Approaching Proverbs: Modulating Power with Wisdom and Compassion

Barbara Leung Lai

“The Lord’s Blessing is upon the House of theRighteous, and His Cursing is upon the House of the Wicked” (3:33)—A huge Gap between the ‘Then’ and ‘Now’?

I. Approaching Proverbs: 7 key Interpretive Orientations (A) Outstanding ‘Dialogue’ within the Wisdom books: The Serenity of Proverbs & the skepticism of Eccles. (Murphy); theocentric

(Prov) Vs. Anthropocentric (Job & Eccles.);‘dialectic’ of anthropology and cosmology

(Brown, Characters in Crisis). (B) The Nature of the Book: ‘A Collection of the Collections of wisdom materials (i.e. the ‘introduction’/purpose of the collection and it ‘conclusion’ must be ‘intentional’ (1:1-7; 30:10-31).

(C) Appreciation of the transmission of the ‘Sayings’ ‘Proverbs’ (A thin slice of reality) (D) Intentional contrast between chs. 1-9 (long instructions/admonitions) & chs.10-30 (short proverbial sayings)—chs. 1-9 as a

hermeneutical key for chs. 10-30. (E) Role of ‘personified’ wisdom (chs.8; 31:10-31—double emphatic (Imperative & piel jussive in the context of acrostic Ps.) (F) Crossing Boundaries: Proverbs and the Postmodern world (bridging contexts and appropriation)—Character Formation as a current approach.

Trajectories: (1) Formation – deformation – Reformation of character (2) Orientation – disorientation – reorientation of (e.g., Attitude towards life; direction in life, etc.)(G) Initial purpose of the Book (1) Designed initially for use by young men of Israel’s society who were being groomed for positions of leadership (Hubbard) Vs (2)The real intent is to train a person (male & female; young & old), to shape character, to show what life is like and how best to cope with it (Murphy).

II. Interpretive Issues & Guidelines:(A) Recognize the various forms of literature and their

functions of which Proverbs is composed (e.g., long instructions [chs. 1-9]—

the purpose is to persuade, to tease the readers into a way of life rather than ‘to command’, short proverbial sayings [chs. 10-30], are obscure, open-ended, brief but assertive, the point is ‘to say the maximum of meaning/things in a minimum of words’.‘The reader is left to qualify it by other contexts, by exceptions, by experiences thatrun contrary to it… It provides insight, not only by what it is said, but by the process---

The reader can be startled, and thus invited to Go beyond the proverbs itself… The

proverb often registers a reversal of one’s expectation And provokes surprise’

(Murphy). (B) Interpret the Book in its own right and on its own terms. Prov. has its own way of looking at life. ‘It sees experience as God’s means of revelation; creation as the basis of order. Words like ‘walk’, ‘way’, ‘stumble’, ‘fall’ has their own connotations in wisdom literature as patterns of life, deeply ingrained habits, and our failure to follow

God’s way; the perspective of Prov. Is life‘here’ and ‘now’ (Parsons).

(C) The initial purpose of the book (1:1-7) is the hermeneutical key for interpretation. (D) Some Proverbs are unconditionally true

(16:2,12, 33). (E)The ‘polar’ structure of the book: e.g. wise &

fool; the way of the righteous & the way of the wicked; wealth & poverty; diligence &

laziness; righteous & evil; humility & pride (F) Wisdom speeches & personification

(1:20-33; 8:1-36; 9:1-6, 13-18)