and contrasts the portrayal of ma'at as a goddess with the
"personification" of Wisdom in theophoric terms in
Proverbs 8.3
Ptahhotep concludes his instruction, noting the
importance of ma'at:
I had one hundred and ten years of life
As gift of the king,
Honors exceeding those of the ancestors,
By doing justice [ma'at] for the king,
Until the state of veneration.4
Previously he had written:
Ma'at is good and its worth is lasting. It has not
been disturbed since the day of its creator, whereas
he who transgresses its ordinances is punished. It
lies as a path in front even of him who knows nothing.
Wrongdoing [?] has never yet brought its venture to
____________________
1Michael V. Fox, "Aspects of the Religion of the
Book of Proverbs," HUCA 39 (1968):58.
2Jerry A. Gladson, "Retributive Paradoxes in
Proverbs 10-29" (Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt
University, 1978), p. 69; J. A. Emerton, "Wisdom," in
Tradition and Interpretation, ed. G. W. Anderson (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1979), p. 215; and von Rad, Wisdom in
Israel, pp. 72, 153. Act with inherent consequence is
another way of looking at this phenomenon.
3von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, pp. 72, 153.
4Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 1:76;
W. L. Humphreys, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the
Old Testament," (Ph.D. dissertation, Union Theological
Seminary, 1970), pp. 54-56.
port. It is true that evil may gain wealth but the
strength of truth is that it lasts . . . .1
The term ma'at occurs only once in the "Instructions of
Onchsheshonqy," where it specifies that ma'at may be
communicated between individuals and that one's speech (as
well as one's actions) is to be conformed to ma'at.
Indeed, human language was one way in which the wise man
ordered his world and communicated to his students, whom
he advised to live in harmony with this order.2 So the
proverb of Onchsheshonqy exhorts:
Speak truth [ma'at] to all men;
let it cleave to your speech.3
Regularity was dominant in Egypt due to the predictable
cycles found in their environment. Thus, the geographical
conditions afforded a sense of security which is reflected
in their wisdom literature.4
One should not think of Egyptian wisdom as an
impersonal, deterministic, mechanical order, but, rather,
that this order was maintained and dictated by the will of
____________________
1Waltke, "The Book of Proverbs and Ancient Wisdom
Literature," p. 233, trans. in Frankfort, Ancient Egyptian
Religion, p. 62. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature,
1:64, sec. 5.
2B. Gemser, "The Spiritual Structure of Biblical
Aphoristic Wisdom," in SAIW, pp. 211, 216.
3Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature,
3:169; cf. Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy and
Biblical Wisdom Literature," in SAIW, p. 150.
4Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 81.
the gods. So Amenemope writes:
The Ape sits by the balance,
His heart is in the plummet;
Where is a god as great as Thoth,
Who invented these things and made them?
Do not make for yourself deficient weights,
They are rich in grief through the might of god.
(Amen. 17:22-18:5)1
In Sumer, the idea was called me. Here, too, the
concepts of security, the created order's being derived
from the gods, and man's responsibility to live in harmony
with that order are analogous to the Egyptian notion of
ma'at.2
Israelite Wisdom and Ma'at
The connection of this ma'at principle to
Israelite wisdom is only natural. The portrayal of Dame
wisdom in theophoric terms finds strong parallels with
Egypt's ma'at, who finds her existence as a darling among
the gods.3 As in Egypt, the Israelite wise man, through
observing the world order, was able to describe where God
would reward and where punishment would result for actions
____________________
1Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 2:156-57.
Cf. E. W. Heaton, Solomon's New Men, p. 120; also cf. Prov
11:1.
2Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," pp. 31-33; Kramer,
The Sumerians, p. 115; Harvey, "Wisdom Literature and
Biblical Theology (Part One)," pp. 315-16; and Perdue,
Wisdom and Cult, p. 92.
3Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 98; also
Crenshaw, "Prolegomenon," in SAIW, p. 25.
not in harmony with the prescribed order. Thus, the
"righteous," who harmonize with the order, are blessed
(Prov 10:2, 3, 6, 25), but the "wicked" are faced with
calamity (Prov 10:3, 6, 25) and an abbreviated life-span
(Prov 10:27).1 Brueggemann emphasizes the fact that
wisdom calls man to make responsible choices, by which one
fixes his destiny (Prov 18:21; 21:21; 24:16).2 The
connection between act and consequence is well observed in
wisdom (Prov 25:23; 26:20).3
Order presents itself not only in the cosmological
and ethical realms, but also the societal order must be
observed, if one will secure his existence. So Zimmerli
comments:
Thus, for the wise man, the whole world arranges
itself into a scale of value within which every entity
has its place, from the immensity of God who is
acknowledged as the highest value (even God's
inscrutability is so ordered in e.g. 16:33; 20:24;
just the same as the king's calculability is figured
in 25:3) down to the minute values of good fortune
belonging to petty life (joy, satisfaction, happy
countenance etc.). Therefore, it is the wise man's
business to have this scale of values readily at
hand.4
____________________
1Nel, The Structure and Ethos, pp. 109-11. Cf.
Walther Zimmerli, "The Place and Limit of the Wisdom in
the Framework of the Old Testament Theology," SJT 17.2
(1964):154.
2Brueggemann, In Man We Trust, pp. 20-22.
3Humphreys, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier," p.
155.
4Walther Zimmerli, "Concerning the Structure of
Old Testament Wisdom," in SAIW, p. 198.
God not only is the founder of this order but also, as
reflected in the motivational clauses, is the one who
upholds it (Prov 22:23, 11; 24:12, 18, 22).1
Kovacs has done a brilliant job of organizing and
analyzing the social order as it manifests itself in
Proverbs.2 He develops a concept which he labels as a
person's "demesne," by which he means:
the range of personal and social space over which a
particular person, being, institution or effect would
have influence or power. One's demesne is what one
can control.3
The demesne is the specification of the boundaries of
one's personal control and the wise man must know how to
live within his demesne without violating particularly the
demesne of those who are over him (Prov 20:2; 21:1; 22:7;
25:2, 6, 8).4 Thus, a hierarchy is developed--with
Yahweh
____________________
1von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, pp. 90-91.
2Brian Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural
Constraints Upon Wisdom: The Spatial and Temporal Matrix
of Proverbs 15:28-22:16" (Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt
University, 1978).
3Ibid., p. 393.
4Ibid., pp. 362, 441-42, 456. Dundes, dealing
with Yoruba proverbs, states that, "One important aspect
of Yoruba child training has to do with teaching the child
the proper sets of relationships to be maintained between
himself and his parents, his siblings, members of his
lineage, and unrelated elders." He also notes proverbs
dealing with the relationship between the parents and the
children: "If a man beats his child with his right hand,
he should draw him to himself with his left" and "The
offspring of an elephant cannot become a dwarf; the
offspring of an elephant is like the elephant" (Alan
at the top, followed by the king, the aristocrat, the
wise, the righteous, the ignorant, the foolish and the
wicked--thereby manifesting various diminishing spheres of
power which must be prioritized and observed.1 The
biblical wise man discerningly scrutinizes the limits of
his demesne, which results in behavioral modification if
he perceives that a demesne over him may be violated by
his actions. So he writes:
When you sit to dine with a ruler,
note well what is put before you,
and put a knife to your throat,
if you are given to gluttony. (Prov 23:1-2)
The demesne of Yahweh is all-encompassing. Therefore, He,
above all else, is to be feared (Prov 1:7, 29; 8:13).
Note that the king is also to be feared (Prov 24:21).
Cautions and Caveats
Several writers have looked askance upon reading a
ma'at approach mutatis mutandis into the Old Testament
wisdom literature. God and man are not bound by the world
order in Israel, but, rather, the Creator Himself, by His
character, which is manifested in His creation, binds man,
while He Himself is left free and sovereign to act (Prov
____________________
Dundes, Analytic Essays in Folklore [The Hague: Mouton,
1975], pp. 38, 40).
1Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints," pp.
418, 517.
16:1, 9, 33; 20:24; 21:1, 30-31).1 Murphy animadverts
upon the ma'at model, suggesting that the term "order" is
too inert and mechanical to capture the relationship
between God and wisdom in the wisdom literature of Israel.
Rather, the term should describe the fact that "Israel
encountered the creator in her experience of daily
events."2 J. Harvey calls wisdom "cosmodynamic," which
seems to be a very apt way of viewing the bulk of
proverbial material.3 Fontaine makes an interesting
critique which could be applied to the understanding of
Egyptian instructions as well as to the biblical proverbs:
"The traditional saying gives linguistic expression to the
operational categories of the culture; their function is
not so much to discover some pre-existent 'world order' as
it is to create and consolidate (cultural) order."4 Such
salubrious cautions need to be explored further, both in
biblical studies and in Egyptian materials. This writer
____________________
1Emerton, "Wisdom," p. 217; Wurthwein, "Egyptian
Wisdom and the Old Testament," p. 131; and Nel, The
Structure and Ethos, p. 104.
2Roland E. Murphy, "Israel's Wisdom: A Biblical
Model of Salvation," Studia Missionalia 30 (1981):41; and
Murphy, "Wisdom and Yahwism," p. 120.
3Harvey, "Wisdom Literature and Biblical Theology
(Part One)," p. 311.
4Carol R. Fontaine, "The Use of the Traditional
Saying in the Old Testament" (Ph.D. dissertation, Duke
University, 1979), p. 299. Cf. also Kovacs,
"Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 63.
is not convinced that the view of ma'at in Egypt was as
mechanistic as has been intimated by some who desire to
separate Egyptian and Israelite conceptions. The ma'at
approach properly places its emphasis on the notions of
the righteous/wicked, wise man/foolish man, and the fear
of God/fear of king, which permeate the text of Proverbs.1
One wonders whether perspectives on wisdom
theology may benefit from the linguistic distinction
between synchronic and diachronic. Wisdom looks at the
world order in a descriptively synchronical fashion. It
focuses its attention phenomenologically on the present
order of things, diachronically assuming the creation,
covenant and character of the Creator and Maintainer of
that order, who Himself provides the paradigm of how that
order is to function in moral and social realms.
Wisdom and Heilsgeschichte
One of the major tensions facing biblical
theology, as it approaches the wisdom texts, is the
impression encapsulated by Zimmerli: "Wisdom has no
relation to the history between God and Israel."2
____________________
1Leo G. Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, pp. 135, 137;
also vid. Nel, The Structure and Ethos, pp. 6, 108.
2Walther Zimmerli, "The Place and Limit of the
Wisdom in the Framework of the Old Testament Theology," p.
315. This had been noticed long before, by Walter
Baumgartner, in his work, Israelitische und
altorientalishche Weisheit, Sammlung Gemeinverstandlicher
Numerous other scholars have also pointed to this apparent
"parenthesis" in the Heilsgeschichte principle, which
dominates the historical and prophetic materials.1 Nel
notes that "Not one admonition in Proverbs is motivated
with reference to the history of salvation."2 This
tension has resulted in a variety of responses. Some,
such as H. D. Preuss, conclude that wisdom, because of its
lack of salvation history, is devoid of inspiration and on
par with pagan texts.3 Brueggemann "solves" the problem
by engineering two "histories," each motivated by a
different memory. The first is the Mosaic-covenant, which
portrays God's spectacular intrusions into history. The
second is the Davidic-royal, which highlights God's
____________________
Vortrage und Schriften aus dem Gebiet der Theologie und
Religionsgeschichte, vol. 166 (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr,
1933), pp. 1-2, and later, in Baumgartner's article, "The
Wisdom Literature," in The Old Testament and Modern Study:
A Generation of Discovery and Research; Essays by Members
of the Society for Old Testament Study, ed. H. H. Rowley
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), p. 211.
1Murphy, "Israel's Wisdom," p. 13; Bernhard W.
Anderson, Understanding the Old Testament (Englewood
Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966), p. 490; Robert C.
Hill, "The Dimensions of Salvation History in the Wisdom
Books," CBQ 19 (October 1967):98; C. Hasel Bullock, An
Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books, p. 57; and
Burdett, "Wisdom Literature and the Promise Doctrine," p.
2.
2Nel, The Structure and Ethos, p. 84.
3H. D. Preuss, "Erwagungen zum theologischen Ort
alttestamentlicher Weisheitsliteratur," EvT 30
(1970):393-417.
abiding presence, the world order, and institutions which
maintain that order.1 Others will opt for an evolution
within wisdom, from a non-Israelite, secular outlook to a
later assimilation or theologization of Heilsgeschichte
motifs into that tradition. This becomes particularly
noticeable in later wisdom texts, such as Ben Sirach (Sir
44-49 and its relationship to the law, Sir 1:26; 19:20;
24:23).2
Two proposals, both of which move in the right
direction, are: (1) Toombs' attempt to use the salvation
portrayed in Proverbs as the basis of a connection with
salvation history (cf. Prov 2:1-5, 12, 15, 20; and also
10:2)3 and (2) an emphasis on creation/order theology,
which provides a better base by rooting wisdom in God's
mighty acts and character, which are demonstrated by
____________________
1Walter A. Brueggemann, "The Epistemological Crisis
of Israel's Two Histories (Jer 9:22-23)," in Israelite
Wisdom: Theological and Literary Essays in Honor of Samuel
Terrien, ed. J. G. Gammie et al. (Missoula, MT: Scholars
Press, 1978), p. 86. The obvious problem with his
artificial model is the relationship between wisdom and the
cult in such histories.
2Coert J. Rylaarsdam, Revelation in Jewish Wisdom
Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1946),
p. 20.
3Toombs, "O.T. Theology and the Wisdom Literature,"
p. 194; also vid. Zimmerli, "Concerning the Structure of
Old Testament Wisdom," p. 206, where he examines salvific
vocabulary in Proverbs (nsl: 6:3,5; 11:4; nsr 2:8, 11; 4:6;
mlt 11:21; 19:5; also the emphasis on sin and punishment
and obedience and "life").
His creating and maintaining the cosmic order.1 H. H.
Schmid qualifies this discussion on wisdom's ahistorical
outlook. He suggests that wisdom is historically
sensitive along individual lines.2 Loader develops this
point by stressing the importance of time and situation in
the wisdom literature (Eccl 3:1-8; Prov 10:5; 24:27).3
Reid, in an overly acrid stereotype, portrays a salvation
history methodology as a "god of the gaps" approach.
Similarly, Brueggemann objects to the tunnel perspective
of seeing history as a record of God's intrusions, thereby
accentuating the discontinuities in history, rather than
seeing the continuities of God's work in daily affairs.
While Brueggemann is overly harsh in his caricature of
historical narrative, it is this later Weltanschauung,
normal daily life, that is reflected in wisdom.4
Along the same line is the lack of wisdom's mention
____________________
1James L. Crenshaw, "The Influence of the Wise
upon Amos," ZAW 79 (1967):50. Also vid. Crenshaw's
student, Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 227.
2Hans Heinrich Schmid, Wesen und Geschichte der
Weisheit, pp. 79-84; Jerry A. Gladson, "Retributive
Paradoxes in Proverbs 10-29," pp. 41-42; and Harvey,
"Wisdom Literature and Biblical Theology," p. 314.
3J. A. Loader, "Relativity in Near Eastern
Wisdom," in Studies in Wisdom Literature, ed. W. C. van
Wyk, OTWSA 15 & 16 (1972, 1973), p. 50.
4W. Stanford Reid, "The Beginning of Wisdom," EvQ
48.3 (July-September 1976):149; Brueggemann, In Man We
Trust, p. 23.
of God's covenant with Israel, which is so foundational to
the rest of the Old Testament. Wisdom's emphasis is on
man qua man, rather than on the covenant community per
se.1 This problem of the lack of the election of Israel
in wisdom will not be resolved by hiding in Sirach, as
Hill does.2 It is further accentuated by what Ranston
notes as the total neglect of messianism. While Ranston's
view is, of course, dependent on a very narrow view of
messianism, it does point out the lack of explicit mention
of the person of the messiah in normal salvific terms.3
Though wisdom scrutinizes the activities of man as an
individual, rather than in an explicitly national
____________________
1Walther Zimmerli, Old Testament Theology in
Outline, trans. D. E. Green (Atlanta: John Knox Press,
1977), p. 146; Priest, "Where is Wisdom to be Placed?" p.
275; Wright, God Who Acts, p. 103; and Fox, "Aspects of
the Religion of the Book of Proverbs," p. 63.
2Hill, "The Dimensions of Salvation History in the
Wisdom Books," Scr 19 (1967):103. Baumgartner ("The
Wisdom Literature," p. 211), Murphy ("The Interpretation
of Old Testament Wisdom Literature," p. 290), and Scott
(The Way of Wisdom, p. 202) appreciate the issue more than
Hill does. One should not forget Crenshaw's caution:
"Hartman Gese's oft-quoted phrase describing wisdom as an
alien body within the Old Testament (Gese, 1958, p. 1) was
grounded in firm reality: an absence of the usual
Yahwistic concerns until Sirach," (James L. Crenshaw,
review of Wisdom in Israel, by Gerhard von Rad, in
Religious Studies Review 2.2 [April, 1976]:6).
3H. Ranston, The Old Testament Wisdom Books, p.
52; W. H. Gispen, "What is Wisdom in the Old Testament?"
in Travels in the World of the Old Testament, ed. M. A.
Beek (Assen: Van Gorcum and Company, 1974), pp. 75-79;
and Gispen, "The Wise Men in Israel," Free University
Quarterly 5 (November 1957):1.
Israelite sense,1 this is perfectly consistent with its
international viewpoint.
Secular Humanist or Theistic
Humanist Wisdom?
One of the perceptions which has both hurt and
helped wisdom studies has been the observation that wisdom
is secular "stuff." This secularized perspective has been
developed in two directions: (1) the lack of a clear
relationship of an actively-participating God in the
events of history and/or (2) a positive emphasis of man
qua man in the "early" wisdom books. Wisdom's secular
tenor has helped in the sense that many biblical scholars
have been enamored with a "secular" approach to religion;
hence they have generated a significant number of
technical studies describing its tendenz and analyzing its
texts. Such proclivities have drawn them to study the
wisdom literature as a secular approach to man's problems.
They focus on the fact that wisdom does not revert to an
escape into the paradisaical eschaton or resign one into
the arms of a God who died to save wormish sinners. For
the wisdom materials proclaim man to be his own deliverer
via the use of his mind, which he is to employ
redemptively to transform situations all for the glory of
man; or so they think.
____________________
1Gladson, "Retribution Paradoxes in Proverbs
10-29," p. 46.
H. Gunkel pointed out the secular character of the
oldest sections of Proverbs and this tenet, unfortunately,
has been fostered by Eichrodt and rejuvenated by McKane's
works.1 McKane typifies this position when he writes:
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