Biblical Wisdom Literature

Wisdom literature is a literary form that developed out of an archaic scribal custom of penning manuals for court administrators, and can be found in the books of the Bible entitled Job, Psalm, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Sirach and Wisdom. The books were created between 2000 and 100 B.C. by a handful of writers, most notable of which are David, who is said to have written some of the Psalms, a sage who lived in Jerusalem named Jesus, who wrote Sirach, and Solomon, who wrote Song of Solomon and questionably Ecclesiastes, as well. The geographical areas the books were put together in vary, although most centered around what today is known as the Middle East. Scholars know for sure, though, that the Book of Wisdom was written in Alexandria, Egypt, and Sirach was composed in Jerusalem.

The chief purpose of wisdom literature is to help the reader through the struggle to find the understanding that comes from God. The wisdom books in the Bible talk of the wise, those who have wholeness and integrity, and of the foolish, those who are not wise and deteriorate into sin. From the above definitions, a clear, simplistic distinction between good and evil is made. Job teaches that suffering comes as a result of sin, and Proverbs was meant to teach children what was right and just. Biblical writers of wisdom literature included proverbs, or wise sayings, in their compositions to share results of human mistake so that others did not have to go through the experience. These short maxims were incorporated into the books to help readers acquire important virtues. Most of the wisdom literature in the Bible was written in the form of a poem, with each verse usually constructed out of two lines. The most important feature of the poetry is parallelism, meaning the second line of a verse either repeats, opposes, or completes the first line.

The biblical passage that begins with "Do no evil..." is categorized as wisdom literature, and an analysis of the piece would support that statement. First of all, the extract is written as a poem, two lines to each verse, with each second line complimenting the first. For example, "Do no evil, and evil will not overtake you;" is repeated by "Avoid wickedness and it will turn aside from you." in the first two lines of the poem. The line "Or you will show favor to the rule," is opposed by its counterpart "And mar your integrity." "Be not impatient in prayers," is completed by "And neglect not the giving of alms." In addition, the subject of the excerpt points to wisdom literature. The poem speaks of what constitutes getting into Heaven by outlining what not to do with your time on Earth, and thus makes a separation between the wise and the foolish. "What awaits man is worms." the author warns, getting a point across that sin leads directly to suffering. Furthermore, proverbs make up almost every verse as shown below:

"Parade not your justice before the Lord,
And before the king flaunt not your wisdom.
Seek not to become a judge
If you have not the strength to root out crime,"

This biblical passage would have been directed towards the sinners of the community when this particular section was written. It would have been written for those who would "laugh at an embittered man," "tell lie after lie," and "sow in the furrows of injustice." The purpose of the poem was to convert the sinners into being good and wise people. Using mistakes of human experience, the writer tried to explain the right way to treat other people and prevent others from meeting the same fate as the individuals who made the errors.

This section would most likely come from either Job, Psalm, Proverbs, Wisdom or Sirach. All of these books use the two line verses in poetic format. Job, a story about a good man who has his wealth and family taken away from him by God, has an underlying theme of good versus evil, thus allowing the "Do no evil..." passage to fit in nicely. Job also uses parallelism, seen in lines such as "Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;" (Job 7:11). Psalm is a collection of religious songs that are usually performed to music. There are many different categories of psalms, such as the hymns of wisdom, where the passage under examination would likely be found. An example of parallelism from Psalm would be "for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish" (Psalm 1:6). Proverbs, sometimes compared to an advice column, gives us insight into topics of everyday lifestyle. This book is mainly made up of proverbs, as the title suggests, and verses such as "Those who despise their neighbors are sinners, but happy are those who are kind to the poor." (Prov 14:21) show that parallelism is also apparent. The Book of Wisdom takes an interesting stance on good and evil by saying that good will live forever while evil will disappear and also includes repeating, opposing, and completing lines. Jesus Ben Sira, who wrote Sirach, was a firm believer that good is rewarded and evil is punished. In actuality, "Do no evil..." is from Sirach, chapter 7, verses 1 through 17.

Work Cited

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_literature