Paradoxically, it remains also the gift of God ( Prv 2:6). The pursuit of wisdom demands more than human industry. Although the need of discipline is underlined, the general approach is persuasion. The task of wisdom is character formation: what is the wise path to follow? The lessons are conveyed by observations that challenge as well as by admonitions that warn. Belief in the Lord and acceptance of the prevailing codes of conduct were presupposed they fed into the training of youths. And it is also a teaching: the lessons garnered from experience were transmitted at various levels, from education in the home all the way to training in the court. Wisdom itself is an art: how to deal with various situations and achieve a good life. The literary style is wide-ranging: aphorisms, numerical sayings, paradoxes, instructions, alphabetical and acrostic poems, lively speeches, and so forth. Biblical wisdom literature concentrates on daily human experience: how is life to be lived? In this respect it is comparable to other ancient Near Eastern compositions from Mesopotamia and Egypt that also reflect on the problems of everyday life. These works have been classified as wisdom or didactic literature, so called because their general purpose is instruction.Ī striking feature of the wisdom books is the absence of references to the promises made to the patriarchs or to Moses, or to Sinai or typical items in Israelite tradition Sirach ( chaps. All are marked by a skillful use of parallelism, or verses of balanced and symmetrical phrases. Two other books are often associated with them: Psalms, a collection of mostly devotional lyrics, and the Song of Songs, a collection of love poems. “Wisdom” is a convenient umbrella term to designate the Books of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth), Wisdom, and Sirach (Ecclesiasticus).

The biblical book of wisdom