Mishlei/Proverbs

A fresh look at the book of Proverbs (Mishlei) questions its criticism as misogynistic, and explores scholarly evidence of women’s varied functions in biblical society, including teaching and transmitting wisdom, particularly of the pragmatic kind lauded in Proverbs. The structure of the book is examined, noting how the introductory section (chapters 1–9), with its praise of Lady Wisdom, mirrors the concluding section (chapters 30–31), which features a wise queen’s counsel to her son and the eshet chayil, or ‘woman of worth’. An examination of references to fathers and mothers, and to both male and female figures of wisdom and folly, suggests that many of the proverbs of the main, earliest section (chapters 10–29) may be examples of women’s wisdom. Finally, the image of weaving – a central feature of women’s wisdom in the ancient Near East – is used to suggest a new understanding of this intricate and elaborate book.

Wisdom in Christian Theology

This article argues that the concept of wisdom in modern Christian theology, to be most effective, should draw on two dimensions of wisdom that are present within Hebrew Wisdom Literature. These are wisdom as careful observation of the world, and wisdom as participation in the presence of God in the world, the latter expressed in the personification of “Lady Wisdom.” These two aspects are reflected in the duality between practical wisdom (Aristotelian phronēsis) and sophia in Christian tradition, though for Christian theology participative wisdom will be engagement in the relational love of a triune God. This two-fold approach to wisdom illuminates doctrines of creation, the Trinity, and Christology, and produces a theology which aims to articulate the relation of God to the world in creation and redemption, while taking seriously the awareness in late modern culture of the dangers of a human self that attempts to dominate the world around it.

Making Wise the Stranger: Sapiential Hospitality in Proverbs 1–9

Jayme Reaves uses Genesis 19:1–14; Joshua 2:1–22; Judges 19:14–27; and the cities of refuge texts in Deuteronomy 4:41–3 and 19:1–10 as biblical sources to conceptualize a so-called “protective hospitality.” This article utilizes the book of Proverbs to argue that it reflects the same protective motivations regarding hospitality, with a sapiential twist. Specifically, Proverbs 1–9 depicts two forms of hospitality: sapiential hospitality and pseudo hospitality. Sapiential hospitality protects the stranger from fraudulent hospitality. It is a form of absolute hospitality, meant to avert strangers from falling into the trap of false hospitality offered by organized crime syndicates. Although Lady Wisdom is vulnerable to attack from villainous strangers, she is also resilient enough to make strangers wise and thrive.

The Beauty of the Pre-existent Wisdom and Word ‘in Heaven’

Augustine named God as ‘the Beauty of all things beautiful’. The Old Testament speaks not only of the beauty of God but even more of overlapping realities: light, glory, wisdom, and word. The radiant light and glory of God, celebrated frequently in the Psalms and other biblical books, manifest the divine beauty. God’s creative and self-revealing activity is personified in beautiful Lady Wisdom. By being identified with divine Wisdom, Christ justifies Augustine in calling him beautiful in his pre-existence ‘in heaven’. Identified also with Word, another personification of God’s active power and self-manifestation, Christ can also be declared beautiful before his incarnation. By ‘becoming flesh’ the Word (or Wisdom) of God brought into the world the beautiful glory and light of God.

“She is My Sister”: Sarai as Lady Wisdom in the Genesis Apocryphon

The Aramaic text from Qumran known to scholars as the Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20) stands out as one the earliest and most innovative examples of the retelling of Abram and Sarai’s sojourn in Egypt (Gen 12:10-20). To be sure, the terse nature of the Genesis account invited creative storytellers to fill in the gaps, but brevity yielded only half the impetus. Ancient storytellers were no less bothered by the inglorious portrayal of Abram and Sarai, for which there is no shortage of attempts to rescue their reputations. The Apocryphon shares several of the same recharacterization strategies as other ancient retellings, but it is nevertheless unique in its engagement with the tradition of personified wisdom. This article imagines the composer of the Apocryphon’s sojourn account in dialogue with ancient Jewish wisdom traditions and discerns an effort to redeem Sarai’s reputation from Genesis 12 by recasting her as an embodiment of Lady Wisdom.

Sensing ethnic difference: A kinesthetic reading of Proverbs 7.1-27

The historical identity of the נכריה‎/אשה זרה‎ in Proverbs 7 has been a vexing quandary in modern biblical scholarship. Although many proposals have been offered, there is, as of yet, no critical consensus. My aim is not to settle the matter once and for all, but to approach the problem from a different angle. This article offers a fresh reading of Proverbs 7.1-27 in order to shift attention away from who the Foreign Woman might be historically to how her foreignness is constructed ideologically. Specifically, the argument draws on kinesthetic theory to reexamine the pedagogical use of sensory data to enhance persuasion. As we shall see, the father deploys a visceral narrative that transmits the ethnicized and gendered otherness of the Foreign Woman in sensory fashion (e.g. aural, gustative, tactile, visual, olfactory). This pedagogical tactic functions as a strategic form of kinesthetic empathy that subconsciously inscribes social and religious boundary markers in the sensorium. In this way, the father’s instruction encodes an ethnic sensory that is neurologically wired, so to speak, to perceive Lady Wisdom as more appealing than the seductions of the Foreign Woman. By drawing attention to the didactic strategy of shaping wisdom in the sensorium, this kinesthetic reading highlights the critical role of sensory perception in mediating ideologies of difference.