Wisdom’s Role in Old Testament Theology

Introduction
Old Testament theology is an interesting study. Even though trends prior to the 1980’s seem to have ignored wisdom literature, many things can be learned from its insights. Some scholars have offered important insights into both the theology and of the sages and how it relates to the larger Biblical theology.[1]
Theology of the Old Testament refers to ancient Israel’s view and worship of God. Some have suggested that there are patterns of theology within the Old Testament text that relate to a view of God as being a type of warlord. This term alludes to how God would spare and protect the people of God at the same time sending them into war. This idea points to “The Lord is a man of war; the lord is his name” as a basis (Ex. 15:3). In this view, Yahweh is viewed as a warrior, one who brings a relationship to a weak, helpless people. Salvation is secured in the context of warfare and combat. In wonderful intervention Yahweh rescues his people when humanly speaking there is no hope.[2] Seeing Yahweh in this role as a warrior helped the ancients understand Him. The ancients knew who warriors were and what warriors did. This view is referred to as the pre-monarchy era before King Saul. It is here where the ancients could understand the other roles of Yahweh as well. Being omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent helped them grasp him as a mighty God. While in their struggles and times of combat, Yahweh would reveal himself in these forms to his people.
The other roles allowed the ancients to see him in terms of covenantal loyalty. In ancient Hebrew they referred to the term Hesed (Ex. 15:13), which is a term that has a bigger meaning than just “mercy”. It also infers his loving-kindness in the context of a committed type of covenant. Here Yahweh leads the people who he has redeemed.[3]
Central to Martens understanding of Old Testament theology are three distinctive ways that Yahweh used in making his relationship known to his people –warrior in blessing, and the promise of land.
In the role of blessing, God revealed himself with covenantal blessings when the people were obedient to his covenantal guidelines. The description of that state of bliss and blessing is most readily given in the categories familiar to us from Exodus 5:22—6:8. [4]
Land was the third distinction that Martens mentions relating to the theme of promise. Here the promise is made to Abraham (Gen. 12:1 ff.) and to his descendants Isaac (26:3—4, 24) and Jacob (28:3,f., 13—15; 35:9—12). This theme is also taken up in his discourses to Moses (Ex. 33:1) then fulfilled in reality to Joshua (Jos. 23:15).
In the framing of Old Testament theology is a motif that is referred to as the creation perspective. In this view, the understanding of God as a creator was a major element in Israel’s cultic ways of expression of worship. Psalms 8 is a picture of an example of this understanding. The text mentions the heavens, sun and stars, birds of the air and so on. This creation motif is critical in understanding of the role that wisdom plays in Old Testament theology that will be discussed later.
Wisdom’s role in the Old Testament is described by Crenshaw as being “the reasoned search for specific ways to ensure personal well-being in everyday life, to make sense of extreme adversity and vexing anomalies, and embody it as wisdom.”[5] The wisdom literature in the Bible consists of texts that include this theme. The books of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and various Psalms are considered the wisdom literature books. Others also include the Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus that can be found in the Apocrypha.
The wisdom teaching that took place in these texts had the goal of formation of character. The goal was not only the transmission of knowledge to the future generations but also a teaching of a relational system. This relational system included husband-wife, parent-child and family in society. The instruction that took place generally took place in a family setting initially.
Wisdom is not exclusive only to the Israelites. Other cultures also had wisdom teachings or sayings that in some instances are very similar to that of the Old Testament wisdom texts. Many scholars have noted the similarities of “The Instruction of Amen-em-opet” and others to that of the teachings found in the book of Proverbs. The first chapter has been compared to Proverbs 22:17-18 where Amen-em-opet speaks of giving ear to what is said and placing it in the heart. This gives light to the idea that other ANE cultures also had wisdom teachings and sayings. Much ink could be and has been spilled on this subject and is not the goal of this paper. Wisdom is the subject at hand in light of Old Testament theology.
Wisdom in the Old Testament centers on experiential knowledge as mentioned by Von Rad. This element does present problems that Von Rad points out.
This experiential knowledge is, however not only a very complex entity, but also a very vulnerable one. And this cannot be otherwise, for it renders man an invaluable service in enabling him to function in his sphere of life other than as a complete stranger and puts him in the position of understanding that sphere of life, at least to a certain extent, as an ordered system. Such knowledge does not accrue to an individual, nor even to a generation.[6]
Wisdom is therefore a general collection of teachings of an entire nation and culture. Ancient Israel also participated in this collection of experiential data. The problem Von Rad speaks of is that wisdom is not inclusive to an individual but to a nation. The vulnerability comes from the testing of the wisdom itself through everyday trials. These trials of wisdom are found in the Old Testament in the form of Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes which we will now discuss.

The role of wisdom in Job
In the book of Job, there was a prevailing understanding of one’s relationship to God being righteous or unrighteous derived by the end results of a person’s decision. If one was righteous then blessings would be a result of a person’s right standing with God. Wickedness conversely resulted in trials and sufferings. This is where Job is in juxtaposition to the theology of the day.
Wisdom theology in the book of Job said that if one adheres to the godly way of life, then one would be counted righteous. Such was not the case for Job. Job’s predicament was that he was a righteous man before God, yet he received suffering. This was contradictory to the teaching of wisdom because due to his righteousness he didn’t deserve suffering.
In this setting, “Job’s moral virtue and piety provide the basis for the dramatic movement in the story.”[7] It is here where the story begins. Job is unaware of the dialogue that takes place between hasatan and God. This hasatan referred to in Psalms.109:6, makes his way over the earth uncovering evil that he then takes to the divine judge. Here he takes the motivations of Job into question. “His accusation is that Job’s moral virtue and piety are inspired by self-interest: by currying divine favor Job experiences prosperity and is protected against misfortune.”[8] Wisdom is in essence placed on trial. When God saw that man was looking to wisdom as a means for the divine favor, this gave him an opportunity in his own wisdom to change the theology of man.
Job soon looses his family, wealth and ultimately his health. This places Job in opposition to his wisdom theology as mentioned earlier. He soon goes through the experiences of the bewilderment of the problem that takes place after the prologue in the book.
In the narrative section of the text, Job is greeted by his friends in an attempt to console his suffering. The friends conjecture that his piety is not where it should be. Job agrees with them that wickedness results in suffering. Job agues with the friends because he has done nothing wrong in the sight of God. All of the friends lecture Job to change his ways and return to righteous living. They missed the point God was trying to convey.

As the poetic Job encounters this intellectual crisis of faith, his major contention with both his narrative counterpart and the friends in the dialogues is over the explanation given to the breakdown in epistemological understanding and faithful expectations of the righteous.[9]
After a long and painful journey, Job maintains his faith and trust in God. He now demanded an answer to his question, “Why do the righteous suffer?” God finally decides to answer (Job 38).
Here is a humbling challenge that God gave to Job. After he had heaped up many hard questions upon him, he showed Job by his manifest ignorance in the works of nature, what an incompetent judge he was of the methods and designs of Providence.[10]

Wisdom and Creation in Job
God brings Job back to the beginning and allows creation to speak to him (Job 11: 7-9; 36:22-30, 37:2-16). Here God asks Job about the creative acts that took place without Job’s permission. God asks where he was when all of creation took place. These questions demonstrated to Job “that God could not be put in the wrong by man, nor could he be summoned before any court.” “Similarly, it was they who used as an argument against Job the incomprehensibility of the divine activity in creation.”[11] God makes his point that Job has no basis for questioning him and his sovereignty.

Summary of Wisdom in Job
In short, God used the wisdom teaching in the book to prove his point to humanity. Job was chosen by God to make it clear to humankind that the system failed. He is sovereign. Man’s right standing with him is not based on a system of trusting in wisdom to yield righteousness. For Job, it was. Faith and trust in God brought him into righteousness. Today placing faith and trust in God’s son Jesus Christ brings humanity to right relationship with the creator, Yahweh.

Role of Wisdom in Proverbs
Wisdom in Proverbs takes on a lively role. In the book, wisdom is given a personification as a woman. Here she is contrasted against the folly of the wicked along with an adulteress. More on this personification will be discussed later.
The point of the book is to bring people to an understanding of wisdom and implement it in their daily lives. “The wise man and the fool appear on almost every page of this book and we learn right away that the aim of these sages was to subtract from the number of fools and add to the number of the wise.”[12]
Wisdom’s concern was to also help man see that God was concerned with man’s whole life and that it also involved a total commitment. [13] The word discipline comes to mind when reading the text. The book tries to relate practical wisdom to humanity all the while incorporating self-discipline versus self-indulgence. Moderation is a theme that runs throughout the book relating to a lifestyle.
As mentioned earlier, the purpose of the book is to implement wisdom into daily life. To do so the sages used these proverbial sayings with a didactic method to incorporate wisdom into life.
Wisdom also takes on various literary forms. Several chiasms run throughout the book. The saying is the most general form used in Proverbs. Others include didactic proverbs, admonitions and prohibitions, numerical sayings, rhetorical questions, wisdom poems, controversy speech and disputation, confession and reflection.[14]
These various forms make the book a collection of sayings that all relate to the same theme, which is the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”[15] It is this theme that is the cohesive bond that holds true throughout its sayings.
The understanding that the fear of the Lord brings wisdom is the basis for all knowledge and wisdom. This fear that is spoken of relates to a reverential fear and not terror. Submission in worship is the desired attitude if one is to attain wisdom and knowledge. This acknowledges that all wisdom comes from God. Jacob points out that through the teaching of the fear of God, the young were taught to respect authority.[16] In doing so the teachers were instilling wisdom into the youth of their day. Jacob also mentioned that;
The wise, as dispensers of knowledge under its cognitive aspect, but especially under its practical aspect, are one of the channels through which God’s presence is communicated to men.[17]

Personification of Wisdom in Proverbs
The book of Proverbs gives wisdom a feminine form (Prov. 8:1-36). As mentioned earlier, this woman is contrasted to the wicked and the adulteress.

This is not to indicate that God is a woman, as some liberal theologians like to assert. On the contrary, this is a metaphorical use of the term to paint a picture, a picture of a woman to be sought after. Just as a young man pursues after the love of his life in hopes of marriage, he too must search to find wisdom. Fontaine mentions that these two pictures of the woman of wisdom and her evil twin, wisdom versus folly, are metaphorical poems used by the sages to make the point of wisdom teachings.[18]

Wisdom and Creation in Proverbs
Creation comes again as a theme that helps unite the wisdom literature books (Prov. 8:22-31). Here, wisdom is given another personification as creation. In this role, wisdom is placed before all that was from the beginning. “The Lord formed me in the beginning, before he created anything else. From ages past, I am. I existed be fore the earth began.”[19] Some scholars have indicated that this refers to the New Testament messiah, Jesus, where he is alluded to as being the firstborn over all creation (Col. 1:15,17). This would make sense coming from a New Testament point of view.
Summary of Wisdom in Proverbs
The book of Proverbs is truly a masterpiece in the eyes of this author; the reason being that the end of the book is a description of the perfect wife. This picture is obviously representing a good find for a young man. Metaphorically speaking, the woman found is the end result of the pursuit of wisdom herself. After a lifelong search, longing for wisdom through the fear of the Lord, one finds her in the end. She is the prize lady wisdom.

Role of Wisdom in Ecclesiastes
The book of Ecclesiastes is another book considered to be part of the wisdom teachings. This book does have a tendency to be gloomy in nature but for a good reason. Wisdom here is challenged like in the book of Job.
The theological conversation of Proverbs and Job concerning the relationship of human behavior and divine purpose continues in the book of Ecclesiastes. Like Job, it presents a challenge to traditional theology. The book of Ecclesiastes questions the purpose of human existence. It asks, what gives lasting meaning to life? If everyone only dies in the end, what is the meaningful difference between righteousness and wickedness?[20]
In Ecclesiastes, the common thread that is throughout the book is the phrase “everything is meaningless.” Qoheleth, the author also known as the teacher, throughout his lifetime had taken various paths and found that they all led to the same end, Sheol. The end where he drew conclusions Qholeth found that all was futile. This word, meaningless, can be translated in various ways. Meaningless(ness), vanity, futility, emptiness, absurdity are a few ways the author uses the Hebrew word hebel. “The word is related to wind and mist, and in Ecclesiastes it is used for things that do not last, cannot be grasped, or are not worthwhile. There is no English word with the same range of meaning.”[21]
It seems that the author chose to take the pessimistic side of wisdom versus the more traditional positive way it was typically used. This pessimism can be also found in ancient Egypt writings in much the same way.
The purpose has been generally assumed to show the futility of the world over and against eternity meaning it is evangelistic in nature.[22] The teacher is trying to convey life is without meaning, therefore all one can do is enjoy to the fullest and trust God. It is necessary to mention that even though the author was discontented with the outcome of all of his work, toils and laborings, he still trusted God. God was never rejected nor blamed for the despair of humanity.
During the discourse of the book, the author takes the reader on a journey. This journey is an overview of his life and his life’s work while looking for life’s purpose. The teacher’s responses to these experiences come to an end with a negative response. This negative response is what leads the teacher to a similar predicament to that of Job. In the author’s eyes, the system of traditional wisdom leading to prosperity has failed. Wisdom again is placed in a juxtaposition, where the author, like Job, tries to find meaning.
Like job, the reader can find an overall movement from despair where “the dead are to be praised more than the living, and the unborn above either.”[23] The teacher faced the same conclusion that Job came to that the theological system had failed. It would seem that wisdom had failed in its attempt to keep man happy and prosperous. Such is not the case because wisdom is used in an interesting way as will be discussed later.
Summary of Wisdom in Ecclesiastes
Everything is meaningless (Eccl. 12:8). The teacher expresses his findings after reflecting on old age, death and the call to joy.[24] For wisdom it is a different outcome, as mentioned earlier. Here in the book of Ecclesiastes, the author wittingly used the negative tones to emphasize the true meaning of wisdom.
The book was written to those who were wise and educated. Using despair, the teacher drives home the point that life without God is futile. In the epilogue Qoheleth gives instruction to fear God and obey his commands (Eccl. 12:13). It is this same theme that holds the wisdom books together as a collection. In summation, the fear of the Lord is truly the beginning of wisdom.

Conclusion
Wisdom’s role in Old Testament theology takes on several different themes and roles. In the book of Proverbs it is a woman to search and long after resulting in blessings. In the book of Job wisdom is fleeting, leaving Job homeless and broken. Ecclesiastes sees wisdom as futile but in the end uses it to prove the point that without God, life is empty. The theme of creation in the wisdom books draws the readers back to the basic understanding that God is the beginning of all things where wisdom resides. Creation is used to remind humanity that God is man’s beginning. Wisdom in the Old Testament was used to instruct one how to become close to God at the same time calling for a new worldview.
In conclusion, wisdom’s ultimate goal is to direct humankind to trust in God not in a system; it is to have faith despite the circumstances, trials and sufferings life may put humans through. Fearing God is not the end but should be the beginning. This is the result of wisdom in the Old Testament.
Works Cited
Murphy, Roland and Elizabeth Huwiler. New International Biblical Commentary. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1999.
Bandstra, Barry L. "Ecclesiastes." [Online]. “ Reading the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Bible.” Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1999. Cited 5 May, 2003. Available from .
The Living Bible. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1971.
Jacob, Edmond. Theology of the Old Testament. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1958.
The Holy Bible, New King James Version. New York: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983.
Garrett, Duane E. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. Edited by Ray E. Clendenen. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1999.
Patterson, John. The Wisdom of Israel. Edited by F.F Bruce. New York, London: Abingdon Press, 1962.
Henry, Matthew. Matthew Henry's Commentary, Vol. III Job to Song of Solomon. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co.
Perdue, Leo G. et al. In Search of Wisdom. Louisville, KY: Westminster, John Knox Press, 1993.
Perdue, Leo G. Wisdom & Creation the Theology of Wisdom Literature. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1994.
Von Rad, Gerhard. Wisdom In Isreal. Great Britain: Abingdon, 1974.
Crenshaw, James L. Old Testament Wisdom and Introduction. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1988.
Martens, Elmer, A. God's Design A Focus on Old Testament Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1994.

[1] Leo G Perdue., Wisdom & Creation the Theology of Wisdom Literature (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1994), 20.
[2] Elmer Martens, A, God's Design A Focus on Old Testament Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, Apollos, 1994), 47.
[3] Martens, God's Design A Focus on Old Testament, 50.
[4] Ibid, 34.
[5] James L. Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom and Introduction (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1988), 3.
[6] Gerhard Von Rad, Wisdom In Israel (Great Britain: Abingdon, 1974), 3.
[7] Perdue, In Search of Wisdom, 83.
[8]Ibid, 82.
[9] Leo G Perdue, In Search of Wisdom, 89.
[10] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry's Commentary Vol. III Job to Song of Solomon (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co, ), 219.
[11] Gerhard Von Rad, Wisdom In Israel (Great Britain: Abingdon, 1974), 224 ff. here the author is referring to Job 34:10,12,17b; 11:7-9;36:22-30; 37:2-16.
[12] John Patterson, The Wisdom of Isreal, ed. F.F Bruce (London: Abingdon Press, 1962), 54.
[13]Ibid, 57.
[14] Garrett Duane E., Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, ed. (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1999), 29ff.
[15] The Holy Bible, New King James Version (New York: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983), Proverbs 9:10.
[16] Jacob Edmond, Theology of the Old Testament (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1958), 252.
[17]Ibid, 253.
[18] Perdue, In Search of Wisdom, 110.
[19] The Living Bible (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1971), Proverbs 8:22-23.
[20] Barry L. Bandstra, "Ecclesiastes," [online] Reading the Old Testament, An Intorduction to the Hebrew Bible, Wadsworth Publishing Co.1999, cited 5 May, 2003, available from .
[21] Elizabeth Huwiler, Murphy Roland, New International Biblical Commentary (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1999), 181.
[22] Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 271.
[23] Huwiler, New International Biblical Commentary, 191.
[24]Ibid, 215.