Proverbs

Composition

Proverbs is a compilation of ancient Jewish wisdom that makes up one of the five biblical books of wisdom and poetry. Traditionalist views hold that the individual compositions contained in the book of Proverbs were first compiled during the reign of King Solomon, who is also recognized as the chief author of many of its compositions. If accurate, this would place the work’s initial creation sometime in the range of 1015–970 BCE. However, others believe that the seven subcollections that combine to comprise Proverbs were written at different times, problematizing conventional notions of both its authorship and its time of composition.

Contemporary experts approaching their analysis from critical and secular perspectives note that the much-discussed third collection of Proverbs displays striking similarities to an Egyptian work known as the Wisdom of Amenpope. The Wisdom of Amenpope is dated as early as the tenth century BCE and as late as the sixth century BCE. This supports the possibility that derivate works could align with a timeline placing their creation around the time of King Solomon. Resemblances between Proverbs and the Wisdom of Amenpope also indicate significant levels of cross-cultural contact and the profound influence of ancient Egyptian society on surrounding regional cultures. Yet, similar analysis of other collections in Proverbs suggests significantly more recent composition times, dating the youngest compositions in the work to the fourth century BCE.

Such critical analysis calls established ideas regarding the authorship of Proverbs into question. Judeo-Christian tradition recognizes King Solomon, often characterized as the wisest of the ancient Israelite kings, as the primary author of Proverbs. The book contains multiple references to Solomon identifying him as its composer. However, the text of some proverbs credits other authors. Some commentators have explained these anomalies away as pseudonymous compositions of Solomon. Others have adapted their authorship models, recognizing Solomon as the chief compiler of Proverbs even if he did not write most of its actual compositions. Yet, both of these paradigms fail to account for the fact that many of the writings found in Proverbs can strongly be linked to creation dates that fall centuries after Solomon’s lifetime.

Solomonic authorship of the book is now doubted by most contemporary researchers. Prevailing views hold that Proverbs had many authors while still allowing for Solomon to have played a shaping role in the compilation of the book’s oldest collections. Bruce K. Waltke, a renowned Old Testament and ancient Hebrew expert, issued a two-volume commentary on the book of Proverbs in 2004 and 2005. In the commentary, Waltke stated that the actual author of Proverbs—an unknown editor who compiled the version of the work—likely lived during either the Persian period (ca. 540–332 BCE) or the Hellenistic era (323–33 BCE). However, Waltke also emphasizes that this editor did not write the actual proverbs themselves. Many individual proverbs remain of unknown or uncertain origin.

Summary

The book of Proverbs is a collection of wisdom writings presented in the Talmud (Hebrew Bible), appearing in its third and final section, the Ketuvim (“Writings”). In the Christian Bible, the book of Proverbs is placed in the Old Testament.

Most of the compositions in Proverbs are brief treatises offering wisdom and insight on how to live a morally virtuous and successful life. Standard structural breakdowns of Proverbs divide the work into seven distinct collections, which are presented across thirty-one chapters. The first such collection spans Proverbs 1:1 to Proverbs 9:18, which include lectures attributed to Solomon commingled with wise sayings and speeches. At Proverbs 10:1, the second collection begins. The second collection continues to Proverbs 22:16, presenting insights and snippets of wisdom historically attributed to Solomon. Some experts break down the second collection into two distinct parts, while others view it as a single, unified whole.

The third collection, which has been the focus of a great deal of analysis and debate over the centuries, presents “the words of the wise” across a series of verse-length compositions that continues until Proverbs 24:22. This segment of Proverbs has drawn many comparisons to the Wisdom of Amenpope, a relatively obscure ancient Egyptian work offering similar snippets of prudence and life advice. “The wise” are also credited as the creators of the fourth collection in the book of Proverbs, which spans verses 23–34 of the book’s twenty-fourth chapter.

The next chapter returns to proverbs credited to Solomon, with these fifth-collection compositions apparently being compiled by scribes and courtiers who served under King Hezekiah of Judah (Israel’s southern kingdom) during the late eighth and early seventh centuries BCE. The sixth collection begins at chapter 30, citing Agur, son of Jakeh, as the author of its proverbs. Agur is generally considered to have been an Israelite sage, though nothing beyond his name is directly known about him. Some commentators speculate that Agur is a pseudonym of Solomon, though little compelling evidence supports this theory.

The seventh and final collection is attributed to a figure known as King Lemuel. This collection contains the well-known proverb of the virtuous woman in which the price of such a woman is considered “far above rubies.” This proverb was said to have been passed down to Lemuel from his mother. The seventh collection also offers a famous profile of a model wife across verses 10–31, which is presented in poetic form. The surviving historical record contains no other information about Lemuel, prompting some Judeo-Christian traditionalists to conjecture that the moniker was, like Agur, a pseudonym of Solomon. However, as with the proverb collection attributed to Agur, the hypothesis has scant evidence.

Themes

Commentators have long noted that the biblical books of wisdom and poetry serve a different function than the other books found in the Talmud/Christian Old Testament. Whereas most of the other Talmud/Old Testament books use narrative forms to relay religious doctrines and dogmatic ideologies, the books of wisdom and poetry take on a more instructive tone that seeks to engage the reader through teaching. The compositions in the book of Proverbs focus on common situations that most people experience over the course of everyday life, offering insights and strategies for navigating them within the confines of a Judeo-Christian moral framework.

In some cases, individual proverbs reflect established teachings of the Judeo-Christian canon by repeating principles contained in scriptural texts such as the Ten Commandments. Several well-known proverbs offer examples: “My son, hear the instruction of my father, and forsake not the law of thy mother,” echoes one of the most famous Commandments delivered by God to Moses at Mount Sinai: “Honor thy father and thy mother.” However, in other cases, the proverbs seem to focus more on universal advice that does not have a direct spiritual, religious, or dogmatic dimension. Examples of these proverbs include “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly; and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” and “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

In general, the directly religious themes of Proverbs express the unavoidable nature of God’s judgment while its more secular and universal themes advocate moderation, temperance, and the application of foresight. The proverbs attributed to King Solomon focus heavily on the inevitable spiritual consequences of sin, wickedness, and idolatry without repentance, with many warning readers that such outcomes can lead to dramatic and negative turns of fortune in earthly life. Proverbs offering advice on moderating personal conduct typically advocate for avoiding excess of food and drink while discouraging laziness and warning of the dangers of spreading gossip and hearsay, and of allowing anger to fester unchecked. These proverbs also position deference and respect for one’s parents as an admirable, highly desirable virtue.

Notably, the book includes innovative depictions of femininity and female independence and strength, which many commentators find unusual given the highly patriarchal nature of the society in which the compositions were written. In this regard, observers have interpreted Proverbs as carrying an empowering message for female readers living during a male-dominated juncture of human history. Analysts note that time and again in Proverbs, men (and especially young men) are presented as purposeless wanderers searching for a meaningful path in life but prone to the entrapments of lust and seduction. By contrast, the book personifies wisdom in a female corporeal form at multiple junctures, including Proverbs 1:20–33 and Proverbs 8:1–9:12. This positions femininity as an important expression of God’s greatness, assigning it high esteem in the Judeo-Christian cosmological order.

Bibliography

Guzik, David. Proverbs: Verse by Verse Commentary. Enduring Word Media, 2020.

Heiser, Michael S. “Who Wrote the Book of Proverbs?” Bible Study Magazine, 16 Nov. 2017, www.biblestudymagazine.com/bible-study-magazine-blog/2017/11/16/who-wrote-the-book-of-proverbs. Accessed 28 Apr. 2022.

“Introduction to the Book of Proverbs.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 2022, www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/old-testament-seminary-teacher-manual/introduction-to-the-book-of-proverbs?lang=eng. Accessed 28 Apr. 2022.

“Proverbs.” The Society for Old Testament Study, 2015, www.sots.ac.uk/wiki/proverbs/. Accessed 28 Apr. 2022.

Rotasperti, Sergio. Metaphors in Proverbs: Decoding the Language of Metaphor in the Book of Proverbs. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Publishing, 2021.

Waltke, Bruce K. The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 1–15. William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2004.

Waltke, Bruce K. The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 15–31. William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005.

Waltke, Bruce K. and Ivan D.V. DeSilva. Proverbs: A Shorter Commentary. William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2021.