DESCRIPTION:

This course will provide a survey of a sometimes neglected portion of the biblical canon, with special attention to the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. We will examine the setting and development of wisdom traditions within Israelite society, their impact upon the New Testament, and their contributions to biblical theology. Each week a session will be devoted to the translation and careful exegetical examination of a representative passage.

The wisdom literature offers us unique resources for coping with life: for everyday life, practical observations about cultivating virtues and avoiding the calamities of the "broad way"; and for life "at the edges," sharp, honest searching about innocent suffering and "the meaning of it all." The wisdom traditions also offer bridges: from their varied expressions throughout the Old Testament, we will trace them through the intertestamental period and into the service of the preaching and teaching of the church.

The course will meet for two hours twice each week; one session will be devoted primarily to lecture, and the other to translation and exegetical discussion.

Brown, Francis; S. R. Driver; and Charles A. Briggs, eds. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford University Press, 1952/Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996.

Elliger, K. & W. Rudolph, eds. Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1990.

Murphy, Roland E. The Tree of Life: An Exploration of Biblical Wisdom Literature. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

Course reader.

See the Biblical Division bibliography "Linguistic and Exegetical Books Required in the Master of Divinity Program" available in the SOT Academic Advising office.

Brown, William P. Character in Crisis: A Fresh Approach to the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament. Eerdmans, 1996.

Fox, Michael V. A Time to Tear Down and a Time to Build Up: A Rereading of Ecclesiastes. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.

Gutiérrez, Gustavo. On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1987.

McKenzie, Alyce M. Preaching Proverbs: Wisdom for the Pulpit. Westminster/John Knox, 1996.

Tamez, Elsa. When the Horizons Close: Rereading Ecclesiastes. Maryknoll: Orbis, 2000.

Commentaries on individual books will be recommended in class.

1. Weekly preparation for translation and exegetical discussions.

2. The writing of an exegetical paper based upon the Hebrew text (approximately 12 pages).

3. The use of lecture notes and syllabus readings to develop answers to study questions from which the final examination will be drawn.

Meets M. Div. core requirement in Old Testament "c" (OTCE).