As announced with my first post, this second one will develop the first hermeneutical guideline for interpreting Proverbs. This guideline relates to recognizing the characteristics of a proverb. I will discuss this principle over the course of three blog entries.

I. Recognizing the Characteristics of a Proverb

The proverb, or aphorism, is found throughout the Bible. It is often assumed that the use of proverbs is confined to the book of Proverbs. The wisdom literature of the Old Testament such as Ecclesiastes and Job are characterized by their use of proverbs. Proverbs are commonly found in poetic literature (Ps 119:105). Jesus also uses proverbs (Mark 12:17). The Epistle of James also contains many proverbs. The proverb is a common literary form used in the Bible.

A proverb is a concise, memorable saying, usually in poetic form, expressing a generally accepted observation about life as filtered through biblical revelation. From this definition, we can observe that a proverb is characterized as being concise and memorable, simple yet profound, specific yet general, usually expressed in poetic form, and observations about life as filtered through biblical revelation. To clarify our understanding of the nature of proverbs, we will examine these five characteristics in individual proverbs.

A. A proverb is concise and memorable.

The verbal conciseness aids in making it memorable. The sage who creates a concise and memorable saying must be skillful in his use of words and syntax. By reducing his observation about life into a proverbial form, the sage was aiming to make his observations permanent. As such, a proverb is a high point drawn from the sage???s observations about life. With the proverb, the sage ???captures the clearest and most affective moment and the point of greatest light??? (Ryken, Word of Delight, p. 315). A concise and memorable proverb that I vividly remember from my teen age years is Proverbs 12:4: “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband.”

B. A proverb is simple yet profound.

???Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD a weighs the heart??? (Prov 21:2). The basic point of this proverb is that people think they have an accurate self-evaluation for their actions, but the LORD has an evaluation of their heart that is truly accurate because of His infinite perspective. Though this proverb is simple, it is quite profound. God knows exactly what is in the heart of every single person better than each individual knows himself, and God with His omniscient knowledge evaluates everyone according to His standard of holiness.

C. A proverb is specific yet general.

This is illustrated in Proverbs 26:27, ???Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.??? ???Whoever digs a pit??? specifically refers to someone laying a trap for another and ???a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling??? refers to an attempt to place a stone upon one???s opponent but the stone rolls back on its initiator. The result in either case is that the trap backfires. While both part of this verse have a specificity, they communicate a general point that man’s best plans may backfire.

D. A proverb is consistently cast into poetic form.

Hebrew poetry is characterized by brevity in line length, parallelism, and figurative language. If we compare the line length of Proverbs 1 with a narrative such as Judges 1, it is readily apparent that the length of each line in Proverbs 1 is shorter than the length of each line in Judges 1. Proverbs 4:1 is a familiar example of poetic parallelism. Solomon provides an exhortation, ???Hear, O sons, a father???s instruction.??? The second part of this verse parallels the first part with a specification of his purpose, ???be attentive, that you may g gain insight.??? The parallelism clearly develops what the sage???s point is, viz., listen to a godly father in order to gain wisdom. Proverbs 4:17 demonstrates the use of figures when Solomon picturesquely compares the unbridled lust of the wicked to their eating habits, ???For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.??? Eating ???the bread of wickedness??? and drinking ???the wine of violence??? is a graphic way of illustrating that wicked people live for ???wickedness??? and ???violence.???

As noted in the preceding paragraph, Hebrew poetry is characterized by parallelism. Parallelism is essentially a repetition of thought or grammar in a second line of poetry. The predominant form of parallelism is thought repetition. In the past, parallelism has been divided into three basic types: synonymous, antithetical, and synthetic. With a number of recent studies, we have been able to more precisely categorize parallellism. In the book of Proverbs, there are at least six types of proverbs (much of the following is adapted from Klein, Blomberg and Hubard, Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, pp. 230???38). However, a development of these six kinds of parallelism will need to wait for my next two posts.

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Proverbs, Wisdom literature

I am going to do a 14-part series on interpreting the book of Proverbs. This is an update from a workshop that I did in October of 2000 at the Mid-America Conference on Preaching. This initial post will serve as an introduction to the series. After this, I will do twelve posts on six hermeneutical principles for understanding Proverbs and a final post on a recommended bibliography for studying Proverbs.

How often have you heard a sincere believer claim a supposed prayer promise from the book of Proverbs or a verse that sounds as if success in some aspect of life, such as a business venture or a domestic activity, is guaranteed for one who trusts in the Lord. Yet, when the expected results did not come to fruition, the believer was left in a state of bewilderment about his lack of faith, or whatever sort of deficiency he is able to conjecture. On some different occasions, I have heard someone question a well-intentioned believer about his application and/or interpretation of a passage in Proverbs, and have received a response something like: ???this is what the passage means to me!??? Though I do not want to minimize an individual believer???s responsibility in applying Scripture to his life, I am convinced that legitimate application can only be accomplished after a believer directs his primary focus away from the application to a foundational level that focuses on what did this passage mean to its original author. This basic interpretative task is especially important when we come to Proverbs.

This interpretative task in Proverbs is germane for two reasons. First, Christians need to know how to live wisely in a humanistic and hedonistic society. Proverbs tells the individual believer how to live wisely in the everyday circumstances of life. This purpose is clearly articulated in Proverbs 1:2???6. This section states that the purpose of the book of Proverbs is to challenge its readers to obtain wisdom. The term translated as ???wisdom??? in Proverbs can be understood as biblical skill in living. This is to say wisdom enables one to live a successful and godly life. In 1:2???6 we can see that wisdom includes moral skill in holy living (vv. 2a, 3???5) and intellectual understanding (vv. 2b, 6). The theme of Proverbs is found in 1:7. This verse states that wisdom is an outgrowth of one???s relationship to fearing, ???reverentially trusting,??? God. Thus, Christians need the wisdom found in Proverbs in facing the demands and temptations encountered in a secular society. Second, while Christians need the wisdom of Proverbs to regulate their lives, they must use Proverbs in a biblically informed manner to avoid misapplying the wisdom of Proverbs as necessarily direct guarantees from God. Because the applications drawn from the book of Proverbs have been so abused, we need that which is basic for all effective application of Proverbs: a development of hermeneutical guidelines to establish the meaning of Proverbs. Consequently, my objective with this series of posts is to lay a foundation for effective application by developing six principles for interpreting Proverbs. With my next post, I will focus on the first hermeneutical guideline.

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Wisdom literature, Proverbs