The Book of Proverbs

This issue of Interpretation is devoted to essays on the book of Proverbs. Though many people may consider the sayings in this book to be bewildering, amusing, or just plain common sense, a fresh evaluation offered here reveals that the wisdom in these sayings provides an important corrective to our knowledge-rich but wisdom-deprived culture.

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In This Issue

PROVERBS 1–9: ISSUES OF SOCIAL AND THEOLOGICAL CONTEXT • Katharine J. Dell
This essay studies the different literary genres of Proverbs 1–9, including how they might have emerged, what social contexts generated such texts in Israel and in Egypt, and what their function might have been. A theological context is seen to be integral to both of the main genres of instruction and poem, despite the clearly more educational emphasis of the instruction texts.

READING PROVERBS 10–22 • Richard J. Clifford, S.J.

The proverbs of chs. 10–22 invite ethical reflection not only because they are designed to do so, but also because they are so different from the proverbs we are used to. Chapters 1–9 set chs. 10–22 in the context of building our life according to God's wisdom. Each proverb shows us a facet of human action and divine sovereignty.

ON THE THESHOLD OF KINGSHIP: A STUDY OF AGUR (PROVERBS 30) • Christine Roy Yoder

The placement of the sayings of Agur (Prov 30) between instructions for an implied reader who is poised to assume leadership (Prov 28–29) and instructions to the implied reader as king (Prov 31:1–9) prompts this exploration of what role the unknown, arguably foreign and feeble sage Agur plays in the book of Proverbs.

SURPRISED BY WISDOM: PREACHING PROVERBS • Ellen F. Davis

Probing Proverbs with imagination and depth might be the best way for the preacher to counter our society’s deadly propensity to reduce religion to “spirituality,” abstracted from concrete social and economic practices and our relationship with the material world. The contemporary crisis of wisdom— the proliferation of powerful knowledge divorced from godly wisdom—sets us fundamentally at odds with the structure of the universe: “YHWH by wisdom established the earth” (Prov 3:19).

Between Text & Sermon

Psalm 1
– Steven S. Tuell

Proverbs 1:20–33
–Carla Pratt Keyes

Proverbs 8:22–31
–William P. Brown

Proverbs 9:1–6
–William Goettler

Major Book Reviews

Wisdom in Transition: Act and Consequence in Second Temple Instructions by Samuel L. Adams

– Daryl F. Jefferies

Daniel by Sharon Pace

–W. Sibley Towner

First Corinthians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary by Joseph A. Fitzmyer

– Ben Witherington, III

I, II, and III John: A Commentary by Judith M. Lieu

–Robert Kysar

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Shorter Book Reviews
Short Book Reviews and Notes

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