with, “my child/son or children listen…” At homes, the teachings could have been done orally. These instructions had to do with the legacies about life, which parents bequeathed to their children. E.g. Tobit 4:1-19.

Wisdom Teaching in Schools

There is also evidence in Proverbs that formal teachers and instructions of wisdom were among the ancient Israelites (Prov 5:13). In the early days, children from ordinary families received no further education other than the one that the parents provided. But hired itinerant teachers or sages most probably imparted professional wisdom on privileged children from well-to-do families, whose parents could foot the bill.

Except for the text like Jeremiah 18:18, the existence of such itinerant sages has not been proved beyond doubt. The first reference to a school in the Hebrew text occurs in Sirach 51:23: “Draw near to me, you who are uneducated, and lodge in the house of instruction.

Wisdom Transmitted at the Royal Courts

There were also the royal-courts wisdom instructions, which gave room for more technical instructions. The proposal of wisdom instruction at royal courts is based on the role the schools attached to the Jerusalem courts played. As can be attested, wisdom has a long association with royalty and the court. Kingly courts, where wisdom was learnt and transmitted, were also operational in the ANE surrounding, especially in Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Also there could have been a class of professional sages in Solomon’s court. The references to the scribal activities of the men of Hezekial (Prov 25:1) and the existence of Proverbs referring to kinds seem to point to the presence of wise men within the Royal court (1 Kings 4:2-19), nevertheless, there is no proved evidence.

The Setting of Wisdom Literature

The books in Wisdom corpus have no common setting. Biblical scholars are of the view that it is wrong to set the Wisdom Literature in Solomon’s personal life, even though three of the books are attributed to him – Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Wisdom. Solomon was the one who prayed, and as a result, wisdom and understanding were given to him (Wis 7:7). Traditionally, Solomon is considered as the author of these books. His authorship of them should be understood as patronage, just as the Davidic authorship of the Psalms, and the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch.

Although Solomon was the wise man, par excellence, in the ANE (1 Kings 5:9-14). He could not have written Ecclesiastes and Wisdom, which came in the third and first centuries BC respectively, since he lived in the 10^th century BC. For the Proverbs, only chapters 10-31 could be pre-exilic. Proverbs 1-9 contains a highly theological development of Wisdom, which would not have been possible in the pre-exilic times.

However, the precise setting of the Israelites sages cannot be determined. Each book has to be treated separately. Just as there were judges, kings, prophets and seers of different ages, so were the sages. But it is not known with certainty how they operated, except for the proposals made from various references.

The Literary Forms in Wisdom Literature

Knowing the literary form of a document helps one to understand the message. Many literary forms are applied in Wisdom Literature. The common ones are: “saying” (Eccl 1:16-17), “command” (Prov 3:1-6) and prohibitions (22:22-23:20). The proverbial sayings can be observation/experiential or didactic. In Ecclesiastes, reflection is based on experience (Eccl 1:16-17).

The form of an example story is in found in Ecclesiastes 9:13-16 (a poor man’s wisdom was neglected, though he saved a town). In Sirach, there are sayings, admonitions and hymns. In Wisdom, there are, among others, the forms of midrash in chapter 11-19 and prayers in chapter 9:1-18 where Solomon prays for Wisdom.