Wisdom In Ancient Israel

In this collection, an international group of specialists considers the nature of wisdom in relation to the thought world of the ancient Near East and its impact on the rest of the Old Testament. In addition to full coverage of the wisdom books and other literature most frequently thought to have been influenced by them, thematic studies also introduce the principal comparative sources among Israel's neighbours and discuss the place of wisdom in Israelite religion, theology, and society.

In this collection, an international group of specialists considers the nature of wisdom in relation to the thought world of the ancient Near East and its impact on the rest of the Old Testament. In addition to full coverage of the wisdom books and other literature most frequently thought to have been influenced by them, thematic studies also introduce the principal comparative sources among Israel's neighbors and discuss the place of wisdom in Israelite religion, theology and society.

In this collection, an international group of specialists considers the nature of wisdom in relation to the thought world of the ancient Near East and its impact on the rest of the Old Testament. In addition to full coverage of the wisdom books and other literature most frequently thought to have been influenced by them, thematic studies also introduce the principal comparative sources among Israel's neighbors and discuss the place of wisdom in Israelite religion, theology and society.

This collection of essays examines the wisdom traditions of the Old Testament from a variety of angles. The slipperiness of the concept of 'wisdom literature', the transmission of 'wise' advice for living, rabbinic and patristic approaches to the Bible's wisdom traditions, and cutting-edge modern perspectives on such Old Testament books as Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes are all to be found here. In the tradition of the renowned previous volumes from the Oxford Old Testament Seminar - King and Messiah in Israel and the Ancient Near East (1998), In Search of Pre-Exilic Israel (2004), Temple and Worship in Biblical Israel (2005), and Prophecy and Prophets in Ancient Israel (2010)-this new volume again brings the scholarship of the Oxford Seminar, here focused on the rich subject of Old Testament wisdom traditions, to an international readership.

That belief has played an important part not only in the interpretation of the texts, but in reconstructions of Israelite society and history. In this book, Dr Weeks challenges this view, arguing that it is largely founded on assumptions which are now widely discredited, and he sets out to re-evaluate the evidence in the light of more recent research.

When Old Testament Wisdom appeared in 1981, new perspectives on biblical theology, an increasing awareness of ancient Near Eastern texts resembling biblical wisdom, and an emerging interest in ethnic proverbs were mere intimations of what was to become a dramatic outpouring of scholarship on wisdom literature. In this expanded edition, James Crenshaw takes stock of the wealth of new material produced by contemporary interpreters. Liberation and feminists critics, scholars in comparative religion, specialists in devotional theology, and researchers exploring educational systems in the ancient Near East all have enriched our understanding of wisdom literature in recent years, and all receive insightful treatment in this new volume. Now as before, Crenshaw's Old Testament Wisdom is an invaluable asset for anyone wishing to understand the rich and complex legacy of wisdom literature.

Essential reading for scholars and students in wisdom studies This collection of essays explores questions that challenge the traditional notion of a wisdom tradition among the Israelite literati, such as: Is the wisdom literature a genre or mode of literature or do we need new terminology? Who were the tradents? Is there such a thing as a “wisdom scribe” and what would that look like? Did the scribes who composed wisdom literature also have a hand in producing the other “traditions,” such as the priestly, prophetic, and apocalyptic, as well as other non-sapiential works? Were Israelite sages open to non-sapiential forms of knowledge in their conceptualization of wisdom? Features: Recent genre theory in distinction from traditional form criticism Ancient Near Eastern comparative material A balanced collection that includes essays that seriously challenge and affirm the consensus view, as well as those that reconfigure it