Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-m9kch Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T08:27:50.798Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

21 - Reward and Retribution

from Part IV - Themes in the Wisdom Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2022

Katherine J. Dell
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Suzanna R. Millar
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Arthur Jan Keefer
Affiliation:
Eton College
Get access

Summary

The contribution by Peter T. H. Hatton is dedicated entirely to conceptions of reward and retribution in the wisdom literature. He considers how well-placed and sometimes misplaced the paradigm can be, namely that wickedness brings retribution and righteousness brings reward. Such doctrines, he says, remain ‘key claims of a dominant interpretive tradition’ and have consequently formed a ‘pejorative paradigm’ that leaves the book of Proverbs out of favour in comparison to more nuanced books of the OT. The seminal work of 1955 by Klaus Koch – ‘Gibt es ein Vergeltungsdogma im Alten Tesament?’ (Is there a Dogma of Retribution in the Old Testament?) – receives special attention, as do subsequent, critical responses to it. Hatton suggests that the moral mechanism of act-consequence is just not that predictable and that in Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes the paradigm is principally relational. For ‘reward’ and ‘retribution’ are not mechanical but are rather conditioned by one’s relationship with the Lord.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Further Reading

Boström, Lennart. The God of the Sages: The Portrayal of God in the Book of Proverbs. ConBOT 29. Stockholm: 1990.Google Scholar
Brown William, P. Character in Crisis: A Fresh Approach to the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: 1996.Google Scholar
Clines, David J. A.The Wisdom Books’. Pages 269291 in Creating the Old Testament: The Emergence of the Hebrew Bible. Edited by Bigger, S.. Oxford: 1989.Google Scholar
Forti, Tova. ‘The Concept of “Reward” in Proverbs: A Diachronic or Synchronic Approach?CurBR 12 (2014): 129145.Google Scholar
Fox, Michael V. A Time to Tear Down and a Time to Build Up: A Re-reading of Ecclesiastes. Grand Rapids: 1999.Google Scholar
Hatton, Peter T. H.A Cautionary Tale: The Acts-Consequence Construct’. JSOT 35 (2011): 375384.Google Scholar
Janzen, J. Gerald. Job. IBC. Louisville: 1990.Google Scholar
Koch, Klaus. ‘Is There a Doctrine of Retribution in the Old Testament?’ Pages 5787 in Theodicy in the Old Testament. Edited by Crenshaw, James. Translated by Thomas J. Trapp. London: 1983.Google Scholar
Limburg, James. Encountering Ecclesiastes: A Book for Our Time. Grand Rapids: 2006.Google Scholar
Lucas, Ernest. Proverbs. THOTC. Grand Rapids: 2015.Google Scholar
Von Rad, Gerhard. Wisdom in Israel. Translated by James D. Martin. London: 1972.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×