1. Ordinary Wisdom: Proverbs 22-24

2. “Proverbs serves as an extended commentary on the biblical Law of Love
(LaSor, Hubbard, Bush, OT Survey. Eerdmans, 1982)
Leviticus 19:18
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Deuteronomy 6:5
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

3. Mark 12:29-31
Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

4. Proverbs: A “collection of collections” Wisdom “from a father to a son” 1-9 Proverbs of Solomon 10-22:16 Thirty “Words of the Wise” 22:17-24 “Sayings of the Sages” Proverbs of Hezekiah’s men Words of Agur and Lemuel Acrostic poem 31 Advent (!!?)

5. “The collection of “thirty sayings” offers evidence that some Israelite sages drew on an international tradition of wisdom literature that was already ancient in their own day. The sayings in this section do not in fact number thirty. Probably that number reflects the influence of the thirty-chapter Egyptian Instruction of Amenemopet, to which it bears striking resemblance.

6. “The verbal echoes are too close to be coincidental
“The verbal echoes are too close to be coincidental. Perhaps the strong notes of humility and the deep reflectiveness that mark the Egyptian text attracted the interest of an Israelite sage, who then freely adapted it for an Israelite audience.
(Davis, Proverbs, Kindle )

7. Perhaps the best known “Saying”: Proverbs 23:13 Do not withhold discipline from your children; if you beat them with a rod, they will not die.

8. When our application of a verse of Scripture will cause suffering for another human being, it is likely we need more information about the meaning of the text. Be VERY CAUTIOUS. Be VERY CURIOUS.

9. Read the verses around it
Read the verses around it! The verse immediately preceding 23:13 is too often left behind! Proverbs 23:12 Apply your mind to instruction and your ear to words of knowledge.

10. “The few verses that advocate physical discipline of children are vastly outweighed by hundreds that are devoted to the subject of self-discipline. The effect is that no saying concerning the discipline of children is more than a few verses removed from another which cautions against excessive anger or urges attention to the wise, who are known by their self-restraint.”
(Davis, Kindle )
(see also 13:20,24; 19:18-20; 29:11,15,17)

11. Be curious about the words! Proverbs 23:12-13 (NRSV)
Apply your mind to mûsar (instruction)
Do not withhold mûsar (discipline) from your children
The same Hebrew word (mûsar) is mandated for both adult and child, but gets translated differently! BE CURIOUS!!
(BTW: This is why we have scholars. Thank you Ellen Davis!)

12. “Verse 12 calls the parent to heed discipline (mûsar) before they seek to apply discipline (mûsar) to a child (v. 13).”
(Davis, Proverbs, Kindle )

13. Another example? Proverbs 22:6 (KJV) Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. (or NRSV) Train children in the right way, and when they are old, they will not stray.

14. “The NRSV renders the verse as a truism; no one would deliberately bring up a child in the wrong way. But in fact the Hebrew text reads very differently from the standard translation: “Educate a child according to his way; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

15. “The Hebrew is grammatically unambiguous and simple enough for an elementary language student to understand. The difficulty lies in the radicality of the sages’ pedagogy, which the NRSV translation (and many others) chooses to avoid.

16. “The child is not formless clay, to be shaped entirely according to the teacher’s or parent’s own pre-established views. Educating each child according to her own way means that we must relax our theories and pay attention to this particular child, adjust our methods to the way in which she may best learn, nurture her particular gifts, respect her interests.

17. “In short, it means teaching the child and not only “the material”— something that is far more demanding of a teacher’s wisdom. The teacher or parent must also have a measure of humility before the child. The saying is an oblique acknowledgment that the child herself has some incipient wisdom.”
(Davis, Kindle )