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Wisdom Literature: A Theological History
The Old Testament's wisdom literature offers one of the most intriguing collections of biblical books (Proverbs, Job, the Psalms about Torah and wisdom, Ecclesiastes, Qoheleth, Ben Sira, and the Wisdom of Solomon). In this magisterial textbook, preeminent wisdom scholar Leo G. Perdue sets each book of wisdom in its historical context, examining the conditions that produced the book and shaped its thinking. This allows him to show how wisdom thought changed over time in response to shifting historical and social conditions. In addition to analyzing the historical setting of wisdom, Perdue discerns the theological themes and theological developments within this rich literature.
432 pages, Paperback
First published July 12, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 21, 2010
This book is exactly what the title says it is: Leo Perdue's argument that the wisdom literature of the Hebrew and Christian bibles can be read as theological history. It doesn't work well as an introduction to wisdom literature; Perdue's argument hinges on the reader having a solid grounding in more conventional ways of understanding wisdom literature. I would suggest John Collins' "Introduction to the Hebrew Bible" for a better introduction.
That having been said, Perdue's book does provide excellent and in-depth historical information, and he goes far enough into the text for some of his writing to work as biblical commentary. For readers wanting an advanced examination of wisdom literature, Perdue is well worth the read.
That having been said, Perdue's book does provide excellent and in-depth historical information, and he goes far enough into the text for some of his writing to work as biblical commentary. For readers wanting an advanced examination of wisdom literature, Perdue is well worth the read.
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September 21, 2026A fantastic foundational text that in the middle begs for a better/any editor. Near the middle of the book he started to get repetitive as if the editor gave up and just let him do whatever. It doesn't make the text unreadable, but it is definitely distracting.
My only real disagreement is with his interpretation of Job, where he sees Job as disconnected in narrative quite a bit more than I do, and more drastically, he sees it as a text central to a mainly political pursuit in the exilic period, whereas I see it as a proto-existential work first.
However, I do appreciate his analysis of the dialogue of Job: "What is striking in this poem is not only Job's curse of his own existence whereby he hopes to unleash the power of this potent expression to bring his miserable life to an end, but also his calling up the magicians skilled in the ability to unleash Yamm and Leviathan, the monsters of chaos, who presumably would devour not only Job's night of conception but also the cosmos itself" (99). Moreover, I am proud that mine and his interpretation of Job are almost identical, granted he provides much more detail to make his analysis. It really is a great book and honestly the only book in the Hebrew Bible I really enjoyed...
For The Wisdom of Solomon chapter, I would have appreciated a more clear description on what the author of the text was going for with his description of immortality. He says, "This connotes the sage's understanding that humans do not possess an an eternal 'soul,' but rather receive the gift of immortality from the indwelling of Sophia in righteous souls (302)." Up until this point, it appeared as if TWS was in fact describing an eternal soul in God's hands (Wis. 3:2-4) but I also understand that this could be read differently.
Wis. 3:2-3 says, "In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster and their going from us to be their destruction, but they are at peace." So it appears that they have died, implying that they have not; their departure is not their destruction, so what is it? If immortality, as the writer of TWS sees it, is not an immortal soul, what exactly is he describing here? If I understand Perdue correctly, is he saying that Sophia fills us with knowledge of the immortal, i.e. God, and this IS immortality? Meaning that we do not receive immortality for our bodies or souls, but we receive UNDERSTANDING of immortality (God) and in this have hope for the world? I don't know, it is not very clear what exactly the writer of TWS nor Perdue means by immortality (and sadly the footnotes do not help clear up my confusion). It also seems like later Perdue further complicates my confusion by comparing TWS immortality to that of the eschaton, so immortality may be resurrection at the end times?
Wis 8:13 says, "Because of her I shall have immortality and leave an everlasting remembrance to those who come after me." Here it seems like the person in fact passes on, with no mention of any resurrection or bodily immortality, but the thing he leaves is likely memory or maybe even generations (children). So it is not about, at least here, immortality of the soul nor of the body.
My only real disagreement is with his interpretation of Job, where he sees Job as disconnected in narrative quite a bit more than I do, and more drastically, he sees it as a text central to a mainly political pursuit in the exilic period, whereas I see it as a proto-existential work first.
However, I do appreciate his analysis of the dialogue of Job: "What is striking in this poem is not only Job's curse of his own existence whereby he hopes to unleash the power of this potent expression to bring his miserable life to an end, but also his calling up the magicians skilled in the ability to unleash Yamm and Leviathan, the monsters of chaos, who presumably would devour not only Job's night of conception but also the cosmos itself" (99). Moreover, I am proud that mine and his interpretation of Job are almost identical, granted he provides much more detail to make his analysis. It really is a great book and honestly the only book in the Hebrew Bible I really enjoyed...
For The Wisdom of Solomon chapter, I would have appreciated a more clear description on what the author of the text was going for with his description of immortality. He says, "This connotes the sage's understanding that humans do not possess an an eternal 'soul,' but rather receive the gift of immortality from the indwelling of Sophia in righteous souls (302)." Up until this point, it appeared as if TWS was in fact describing an eternal soul in God's hands (Wis. 3:2-4) but I also understand that this could be read differently.
Wis. 3:2-3 says, "In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster and their going from us to be their destruction, but they are at peace." So it appears that they have died, implying that they have not; their departure is not their destruction, so what is it? If immortality, as the writer of TWS sees it, is not an immortal soul, what exactly is he describing here? If I understand Perdue correctly, is he saying that Sophia fills us with knowledge of the immortal, i.e. God, and this IS immortality? Meaning that we do not receive immortality for our bodies or souls, but we receive UNDERSTANDING of immortality (God) and in this have hope for the world? I don't know, it is not very clear what exactly the writer of TWS nor Perdue means by immortality (and sadly the footnotes do not help clear up my confusion). It also seems like later Perdue further complicates my confusion by comparing TWS immortality to that of the eschaton, so immortality may be resurrection at the end times?
Wis 8:13 says, "Because of her I shall have immortality and leave an everlasting remembrance to those who come after me." Here it seems like the person in fact passes on, with no mention of any resurrection or bodily immortality, but the thing he leaves is likely memory or maybe even generations (children). So it is not about, at least here, immortality of the soul nor of the body.
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