Sacred Books Project

Biting the Proverbial Bullet: Restarting Proverbs (and the Sacred Books Project) | January 13, 2012

Wow, what happened? How long has it been since I last updated? How many months? Six!? Really? Half a year sure doesn’t seem that long. Well, I don’t want to make it look like the project is dead. I still have great plans for the future. The last few months have been very busy, I guess, I did not want to sacrifice what passes as my “full attention” off on Proverbs. Bah! Enough excuses. January is the time for “New Years Revolutions” and what not, but I think I will leave that old canard alone and stay away from easily lost “schedules” and just say that, regardless, new entries will be much more forthcoming in 2012. I shall be reigniting my blog with a long delayed entry on Proverbs, the latest book of the Old Testament that I have been reading over the last week, up to chapter 10, anyway.

I have been restarting my reading of Proverbs after being, er, shall we say lax over the past six months. I had been some ways in but I’m finding the rather cryptic nature of Proverbs (not unlike Psalms) to make me desire to devote a little more thought to them. Hey, “cryptic?” Didn’t I use that in my last blog entry on Pslams back in July? It’s been far too long. Ah well. In any case, Proverbs is an interesting word to me, evoking folklore and fables, stories or anecdotes that illustrate certain points. Before I began this chapter, I wondered how many of our commonplace proverbs such as the “rolling stone gathers no moss” arose in the Bible. That’s a biblical phrase, right?* And what religious or cultural background could such a saying have arisen from? It would all go back to the cultural diffusion I find so interesting.

These Proverbs, though, are not really what I expected. As I read the first few chapters, they seem to be more like roughly organized maxims or rules. A good example would be in the first chapter, 1:6 and 1:7 “To understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” They are quite riddle-like, it is true. They talk much of fools and the wise, but little of actual advice. Generally, the chapters in Proverbs are short, no more than a page in length, and can be, at least where I have read, quite repetitive. I am amused at how different my expectations are from reality. On the other hand, there is some use of allegory and figurative ideas that I associate with folklore and proverbs. I particularly liked 6:6, “Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise,” referring to the legendary work ethic of the insect and its ability to work together for a common good. So far, Proverbs also contain some of the strongest condemnations of violence that I have seen in the Bible yet, such as 3:31, “Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways.” I certainly find this interesting after some of the scenes depicted in earlier books of the Bible.

However, the deep gender issues of the Bible seem even more noticeable here; many of the proverbs are addressed to “my son” or “sons,” as if precluding women from the wisdom and advice provided. Also, while wisdom itself (at least in this translation) seems to be referred to as a “she,” as in 3:15 in which “she is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her.” Wisdom, then, is a “good woman.” “Bad women” in Proverbs, though, seem much more evident as actual humans, rather than an abstract concept, as in 5:3 “for the lips of the adulteress drip honey, and smoother than oil is her speech.” Adulteresses, harlots, and “strange women” appear often in the first ten chapters Beware these treacherous women, my son, as is expressed in Chapter 7, particularly between 7:10 and 7:11, “dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart. She is boisterous and rebellious; her feet do not stay at home.” Yes, beware free-thinking women, they will lead you to Sheol (27). As I continue to read Proverbs, I’ll note if these themes continue or if they change. Perhaps I can have a better idea of what else this book can have to offer and why it was included. I may need to a little extra research on this topic. Ah, it feels good to have another entry on offer!

That is not dead which can eternal lay, and hopefully the stars are coming right for my blog and you won’t have to wait a strange eon for the next entry. Couldn’t resist paraphrasing a geeky quote in there at the end!

*Note: A quick Wikipedia search reveals that this hoary phrase actually comes from the Latin writer Publius Syrus, and refers to figurative nomadic peoples who avoid responsibilities.