Biblical Wisdom Literature

by Joseph W. Koterski

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Theology, Christianity, Philosophy, Education

18 pages, Audio CD

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Ruth]

These courses are just wonderful!
Father Koterski has a really friendly voice, and shares also from his own experience.
The course deals with the basic questions of life, why is there suffering and injustice, how do we learn to make good choices, and how can we pray?
I see a lot of suffering and injustice around me, and it is very hard for me to accept. (or to know when to speak out against it). But this course helps me very much, just to know that it is nothing extraordinary that I see, and other believers have had the same questions.
I have listened to it once, and now for the second time, but this time I listen to it when I cannot sleep, so I miss parts when I do fall asleep as it gives me rest.

It has taught me quite a lot of extra background and overview of the wisdom books in the Bible. Especially the book of Job has always intrigued me, so that was interesting. But also to learn more about some general outlines in the other books, and for example why is proverbs so much more positive than ecclesiastics. And why are there seemingly contradicting statements?

[Joshua Dew]

Father Koterski presents a series of interesting, well-organized lectures examining Biblical wisdom literature, its historical origins and context, and traditional Judeo-Christian perspectives, interpretations, and religious practices into the modern-day. Given the amount of detail in these lectures and my rudimentary Biblical knowledge, I found it useful to listen to a particular section, read and examine the text, and then re-listen to the lectures.

[Jeremy]

Father Koterski gave the lecture series on The Ethics of Aristotle that I listened to in order to better understand that work, and he did such a good job that I looked to see if he had any other lectures.

The wisdom literature of the Bible is a bit different from other Old Testament books. Unlike the law, the prophets, or the histories, the wisdom books are more philosophical. Similar to later philosophers, they talk about how one should live and they also wrestle with fundamental human questions, the foremost about why there is suffering, especially why the innocent suffer.

As a philosophy professor, but more importantly a man of faith, I felt that Father Koterski was very qualified to speak on these books. In the first lecture, he points out that there are three sources of wisdom, which these books extol and exhort people to gain. They are human experience, what we learn from nature, and divine revelation. This is a great insight.

Over these 36 lectures, Koterski covers several books of the Bible, a couple of which are in the Apocrypha.
Proverbs - Gain wisdom, exhortation to live well and how to do it
Selected wisdom Psalms
Job - why do the righteous suffer?
Ecclesiastes - we can't know why there is suffering, but can do our best to appreciate the good things we have and we must follow God
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) - defense of the Torah and the Law against Hellenism
Song of Solomon - human love as a allegory for the relationship with God
Daniel - the wise man in Persia
Wisdom of Solomon - Written in Alexandria, an exhortation to follow wisdom, using examples from Jewish history, especially Exodus
Jesus Christ - wisdom teaching in the parables and the Sermon on the Mount, the prime example of the actual innocent who suffers

The section I appreciated the most was near the beginning and was his discussion of the Book of Job. Job is actually a pretty difficult book to understand, partially because it's written in Hebrew poetry but also because it never really answers the question of why the innocent suffer. It just tells what the answer isn't. While sin will always cause suffering, either in this life or at the final judgement, suffering does not mean that a person is guilty of sin. Suffering in this world is a result of the freedom to choose that we all have. Job is an example of someone who suffered innocently, but kept his integrity throughout. I understood this book much better after this course.

But I also learned a lot about Ecclesiastes, which can also be difficult to understand, and the Song of Solomon, which I tend to skip. Koterski explained why it is part of the Hebrew canon and the interpretation of it as an allegory of the relationship of God to Israel as a love story that I wasn't aware of.

If you have any interest in understanding these books of the Bible better, this is an excellent course.

[Dennis Murphy]

Biblical Wisdom Literature by Father Joseph Koterski is a course I have mixed feelings about. Normally, Great Courses are a bit like a university seminar or lecture, usually geared towards Freshman. Some of them are more for high schoolers, while others approach upper classman. Its rare that any of them are graduate level, and it is rarer for them to be what Koterski provides here: divinity school or an advanced nondenominational sunday school class. In fact, its the first I came across. There's a lot to like here, but it was more of an exploration of biblical wisdom literature and its themes, as well as some efforts to relate it back to the listener as a person and a potential believer. In some ways, that's great. In other ways, I imagine it may alienate people. I enjoyed it, but one shouldn't walk into this thinking its an Ehrman, Jill-Levine, or Brakke.

[Peter]

This was exactly what I was looking for. It provides a nice overview of the different paradigms explored by different books in the Biblical Wisdom tradition specifically looking at the problem of suffering. In summary the e paradigms are
-Proverbs: suffering is caused because of sin.
-Job: suffering needs faith
-Kohelet: suffering has no answer. Just enjoy life you have because that is okay.
-Sirach: suffering builds virtue.
-Song of Songs: Love is the answer.
-Jesus is the example of undeserved suffering that is ultimately redemptive.

I wish there was a book putting all of these ideas together. Worth your time to listen to and think about!

[Charles]

I loved this book. Could not put it down. It went through Job, Proverbs, Psalms, Songs of Solomon, Daniel, and the Gospels. It inspired many questions in my studies as well as answered others. It's good to have this as a reference to read every few years though because it's a lot of knowledge in here.

I'm going to try to get books on Solomons Writings that are not in the Bible so I can read some of those.

[Jeffrey N. Hora]

I found this Teaching Company title to be educational, but not mind-blowing, which is OK. The presenter is not the most riveting I've ever heard, but that wasn't really the point for this course.

I found the breadth and depth of the work of great interest, especially given the difficulty of trying to cover so much. A good study and overview.

[Bill Dauster]

A thorough, valuable treatment of a under-examined subject. The author, a Jesuit Priest and philosophy professor, brings a little too much of the Christological, philosophical, and self-help into the work, but nonetheless also brings unique insights.

[Nate]

Insightful and engaging, although at times, pedantic and narrowly Catholic. I would like read a Jewish exposition on the wisdom of the Hebrew Bible to balance this one out.

[Elliot Lake]

I think it was quite interesting, and generally a great introduction. However, part of me wasn't very happy with some of the claims about the Book of Daniel.

[LemontreeLime]

Very good.

[J.R. Emry]

Excellent.

[Drake McCrary]

Koterski had some good points but his voice kept putting me to sleep.

[Richard]

Best on Job, lots of Sirach, commentaries on Gospel tie-ins excellent.

[Sharolyn Stauffer]

Such a personable lecturer. He offers some interesting and ponderful ways to think about the sapiential literature of the Bible.

[Kathy Nealen]

Excellent!

[James Chester]

Great Lessons! I really appreciated the depth that the lectures went into with each biblical narrative.

[Don]

satan the accuser, if deprived still devoted to, I know that my Redeemer lives, fear of Lord respect beginning of wisdom, seduced tempted by folly sin or wisdom virtue, walk on coals example, superiority of women and wisdom pride goes before destruction, deeds stronger than words, fear Lord hate evil, do not withhold good charity perhaps, opposes proud grace to humble, exalts humble humbled exalted, covenant with consequences, grow together good and evil till harvest, job as suffering of Christ, examine life and faith as Job, rather complain to God than ignore God, suffering implies guilt faulty logic, self-pity or charity, who wise are those trusted, love is a rose pretty prickly Shakespeare, God knows the story why try to deceive ourselves, acknowledge poor feelings to analyze clearly eject tape of situation from mind to dead letters box, wisdom from moral virtue, Theodicy God’s justice, what you know you don’t know, wisdom God teach us and nature teach us, means to live joyful life.

[sch]

Jun 2020. This lecturer was fantastic on Aristotle's ETHICS.

After four lectures: no fireworks here (considered as an audiobook), but plenty of good direction, introduction, and exhortation. He begins with Proverbs.

Finished. Glad I stuck with it, because the second half was more interesting than the first half. There is a recurring problem of redundancy throughout the entire series, which may be accounted for by his intended audience, which seems to be first-year college students. The lectures on Ecclesiastes, Sirach, Daniel, the Wisdom of Solomon, and the Gospels were engaging and illuminating.

Takeaways:
* Numerous "wisdom poems" included within wisdom books (e.g. Job 28).
* Gradual nature of the revelation of the doctrines of the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment.
* Relevance of these (late) ideas for the (early) problem of theodicy, i.e. why God allows innocents to suffer.
* Practical advice on reading, praying, and believing. Nothing revolutionary, but isn't that the point?