Authors: John B. Gabel, Charles B. Wheeler, Anthony D. York, David Citino Title: “The Bible as Literature: An Introduction”; Chapter 9: “The Wisdom Literature” In this chapter of “The Bible as Literature: An Introduction” the books of The Wisdom of Solomon in the Apocrypha and Ecclesiasticus and the three books of Ecclesiastes, Job and Proverbs are analyzed and the main focus is “wisdom literature”. The aim of the chapter is to analyze the biblical text by taking in consideration the techniques used, dominant themes, the intent under which the text was written and the subject as a personal theme related to self-perception. In general I agree how thorough the analysis is or how the themes of wisdom literature are related to philosophical and …show more content…
Firstly this group of educated people did not involve themselves with cult activities or organized religion. They did not perform rituals but advised what was “right and just”. By doing so, it is my opinion, that this group of people aimed to appeal to human morale and integrity and treated religion not as a collective perspective but as an individual one. Secondly there is no evidence that the wise men demonstrated a nationalistic spirit. The author compares the Israelite and non-Israelite elements in the Deuteronomy and wisdom literature. In the first the Israeli are addressed as ‘the ‘people’ while in the second a more inclusive appeal is made. Such universality is related to the fact that living a good life is important to all cultures. According to the author wisdom literature cultural exchange is important because it is what makes human civilizations develop. However, this is issue is still somehow obfuscated because of the lack of information. It would have been more informative if the author discussed how the schools of thought blended together and shared influences. This way it would be easier for the reader to create a better understanding of the biblical text and its originality. Thirdly the wise men because of their universal approach did not concern themselves with the history of Israel. Was it because the past of Israel was out of their scope or because some on the manuscripts never made it to our times? However, the author of the book does not pay much attention to this detail. Forth, it is stated in the book that the wise men did not have a “sense of a personal relationship between believer and God”, totally opposing the Psalms. According to the author it is the debate over the source of knowledge that distinguishes these two