Pondering Proverbs
As always, I scheduled one day of class into this semester to give students some contact with the “mainstream” biblical wisdom tradition as represented (for example) in Proverbs, Psalm 1, and so on. However, I don’t feel like I teach the book of Proverbs very well, perhaps because I don’t really enjoy the book of Proverbs very much. Any suggestions?
9 comments Christopher Heard | Bible (specific texts), teaching and learning
I have never felt negative about a book if I have translated a bit of it. I too don’t like Proverbs as a book much – because some of its pithy stuff has been used to support violence. But Wisdom is a great poem chap 8 – and I have wondered recently how to relate it to the character of Elihu in Job and of course chapter 28 too – but I have not lifted an eyebrow yet to read it closely. Chapter 31 is also a great chapter and describes my wife to a T.
Here’s a poem by Auden that suggests wisdom to me also – from the Hymn to St Cecelia (I maybe out to lunch here – but its a cool poem.)
I cannot grow;
I have no shadow
To run away from,
I only play.
I cannot err;
There is no creature
Whom I belong to,
Whom I could wrong.
I am defeat
When it knows it
Can now do nothing
By suffering.
All you lived through,
Dancing because you
No longer need it
For any deed.
I shall never be Different. Love me.
Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions
To all musicians, appear and inspire:
Translated Daughter, come down and startle
Composing mortals with immortal fire.
It might help if you articulated for your students why you “don’t really enjoy the book of Proverbs very much.” It likely shows anyway. At least you seem to feel it. I’ll bet just about anything that someone in the class will take the role of defender of the book. If it turns out that he or she also knows something about Proverbs, the interaction might just be (how shall I say?) enjoyable.
Fox’s Anchor Bible commentary converted me into a fan of Proverbs. His introductions and essays are wonderful. They often address very basic questions about the nature of a proverb and the nature of this collection of proverbs. After I presented in class some thoughts spawned by Fox’s work, my students were surprised that they too developed a new appreciation for Proverbs. One student actually said that I had done the impossible by making Proverbs interesting.
Proverbs 26:4-5 tell us,
“4 Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.”
Whether Proverbs was altogether penned by one author or compiled from various sources (which I more suspect), maybe this could be an interesting starting point for addressing how the Proverbs are often implying more than the words say directly.
But I don’t understand the structure of the book well enough to have any idea where anyone might go from there. I find Agur b. Yakeh pretty interesting too. But Proverbs does at times seem rather dry.
An interesting resource might be the following blog (http://edithosb.wordpress.com/tag/proverbs/), where a benedictine nun reflects her experience in reading the book of Proverbs.
The following is her introduction to the series:
“A Month of Proverbs
30 September 2009 — Sr. Edith Bogue
I’ve always had a hard time reading the Book of Proverbs. Although there are some extended passages, much of the book consists of verse after verse of snippets of advice – good advice, but too much of it to take in all at once. We have some short selections in our readings at Evening Prayer in some seasons of the year – but not enough to have a sense of the entire book. So I’ve decided to ponder over Proverbs for a month.
There are 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs and 31 days in October. Each morning, I will post a short reflection on a passage or a single proverb from the chapter for the day. Solomon, or whoever compiled the book, hoped that:
“the wise by hearing them will advance in learning, the intelligent will gain sound guidance,that they may comprehend proverb and parable,the words of the wise and their riddles.” (1:5-6)
May it be so!”
I like to use the figure of Lady Wisdom to introduce Proverbs. It is a tricky book because it lacks plot and even cohesion. By making it character-focused I try to transform it into something we in the western world understand a little better.
For next semester . . .
What follows is in the no-brainer category, but it’s some of what works pretty well (most of the time) in the classroom. Can’t say it’ll make you like Proverbs more:
1. Start with a couple of modern-day proverbs. Ask the students to name more. Some of what they come up with may raise the question of what exactly is and isn’t a proverb. What are the boundaries of the genre?
2. You can talk about how most every culture has these things. Then, let them read some ancient Sumerian (or modern African) proverbs, including some that, because of peculiar references, would make no sense to the modern American. What does this tell us about the proverb form? Students should be led to appreciate that, as accessible as they seem, biblical proverbs might also need to be investigated. Cite a few of the biblical proverbs that strike us as cryptic.
3. How many pairs of antithetical modern proverbs can they come up with? (Might need to break up into groups for this). Show them Proverbs 26:4-5. What do these observations say about what a proverb and cannot do (or, what it’s good for)?
4. If you get stuck, you can always ask the students if King Lemuel reigned over Israel or Judah.
5. Childs’ chapter on Proverbs in his “Intro. to the O.T. as Scripture” says that Prov. 30 points to the Torah and to the Nevi’im as necessary supplements to the Proverbs. Some insightful stuff there.
I love to teach Proverbs. I think you might have more luck if you teach the book from the perspective of (what I think is) its cultural purpose: to socialize young boys into dominant (patriarchal) mores so they can perpetuate the cultural status quo. (It doesn’t shake things up as much as, say, Qohelet.) Given this (presumed) audience, the emphasis on women (in 1-9 and 31, esp.), hard work, thriftiness, and maintenance of property and position is not at all surprising.
I know, that’s sort of general and maybe even cynical. But this perspective makes all of those little pearls of wisdom throughout the book pull together in a somewhat unified way.
Oh, I also spend a day each on Ecclesiastes and Job and compare/contrast the way wisdom is presented in each. There’s not just one idea of what “wisdom” is in Israel. There’s a conversation.
I talk about Ps 1 during the two days I discuss Psalms. And I don’t bring up the issue of so-called “wisdom psalms;” that whole issue is a nest of problems best left to a Psalms class.
Just my two cents.
I’m kind of new to your blog, so I don’t know a whole lot about what your class’s teaching goals are…but as far as proverbs goes, I find the use of hebrew acrostics (though there’s certainly more of them in Psalsms) to be kind of fascinating.