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13 - Wisdom’s Wider Resonance

from Part II - Wisdom Literature in the Hebrew Bible

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2022

By
Michael C. Legaspi
Edited by
Katherine J. Dell
Edited in association with
Suzanna R. Millar  and
Arthur Jan Keefer
Katherine J. Dell
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Suzanna R. Millar
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Arthur Jan Keefer
Affiliation:
Eton College
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Summary

Michael C. Legaspi examines ‘Wisdom’s Wider Resonance’. It has been common to find the influence of wisdom literature across the canon, but Legaspi outlines the problems with this, and takes an alternative approach. He examines the ḥ-k-m (‘wisdom’) root in parts of the Bible not usually associated with wisdom literature to find overlooked resonances of the concept. Specifically, he examines the idea that wisdom concerns the relationship between human and divine realms (common in Greek and Jewish thought). This understanding is evident in biblical descriptions of sacred spaces, for the lead craftsmen who construct the tabernacle and temple (Bazalel and Hiram respectively) are divinely endowed with wisdom. Equally, wisdom (albeit a corrupted wisdom) proliferates in Ezekiel 28, associated with proximity to and specialist knowledge of the divine, and construction of sacred spaces. A similar understanding may also underlie Jeremiah’s descriptions of Jerusalem’s degraded wisdom. This analysis encourages us to understand ‘wisdom’ more capaciously than traditional delimitations of ‘wisdom literature’ allow.

Keywords

Canonhuman realmdivine realmtabernacletempleEzekial 28Jeremiah
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Wisdom Literature , pp. 239 - 258
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Further Reading

Boda, Mark J., Meek, Russell L. and Osborne, William R., eds. Riddles and Revelations: Explorations into the Relation between Wisdom and Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible. London: 2018.Google Scholar
Brouwer, René. The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood, and Socrates. Cambridge: 2014.Google Scholar
Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion. Translated by John Raffan. Cambridge, MA: 1985.Google Scholar
Kynes, Will. An Obituary for ‘Wisdom Literature’: The Birth, Death, and Intertextual Reintegration of a Biblical Corpus. Oxford: 2019.Google Scholar
Legaspi, Michael C. Wisdom in Classical and Biblical Tradition. New York: 2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levenson, Jon D. Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence. Princeton: 1988.Google Scholar
Najman, Hindy, Rey, Jean-Sébastien and Tigchelaar, Eibert J. C., eds. Tracing Sapiential Traditions in Ancient Judaism. JSJSup 174. Leiden: 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perdue, Leo. Wisdom and Cult: A Critical Analysis of the Views of Cult in the Wisdom Literature of Israel and the Ancient Near East. SBLDS 30. Missoula: 1977.Google Scholar
Schwáb, Zoltán. Toward an Interpretation of the Book of Proverbs: Selfishness and Secularity Revisited. JTISup 7. Winona Lake: 2013.Google Scholar
Van Leeuwen, Raymond C. ‘Cosmos, Temple, House: Building and Wisdom in Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel’. Pages 399–421 in From the Foundations to the Crenellations: Essays on Temple Building in the Ancient Near East and Hebrew Bible. Edited by Boda, Mark J. and Novotny, Jamie. AOAT 366. Münster: 2010.Google Scholar

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