Video Transcript: Proverbs: Theme and Opening Lectures on Wisdom and Folly

As we begin our look into the Book of Proverbs, another one of the big collections of  Wisdom literature, it's important to understand what the proverbs are. We need to think  in terms of a process of developing a moral lifestyle or an education proverbs are linked  to education. They're a means by which wisdom is communicated from one generation  to the next. And that becomes a key theme in the book of Proverbs. The word proverbs  itself is actually from a Latin term which means for a verb in other words, these are  more words, which are intended to take place of many words. They are concise  distillations of wisdom compacted into a few phrases. They're poetic in that sense,  because poetry has a way of taking big ideas and reducing them to small statements, in  the small statements is contained the wisdom of the whole. It's also important as we  enter the book of Proverbs to understand that even though not a lot of overt or extended  theology is found in the Book of Proverbs, there's not a lot new that we're going to learn  in terms of the theology of Israel, the theology of Israel's relationship with God, God's  intentions for Israel, not a lot new is learned, but that the worldview of Genesis Genesis  and Exodus is assumed. In other words, these proverbs make no sense on their own.  They make no sense if we isolate them from the context of Israel's life with and before  God. These proverbs emerge out of the moral matrix of a creator who has established  right and wrong in the creation, and a redeemer who has moved into Israel's community  and spoken of moral values and the manner in which people ought to treat one another.  So even though there's not a lot of new theology that stated, it is the worldview of  Genesis and Exodus, the worldview of the creation and redemption that is assumed,  even though it's not always stated. And we have to understand the power of Hebrew  poetry, we have to understand especially antithetic parallelism. To summarize key moral  concepts. antithetic parallelism, again, is the dominant expression of Hebrew, Proverbs,  two lines, stated together, focusing in opposite directions, but accomplishing a singular  purpose. Don't do this, instead, do that. Don't be like them, so that you may be like them, don't engage in this activity in order that you may engage in this activity, don't and do  put back together back in back to back together, they form a singular concept, they form  of direction of motion and activity antithetic parallelism, and we have to be very intent  about understanding the fact that proverbs has a larger uniform package. It has a final  form, which is bigger than any of the parts, we can read and appreciate each of the  individual proverbs on its own. They're pithy statements of wisdom. But the book  belongs in the Bible because of some other things that are going on. And here's what's  going on in the Proverbs. When you look at the collection as a whole, it has a prologue.  And then it has a significant collection of lectures on the topics or the personalities of  wisdom and folly. And then come a number of collections of Proverbs themselves. And  finally, an epilogue, which, as we're going to talk about in the future, reflects on the  whole of the collection. Now we can read the individual chapters and even read the  individual verses to our benefit to our Profit because they give wisdom. But it's also  helpful for us to look at the collection of as a whole in terms of its general outline, to see that there's a flow and a larger message that's being put forward through these things.  Yes, the wisdom comes into proverbs. But even more wisdom comes when you 

understand that the Proverbs point to a bigger idea. That is an ultimate relationship  between God and God's people. Here's how it all begins. It's in the prologue, the first  seven verses of Proverbs one. These are the proverbs of Solomon, son of David King of  Israel. And in fact, the most, the largest collections of the proverbs themselves are  attributed to Solomon some other collections are appended to those initial press of  Proverbs of Solomon. But that's the largest collection. Remember that Solomon, when  he became king at a very young age, when his dad died, he asked for wisdom to rule  well, and God granted that wisdom, making him one of the wisest people who's ever  lived. And this becomes sort of the pithy statements of the wisdom of Solomon as it  comes to us. Here's what it's about, he says, for learning about wisdom and instruction  for understanding words of insight for gaining instruction and wise dealing  righteousness, justice and equity, to teach shrewdness to the simple knowledge and  prudence to the young. Let the wise also hear and gain and unlearning and the discerning to acquire skill 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. Notice the different kinds of parallelism there for learning about wisdom and instruction for understanding about words of insight, synonymous parallelism, the next  verse, stare like parallelism. The next verse, synonymous parallelism, the next verse,  synonymous parallelism, the next verse, synonymous parallelism and the last verse, the  fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, fools despise wisdom and destruction  antithetic parallelism, which is what we will look at as the major way in which these  things are expressed. Now, the dominant theme in the book of Proverbs enters right up  front as the challenge of a social relationship. The key metaphor, it's the beginning is  akin to boy meets girl. In fact, we might say, in Proverbs, boy meets two girls, and that's  how I've expressed it in the pictures that I found, looking at that very kind of thing,  which one of these women will this male be attracted to, and why? And the lectures on  wisdom and folly that form the largest first collection in the book of Proverbs are all  about that, because in the Hebrew language, both wisdom and folly are feminine nouns.  And the device that's used in order to express that is this recurrent statement, my son  listened to my words, my son listened to my words. Now, I know that in many  translations of the Bible, there's some desire to make gender neutral language prominent. And I applaud that generally. But here, it's important to see that the word is my son, not  my child, my son, because all of us as readers and hearers, are supposed to become this  son, masculine, who was courted by two women, the feminine wisdom. And folly, and at the end of these lectures, all must choose which woman to be with. If we go with  wisdom, wisdom will bring stability and well being to our lives. Whereas if we go with  Folly, Folly will lead us into quick experiences, but tragic ends. So the lectures are very  carefully planned. Notice they're balanced in a kind of key as and we've talked about key as in before, notice that the beginning and the end are similar. And then the next portions in between are similar. And then there's this complimentary set of inner language,  lectures about the benefits of wisdom and the warnings against adultery. Now, why  adultery, because to go with Folly is to commit adultery, we are made to be married to 

God. And when we choose ways that are not God's ways, it is spiritual adultery. So it's a  very clever and intentional method by which these ideas are performed. Notice the  balance between these things. wisdoms call at the beginning and at the end. enticement  to perverse ways. But folly, doesn't get just the last thing. There's also wisdoms in  without invitation, and in between a balance of number of lines so that there's almost  exactly the same number of lines in each group or each collection or each statement,  wisdoms benefits, benefits and specific instructions benefits in specific instructions  benefits of wisdom notice how chiastic that little piece is and then overall warnings  against adultery warnings against perverse ways, warnings again against adultery, which is to engage folly, and so commit oneself to a god other than YAHWAH to a way of life  which is outside of the wisdom of the Creator and warnings against adultery. So the  lectures themselves are important and it's important for us to identify with the male my  son, we are the sons whether we're female or male. In the language of Proverbs, we  become that male person who is seen as standing in front of two different women, each  of whom is attractive. Now what is the attraction we have to be wise enough to  understand the attraction and we have to be even more wise to go with wisdom who will bless our lives because she speaks on behalf of God rather than adultery or folly, who  will lead us in strange ways where we will destroy ourselves. While much of the book of Proverbs existed very brief, usually those two line antithetic parallelism statements  about living wisely these proverbs only makes sense after reading and understanding the lectures on wisdom and folly as a single unit. If at the end of these lectures we choose  folly as our life companion, the rest of the book means nothing to us. If, however, at the  end of the lectures, we choose wisdom as our life companion, the rest of the book is  essentially the atmosphere in in the furnishings of the House of Wisdom. In other words, Proverbs themselves are the lifestyle of those who have committed to a lifetime  relationship with God, as manifested in the personification of wisdom. A very important  to think to think about as we move into the book of Proverbs, you can see more of that in my book, Covenant Documents.