OLD TESTAMENT WISDOM LITERATURE
A theological introduction
By Craig G. Bartholomew & Ryan P. O’Dowd. IVP. 336 pages. £19.99
ISBN 978 1 844 745 371
Craig Bartholomew’s writings always provide a thoroughly reliable, stimulating, if demanding read. This remains true of this excellent volume, jointly authored with Ryan O’Dowd.
The book recognises the neglect that wisdom literature has endured until the recent ‘renaissance’ of theological interpretation in biblical studies. Its momentum and direction is governed by the fact that: ‘If Scripture is indeed God’s Word to us, then much is at stake in attending to his address through these remarkable books. They present the real possibility of finding wisdom amid the great challenges of the 21st century’.
Recovering wonder
A number of critical points are made. Among them is the possibility that these books offer us (so often given to dualism) the opportunity to recover the lost capacity to ‘wonder at the power and order of creation’ and to discover that to ‘live in this world that God has made is to live in communion with its maker’.
This, however, is only possible within the community of God’s people and their account of the world: the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. As opposed to other ancient wisdom books, Israel sought to ‘set out a framework for Israel — one grounded in the theology of Genesis and the law. God intended these creative and highly memorable writings to become a way of life for his people’. For us to understand it, this requires that we recognise the importance of the poetry in which most is written and understand that it ‘is an encounter with an imaginative new world of sights, sounds and meaning. As readers, therefore, we must develop prayerful habits of expecting God to speak through the variety and richness of poetic language’.
Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes
These observations provide the framework for detailed examinations of the Books of Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes (and in-depth analyses of Proverbs 31, Job 28 and Ecclesiastes 3). Of particular value are the observations that Proverbs needs to be read as a whole so as to note that chapters 1-9 offer the ABC for God-honouring living, whereas the latter chapters explore this amid the ambiguities of daily experience. Job and Ecclesiastes offer instruction for the mature. The former ‘forces us to live [humbly] with a gap between our experience of suffering and God’s ability [as orderly creator] to redeem it… by embracing the mystery and wonder of human life in this world’. Ecclesiastes, no less painfully, depicts a more intellectual struggle that ultimately ‘affirms life and joy… but only at the end of a ferocious struggle with the brokenness of life’.
The final three chapters seek to explore the impact of wisdom on the New Testament and in contemporary theologising. They are jam-packed with fresh insights and helpful principles for (and applications of) wisdom to our present context: my copy is extensively highlighted! They insist on the vital relevance of wisdom today.
High price
A superb book that every biblical studies student should read… and every preacher committed to a biblical ministry possess and read… even if it prove a demanding task! What a pity it is so highly priced! Do the publishers not have the courage of their explicit convictions in believing this book ought to be widely relevant?
