What do you think?
Rate this book
Introduction to Old Testament Wisdom: A Spirituality for Liberation: Spirituality of Liberation
Comprehensive coverage of the wisdom literature within a liberartive framework.
205 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2012
1 person is currently reading
7 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 22, 2023
As an Old Testament professor in India, one is not surprised that Anthony R. Ceresko’s interpretation of Old Testament Literature in general and Wisdom Literature in specific is geared toward the plight of the poor and unenfranchised. Introduction to Old Testament Wisdom follows in the tradition of Norman K. Gottwald’s socioeconomic understanding of biblical history and literature (The Tribes of Yahweh: A Sociology of the Religion of Liberated Israel: 1250-1050 B. C. E. and The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-Literary Introduction). As a result, Ceresko focuses on a late provenance for the completed books and emphasizes an exilic, post-exilic, and intertestamental milieu over pre-monarchical and early monarchical influences. This offers the advantage of presenting the wisdom literature as a counterpoint to oppressive regimes and allows Ceresko to proffer both a pastoral and skeptical role within the material.
Although Ceresko offers a short synopsis of the role of family and village in both codifying behavior and instructing the young through reflection on experience (p. 8), he jumps very quickly to the formal scribal education and court institutions of Mesopotamia and Egypt. He provides both external and internal evidence pointing toward the formal roles of counselors (Internally being the reference to a recorder and secretary in King David’s court in 2 Samuel 20:23-25, copying of Proverbs by King Hezekiah’s officials in Proverbs25:1, and Jeremiah’s apparent threefold division of duties between priest, wise person, and prophet in Jeremiah 18:18). Further, in terms of Ceresko’s sensitivity to liberation, note his citation of references to female wise persons regarding the wise woman of Tekoa in 2 Samuel 14 and the wise woman of Abel in 2 Samuel 20 (p. 17). Notwithstanding his sensitivity, Ceresko seems well-informed on the literature with references to Collins, Crenshaw, Murphy, Rad, Scott, Whybray, Williams, and Witherington among those commonly cited.
Although I very much appreciate Ceresko’s approach, it still seems to me that within the observational and experiential background to wisdom, one must take seriously the rural perspective on nature and find a better line between folk wisdom with its emphasis on nature and the scribal counselor’s use of nature imagery in his comparisons. I definitely agree with the emphasis on the observational nature of wisdom, however. “Within this ‘scribal school’ flourished the cultivation of ‘wisdom’ with its stress on careful and patient observance of nature, of human society, and of the world.” (p. 19) “[The wisdom writers] were trained and disciplined to observe carefully the world around them and th events of everyday life. They tried to discern those hidden orders and interconnections that gave unity and a sense of meaning and purpose to that world and to those events.” (p. 21)
Since this is An Introduction to Old Testament Wisdom: A Spirituality for Liberation,
Ceresko performs a service for his students by identifying various forms in which the wisdom is dispensed. He does a very good job of demonstrating antithetical parallelism and synthetic (though he calls it completion or development) parallelism (p. 32). He lists literary forms like the fable (even though Jotham’s in Judges 9 is the only occurrence in the Bible) and the riddle (even though Samson’s in Judges 14 is a rarity, if not a one-off –also on p. 32). He notes the autobiographical teaching (as in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes) as well as the onomasticon or list in Job 28 (p. 33). As with most scholars, he identifies the most common form of Proverb as being a comparison (p. 34) but goes on to divide them into sayings (both enlightening observations and didactic illustration) and admonitions (both positive and negative—p. 35). Given his ministry in India, it was very appropriate that he closed his chapter on forms with the seven literary types with similar roles in the Indian tradition (he gives the Indian terms, but I’ll give the English equivalents): 1) edifying discourse, 2) moral stories, 3) parables, 4) maxims, 5) ancestral precepts, 6) sacred syllables, and 7) great sayings. (p. 38).
Although Ceresko offers useful insights throughout the wisdom literature, this sense of a search for order and meaning seems, at first glance, to be counter to the Curator (“Qoheleth”) of Ecclesiastes. So, I paid particular attention to Cersko’s notes on that book. He observes the paradox in Qoheleth’s method: “He asserts the goodness of God’s creation and the mandate to rejoice in it. But he affirms as well our inability to grasp and hold at will to that goodness and that joy.” (p. 94) Naturally, Ceresko sets the experience of this book within the Persian period and the hardship of moving from a barter economy to a currency-based economy. This is why Ceresko maes particular note of the word “profit” appearing 18 times in the book and the Curator (“Qoheleth”) using economic metaphors in 7:27-28 (p. 95) and 4:6 (p. 96), among others.
My favorite part of this section was Ceresko’s identification of 1:12-2:26 as four interlocking units reflecting two experiments (p. 105). 1:12-15 introduces the experiment of 2:1-11 where the Curator tests the idea of pleasure. 1:16-18 introduces the experiment of 2:12-26 in a leisurely search for wisdom. I also liked the division of 6:10-11:6 as consisting of eight sections, four which end in “not to find out/who can find out” and four which finish with “do not know/no knowledge.” (p. 110) But lest one think that Qoheleth thinks he has all the answers, notice that his regular insertion of claims that this or that is “vanity, breath, or a wisp” even applies to his own claims (p. 111). Also, in the closing of the book, Ceresko summarizes the theological perspective of Qoheleth: “…a close study of the text reveals that God’s freedom represents a central concern and teaching of the book. With skill and conviction, the author exposes the ‘vanity’ of the human quest for Godlike wisdom.” (p. 183)
Another valuable portion of the book is the chapter on the use of wisdom literature in the New Testament. Sirach 23:9 and 29:11 are strikingly similar to Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:34 and 6:19, respectively (p. 173). Notice also the similarity between Ben Sira’s invitation from Lady Wisdom (Sirach 24) and Jesus invitation in Matthew 11:28-30 (p. 177).
As a textbook, Introduction to Old Testament Wisdom has much to commend it. I would personally find myself wanting to supplement it with the work of Crenshaw, Rad, or Scott to provide some balance if I were using it in a course, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use it. For my personal study, I would have liked to have seen extended versions of the chapters where Ceresko dealt with “Selected Passages” in the respective books of wisdom. Overall, though, I’m glad to have added this volume to my library.
Although Ceresko offers a short synopsis of the role of family and village in both codifying behavior and instructing the young through reflection on experience (p. 8), he jumps very quickly to the formal scribal education and court institutions of Mesopotamia and Egypt. He provides both external and internal evidence pointing toward the formal roles of counselors (Internally being the reference to a recorder and secretary in King David’s court in 2 Samuel 20:23-25, copying of Proverbs by King Hezekiah’s officials in Proverbs25:1, and Jeremiah’s apparent threefold division of duties between priest, wise person, and prophet in Jeremiah 18:18). Further, in terms of Ceresko’s sensitivity to liberation, note his citation of references to female wise persons regarding the wise woman of Tekoa in 2 Samuel 14 and the wise woman of Abel in 2 Samuel 20 (p. 17). Notwithstanding his sensitivity, Ceresko seems well-informed on the literature with references to Collins, Crenshaw, Murphy, Rad, Scott, Whybray, Williams, and Witherington among those commonly cited.
Although I very much appreciate Ceresko’s approach, it still seems to me that within the observational and experiential background to wisdom, one must take seriously the rural perspective on nature and find a better line between folk wisdom with its emphasis on nature and the scribal counselor’s use of nature imagery in his comparisons. I definitely agree with the emphasis on the observational nature of wisdom, however. “Within this ‘scribal school’ flourished the cultivation of ‘wisdom’ with its stress on careful and patient observance of nature, of human society, and of the world.” (p. 19) “[The wisdom writers] were trained and disciplined to observe carefully the world around them and th events of everyday life. They tried to discern those hidden orders and interconnections that gave unity and a sense of meaning and purpose to that world and to those events.” (p. 21)
Since this is An Introduction to Old Testament Wisdom: A Spirituality for Liberation,
Ceresko performs a service for his students by identifying various forms in which the wisdom is dispensed. He does a very good job of demonstrating antithetical parallelism and synthetic (though he calls it completion or development) parallelism (p. 32). He lists literary forms like the fable (even though Jotham’s in Judges 9 is the only occurrence in the Bible) and the riddle (even though Samson’s in Judges 14 is a rarity, if not a one-off –also on p. 32). He notes the autobiographical teaching (as in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes) as well as the onomasticon or list in Job 28 (p. 33). As with most scholars, he identifies the most common form of Proverb as being a comparison (p. 34) but goes on to divide them into sayings (both enlightening observations and didactic illustration) and admonitions (both positive and negative—p. 35). Given his ministry in India, it was very appropriate that he closed his chapter on forms with the seven literary types with similar roles in the Indian tradition (he gives the Indian terms, but I’ll give the English equivalents): 1) edifying discourse, 2) moral stories, 3) parables, 4) maxims, 5) ancestral precepts, 6) sacred syllables, and 7) great sayings. (p. 38).
Although Ceresko offers useful insights throughout the wisdom literature, this sense of a search for order and meaning seems, at first glance, to be counter to the Curator (“Qoheleth”) of Ecclesiastes. So, I paid particular attention to Cersko’s notes on that book. He observes the paradox in Qoheleth’s method: “He asserts the goodness of God’s creation and the mandate to rejoice in it. But he affirms as well our inability to grasp and hold at will to that goodness and that joy.” (p. 94) Naturally, Ceresko sets the experience of this book within the Persian period and the hardship of moving from a barter economy to a currency-based economy. This is why Ceresko maes particular note of the word “profit” appearing 18 times in the book and the Curator (“Qoheleth”) using economic metaphors in 7:27-28 (p. 95) and 4:6 (p. 96), among others.
My favorite part of this section was Ceresko’s identification of 1:12-2:26 as four interlocking units reflecting two experiments (p. 105). 1:12-15 introduces the experiment of 2:1-11 where the Curator tests the idea of pleasure. 1:16-18 introduces the experiment of 2:12-26 in a leisurely search for wisdom. I also liked the division of 6:10-11:6 as consisting of eight sections, four which end in “not to find out/who can find out” and four which finish with “do not know/no knowledge.” (p. 110) But lest one think that Qoheleth thinks he has all the answers, notice that his regular insertion of claims that this or that is “vanity, breath, or a wisp” even applies to his own claims (p. 111). Also, in the closing of the book, Ceresko summarizes the theological perspective of Qoheleth: “…a close study of the text reveals that God’s freedom represents a central concern and teaching of the book. With skill and conviction, the author exposes the ‘vanity’ of the human quest for Godlike wisdom.” (p. 183)
Another valuable portion of the book is the chapter on the use of wisdom literature in the New Testament. Sirach 23:9 and 29:11 are strikingly similar to Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:34 and 6:19, respectively (p. 173). Notice also the similarity between Ben Sira’s invitation from Lady Wisdom (Sirach 24) and Jesus invitation in Matthew 11:28-30 (p. 177).
As a textbook, Introduction to Old Testament Wisdom has much to commend it. I would personally find myself wanting to supplement it with the work of Crenshaw, Rad, or Scott to provide some balance if I were using it in a course, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use it. For my personal study, I would have liked to have seen extended versions of the chapters where Ceresko dealt with “Selected Passages” in the respective books of wisdom. Overall, though, I’m glad to have added this volume to my library.
Displaying 1 of 1 review