1. Wisdom Literature Immerse Program
September 2017
Larry Perkins, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Biblical Studies

2. Session Five: Song of Songs
General Matters
What is the place of this composition in the Canon?
Love poetry/Wedding Songs???
Parallels from Egypt – B.C.E.
1 Kings 4:29-34 – Solomon’s wisdom compared to that found in Egypt – number of songs that Solomon composed.
“The song of songs which is attributed to/concerns/for/in the manner of Solomon” (1:1)
“Song of songs” – elative, the very best song.

3. Session Five: Song of Songs
Context
1:1 – links it with Solomon in some fashion
Egyptian parallels are roughly contemporary with Solomon
Solomon is referred to specifically in 3:7,9,11; 8:11,12. Also there is a figure known as “the king” (1:4,12; 7:6(5)).
3:10 Solomon is wearing a crown on his wedding day
Language shows evidence of later development
Geographical elements match the borders of Solomon’s empire

4. Session Five: Song of Songs
Content
A collection of diverse love songs.
Seems to be some literary unity based upon style and theme.
Approaches to interpretation (Harrison)
Allegorical -- Hosea 1-3; Ezekiel 16, 23; Ephesians 5:22ff.
Dramatic presentation (NIV ordering)
Literal
Collection of wedding songs – not demonstrable
Liturgical – based upon a pagan ritual – no indication that this has in fact occurred.
Didactic-moral – a celebration of pure love, as God intended the relation in marriage between a man and woman to be.

5. Session Five: Song of Songs
Unique challenges:
Do not choose a text from this book for your first sermon!
If you do feel led to preach from it, approach it with pure motives.
It could have some use in a marriage enrichment seminar or perhaps when doing pre-marital counseling, linked with passages such as 1 Corinthians 7 and Ephesians 5:22ff.
The text in 8:6-7 has some potential.
Why is it considered part of the “wisdom literature” tradition?

6. Session Six: Sirach and Wisdom
Wisdom Literature in Second Temple Judaism
“Fear of the Lord surpasses everything; to whom can we compare the one who has it?” (Sirach 25:11)
General Comments:
Why pay any attention to this period of Jewish literature?
Influence upon Christian development
Shows how Jewish concepts of Wisdom provide the medium by which Judaism could engage Hellenistic categories and values and be considered at least equal if not superior. Jewish wisdom and Greek Philosophy. Plato is Moses atticizing.
Wisdom is conceptualized as a mode of being as well as an object of perception or thought. A manner of divine revelation.

7. Session Six: Sirach and Wisdom
Wisdom offers us some leverage for tracing an “intellectual tradition” within Judaism.
Speculation about the presence of moral and religious order in the world and if so, what this might be, given the reality that bad things happen to good people.
Sirach – combines his theological perspective with elements of traditional Israelite wisdom and Hellenistic thought.
Continuity with OT Wisdom Literature demonstrated:
In use of similar genres
Themes of creation and ethics run through it
Concerned with the limits of human wisdom and the question of theodicy.
Personification and abstraction of wisdom continue in the line of Proverbs 8
Historiography becomes integrated in the Wisdom of Solomon with speculation about the nature of wisdom.

8. Session Six: Sirach and Wisdom
In this literature the argument is made that the Hellenistic quest for wisdom finds it home only in the Torah as revealed by Yahweh to Israel.
Jewish ethics is the apex of human values.
Motives of apologetic and constructive theology generate a philosophical bases for Judaism.
Sirach 44 – 49 – Hymn in Honour of our Ancestors
Sirach 50:27-29 – The purpose
Sirach 51:13-30 – An autobiographical poem to Wisdom

9. Session Six: Sirach and Wisdom
Sirach 50:27-29 – He claims that “instruction in understanding and knowledge I have written in this book, Jesus son of Eleazar son of Sirach of Jerusalem, whose mind poured forth wisdom. Happy are those who concern themselves with these things and those who lay them to heart will become wise….for the fear of the Lord is their path.”
Prologue to the Greek Translation – “My grandfather Jesus, who had devoted himself especially to the reading of the Law and the Prophets and the other books of our ancestors, and had acquired considerable proficiency in them, was himself also led to write something pertaining to instruction and wisdom, so that by becoming familiar also with his book those who love learning might make even greater progress in living according to the Law.”

10. Session Six: Sirach and Wisdom
Hymn to Wisdom – Sirach 24 – connection between wisdom and Torah is explicit. [Baruch 4:1 – “She {wisdom} is the book of the commandments of God, that law that endures forever.”] Sirach also locates wisdom in the Temple (24:10-12). C. 180 B.C.E.
Role of the wisdom-scribe – 39:1-11.
No coordinated arrangement of materials. Specific themes are addressed in various contexts through the writing, e.g. control of the tongue in 23:7-15; 5:9-6:1; 20:1-8; 28:13-26; 22:18-20; 27:
Orientation to pre-Christian Jewish piety in Judea in the century preceding Jesus.
Those that serve wisdom serve God (4:11-14).

11. Session Six: Sirach and Wisdom
Wisdom of Solomon – an exhortatory discourse
Difficult to place in a specific timeframe – sometime 50 B.C.E. to 50 A.D. Particular concern about the persecution of the righteous, but this cannot be localized (3:1; 5:1; 6:5-9).
“Seeks to cheer and comfort his co-religionists and to strengthen them in their faith” (Osterley, 212). It sounds very much like the purpose of Hebrews in the NT (cf. Wis. 3:1-9).
Wisdom’s gift of immortality – 1-6:21. Great description of wisdom in 6:12-16 – love of wisdom is the love of the Law.
The nature and power of Wisdom and Solomon’s quest for her – 6:22 – 10:21. God furnished wisdom to Israel’s ancestors and this wisdom led them out of Egypt (chapter 10).

12. Session Six: Sirach and Wisdom
Divine Wisdom or Justice in the Exodus 11 – 19.
Wisdom gets tied into the salvation history story that defines Israel.
Reflections upon the origin and nature of sin (1:16; 2:24)
Reality of God’s judgment.
Belief in immortality, but not resurrection (9:35).
How does this writer conceive of Wisdom?
The artificer of everything – 7:22
Wisdom is identified with God’s holy spirit – 1:6; 9:17
Wisdom is “the breath of the power of God” and “a clear effluence of the glory of the Almighty” (7:22-27 – cf. Hebrews 1:1-4)
She knows the mind, will and plans of God (9:9-11)
Pursuing Wisdom results in immortality and proximity to God (6:17-20).
In Wisdom are located the four cardinal virtues (8:7).

13. Session Six: Sirach and Wisdom
How do we use this information about Wisdom in the Wisdom of Solomon?
1. Metaphors and terms applied to Wisdom are also applied to Jesus in the NT.
2. We discern precursors for key ideas incorporated within the Gospel as Paul presents it, i.e. depravity, connection between death and sin, etc.
3. Relationship between Wisdom and Law shows how easy it became in early Christianity to connect Wisdom with the gospel, as Jesus himself does in Matthew 7.
4. God’s role in creation becomes more specific and well-defined.
5. Connection between Wisdom and the Holy Spirit emerges with greater clarity.