Jesus & Wisdom

Author’s addressed questions such as these: What does it mean to be a wise person? What is the meaning and purpose of life? where are we going? Why do good people suffer and bad people prosper? Why should we be good in a world that is unfair? How can we live good and faithful lives when surrounded by those who are hostile to our beliefs?

Wisdom Literature Israel’s wisdom books speak to the individual about the wholeness and integrity of a good life, and about the personal disintegration caused by sin. The goal of the biblical teachers of wisdom was to inspire moral integrity.

Proverbs What is a Good Life?

The book of Proverbs: content  consists of several collections of wisdom teachings  intended to instruct the youth especially.  There is no hint of an afterlife  Most of the sayings do not mention God.  Describes wisdom as “Lady Sophia” The book of Proverbs: the author  is introduced as “the proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel”  Solomon was the traditional patron of wisdom, as David was the traditional composer of psalms.

Proverbs Proverbs is concerned with how to live a good life It’s full down-to-earth, practical advice. The following are examples….. Leadership  “If a ruler listens to falsehood,/ all his officials will be wicked” (29:12 Gossip  “A perverse person spreads strife,/ and a whisperer separates close friends” (16:28 Learning  “A fool takes no pleasure in understanding,/ but only in expressing personal opinion” (18:2)

Proverbs & God Where is God in all this wisdom? Most of the sayings do not mention God. The perspective of the Jewish sages was the true wisdom is from God, no matter where we find it  In the advice of family and friends  In common sense  In nature  Even in other cultures with their appealing wisdom sayings The sages saw the world as full of God’s wisdom

Lady wisdom In chapters 8 & 9, wisdom is portrayed poetically as a woman who came forth from God in the beginning before the world was created. She was with God as the “master worker” while the heavens and the earth were made

Wisdom’s feminine voice Proverbs’ image of God’s wisdom as a woman adds a feminine voice and quality to the traditional Jewish image of God as masculine. This feminine image of wisdom has been called Sophia  After the Greek word for wisdom- Shekina God is neither man nor woman God is personal but transcends the human categories of gender.

Biblical tradition The biblical writers used male and female images to describe God because that was what they knew of persons from their human experience. Catholic Tradition has often read the passages on wisdom in the OT as related to Mary, the mother of God. Mary is called the Seat of Wisdom in some prayers of the liturgy.

Proverbs – wk

JOB WHY DO THE GOOD SUFFER?

Answer the ??s Why good people have a miserable life of poverty, sickness, and rejection? Why the wicked people have comfortable lives?  How do you explain that? Why does a mother of three young children die? Why do people starve in a famine while others have so much food they don’t know what to do with it?

The book of Job The power of the book lies in the directness with which it addresses a basic human problem:  the righteous suffer while the wicked prosper. The dilemma of why the good suffer and the wicked prosper in this life is known as the problem of evil.

The author The author struggled with that dilemma of the problem of evil and wrote a poetic story The author is NOT Job

The prologue sets the stage by telling how Job lost everything in a single day because of an arrangement between God and Satan.

A virtuous and prosperous man named Job loses everything  Wealth, family, and health He bears his suffering patiently, trusting in, not questioning God. He is a model of patience and resignation. He is not Israelite

Job did not believe in an afterlife where good could be rewarded and evil punished. He thought that rewards and punishments had to be given out in this life, or never at all.

The figure of Satan in the story is not meant to be the devil but a heavenly prosecutor whose job is to test the genuineness of human virtue. The author used this angel merely as a device to get the story moving  Not to imply that God ever initiates human suffering.

In his suffering Job finally calls out, “Why?” and curses the day he was born. His friends insist that Job’s sin must be the reason for his misfortune, that if he prays to God and repents, all will be well again. But Job disagrees, arguing with them in a series of disputes.

God and Job wk