PROVERBIAL POETRY: ITS SETTINGS AND SYNTAX

INTRODUCTION

Until recently, the teachings of the ancient sages

found in the book of Proverbs had been neglected by modern

scholarship, which viewed the atomic statements as trite

truisms too simplistic to speak to the psychologically and

sociologically labyrinthical quandries faced by modern

man. The bald, empirical sentences and facile,

rationalistic deductions were perceived as culturally-

bound expressions with little relevance to the modern

pother. Proverbs' banal earthiness did not appear to rise

to the lofty heights of divine encounter, as found in

Isaiah; nor did its sayings penetrate the mysteries of the

divine hand's piloting history from chaos to the salvation

of a remnant, as beautifully narrated in the historical

books. Thus, exegetes and Old Testament theologians

alike, thinking that Proverbs did not participate in the

major motifs of the Old Testament, left Proverbs

untouched--as the orphan of the Old Testament. Its claims

of being the reflections of the wisest sages were viewed

as unattractive, abecedarian quips whose hugger-mugger and

disarray left the more systematic western mind with a

feeling of muddledness rather than mystery. The

parallelistic beauty of the poetic bi-colon no longer

fascinated its readers, who viewed the antitheses as

redundant and banally prosaic.

The purpose of this study is to recreate the

pragmatic context from which the sentences arose and to

which they spoke in such a way as to provide a foundation

for the establishment of the vitality and applicability of

these sayings to the present situation. The approach will

be in two complementary directions. First, the pragmatic

setting will be developed in order to provide an

illocutionary (i.e. the author's/user's speech act) basis

for reviving of the perlocutionary (i.e. the effect of

that speech act on the original audience) appreciation of

the message and artistry of the sentence literature.¹

Second, the creative, poetic genius of the sages and

amazing, aesthetic delight will be unlocked via modern

techniques of linguistic and poetic analysis. These two

major goals may be broken down into more easily obtainable

sub-goals.

The first goal of providing an adequate

description of the pragmatic setting should not be foreign

to Old Testament students, as it stresses the necessity of

____________________

¹ John Searle, Ferene Kiefer, and Manfred Bierwisch,

Speech Act Theory and Pragmatics, in Synthese Language

Library, vol. 10 (Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing

Co., 1980), p. vii.

recreating the historical poetic moment in which the

proverbial sentences were originally given, both in

terms of the original author's intentions (illocutions)

and in terms of what it did to the initial hearers

(perlocutions). Thus, the study is akin to a Sitz im Leben

type of approach in that it desires to show how a

particular setting gives rise to a corresponding literary

form. While this paper will seek to demonstrate that such

a one-to-one mapping from setting to form is too

simplistic, there will be an examination of the various,

original, sociological and institutional settings of

wisdom and the diverse forms which flowed from those

settings. The pragmatic situation goes beyond the setting

in life to a consideration of the Sitz im Literatur of the

sayings as formulated in the other ancient Near Eastern

cultures from third millennium Ebla and Sumer down to

Ptolemaic Egypt. The international character of the

sayings will provide a helpful backdrop for understanding

how and why the Israelite sages formulated their messages

as they did. Not only are the original historic and

literary settings necessary for an adequate understanding,

but also the canonical and philosophical settings must be

forwarded. What role do the proverbial sentences play in

the canon? How are they different from other canonical

formulations? How are they similar? What is their unique

contribution? What nexus is there between the message of

the rest of the canon and the wisdom literature? A survey

of the theological arena in which wisdom operated will

help highlight wisdom's contribution. It is indeed

peculiar that the great redemptive act of the Old

Testament, the Exodus, is not mentioned, nor are any of

the mighty acts of God in the conquest and settlement.

The heroes of Heilsgeschichte are all strangely absent, as

are the cutting pronouncements of divine judgment on a

sinful people. These canonical expressions of the

supernatural seem to give way to mundane fatherly

directives to hard work and techniques for pleasing one's

superiors. The literary forms employed are, particularly

in Proverbs 10-15, much shorter than those used by poets

elsewhere. These forms will also be examined as

reflective of the sages' Weltanschauung.

Having broadly introduced the historical,

literary, canonical, and philosophical settings of the

sentences, the study will then turn to the analysis of the

text (Proverbs 10-15) itself. An attempt will be made to

isolate and analyze the grammatical constraints which

provide the parameters of proverbial poetic expression.

In order to recapture the poetic moment from the

perspective of the either sage or the student, one must

come to an aesthetic appreciation of Proverbs--not just in

terms of the message of its words, but more in terms of

the artistic relationship between words and larger

constituents of poetic expression, including the line

itself. Until one can thrill in the understanding of the

poetic line and the situation of the proverbial moment,

the sayings will remain but trite observations of the

obvious. Proverbs, more than any other Hebrew poetic

expression, allows one to examine the bare bi-colon with

minimal strophic constriction. This study desires to

synthesize the most sophisticated techniques of poetic

analysis which have recently arisen in a plethora of

needed dissertations and discussions¹ on Hebrew poetry

(vid. studies by A. Berlin, T. Collins, A. Cooper, E.

Greenstein, S. Geller, J. Kugel, and especially M.

O'Connor). Recent work has moved to further refine the

Lowth-Gray-Robinson semantic parallelism approach

(synonymous, antithetic, emblematic, etc.) and to

explicitly describe grammatical parallelism (syntactic and

morphological). The merits and demerits of each approach

will be discussed and a combination of the methods

employed by O'Connor and Collins will be applied to the

proverbial corpus (Proverbs 10-15). Geller's approach,

____________________

¹ For recent discussions of poetics vid. JSOT 28

(1984), especially articles by Patrick Miller ("Meter,

Parallelism, and Tropes: The Search for Poetic Style," pp.

99-106), Wilfred Watson ("A Review of Kugel's The Idea of

Biblical Poetry," pp. 89-98), Francis Landy ("Poetics and

Parallelism: Some Comments on James Kugel's The Idea of

Biblical Poetry," pp. 61-87), and James Kugel ("Some

Thoughts on Future Research into Biblical Style: Addenda

to The Idea of Biblical Poetry," pp. 107-17).
though more comprehensive, was not opted for because it

was felt that its notational system would probably be too

daedal for the present purposes.

Not only will this dissertation seek to utilize

and reflect sensitivities gained from these excellent

studies, but an attempt will be made to propose a deictic

linguistic tool for the collection and analysis of poetic

syntactic data. There will be a survey of recent

linguistic techniques and the selection of a modified form

of Kenneth Pike's tagmemics. The six box tagmeme will

allow the analyst to monitor and collect data from both

the surface grammar and deep grammar of the poetic lines.

Case grammar, which explicates deep grammar relationships,

is as close as this study will get to a semantic analysis.

Because both deep and surface grammar are explicitly

monitored in the tagmeme, inter-lineal crossovers between

surface syntax and deep grammar will manifest the

craftsmanship of the ancient sages. Thus, modern

linguistics provides the tool which will highlight poetic

syntactic artistry both within and between lines. Such

techniques are extremely important, not only because they

reflect more adequate theories of language than the

traditional approach, but also because they allow for the

compilation of syntactic data via computer-aided

analysis.¹ Once such data is collected, comparisons can

be made with syntactic data from other corpora, which, in

this study, has facilitated syntactic specification of

genre constraints. Chomsky's notion of syntactic

transformation has been employed with great benefit, as

often there are syntactic transformations between the

parallel lines. This extremely potent idea will be

broached and initial experimental studies and preliminary

results will be compiled specifying the syntactical

transformations commonly used by the sages. The presence

of syntactic transformations suggests that the parallel

lines may be even more closely syntactically knit than

earlier proffered by approaches which merely noted

syntactic repetitions. Thus describing the syntax by the

most satisfying linguistic techniques available has moved

the modern reader one step closer to the recreation of the

syntactic constraints which the original author employed

and the hearers enjoyed. Thus, syntactically, the modern

reader may now participate in the aesthetic appreciation

and dynamic understanding of the proverbial sentences as

they were originally given. No claim to completeness or

exhaustiveness has been made. Rather a method is proposed

____________________

¹ F. I. Andersen, The Hebrew Verbless Clause in the

Pentateuch (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1970) provides an

example of a tagmemic approach to the nominal clause in the

Pentateuch.

which this writer believes a more satisfying description

of Hebrew poetry. If nothing else this study demonstrates

the infinitely intricate beauty both in terms of the

expression of poetic features of syntactic equivalence and

variation. The stressing of syntax and the relative

avoidance of phonetics and semantics leave the present

study knowingly lop-sided. Various phonetic equivalences

and sound-sense relationships have been observed in a

non-structured way and the reader does well to pay

attention to the brief comments which suggest that formal

phonetic studies are needed for a fuller appreciation of

proverbial poetry.¹ Since the discipline of semantics is

presently developing, it is hoped that an approach

retaining the meaning orientation of traditional

semantics, the lucidity of componential analysis, and the

scientific precision of formal semantics will be

forthcoming within the next decade. The need ultimately

is for a composite approach to poetry which includes

linguistically sophisticated approaches to syntax,

phonetics, and semantics in such a way that equivalences

and variations between and within parallel lines may be

monitored as well as plays between categories (vid. Prov

11:18). Until then, modern perceptions of the rich hues

of Hebrew poetry will remain faded into monochromic

____________________

¹ Leo Weinstock, "Sound and Meaning in Biblical

Hebrew," JSS 28 (1983):49-63.

prosaicness. An exordial discussion will, in an intuitive

manner, demonstrate the fecundity of such a comprehensive

approach by validating the presence of literary cohesion

in Proverbs 10--a text in which literary cohesion is

almost universally ignored or rejected.

The actual chapters of the dissertation break down

basically into two halves. The first examines the various

types of settings: (1) the comparative literary setting;

(2) the conceptual wisdom setting; (3) the canonical

setting of wisdom; (4) the historical setting of wisdom;

and (5) the structural setting of wisdom. These

background chapters will be followed by a more

linguistically and textually oriented section which will

introduce various approaches to poetics (ch. VI) and

linguistics (ch. VII) and then apply the scheme designed

in this study to the text of Proverbs 10-15 (ch. VIII).

The corpus (ch. VIII) is included, as it is in most recent

dissertations (vid. Geller and O'Connor), so that the

results may be checked and the method illustrated.

Finally, chapter IX will demonstrate the literary cohesion

of Proverbs 10. This is one of the discoveries made by

this study--demonstrating the vitality of the method

employed. Chapter X will provide a desultory analysis of

selected syntactic patterns which the corpus has brought

to light.

The goal of this study has not been the production

of results, but of a methodology which will adequately,

not exhaustively, describe Hebrew poetic syntax. The

model will be tested on the corpus of Proverbs 10-15 and

the results compared to the analyses of Collins and

O'Connor. The study corroborates O'Connor's suggestion

that there are syntactic constraints on the Hebrew line.

It goes on to suggest that there are many sub-lineal

binding techniques, which occur below the isomorphic

matching of syntactic lines, between the

units/constituents of the paralleled lines. These

iso/homomorphic syntactic mappings between lines often

manifest surface structure equivalences and at other times

evince deep structure equivalences with all sorts of

aesthetically pleasing combinations in-between. It is

hoped that the reader will be able to go beyond the

mechanical details of the linguistic system employed to

begin to intuitively read and delight in the artistic

creativity of the ancient sages. Only then will one be

able to return and recreate the original poetic moment in

his own culture and blissfully inculcate its trans-

cultural principles into the memory (זכר) of his own son.

CHAPTER I

THE COMPARATIVE LITERARY SETTINGS OF WISDOM

Introduction

Renewed scholarly attention to wisdom literature

has received impetus from two sources, which have

provided not only an inchoation for initial studies but

also have biased the direction which those inquiries have

taken. The first source of stimulation was the discovery

of The Teaching of Amenemope in 1888, its consequent

publication by Budge in 1924,¹ and, later, Erman's²

elucidation of the nexus between Amenemope and the book

of Proverbs. Erman's work created a tidal wave of

publications, which has continued unintermittently to the

____________________

¹ E. A. Wallis Budge, Facsimiles of Egyptian

Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum with Description

and Summary of Content, second series (London: Longmans

and Co., 1923), p. 12; also E. A. W. Budge, The Teaching

of Amen-em-Apt Son of Kanekht: The Egyptian Hieroglyphic

Text and an English Translation with Translations of the

Moral and Religious Teachings of Egyptian Kings and

Officials Illustrating The Development of Religious

Philosophy in Egypt During a Period of About Two Thousand

Years (London: Martin Hopkinson and Company, 1924).

² Adolf Erman, "Ein agyptische Quelle der 'Spruche

Salomos,'" Sitzungs-berichte der Preussischen Akademie

der Wissenchaften zu Berlin: Phil.-hist. Klasse 15 (May

1924):86-93.

present.¹ Further discoveries of numerous "Instruction"

texts from Egypt, several proverb collections from Sumer,

and the libraries of Ashurbanipal have provided the needed

texts to sustain this recent interest in wisdom

literature.

The second source of stimulation has come from the

discipline of Biblical Theology. Major tensions have

arisen in the attempt to fit wisdom into theological

models which have myopically focused on the

Heilsgeschichte or covenant motifs.

This chapter will briefly survey the ancient

wisdom materials from Egypt, Mesopotamia and Syro-

Palestine. The following chapter will summarize the

discussions which have taken place under the province of

biblical theology in its struggle with the relationship

between alleged Mitten and wisdom.

Egyptian Wisdom

Ptahhotep to 'Onchsheshonqy

A survey of the ancient Near Eastern sources

provides a requisite Sitz im Literatur for a study of the

biblical book of Proverbs, in terms of the literary forms,

____________________

¹ Glendon E. Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom: The

Egyptian Contribution to the Wisdom of Israel (London:

Associated University Presses, 1979). Bryce gives the

most recent, thorough treatment of the subject. Coming to

quite a different conclusion is John Ruffle, "The Teaching

of Amenemope and its Connection with the Book of

Proverbs," TB 28 (1977):29-68.
genres, and motifs utilized in wisdom literature. Such

materials greatly aid our understanding of Proverbs and

provide a corroboration of the biblical statements as to

the international character of wisdom (1 Kgs 4:30f. [MT

5:10f.]).¹ No attempt will be made to reanalyze these

sources; rather, the goal will be to select samples which

are characteristic of the two-thousand-year history of

this form of literature in Egypt.² The following

rather jejune list of the most well known Egyptian wisdom

____________________

¹ Perhaps the most convenient list and analysis of

this material is found in William McKane's, Proverbs: A

New Approach. The Old Testament Library (Philadelphia: The

Westminster Press, 1970), pp. 51-201. Another fine

overview is James L. Crenshaw's, Old Testament Wisdom: An

Introduction (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981), pp. 212-35.

A very exhaustive list, which includes the location of the

materials, is found in K. A. Kitchen's, "Proverbs and

Wisdom Books of the Ancient Near East: The Factual History

of a Literary Form," TB 28 (1977):111-14. R. J. Williams

provides a thorough synopsis of Egyptian wisdom studies

between 1960 and 1981 in "The Sages of Ancient Egypt in the

Light of Recent Scholarship," JAOS 101 (1981):1-19.

Finally, an excellent chart may be found in E. E. Heaton's,

Solomon's New Men: The Emergence of Ancient Israel as a

National State (New York: Pica, 1974), pp. 203-4.

² English translations of Egyptian wisdom texts are

easily accessible in James B. Pritchard's, ANET, pp. 412-24

or in Miriam Lichtheim's, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 3

vols. (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980),

1:58-82, 97-112, 134-92; 2:135-80; 3:159-217. Other

translations are: William Simpson, The Literature of

Ancient Egypt (reprint ed., New Haven: Yale University,

1973) and K. A. Kitchen, "Studies in Egyptian Wisdom

Literature--1," OrAnt 7 (1969):189-208 and "Studies in

Egyptian Wisdom Literature--2," OrAnt 8 (1970):203-9.

Kitchen translates the Instruction by a "Man for His Son"

and the "Counsels of Discretion." An older collection, but

still of value, is Adolf Erman, The Literature of the

Ancient Egyptians, trans. A. M. Blackman (reprint ed., New

York: Benjamin Blom, Inc., 1971), pp. 54-85.
texts provides a chronological sequence demonstrating the

antiquity and continuity of this type of literature in

Egypt.

OLD KINGDOM (DYNASTIES 1-7)

The Instruction of Prince Hardjedef (ca. 2400 B.C.)

The Instruction Addressed to Kagemni (ca. 2200 B.C.)

The Instruction of Ptahhotep (ca. 2200 B.C.)

MIDDLE KINGDOM (DYNASTIES 11-14)

The Instruction of King Amenemhet (ca. 1985 B.C.)

NEW KINGDOM (DYNASTIES 18-20)

The Instruction of Any (ca. 1500-1300 B.C.)

The Instruction of Amenemope (ca. 1100-600 B.C.)

THE LATE PERIOD

The Instruction of 'Onchsheshonqy (Ptolemaic?)

The Instruction of Papyrus Insinger (Ptolemaic?)¹

There are two genres of Egyptian wisdom

literature: (l) sebayit (instructions), and

(2) onomasticon. The sebayit are instructions given by an

authority, often a father or teacher, to his son/pupil.

They structure their advice in an admonition form

(Mahnspruch), which is hortatory, and a statement or

saying form (Aussage) which makes empirical remarks about

the realities of life.² So in "The Instruction Addressed

____________________

¹ The dates are generally taken from Lichtheim's

Ancient Egyptian Literature.

² Brian Kovacs, "Is there a Class-Ethic in

Proverbs?" Essays in Old Testament Ethics, ed. James L.

Crenshaw (New York: KTAV Publishing House, 1974), p. 173.
to Kagemni" one reads an admonition concerning table

etiquette:

When you sit with company,

Shun the food you love.¹

"The Instructions of Any" gives the following admonition

from a familial setting.

Do not control your wife in her house,

When you know she is efficient; . . .

Let your eye observe in silence,

then you recognize her skill.²

An illustration of the sentence or saying form may also be

found in "The Instructions of Any," describing the

empirical realities of life in a non-hortatory fashion.

One man is rich, another is poor,

But food remains for him [who shares it].³

Both of these forms are attested to in Proverbs, as will

be shown later. Disputation literature and scribal texts

are also found in Egypt, but, since they are not

particularly germane to the discussion, they have not been

included.

A few examples from the Instruction literature may

be cited to illustrate the correspondence of both form and

content between Egyptian and Israelite sources. In

Ptah-hotep is written this instruction:

____________________

¹Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature,

1:59.

²Ibid., 2:143.

³Ibid., 2:142.

If you are one among guests

At the table of one greater than you,

Take what he gives as it is set before you.¹

A similar note is struck in Proverbs 23:1:

When you sit to dine with a ruler.

Note well what is before you.

Though manifesting several differences from the

book of Proverbs--for example, 'Onchsheshonqy's slender

use of antithetical parallelism and its employment of

single line proverbs--'Onchsheshonqy does have some points

in common with Proverbs. The idea that "man proposes but

God disposes" is found in both Proverbs and

'Onchsheshonqy:

In his heart a man plans his course,

but the LORD determines his steps (Prov 16:9).

This may be compared with 'Onchsheshonqy 26,l.14:

The plans of the god are one thing, the thoughts of

[men] are another.

Gemser further cites eight common motifs between the two

texts. Themes such as the condemnation of laziness, the

warning against wayward married women, the end of a man's

way determining the course he should take, and even the

advice that one's fear of god be great, will be easily

recognized by students of Proverbs.² While, surely, no

one

____________________

¹Ibid., 1:65.

²B. Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy

and Biblical Wisdom Literature," in Studies in Ancient

Israelite Wisdom (New York: KTAV, 1976), pp. 142-43, 156.

Hereafter cited as SAIW.

would suggest borrowing between 'Onchsheshonqy and

Proverbs, the comparison does show a common ethos

prevalent in this type of literature, both in Egypt and in

Israel.

Amenemope and Proverbs

A matter which demands special attention is the

debate concerning the viability and direction of borrowing

between Amenemope and Proverbs. The text of Amenemope

suggests a very strong nexus between Egypt and Israel.¹ A

scrutiny of this problem will not be attempted here since

pertinent literature is abundant.

Amenemope is dated by some as early as 1000 B.C.

and by others as late as 600 B.C. The usual triad of

solutions is forwarded:² (1) Israel borrowed;³

____________________

¹Ludwig Keimer, "The Wisdom of Amen-em-ope and

the Proverbs of Solomon," AJSL 43 (1926):8-9 surveys the early

discovery and analysis of this "Instruction."

²Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, pp. 33-39 surveys

the three views, as do Martin R. Johnson, "An Investigation of

the Fear of God as a Central Concept in the Theology of

the Wisdom Literature" (M.A. thesis, Trinity Evangelical

Divinity School, 1974), p. 7 and Brian Kovacs,

"Sociological-Structural Constraints upon Wisdom: The

Spatial and Temporal Matrix of Proverbs 15:28-22:16"

(Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt University, 1978), p. 167.

³This is the view held by the majority of

scholars. Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, pp. 74-75, 158, 212

gives the most recent and well-stated exposition of this

position, in which he allows for adaptive, assimilative

and integrative stages to account for differences in the

texts. James L. Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom: An

Introduction (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981), p. 220.

Ronald J. Williams, "The Alleged Semitic Original of the

(2) Amenemope borrowed;¹ or (3) they both referred to a

common setting or common original.²

____________________

'Wisdom of Amenemope,'" JEA 47 (1961):100-106 gives a

refutation of Drioton (vid. the next footnote for Drioton's

articles). R. B. Y. Scott, "Solomon and the Beginnings of

Wisdom in Israel," in Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient

Near East, ed. Martin Noth and D. W. Thomas, VTSup 3

(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1969), p. 278. Roland E. Murphy,

"Israel's Wisdom: a Biblical Model of Salvation," Studia

Missionalia 30 (1981):15. Note R. N. Whybray, The

Intellectual Tradition in the Old Testament, BZAW, 135 (New

York: Walter de Gruyter, 1974), p. 40, where Whybray says

Proverbs' dependence is "universally admitted." Scholars

who hold this position are: Zimmerli, Eissfeldt, Childs,

Rylaarsdam, Heaton, Skladny, Rankin, B. Andersen, Erman,

von Rad, Keimer, Gemser, McKane et al.

¹Two older works are: Robert O. Kevin, "The Wisdom

of Amen-em-apt and its Possible Dependence upon the Book of

Proverbs," Journal of the Society of Oriental Research 14

(November 1930):115-56; and James M. McGlinchey, The

Teaching of Amen-em-ope and the Book of Proverbs

(Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America,

1939), pp.33-36. More recently the Egyptologist Drioton

has attempted to support a Semitic original. E. Drioton,

"Le Livre des Proverbes et la sagesse d'Amenemope," in

Sacra Pagina: Miscellanea biblica congressus

internationalis Catholici de re biblica 1, ed. J. Coppens,

A. Descamps, and E. Massux, Bibliotheca ephemeridum

theologicae Lovanienes, vol. 12 (Gembloux: J. Duculot,

1959), pp. 229-41. E. J. Young, An Introduction to the Old

Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,

1964), p. 314. Finally, and perhaps the most interesting,

is: John Ruffle, "The Teaching of Amenemope and its

Connection with the Book of Proverbs," TB 28 (1977):29-68.

This is a reworking of his thesis: "The Teaching of

Amenemope and its connexion with the Book of Proverbs"

(M.A. thesis, University of Liverpool, 1965). Cf. also

Lorne A. McCune, "Wisdom Theology and Proverbs: A

Historical and Theological Evaluation" (Th.M. thesis, Grace

Theological Seminary, 1979), pp. 1-111.

²W. O. E. Oesterley, "The 'Teaching of

Amen-em-ope' and the Old Testament," ZAW 45 (1927):9-24;

While the majority of scholars hold to Proverbs'

dependence on Amenemope, there has been a steady and

substantial group that has held to the priority of

Proverbs. Ruffle's delightful article sardonically

compares parallels between Amenemope with the Precepts of

the Elders, which is an Aztec set of proverbs. This aptly

points out the problem of suggesting that "a common

proverb means common origin." Recent paroemiological

studies have also shown this deduction to be hazardous.

For example, who would suggest that the Swahili proverb,

"Where there is a will there is a way," was borrowed by

the English, alliteration and all (or vice versa)? Is one

to suppose that the Yemenite folk proverb, "When the cat

is absent the mice will dance," is really the original

form, with certain minor transformations of the English,

"While the cat's away the mice will play"? G. Neuman has

well said, "Apparently there is a common manner of thought

and presentation which--in spite of all differences--

unites them [proverbs] across national boundaries."¹ It

____________________

also his, The Book of Proverbs with Introduction and Notes,

Westminster Commentaries (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd.,

1929), p. xxxvi; and The Wisdom of Egypt and the Old

Testament (London: Society for Promoting Christian

Knowledge, 1927), pp. 36-74. Bruce K. Waltke, "The Book

of Proverbs and Ancient Wisdom Literature," BSac 136

(July-September 1979):235. R. K. Harrison, Introduction

to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans

Publishing Co., 1969), p. 1015.

¹ Gerhard Neuman, Der Aphorismus: zur

Geschichte, zu der Formen und Moglichkeiten einer Literarischen

Gattung, in Wege der Forschung, vol. 356 (Darmstadt:

Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1976), p. 1. A

translation of this was generously received through

seems that a common universe, rather than borrowing, may

account for many proverbial similarities between cultures,

though by no means does this deprecate the fact that

proverbs often are transmitted trans-culturally.

It is fitting that several parallels between

Amenemope and Proverbs be noted, not in an effort to

demonstrate borrowing, but to show similarities in form

and, to some extent, content.¹

Better a little with the fear of the Lord

than great wealth with turmoil.

Better a meal of vegetables where there is love

than a fattened calf with hatred.

(Prov 15:16-17)

Better is poverty at the hand of God

than riches in the storehouse.

Better is bread with happy heart

than riches with vexation.

(Amenemope 9:5-8)

Do not move the ancient boundary stone,

set up by your forefathers,

(Prov 22:28)

____________________

correspondence with Donald Morton of Syracuse University.

¹Lists of comparisons may be found in any of the

following: Keimer, "Wisdom of Amenemope," pp. 14-18;

H. Ranston, The Old Testament Wisdom Books and Their

Teaching (London: Epworth Press, 1930), pp. 43-44;

Ruffle, "Amenemope," p. 58; Oesterley, Proverbs, pp.

xxxvii-lv; D. C. Simpson, "The Hebrew Book of Proverbs and

the Teaching of Amenophis," JEA 12 (1926):233-39 (gives a

very complete list relating it to all of Proverbs); Ronald

E. Parkhurst, "The Wisdom of Proverbs in the Context of

Ancient Near Eastern Cultures" (Th.M. thesis, Western

Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1975), pp. 100-104; Waltke,

"The Book of Proverbs and Ancient Wisdom Literature," pp.

234-35; and, of course, scattered throughout, Bryce,

A Legacy of Wisdom.

Do not carry off the landmark at the boundaries of

arable land,

Nor disturb the position of the measuring cord.

(Amenemope 7:12-13)

Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man,

do not associate with one easily angered,

or you may learn his ways

and get yourself ensnared.

(Prov 22:24-25)

Do not associate to thyself a passionate man,

nor approach him for conversation.

Leap not to cleave to that [fellow],

lest a terror carry thee away.

(Amenemope 11:13-15; 13:8-9)

These parallels should not seem odd, in light of Solomonic

connections with Egypt (1 Kgs 9:24). It should be

observed that the Egyptian texts parallel the biblical

material both in form (note the "better-than" proverb

above) and in content. Thus, the inspired writer utilized

aspects of ancient Near Eastern literary form and motifs

to express himself. Bullock is correct when he says,

"If, however, Erman and those who follow him are correct,

this should in no way undermine faith in the divine

inspiration of the Proverbs passage" (cf. Acts 17:28).¹

Sumerian Proverbs

The epigraphic materials from Sumer have been

dealt with extensively by S. N. Kramer, and his student,

E. I. Gordon. Gordon, in an excellent survey, lists

____________________

¹C. Hassell Bullock, An Introduction to the

Old Testament Poetic Books: The Wisdom and Songs of Israel

(Chicago: Moody Press, 1979), p. 172.

twenty-four Sumerian Proverb collections.¹ Kramer adds

that the collections contain more than a thousand proverbs

which received their final form during the renaissance of

the Third Dynasty of Ur.² These collections antedate the

earliest Egyptian instructions by several centuries.³

Gordon has noted the following five classes of

Sumerian proverbs: precept, maxim, truism, adage, and

byword.⁴ The precept is a moral rule, often specifying

conduct in the imperative. For example:

____________________

¹E. I. Gordon, "A New Look at the Wisdom of Sumer

and Akkad," BO 17 (May-July 1960):121-38. This article

provides a valuable survey. It is more than a review of J.

A. van Dijk's, La Sagesse Sumero-Accadienne: Recherches

sur les Genres Litteraires des Textes Sapientiaux avec

Choix de Textes (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1953). More

recently Bendt Alster has cited where the various

collections have been published as well as publishing his

translation of collection seven (114 proverbs) 50 of which

are found in other Sumerian collections ("Sumerian Proverb

Collection Seven," Revue D'Assyriologie et D'Archeologie

Orientale 72.2 (1978):97-112.

²Samuel N. Kramer, The Sumerians: Their

History, Culture, and Character (Chicago: The University of Chicago

Press), pp. 224-25.

³John M. Thompson, The Form and Function of

Proverbs in Ancient Israel (The Hague: Mouton and Co.,

1974), p. 43.

⁴Edmund I. Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs: Glimpses

of Every Day Life in Ancient Mesopotamia (Philadelphia: The

University Museum, 1959), p. 1. Gordon's work is also

extremely valuable for the cultural analysis he gives on

pp. 285-323. Samuel N. Kramer, "Sumerian Wisdom

Literature: A Preliminary Survey," BASOR 122 (April

1951):28-29 shows the five larger genres of Sumerian wisdom

literature: (1) proverbs; (2) miniature essays;

(3) instructions and precepts; (4) essays concerned with

the Mesopotamian school and scribe; and (5) disputes and

debates.
Accept your lot (and) make your mother happy!

Act promptly and make your (personal) god happy.

(1.145)¹

A maxim is a rule dealing with more practical things than

the precept:

Do not cut off the neck of that which (already) has

had its neck cut off. (1.3)

A truism is a straightforward assertion of a truth--in

contrast to the precept and maxim which are often in

imperatival form, calling for action.

If food is left over, the mongoose consumes it;

If it leaves (any) food for me, the stranger consumes

it. (1.9)

The adage portrays its simple truth in metaphoric language

(it often employs: metaphor, irony, simile, hyperbole,

etc.).²

A boat bent on honest pursuits sailed downstream with

the wind;

Utu [the sun god] has sought out honest ports for it.

(1.86)

A byword is a declarative statement of sarcastic intent.

He who does not support either a wife or a child,

his nose has not borne a leash. (1.153)

This byword mocks a bachelor who thinks lightly of the

responsibilities of marriage. Perhaps more germane to

____________________

¹These examples are taken from a useful summary

by John Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit and in the Ancient Near

East with Particular Emphasis on Old Testament Wisdom

Literature" (Ph.D. dissertation, Claremont Graduate School,

1974), pp. 45-55. Cf. Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs, p. 18.

Similar Sumerian examples may be found in Gordon's "A New

Look at the Wisdom of Sumer and Akkad," pp. 132-33.

²Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs, p. 15.

biblical studies is Gordon's analysis that, of nearly 300

proverbs, 138 may be classified as exhibiting

parallelism.¹ He cites numerous examples of antithetic

and synonymous parallelism. An example of antithetic

parallelism may be seen in the following:

Of what you have found you do not speak;

(Only) of what you have lost do you speak.

(1.11)

Other wisdom genres from Sumer include: fables² and

parables, riddles,³ "Edubba" (School) compositions,

wisdom disputations, satirical dialogues and practical

instructions.⁴ Kramer also translates a wisdom text which

he calls "Man and his God," which appears to develop a

motif similar to that of Job.⁵ More recently, Bendt

Alster has meticulously analyzed "The Instructions of

Suruppak," which, interestingly enough, are the wise

counsels of a Sumerian royal father to his son Ziusudra.⁶

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 16. Cf. also Gordon's, "A New Look at

the Wisdom of Sumer and Akkad," p. 132.

²Collection 21, for example, includes the fable

"The Fowler and His Wife." (vid. Alster, "Sumerian

Proverbs Collection Seven," p. 102).

³Bendt Alster, "A Sumerian Riddle Collection,"

JNES 35 (1976):263-67. Cf. also R. D. Biggs, "Pre-Sargonic

Riddles from Lagash," JNES 32 (1973):26-33.

⁴Gordon, "A New Look at the Wisdom of Sumer and

Akkad," p. 124.

⁵Samuel N. Kramer, "'Man and his God'. A

Sumerian Variation on the 'Job' Motif,"

VTSup 3 (1960):170-82.

⁶Bendt Alster, The Instructions of Suruppak: A

This is the oldest extant poem in the world. His work,

Studies in Sumerian Proverbs, analyzes these materials

from both syntactic and structuralist points of view. His

development of paradoxical proverbs and even wellerisms

are of interest to students of paroemiology. For example:

The ass, after he had thrown off his packs,

'The burdens of former days are forgotten' [he said].¹

While the ethos of the Sumerian proverbs is farther from

the biblical Proverbs than that of the Egyptian

instructions is, it is important to realize the length of

the tradition of the proverbial form in man's history.

Buccellati concludes after noting the presence of proverbs

at Ebla and Abu Salabikh (third millenium B.C.):

The sentential type literature represented especially

by the proverbs continues practically unchanged over

the centuries to the end of the cuneiform tradition:

it represents the most direct embodiment of a

perduring popular reflection about simple truths.²

Gordon similarly elaborates on the transmission of

Sumerian proverbs for a millennium between the Early

Babylonian and Neo-Babylonian periods. He has identified

____________________

Sumerian Proverb Collection, Mesopotamia: Copenhagen

Studies in Assyriology, vol. 2 (Copenhagen: Akademisk

Forlag, 1974), p. 7.

¹Bendt Alster, "Paradoxical Proverbs and Satire in

Sumerian Literature," JCS 27 (October 1975):212. Also see

his Studies in Sumerian Proverbs, Mesopotamia: Copenhagen

Studies in Assyriology, vol. 3 (Copenhagen: Akademisk

Forlag, 1975).

²Giorgio Buccellati, "Wisdom and Not: The Case of

Mesopotamia," JAOS 101 (1981):42.

numerous Neo-Babylonian and Assyrian proverbs which were

previously known in unilingual texts at Sumer.¹ Alster

notes, in reference to the problem of borrowing the

Sumerian proverbs:

213 During a festival--do not choose a wife

220 At the time of harvest, do not [buy] an ass²

and their proverbial counterparts at Ugarit:

Do not buy an ox [in the spring],

do not choose a girl during a festival.³

His conclusion from this datum is well stated and

appropriate for the conundrum of borrowing. "Although

there cannot have been an immediate link between these two

compositions, they certainly testify to a vague

relationship conditioned by widespread stable structural

patterns."⁴ This observation encapsulates the point of

this discussion of ancient Near Eastern sources.

Finally, and very briefly, it should be noted from

____________________

¹Gordon, "A New Look at the Wisdom of Sumer and

Akkad," pp. 135-37.

²Alster, Proverbs, pp. 82-84; Alster, Suruppak, p.

46.

³RS 22.439 from J. Nougayrol, et al. Ugaritica V

(Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Guenther, 1968), p.

279. Cf. Khanjian who observes that until Ugaritica V "the

relationship between the wisdom of Ugarit and the wisdom of

the Old Testament was either denied or deduced indirectly."

(Khanjian, "Wisdom," Ras Shamra Parallels, vol. 2, AnOr,

ed. Loran E. Fisher (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute,

1975), p. 373. Cf. John Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit and in

the Ancient Near East with Particular Emphasis on Old

Testament Wisdom Literature" (Ph.D. dissertation, Claremont

Graduate School, 1974), p. 168.

4Alster, Proverbs, p. 84.

the middle of the third millennium B.C. that G. Pettinato,

in 1976, announced the finding of a proverb collection at

Ebla, the texts of which are still inaccessible.¹ Dahood,

in attempting to link Ebla to Ugaritic and Hebrew

translates a proverb from Ebla which he claims "appears to

be pure Canaanite, containing not a word of Sumerian."²

Biggs tells of a proverb collection found at Abu Salabikh

where the earliest version of Suruppak was found.³

Babylonian and Assyrian "Wisdom"

Turning north to Babylon and Assyria, one should

be reminded of the influence of Sumerian script and

literature as far north as Mari.⁴ Furthermore, McKane, in

his section on "Babylonian and Assyrian Proverbs," states

that most of the proverbs discussed in this period are

____________________

¹Giovanni Pettinato, "The Royal Archives of Tell

Mardikh-Ebla," BA 39 (May 1976):45. Also vid. Pettinato's

Catalogo Dei Testi Cuneiform Di Tell Mardikh-Ebla (Napoli:

Instituto Universitario Di Napoli, 1979), p. xxx.

²Mitchell Dahood,"Ebla, Ugarit and the Old

Testament," VTSup 29 (1978):93.

3Robert Biggs, "Ebla and Abu Salabikh: The

Linguistic and Literary Aspects," in La Lingua Di Ebla ed.

Luigi Cagni (Napoli: Institue Universitato Orientale,

1981), pp. 121-133. Cf. Idem, Inscriptions from Tell Abu

Salabikh (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1974),

pp. 31-33.

⁴W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature

(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960), p. 9 (hereafter cited as

BWL). For the Sumerian and Akkadian texts also vid. J. J.

A. van Dijk, La Sagesse Sumero-Accadienne.

really Sumerian in Babylonian dress.¹ W. G. Lambert

summarizes the evidence as follows:

There is every indication that proverbs circulated in

the Akkadian language, but it is a curious phenomenon

that they do not seem to have become a part of stock

literature. The only surviving tablets written with

collections of Babylonian proverbs are an Old

Babylonian fragment, and two pieces found in the old

Hittite capital at Boghazkoy, one of which was part of

a Hittite rendering. The late libraries, from which

our knowledge of traditional Babylonian literature

usually comes, have so far yielded not a single piece

of Babylonian proverbs. . . . Babylonian proverbs are

not a genre in the traditional literature of the

Babylonians and Assyrians. The reason can be

suggested. The codifiers of traditional literature

during the Cassite period were very academic scholars,

who may well have frowned on proverbs which were

passed around among the uneducated. . . .

The existence of a body of oral proverbs in

Babylonian is shown by their occurrence in letters,

works of literature, and elsewhere. Some are

expressly given as proverbs (teltu) while others can

be safely identified from a knowledge of them in other

contexts.²

It is significant that Babylonian proverbs have

been found in Boghazkoy, which fact stresses both their

existence and the international character of the

proverbial form. Scott observes:

In fact, most Sumerian Literature is known from copies

made by Babylonian scholars after 1700 B.C. In the

area of what in particular can be called 'Wisdom

literature,' though the Babylonians made modifications

and introduced new ideas, the literary forms typical

of Mesopotamia were mostly originated by the

____________________

¹McKane, Proverbs, p. 183. Gordon cites specifics

of Sumerian originals in "A New Look at the Wisdom of

Sumer and Akkad," pp. 132-37. McKane does a nice job of

analyzing select proverbs from Lambert.

²Lambert, BWL, pp. 275-76.

Sumerians.¹

The broader field of wisdom literature, a name with which

Lambert demurs,² is represented in upper Mesopotamia in

texts such as: Ludlul Bel Nemeqi (translated as "I will

praise the Lord of Wisdom,") and "The Babylonian

Theodicy", "The Dialogue of Pessimism," and, most

important for proverbial studies, the "Counsels of

Wisdom."³ The following proverbs are rather typical of

the character and form of the statements in "Counsels of

Wisdom":

Do not return evil to the man who disputes with you;

Requite with kindness your evil-doer,

Maintain justice to your enemy,

____________________

¹Scott, The Way of Wisdom in the Old Testament

(New York: The Macmillan Co., 1971), p. 36.

²Ibid., pp. 1-2. Gordon provides an excellent

definition of "wisdom literature" in Mesopotamia in "A New

Look at the Wisdom of Sumer and Akkad," p. 123. Wisdom

literature is that type of literature "whose content is

concerned in one way or another with life and nature and

man's evaluation of them based either upon his direct

observation or insight." Buccellati will identify it with

themes of a closed system (fate) and a knowledge which is

humble and introspective treating principles rather than

events. He then concludes that wisdom themes are too

diffused to identify it with a particular genre of

Mesopotamian literature. His two charts comparing wisdom

themes and texts philosophically is one of the most lucid

presentations of wisdom motifs this writer has seen. These

charts should be mastered by all beginning the study of

wisdom texts ("Wisdom and Not: The Case of Mesopotamia,"

pp. 35-36, 44.

³These texts may be found in Lambert, BWL; or in

Pritchard, ANET. Discussions of the material and how it

relates to the biblical text may be found in Crenshaw, Old

Testament Wisdom, pp. 228-35; or Thompson, Form and

Function, pp. 41-53.

Smile on your adversary (Lines 41-44).

It is pleasing to Samas, who will repay him with

favour.

Do charitable deeds, render service all your days

(Lines 64-65).¹

The religious tenor of these proverbs is apparent, as is

their ethical character. Also of interest is the fact

that a "son" is the recipient of these "Counsels." The

dearth of Babylonian proverbial materials has been offset

somewhat by Angel Marzal's brilliant work on some Mari

tablets (ca. 1800 B.C.).² An interesting proverb from the

Mari collection is:

The fire consumes the reeds,

and its companions pay attention (ARM X 150:9-11).³

The final text from Mesopotamia which should be

mentioned is one found in 1906-1908, at Elephantine,

Egypt, dating from the fifth century B.C.⁴ This text,

however, had been known from several other sources and, in

____________________

¹Lambert, BWL, p. 13; Pritchard, ANET,

p. 595.

²Angel Marzal, Gleanings from the Wisdom of Mari

(Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1976), pp. 1-44. The

works of Alster, Gordon and Marzal are critical not only

for the tablets that are translated, but, at least as

important, for their methods of proverbial analysis.

Marzal does a particularly nice job on this account,

applying Milner's and Barley's semantical analyses of

proverbs, which, to date, provide the most mature system of

proverbial analysis.

³Marzal, Wisdom of Mari, p. 23.

⁴A. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the Fifth Century

B.C. (reprint, Osnabruck: Otto Zeller, 1967), pp. 204-48.

Pritchard, ANET, pp. 427-30.

fact, has versions in Syriac, Arabic, Armenian, Greek, and

even appears in the Church Fathers.¹ Tobit 14:10 makes

direct reference to this story as well. Ahikar apparently

was a court sage under Sennacherib (704-681 B.C.) and

Esarhaddon (680-669 B.C.).² Though Story points out

several differences between Proverbs and Ahikar, the

similarities are striking.³

Hold not back thy son from the rod if thou art not

able to deliver him. . . . If I smite thee, my son,

thou shalt not die, but if I leave (thee) to thine own

heart . . . (Ahikar 44:2-4).

Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou

beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou

shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his

soul from hell (Prov 23:13,14).

Again the triad of suggestions forwards itself,

with some allowing for Proverbs as the borrower,⁴ others

____________________

¹D. Winton Thomas, ed., Documents from Old

Testament Times (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers,

1958), pp. 270-75 (also has a translation of the text); and

Roland E. Murphy, Introduction to the Wisdom Literature of

the Old Testament, Old Testament Reading Guide, vol. 22,

(Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1965), p. 23.

²For a brief overview, vid. Ronald E. Parkhurst,

"The Wisdom of Proverbs in the Context of Ancient Near

Eastern Cultures," p. 23; or Waltke, "The Book of Proverbs

and Ancient Wisdom Literature," p. 223.

³Cullen I. K. Story, "The Book of Proverbs and

Northwest Semitic Literature," JBL 64 (1945):329-36. He

lists both similarities and differences. Other comparative

lists may be found in: Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 40,

and Oesterley, "The 'Teaching of Amen-em-ope' and the Old

Testament," pp. 20-21.

⁴Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 40; and Thomas,

Documents from Old Testament Times, pp. 270-71.

holding to Ahikar as the imitator,¹ and others opting for

a common source.²

Thus, it may be concluded that Babylonia and

Assyria, as well as Sumer and Egypt, employed the

proverbial mode of expression. The form and content of

these texts make it clear that Proverbs was not composed

in a vacuum, but, rather, it too participated

Yahwistically in utilizing that mode of literature for the

glory of God.

Syro-Palestinian Wisdom

The last area to be surveyed is the Syro-

Palestinian sources from Ugarit, Amarna and elsewhere.

It should be noted that almost nothing of proverbial

character has been found in Palestine, although its

presence in Palestine may be inferred from scribal/school

connections and Amarna inferences. Albright cites the

following from Amarna: "If ants are smitten, they do not

accept [the smiting] quietly, but they bite the hand of

the man who smites them" (cf. Prov 6:6; 30:25).3 In spite

____________________

¹Harrison, Introduction, p. 1018.

2Oesterley, "The 'Teaching of Amen-em-ope' and the

Old Testament," pp. 20-21, and Story, "Proverbs and

Northwest Semitic," p. 337.

³W. F. Albright, "An Archaic Hebrew Proverb in an

Amarna Letter from Central Palestine," BASOR 89 (February

1943):29; and "Some Canaanite-Phoenician Sources of Hebrew

Wisdom," Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient Near East,

VTSup 3, (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1969), pp. 7-13.

of J. Gray's initial statement that wisdom's voice was

never heard in Ugarit, there has been considerable work

done on Ugaritic wisdom material both structurally and

comparatively with Israelite wisdom.¹ Khanjian explains

that it was not until the twenty-second campaign that

wisdom texts were found at Ugarit.² It is interesting to

note that wisdom is associated with the Ugaritic god, El,

and that, at points, it explicitly addresses the "son" as

the recipient.³ No identical proverbs have been found;⁴

nonetheless, Ugaritic texts have helped in understanding

Proverbs and Proverbs has helped in enlightening the

Ugaritic materials.⁵ While differences do exist, there

are also many similarities in imagery, fixed word pairs,

____________________

¹John Gray, Legacy of Canaan: the Ras Shamra Texts

and their Relevance to the Old Testament, VTSup 5 (Leiden:

E. J. Brill, 1965), p. 258. Cf. also Albright,

"Canaanite-Phoenician Sources," p. 7 and Bruce V. Malchow,

"The Roots of Israel's Wisdom in Sacral Kingship" (Ph.D.

dissertation, Marquette University, 1972), p. 123.

²John Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 139.

³Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," pp. 113-15, 212;

Story, "Proverbs and Northwest Semitic," p. 335. Vid. UT

51, IV, 65-66 in Cyrus Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook, vol. 38,

AnOr (Rome: Pontificum Institutum Biblicum, 1965), p. 171;

or Anat V, 38-39 in Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook, p. 255.

Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 235.

⁴Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 211.

⁵Mitchell Dahood, "Poetic Devices in the Book of

Proverbs," in Studies in the Bible and the Ancient Near

East Presented to Samuel E. Loewenstamm on His Seventieth

Birthday, ed. Y. Avishur and J. Blau (Jerusalem: E.

Rubenstein's Publishing House, 1978), p. 17.

the use of parallelism, and other stylistic features.¹

When considering types of Ugaritic wisdom genres,

Khanjian demonstrates, by examples, the following forms:

precept, maxim, truism, adage, by-word, taunt, riddle,

fable, parable, instruction, and list.² D. Smith,

commenting on the wisdom text RS 22.439 as being

comparable to the "Counsels of Wisdom," observes the

following concerning the tenacity and ubiquity of wisdom

forms throughout the ancient Near East:

Structure, on the other hand, is controlled most

directly by the internal elements of the unit itself

and is nearly unaffected by surrounding context and

larger social, religious and political considerations.

. . . The parallels adduced below reflect a common

tradition of teaching insofar as structure is

concerned. The sages of Ugarit and Israel worked

within a common tradition, they used common structures

and structural devices in their teaching . . . . the

structure of wisdom literature was fully evolved and

available in its Babylonian dress in the Levant before

the advent of Israel.³

He cites the following "Call to Attention":

____________________

1Pierre Proulx, "Ugaritic Verse Structure and the

Poetic Syntax of Proverbs" (Ph.D. dissertation, The Johns

Hopkins University, 1956), pp. 93-95. Proulx does a

comparison, using the VSO word order approach, between

Proverbs and some Ugaritic texts. Likewise Khanjian,

"Wisdom in Ugarit," pp. 224-35, shows the various types of

parallelisms and similar structures in Ugaritic. The

actual content of the two sets of proverbs is quite

different however.

²Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," pp. 209-10.

³Duane E. Smith, "Wisdom Genres in RS 22.439," in

Ras Shamra Parallels, vol. 2, AnOr, ed. Loran R. Fisher,

(Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1975), p. 218.

Hear the counsel of Shube'awelum,

whose understanding is like Enlilbanda,

the experienced counsel of Shube'awelum,

whose understanding Enlilbanda gave him.

From his mouth comes everlasting order.

The structure of "Call to Attention" begins with an

"Exhortation (Admonition)" and is followed by a

"Motivation" where the teacher ostentatiously lists his

qualifications. A similar structure, although more

subdued, may be seen in Proverbs 22:17-18 (and also in

Proverbs 4:10).

Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, . . .

for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you.

In RS 22.439 I:10-13, Smith notes the form of an

"Exhortation (Admonition)" followed by a rhetorical

question "Motivation." Proverbs 25:7b-8 evinces the same

form.¹ Furthermore, as Murphy notes, sequential numerical

sayings are not found in the wisdom of Mesopotamia (with

the lone exception of Ahikar), nor in Egypt; yet they are

found at Ras Shamra.² The prevalence of this form in the

biblical Proverbs of Agur is well known (Prov 30:18-19,

21, 24-26, 29-31).

The Ugaritic materials have been helpful to

____________________

¹Smith, "Wisdom Genres in RS 22.439," pp. 220-24,

226.

²Roland E. Murphy, Wisdom Literature: Job,

Proverbs, Ruth, Canticles, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, The

Forms of the Old Testament Literature, ed. R. Knierim and

G. M. Tucker (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Co., 1981), pp. 11-12; Pritchard, ANET, pp. 132 (iii,

17-20), 428 (vi 79-94).

proverbial studies, not only because of structural

features, but also for their value in solving lexical

difficulties, which has been noted and developed by

numerous scholars.¹ Based on his Ugaritic studies,

Albright's suggestions for Proverbs 6:11 and 24:34 have

been adopted by the NIV, as has his well-known case for

Proverbs 26:23 spsg (Ug.), "As glaze coated over

earthenware."² Story superbly illuminates parallels in

words and phrases.³ Khanjian develops some Ugaritic

proverbs which are thematically coincidental with the

biblical proverbs, in his article in Ras Shamra Parallels.

For example:

Son, [do not go] into a house of drinking.

(RS 22.439 I:17)⁴

Do not join those who drink too much wine.

(Prov 23:20).

The subject of Canaanite or Phoenician wisdom

should not be curious to biblical students, for the Bible

mentions Edomite wisdom (Obad 8) and the wisdom of the

____________________

¹The most detailed work may be found in Mitchell

Dahood's, Proverbs and Northwest Semitic Philology (Rome:

Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1963).

²Albright, "Canaanite-Phoenician Sources of Hebrew

Wisdom," pp. 10, 13.

³Story, "Proverbs and Northwest Semitic

Literature," pp. 326-27. This is an excellent source which

cites the parallel texts side by side.

⁴John Khanjian, "Wisdom," in Ras Shamra Parallels,

vol. 2, AnOr, ed. Loran E. Fisher (Rome: Pontifical

Biblical Institute, 1975), p. 376.

king of Tyre (Ezek 28:2). This Phoenician vinculum has

been developed in Dahood's work on Punic, which favors

Albright's suggestion that Phoenician forms may be seen in

the Bible, especially the lyric and gnomic literature.¹

J. P. Brown has observed the connection of Phoenician

wisdom and Greek proverbs quoted by Theognis, especially

noting the flow to Greece of the semitic word for gold and

the alphabet--thus, again, demonstrating the international

character of the wisdom movement.²

Concluding Remarks

It has been the purpose of this writer not merely

to enumerate, ad nauseam, lists of sources, but, rather,

to demonstrate the vitality of these comparative studies

and to locate where the appropriate bibliographic

materials may be found. One must agree with Nel's

comment: "No adequate understanding of the biblical

wisdom literature is possible without a thorough knowledge

____________________

¹Mitchell Dahood, "The Phoenician Contribution to

Biblical Wisdom Literature," in The Role of the Phoenicians

in the Interaction of the Mediterranean Civilizations, ed.

W. A. Ward (Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1967),

p. 143. Cf. W. F. Albright, "The Role of the Canaanites in

the History of Civilization," in The Bible and the Ancient

Near East, ed. George E. Wright (Garden City: Doubleday

and Company Inc., 1961), p. 351. John P. Brown,

"Proverb-Book, Gold-Economy, Alphabet," JBL 100 (June

1981):171, 178.

²John P. Brown, "Proverb-Book, Gold-Economy,

Alphabet," pp. 169-91.

of non-biblical wisdom literature."¹

It is important to see the book of Proverbs in its

Sitz im Literatur and to follow, if only briefly, the

perdurant history of the proverbial form for over two

millennia. One should also appreciate the international

character of the wisdom which has been found in Sumer,

Mesopotamia, Boghazkoy, Ugarit, Palestine and Egypt.

Thus, when the biblical sage picks up his pen to

encapsulate a proverbial truth, he knowingly participates

in international and well-structured artistic genres which

were over a thousand years old in the time of Solomon. A

final function of this chapter was not only to locate

where previous wisdom work has been done but also to

suggest the need for advanced work in the analysis of the

text of Proverbs itself, which is still an open field. It

appears to this writer that the works of Marzal, Gordon,

Alster,² et al. show a level of analysis which could yield

rich results if applied to the biblical proverbial corpus.

____________________

¹Philip J. Nel, The Structure and Ethos of the

Wisdom Admonitions in Proverbs (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter,

1982), p. 5.

²Robert S. Falkowitz, "The Sumerian Rhetoric

Collection," (Ph. D. dissertation, University of

Pennsylvania, 1980). While Falkowitz's translation and

analysis of the Sumerian is excellent, his sensitivities in

pareomiological studies are not nearly as refined as

Alster. His main thesis, that the Sumerian "proverbial

collections should better be understood as rhetorical

collections, has not proven itself satisfying to this

writer.

CHAPTER II

THE CONCEPTUAL SETTING OF WISDOM

Introduction

The second spark which has rekindled the fires of

wisdom studies has been the recent fascination of Old

Testament theology with wisdom motifs. The interest seems

to be generated from an inability to handle wisdom--the

last horizon in biblical theology. This chapter will

survey the movement of theological studies, from a tacit

neglect of wisdom, to the "incorporation" of wisdom into

Old Testament theology, via links with creation theology

and order (ma'at) principles. It will be demonstrated

that, although much work has been done on the Weltan-

schauung of wisdom, the need for an examination of the

text of Proverbs itself, as a heuristic check on these

more motif-oriented approaches, has only just begun.

After briefly surveying the state of wisdom within

the purview of Old Testament theology, two directions will

be pursued. First, three realms of wisdom's "uniqueness"

will be scrutinized: (1) the relationship of wisdom to

salvation history; (2) its humanistic/secular/

individualistic character; and (3) the relationship

between religious and empirical/rational bases.

Second, the next chapter will examine wisdom's

relationship to the rest of the canon. A survey of recent

literature will reveal that wisdom, once the orphan of the

Old Testament, has been "discovered" throughout the Old

Testament, to the point that "the entire Hebrew canon is

in danger of being swallowed."¹ The first series of

studies will concentrate on the "splitters," who emphasize

wisdom's uniqueness, while the second focuses on the

"lumpers," who find wisdom in almost every genre of the

canon. Ancient Near Eastern parallels will help balance

the first group and a scrutiny of methodology will help

rectify the second.

Neglect of Wisdom in Past Old

Testament Theologies

Though wisdom has been bemoaned as the "orphan" of

the Old Testament and spurned by most Old Testament

theologians, this neglect is being reversed. G. E.

Wright's oft-quoted observation highlights the anomalous

character of wisdom. "In any outline of biblical

theology, the proper place to treat the Wisdom Literature

is something of a problem."² Murphy also cogently

comments, that over twenty years later, the "marriage

____________________

¹Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 41. Roland E.

Murphy also notes the same problem ("The Interpretation of

Old Testament Wisdom Literature," Int 23 [1969]:290).

²George E. Wright, God Who Acts, SBT 8

between wisdom and Yahwism has been an uneasy one in the

pages of scholarly writings."¹ Recently, however, von

Rad, as a premier Old Testament theologian, has made

significant contributions to the integration of wisdom and

Old Testament theology.² While some have tried to blur

the distinctive character of wisdom,³ others have tried to

reshape the renitent nose of wisdom to fit the face of

____________________

(London: SCM Press LTD, 1952), p. 115; cf. J. F. Priest,

"Where is Wisdom to be Placed?" JBR 31 (October 1963):275.

¹Roland E. Murphy, "Wisdom and Yahwism," in No

Famine in the Land: Studies in Honor of John L. McKenzie,

ed. J. W. Flanagan (Claremont: The Institute of Antiquity

and Christianity, 1975), p. 117. Worrell is correct in

exposing the former absence of wisdom from Old Testament

theologies. Worrell notes that, in 1909, Girdlestone

totally ignored it. More recently, Eichrodt and Wright

have done little with it (George E. Worrell, "The

Theological Ideas of the Old Testament Wisdom Literature"

[Th.D. dissertation, Southwestern Baptist Theological

Seminary, 1962], pp. 2-3). Gerhard Hasel critiques G.

Fohrer as late as 1972 for treating wisdom "too briefly"

(Old Testament Theology: Basic Issues in the Current

Debate [Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,

1972], p. 95). Vid. Walther Eichrodt, Theology of the Old

Testament, vol. 2, OTL, trans. J. A. Baker, (Philadelphia:

The Westminster Press, 1967), pp. 95-96, for a rather weak

theologized treatment of wisdom from late non-canonical

sources and his non-existent treatment of the sage in

Israel, in his first volume.

²Gerhard von Rad, Wisdom in Israel (Nashville:

Abingdon, 1972) and also von Rad, Old Testament Theology,

vol. 1 (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1962), pp.

418-59. Murphy is right when he critiques von Rad's

suggestion that wisdom be viewed as "Israel's response"

(von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 307; vid. also Murphy,

"Wisdom and Yahwism," p. 117).

³Frank Eakin, "Wisdom, Creation, and Covenant,"

Perspectives in Religious Studies 4 (Fall 1977):237.

their alleged Mitte of Scripture. Such Procrustean

methods treat wisdom motifs in a superficial manner.¹

Creation Theology

More productive than taking a Mitte to the text is

to examine the text and let the Mitte present itself.

Waltke, following the lead of Zimmerli and others,

develops the ideas of God's rule and creation theology as

the nexus between Proverbs and the rest of Scripture.²

Because creation theology has provided a needed interface

between biblical theology and the text of Proverbs, a

number of scholars have embraced this position.³ This

____________________

¹David Burdett, "Wisdom Literature and the Promise

Doctrine," Trinity Journal 3 (Spring 1974):13. Burdett

opts for wisdom literature as describing "the kingdom

man," the weaknesses of which are apparent. W. Kaiser

deals with the fear of God concept. He then leaps to the

concept of promise referred to via the term "life," with

the history of redemption being referred to by the title

"the way." Much better is Walter Kaiser's, "Wisdom

Theology and the Centre of Old Testament Theology," EvQ 50

(July-September 1978):146 (also cf. Kaiser, Toward an Old

Testament Theology [Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing

House, 1978], pp. 175-77). Such simplistic "solutions"

are unsatisfying and fail to come to grips with the

essential character of wisdom's uniqueness.

²Bruce K. Waltke, "The Book of Proverbs and Old

Testament Theology," BSac 136:544 (October-December

1979):316. Walther Zimmerli, "Ort und Grenze der Weisheit

im Rahmen der alttestamentlichen Theologie," Gottes

Offenbarung. Gesammelte Aufsatze zum Alten Testament,

TBu 19 (Munich: Kaiser, 1963), p. 302.

³Priest, "Where is Wisdom to be Placed?" p. 282;

O. S. Rankin, Israel's Wisdom Literature (Edinburgh: T. &

T. Clark, 1954), p. 9; Robert W. E. Forrest, "The Creation

Motif in the Book of Job" (Ph.D. dissertation, McMaster

University, 1975), p. 17; Donald E. Gowan, "Habakkuk and

shift in the thinking of Old Testament theologians

reflects actual wisdom texts (Prov 3:19-21; 8:22-31; Job

28:23-37 cf. Sir 4:6; 18:1-7; 39:21-35) and evinces a

significant broadening from an approach which stressed

salvation history, institutions, cult, covenant or the

election of Israel to the portrayal of God as the

sovereign Creator.¹

Creation theology views God as the creator,

concentrating on His acts of creation rather than on His

mighty acts in redemptive history. Creation theology

views man as an individual who must harmonize his life

with the structure of the creation, rather than as one who

participates in a covenant community and is bound by its

stipulations. Thus, the individual is responsible to

analyze situations experientially, empirically and

rationally and then to act in accord with his perception

of the creation (Prov 6:6-8; 30:24-31).² Hence, wisdom

has been envisioned as cosmodynamic whereas myth/cult is

____________________

Wisdom," Perspective 9 (1968):165; and von Rad, Wisdom

in Israel, pp. 174-75.

¹Toombs, perhaps overstating the case a little, is

correct when he states that as long as the focus of the

Mitte was on these it would exclude wisdom by definition

(Lawrence E. Toombs, "O. T. Theology and the Wisdom

Literature," JBR 23 [1955]:195); cf. also Donn F. Morgan,

Wisdom in the Old Testament Traditions (Atlanta: John

Knox Press, 1981), p. 22.

²Leo G. Perdue, Wisdom and Cult (Missoula,

MT: Scholars Press, 1977), pp. 135, 137.

cosmostatic.¹ Creation theology looks at God's creation

paradigmatically whereas a Heilsgeschichte approach is

more syntagmatic.

In wisdom, Yahweh is presented not only in terms

of the original cosmic creation (Prov 3:19-20), but also

as the One actively working in the social and ethical

spheres of creation. For example, the rich

and--especially emphasized--the poor (Prov 14:31; 17:5;

22:2; 29:13) are the products of His creative acts. Thus,

one is to be merciful to the poor, recognizing that the

Creator has made both rich and poor.²

The Creation concept affects not only the cosmic

and social spheres but also has ethical overtones,

particularly in terms of moral order (justice; Prov

16:11), which is inherent in the creation itself (Job

4:17; 36:3). Sirach repeatedly juxtaposes creation hymns

and theodicy (Sir 16:24-17:14; 39:15-35; 42:15-43:33).

Creation theology incorporates the creation of the cosmos,

the development of the social order and a just moral

order, by which the creation reflects the character of the

Creator.

____________________

¹Julien Harvey, "Wisdom Literature and Biblical

Theology," BTB 1 (1971):311. Contrast with Buccellati,

"Wisdom and Not: The Case of Mesopotamia," pp. 35-41

²Hermisson, "Observations on the Creation Theology

in Wisdom," pp. 45-46. For material on the poor in wisdom

vid. T. Donald, "The Semantic field of Rich and Poor in

the Wisdom Literature of Hebrew and Accadian," OrAnt 3

(1964):27-41.

Man is not autonomous with certain innate

abilities to know and understand, but is dependent on the

Creator, who has endowed man with senses by which he is

able to perceive the created world (Prov 20:12). Murphy

comments that "the proper sphere of wisdom is man as man,

as creature made by a supreme Being."¹ Murphy also sees

that the creation is used not as a basis for discovery of

the order of the universe, but that there is a

"coordination" of the created world and life's experience,

with each illustrating the other (Prov 16:27; 26:14).²

Thus, he and others see the strong connection of wisdom

and the dominion passages in Genesis 1-3 and Psalm 8. Man

as creature, who is responsible to live in harmony with

the created order, is a theme also developed by

Brueggemann.³

Crenshaw most aptly sums up, when he writes:

Creation, then, assures the wise person that the

universe is comprehensible, and thus encourages a

search for its secrets. Furthermore, creation

supplies the principle of order that holds together

the cosmic, political, and social fabric of the

universe.⁴

____________________

¹Murphy, Introduction to the Wisdom Literature of

the Old Testament, p. 36.

²Murphy, "Wisdom and Yahwism," p. 121.

³W. Brueggemann, In Man We Trust (Richmond: John

Knox Press, 1972), p. 24; Ronald D. Cole, "Foundations of

Wisdom Theology in Genesis One to Three" (Th.M. thesis,

Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1978), pp. 133-34.

⁴Crenshaw, "Prolegomenon," in SAIW, p. 34.

This is not a return to natural theology, as Murphy well

notes, in that wisdom's significance is truly felt only

within the community of faith by those who fear Yahweh.

It also provides a point of contact to those outside of

that community as well.¹

Hermisson has been a perceptive guard against an

overemphasis on creation theology and his statements are

generated from an extended exposure to the proverbial

material. He critiques Zimmerli's approach that wisdom is

unable to speak particularly and of the covenant.

Instead, Hermisson suggests that it is within the covenant

community that "God's relationship to the world and to

humanity could become concrete and be immediately

experienced." He further expounds this notion, in

Christological and salvific terms:

The other answer--if in conclusion, with a great leap,

the comprehensive theological context should at least

be indicated--was the foolishness of the cross, as

God's wisdom (I Cor 1:17-18), whereby God came to man.

Not that the ancient creation theology of wisdom

became invalid and obsolete; rather it was only in

this way that it could be maintained.²

Crenshaw is correct when he points out that "In reality

____________________

¹Roland E. Murphy, "What and Where is Wisdom?"

CurTM (October 1977):287.

²Hans-Jurgen Hermisson, "Observations on the

Creation Theology in Wisdom," in Israelite Wisdom:

Theological and Literary Essays in Honor of Samuel

Terrien, ed. J. G. Gammie et al. (Missoula, MT: Scholars

Press, 1978), p. 55.

one cannot speak of creation faith in Prov."¹

Verses cited to support a creation theology

approach often deal with present empirical observations

about the ordered world as it stands, often with little

explicit mention of the act of creation (Prov 6:6). The

righteous/wicked contrast, which is so pervasive in

Proverbs, reflects not on the vacillations between chaos

and creation, but on the moral/social order--which is

observed in the world as it functions presently--and the

violation of that order. One may, indeed, correctly argue

that the order concept is built on the foundation of God's

acts as creator, but the explicit emphasis of the text is

more on the inherent order than on the creative act

itself.

Cosmic Order

Introduction

Perhaps the most salient insight in recent wisdom

studies has been the development of creation theology in

the direction of the cosmic order or ma'at, as the

Egyptians called it. This model places biblical wisdom

into the conceptual environment of the international

phenomenon of ancient Near Eastern wisdom. The present

____________________

¹James L. Crenshaw, "The Eternal Gospel (Eccl.

3:11)," in Essays in Old Testament Ethics, p. 32. He then

goes on to list the few times it does occur: Prov 14:31;

16:4, 11; 17:5; 20:12; and 22:2.

point of discussion is not to rehearse all of the detailed

analyses that have led to this synthesis, but merely to

summarize them and cite appropriate sources where these

fructuous ideas have been generated and refined.

H. Schmid has suggested that man's purpose in

wisdom literature was to live consistently with the world

order.¹ This divine order is cosmological in that it was

established by the Creator at the inception of the

creation and is, with no dichotomy, also ethical in that

man is obligated to live in harmony with that order, both

in cosmic and in societal relationships. Since this order

was inherent in the creation, it is binding for all time.²

Hermisson corrects a modern misunderstanding of such

____________________

¹Hans H. Schmid, Wesen und Geschichte der Weisheit:

eine Untersuchung zur Altorientalischen und Israelitischen

Weisheitsliteratur, BZAW 101 (Berlin: Verlag Alfred

Topelmann, 1966); and his classic work on the subject:

Gerechtigkeit als Weltordnung: Hintergrund und Geschichte

des alttestamentlichen Gerechtigkeitsbegriffes, in Beitrage

zur Historischen Theologie, ed. Gerhard Ebeling (Tubingen:

J. C. B. Mohr, 1968). James L. Crenshaw, "Popular

Questioning of the Justice of God in Ancient Israel," ZAW

82 (1970):383. This ma'at approach has been made popular

by the efforts of Gese and von Rad: Hartmut Gese, Lehre

und Wirklichkeit in der alten Weisheit (Tubingen: J. C. B.

Mohr, 1958), pp. 11-21; von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, pp. 153,

167, 174; and Roland E. Murphy, who makes this observation

in a review of Studien zu Proverbien 1-9, by Christa

Kayatz, in JBL 86 (1967):122.

²Roland E. Murphy, "Assumptions and Problems in Old

Testament Wisdom Research," CBQ 29.3 (1967):414; Murphy,

"What and Where is Wisdom?" p. 283; Murphy, Introduction to

the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament, p. 16; and John

A. Wilson, The Culture of Ancient Egypt (Chicago: The

phenomena, when he writes:

This world, however, is unitary, although for us it

may customarily divide into nature, regulated by

(seemingly firm) natural laws, and history, which is

more or less contingent, ancient wisdom starts from

the conviction that the regularities within the human

and historical social realm are not in principle

different from ones within the realm of nonhuman

phenomena.¹

The belief in the world order was not unique to sapiential

materials; but, what was characteristic of wisdom was that

man could, by responsible choices, bring his life into

harmony with this order--resulting in life and security--

or, by violating this order, could incur poverty,

destruction, and insecurity. This principle, then, calls

man to responsible action in his Creator's world.²

Ma'at in Egypt

The ma'at principle is the fundamental leitmotif of

Egyptian wisdom.³ Portrayed as a goddess, her order was

____________________

University of Chicago Press, 1951), p. 48.

¹Hermisson, "Observations on the Creation Theology

in Wisdom," p. 44.

²Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 24; W.

Brueggemann, In Man We Trust p. 52; and Ernest Wurthwein,

"Egyptian Wisdom and the Old Testament," in SAIW, p. 119.

³Leonidas Kalugila, The Wise King: Studies in

Royal Wisdom as Divine Revelation in the Old Testament and

its Environment, ConB, 15 (Lund: CWK Gleerup, 1980), pp.

12, 16, 31, analyzes the relationship of ma'at to Re in

creation as he banishes chaos and also demonstrates

through numerous citations that the king was the one who

upheld ma'at.

observed by both the gods and the king. The king was the

guarantor that the principles of ma'at were maintained,

rewarding those who observed it and punishing those who

violated it.¹ Thus, naturally, the retribution principle

is a supporting sub-theme in wisdom.² von Rad compares

and contrasts the portrayal of ma'at as a goddess with the

"personification" of Wisdom in theophoric terms in

Proverbs 8.³

Ptahhotep concludes his instruction, noting the

importance of ma'at:

I had one hundred and ten years of life

As gift of the king,

Honors exceeding those of the ancestors,

By doing justice [ma'at] for the king,

Until the state of veneration.⁴

Previously he had written:

Ma'at is good and its worth is lasting. It has not

been disturbed since the day of its creator, whereas

he who transgresses its ordinances is punished. It

lies as a path in front even of him who knows nothing.

Wrongdoing [?] has never yet brought its venture to

____________________

¹Michael V. Fox, "Aspects of the Religion of the

Book of Proverbs," HUCA 39 (1968):58.

²Jerry A. Gladson, "Retributive Paradoxes in

Proverbs 10-29" (Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt

University, 1978), p. 69; J. A. Emerton, "Wisdom," in

Tradition and Interpretation, ed. G. W. Anderson (Oxford:

Clarendon Press, 1979), p. 215; and von Rad, Wisdom in

Israel, pp. 72, 153. Act with inherent consequence is

another way of looking at this phenomenon.

³von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, pp. 72, 153.

⁴Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 1:76;

W. L. Humphreys, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the

Old Testament," (Ph.D. dissertation, Union Theological

Seminary, 1970), pp. 54-56.

port. It is true that evil may gain wealth but the

strength of truth is that it lasts . . . .¹

The term ma'at occurs only once in the "Instructions of

Onchsheshonqy," where it specifies that ma'at may be

communicated between individuals and that one's speech (as

well as one's actions) is to be conformed to ma'at.

Indeed, human language was one way in which the wise man

ordered his world and communicated to his students, whom

he advised to live in harmony with this order.² So the

proverb of Onchsheshonqy exhorts:

Speak truth [ma'at] to all men;

let it cleave to your speech.³

Regularity was dominant in Egypt due to the predictable

cycles found in their environment. Thus, the geographical

conditions afforded a sense of security which is reflected

in their wisdom literature.⁴

One should not think of Egyptian wisdom as an

impersonal, deterministic, mechanical order, but, rather,

that this order was maintained and dictated by the will of

____________________

¹Waltke, "The Book of Proverbs and Ancient Wisdom

Literature," p. 233, trans. in Frankfort, Ancient Egyptian

Religion, p. 62. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature,

1:64, sec. 5.

²B. Gemser, "The Spiritual Structure of Biblical

Aphoristic Wisdom," in SAIW, pp. 211, 216.

³Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature,

3:169; cf. Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy and

Biblical Wisdom Literature," in SAIW, p. 150.

⁴Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 81.

the gods. So Amenemope writes:

The Ape sits by the balance,

His heart is in the plummet;

Where is a god as great as Thoth,

Who invented these things and made them?

Do not make for yourself deficient weights,

They are rich in grief through the might of god.

(Amen. 17:22-18:5)¹

In Sumer, the idea was called me. Here, too, the

concepts of security, the created order's being derived

from the gods, and man's responsibility to live in harmony

with that order are analogous to the Egyptian notion of

ma'at.²

Israelite Wisdom and Ma'at

The connection of this ma'at principle to

Israelite wisdom is only natural. The portrayal of Dame

wisdom in theophoric terms finds strong parallels with

Egypt's ma'at, who finds her existence as a darling among

the gods.³ As in Egypt, the Israelite wise man, through

observing the world order, was able to describe where God

would reward and where punishment would result for actions

____________________

¹Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 2:156-57.

Cf. E. W. Heaton, Solomon's New Men, p. 120; also cf. Prov

11:1.

²Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," pp. 31-33; Kramer,

The Sumerians, p. 115; Harvey, "Wisdom Literature and

Biblical Theology (Part One)," pp. 315-16; and Perdue,

Wisdom and Cult, p. 92.

³Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 98; also

Crenshaw, "Prolegomenon," in SAIW, p. 25.

not in harmony with the prescribed order. Thus, the

"righteous," who harmonize with the order, are blessed

(Prov 10:2, 3, 6, 25), but the "wicked" are faced with

calamity (Prov 10:3, 6, 25) and an abbreviated life-span

(Prov 10:27).¹ Brueggemann emphasizes the fact that

wisdom calls man to make responsible choices, by which one

fixes his destiny (Prov 18:21; 21:21; 24:16).² The

connection between act and consequence is well observed in

wisdom (Prov 25:23; 26:20).³

Order presents itself not only in the cosmological

and ethical realms, but also the societal order must be

observed, if one will secure his existence. So Zimmerli

comments:

Thus, for the wise man, the whole world arranges

itself into a scale of value within which every entity

has its place, from the immensity of God who is

acknowledged as the highest value (even God's

inscrutability is so ordered in e.g. 16:33; 20:24;

just the same as the king's calculability is figured

in 25:3) down to the minute values of good fortune

belonging to petty life (joy, satisfaction, happy

countenance etc.). Therefore, it is the wise man's

business to have this scale of values readily at

hand.⁴

____________________

¹Nel, The Structure and Ethos, pp. 109-11. Cf.

Walther Zimmerli, "The Place and Limit of the Wisdom in

the Framework of the Old Testament Theology," SJT 17.2

(1964):154.

²Brueggemann, In Man We Trust, pp. 20-22.

³Humphreys, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier," p.

155.

⁴Walther Zimmerli, "Concerning the Structure of

Old Testament Wisdom," in SAIW, p. 198.

God not only is the founder of this order but also, as

reflected in the motivational clauses, is the one who

upholds it (Prov 22:23, 11; 24:12, 18, 22).¹

Kovacs has done a brilliant job of organizing and

analyzing the social order as it manifests itself in

Proverbs.² He develops a concept which he labels as a

person's "demesne," by which he means:

the range of personal and social space over which a

particular person, being, institution or effect would

have influence or power. One's demesne is what one

can control.³

The demesne is the specification of the boundaries of

one's personal control and the wise man must know how to

live within his demesne without violating particularly the

demesne of those who are over him (Prov 20:2; 21:1; 22:7;

25:2, 6, 8).4 Thus, a hierarchy is developed--with

Yahweh

____________________

¹von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, pp. 90-91.

²Brian Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural

Constraints Upon Wisdom: The Spatial and Temporal Matrix

of Proverbs 15:28-22:16" (Ph.D. dissertation, Vanderbilt

University, 1978).

³Ibid., p. 393.

⁴Ibid., pp. 362, 441-42, 456. Dundes, dealing

with Yoruba proverbs, states that, "One important aspect

of Yoruba child training has to do with teaching the child

the proper sets of relationships to be maintained between

himself and his parents, his siblings, members of his

lineage, and unrelated elders." He also notes proverbs

dealing with the relationship between the parents and the

children: "If a man beats his child with his right hand,

he should draw him to himself with his left" and "The

offspring of an elephant cannot become a dwarf; the

offspring of an elephant is like the elephant" (Alan

at the top, followed by the king, the aristocrat, the

wise, the righteous, the ignorant, the foolish and the

wicked--thereby manifesting various diminishing spheres of

power which must be prioritized and observed.¹ The

biblical wise man discerningly scrutinizes the limits of

his demesne, which results in behavioral modification if

he perceives that a demesne over him may be violated by

his actions. So he writes:

When you sit to dine with a ruler,

note well what is put before you,

and put a knife to your throat,

if you are given to gluttony. (Prov 23:1-2)

The demesne of Yahweh is all-encompassing. Therefore, He,

above all else, is to be feared (Prov 1:7, 29; 8:13).

Note that the king is also to be feared (Prov 24:21).

Cautions and Caveats

Several writers have looked askance upon reading a

ma'at approach mutatis mutandis into the Old Testament

wisdom literature. God and man are not bound by the world

order in Israel, but, rather, the Creator Himself, by His

character, which is manifested in His creation, binds man,

while He Himself is left free and sovereign to act (Prov

____________________

Dundes, Analytic Essays in Folklore [The Hague: Mouton,

1975], pp. 38, 40).

¹Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints," pp.

418, 517.

16:1, 9, 33; 20:24; 21:1, 30-31).¹ Murphy animadverts

upon the ma'at model, suggesting that the term "order" is

too inert and mechanical to capture the relationship

between God and wisdom in the wisdom literature of Israel.

Rather, the term should describe the fact that "Israel

encountered the creator in her experience of daily

events."² J. Harvey calls wisdom "cosmodynamic," which

seems to be a very apt way of viewing the bulk of

proverbial material.³ Fontaine makes an interesting

critique which could be applied to the understanding of

Egyptian instructions as well as to the biblical proverbs:

"The traditional saying gives linguistic expression to the

operational categories of the culture; their function is

not so much to discover some pre-existent 'world order' as

it is to create and consolidate (cultural) order."⁴ Such

salubrious cautions need to be explored further, both in

biblical studies and in Egyptian materials. This writer

____________________

¹Emerton, "Wisdom," p. 217; Wurthwein, "Egyptian

Wisdom and the Old Testament," p. 131; and Nel, The

Structure and Ethos, p. 104.

²Roland E. Murphy, "Israel's Wisdom: A Biblical

Model of Salvation," Studia Missionalia 30 (1981):41; and

Murphy, "Wisdom and Yahwism," p. 120.

³Harvey, "Wisdom Literature and Biblical Theology

(Part One)," p. 311.

⁴Carol R. Fontaine, "The Use of the Traditional

Saying in the Old Testament" (Ph.D. dissertation, Duke

University, 1979), p. 299. Cf. also Kovacs,

"Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 63.

is not convinced that the view of ma'at in Egypt was as

mechanistic as has been intimated by some who desire to

separate Egyptian and Israelite conceptions. The ma'at

approach properly places its emphasis on the notions of

the righteous/wicked, wise man/foolish man, and the fear

of God/fear of king, which permeate the text of Proverbs.¹

One wonders whether perspectives on wisdom

theology may benefit from the linguistic distinction

between synchronic and diachronic. Wisdom looks at the

world order in a descriptively synchronical fashion. It

focuses its attention phenomenologically on the present

order of things, diachronically assuming the creation,

covenant and character of the Creator and Maintainer of

that order, who Himself provides the paradigm of how that

order is to function in moral and social realms.

Wisdom and Heilsgeschichte

One of the major tensions facing biblical

theology, as it approaches the wisdom texts, is the

impression encapsulated by Zimmerli: "Wisdom has no

relation to the history between God and Israel."²

____________________

¹Leo G. Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, pp. 135, 137;

also vid. Nel, The Structure and Ethos, pp. 6, 108.

²Walther Zimmerli, "The Place and Limit of the

Wisdom in the Framework of the Old Testament Theology," p.

315. This had been noticed long before, by Walter

Baumgartner, in his work, Israelitische und

altorientalishche Weisheit, Sammlung Gemeinverstandlicher

Numerous other scholars have also pointed to this apparent

"parenthesis" in the Heilsgeschichte principle, which

dominates the historical and prophetic materials.¹ Nel

notes that "Not one admonition in Proverbs is motivated

with reference to the history of salvation."² This

tension has resulted in a variety of responses. Some,

such as H. D. Preuss, conclude that wisdom, because of its

lack of salvation history, is devoid of inspiration and on

par with pagan texts.³ Brueggemann "solves" the problem

by engineering two "histories," each motivated by a

different memory. The first is the Mosaic-covenant, which

portrays God's spectacular intrusions into history. The

second is the Davidic-royal, which highlights God's

____________________

Vortrage und Schriften aus dem Gebiet der Theologie und

Religionsgeschichte, vol. 166 (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr,

1933), pp. 1-2, and later, in Baumgartner's article, "The

Wisdom Literature," in The Old Testament and Modern Study:

A Generation of Discovery and Research; Essays by Members

of the Society for Old Testament Study, ed. H. H. Rowley

(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), p. 211.

¹Murphy, "Israel's Wisdom," p. 13; Bernhard W.

Anderson, Understanding the Old Testament (Englewood

Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966), p. 490; Robert C.

Hill, "The Dimensions of Salvation History in the Wisdom

Books," CBQ 19 (October 1967):98; C. Hasel Bullock, An

Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books, p. 57; and

Burdett, "Wisdom Literature and the Promise Doctrine," p.

²Nel, The Structure and Ethos, p. 84.

³H. D. Preuss, "Erwagungen zum theologischen Ort

alttestamentlicher Weisheitsliteratur," EvT 30

(1970):393-417.

abiding presence, the world order, and institutions which

maintain that order.¹ Others will opt for an evolution

within wisdom, from a non-Israelite, secular outlook to a

later assimilation or theologization of Heilsgeschichte

motifs into that tradition. This becomes particularly

noticeable in later wisdom texts, such as Ben Sirach (Sir

44-49 and its relationship to the law, Sir 1:26; 19:20;

24:23).²

Two proposals, both of which move in the right

direction, are: (1) Toombs' attempt to use the salvation

portrayed in Proverbs as the basis of a connection with

salvation history (cf. Prov 2:1-5, 12, 15, 20; and also

10:2)³ and (2) an emphasis on creation/order theology,

which provides a better base by rooting wisdom in God's

mighty acts and character, which are demonstrated by

____________________

¹Walter A. Brueggemann, "The Epistemological Crisis

of Israel's Two Histories (Jer 9:22-23)," in Israelite

Wisdom: Theological and Literary Essays in Honor of Samuel

Terrien, ed. J. G. Gammie et al. (Missoula, MT: Scholars

Press, 1978), p. 86. The obvious problem with his

artificial model is the relationship between wisdom and the

cult in such histories.

²Coert J. Rylaarsdam, Revelation in Jewish Wisdom

Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1946),

p. 20.

³Toombs, "O.T. Theology and the Wisdom Literature,"

p. 194; also vid. Zimmerli, "Concerning the Structure of

Old Testament Wisdom," p. 206, where he examines salvific

vocabulary in Proverbs (nsl: 6:3,5; 11:4; nsr 2:8, 11; 4:6;

mlt 11:21; 19:5; also the emphasis on sin and punishment

and obedience and "life").

His creating and maintaining the cosmic order.¹ H. H.

Schmid qualifies this discussion on wisdom's ahistorical

outlook. He suggests that wisdom is historically

sensitive along individual lines.² Loader develops this

point by stressing the importance of time and situation in

the wisdom literature (Eccl 3:1-8; Prov 10:5; 24:27).³

Reid, in an overly acrid stereotype, portrays a salvation

history methodology as a "god of the gaps" approach.

Similarly, Brueggemann objects to the tunnel perspective

of seeing history as a record of God's intrusions, thereby

accentuating the discontinuities in history, rather than

seeing the continuities of God's work in daily affairs.

While Brueggemann is overly harsh in his caricature of

historical narrative, it is this later Weltanschauung,

normal daily life, that is reflected in wisdom.⁴

Along the same line is the lack of wisdom's mention

____________________

¹James L. Crenshaw, "The Influence of the Wise

upon Amos," ZAW 79 (1967):50. Also vid. Crenshaw's

student, Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 227.

²Hans Heinrich Schmid, Wesen und Geschichte der

Weisheit, pp. 79-84; Jerry A. Gladson, "Retributive

Paradoxes in Proverbs 10-29," pp. 41-42; and Harvey,

"Wisdom Literature and Biblical Theology," p. 314.

³J. A. Loader, "Relativity in Near Eastern

Wisdom," in Studies in Wisdom Literature, ed. W. C. van

Wyk, OTWSA 15 & 16 (1972, 1973), p. 50.

⁴W. Stanford Reid, "The Beginning of Wisdom," EvQ

48.3 (July-September 1976):149; Brueggemann, In Man We

Trust, p. 23.

of God's covenant with Israel, which is so foundational to

the rest of the Old Testament. Wisdom's emphasis is on

man qua man, rather than on the covenant community per

se.¹ This problem of the lack of the election of Israel

in wisdom will not be resolved by hiding in Sirach, as

Hill does.² It is further accentuated by what Ranston

notes as the total neglect of messianism. While Ranston's

view is, of course, dependent on a very narrow view of

messianism, it does point out the lack of explicit mention

of the person of the messiah in normal salvific terms.³

Though wisdom scrutinizes the activities of man as an

individual, rather than in an explicitly national

____________________

¹Walther Zimmerli, Old Testament Theology in

Outline, trans. D. E. Green (Atlanta: John Knox Press,

1977), p. 146; Priest, "Where is Wisdom to be Placed?" p.

275; Wright, God Who Acts, p. 103; and Fox, "Aspects of

the Religion of the Book of Proverbs," p. 63.

²Hill, "The Dimensions of Salvation History in the

Wisdom Books," Scr 19 (1967):103. Baumgartner ("The

Wisdom Literature," p. 211), Murphy ("The Interpretation

of Old Testament Wisdom Literature," p. 290), and Scott

(The Way of Wisdom, p. 202) appreciate the issue more than

Hill does. One should not forget Crenshaw's caution:

"Hartman Gese's oft-quoted phrase describing wisdom as an

alien body within the Old Testament (Gese, 1958, p. 1) was

grounded in firm reality: an absence of the usual

Yahwistic concerns until Sirach," (James L. Crenshaw,

review of Wisdom in Israel, by Gerhard von Rad, in

Religious Studies Review 2.2 [April, 1976]:6).

³H. Ranston, The Old Testament Wisdom Books, p.

52; W. H. Gispen, "What is Wisdom in the Old Testament?"

in Travels in the World of the Old Testament, ed. M. A.

Beek (Assen: Van Gorcum and Company, 1974), pp. 75-79;

and Gispen, "The Wise Men in Israel," Free University

Quarterly 5 (November 1957):1.

Israelite sense,1 this is perfectly consistent with its

international viewpoint.

Secular Humanist or Theistic

Humanist Wisdom?

One of the perceptions which has both hurt and

helped wisdom studies has been the observation that wisdom

is secular "stuff." This secularized perspective has been

developed in two directions: (1) the lack of a clear

relationship of an actively-participating God in the

events of history and/or (2) a positive emphasis of man

qua man in the "early" wisdom books. Wisdom's secular

tenor has helped in the sense that many biblical scholars

have been enamored with a "secular" approach to religion;

hence they have generated a significant number of

technical studies describing its tendenz and analyzing its

texts. Such proclivities have drawn them to study the

wisdom literature as a secular approach to man's problems.

They focus on the fact that wisdom does not revert to an

escape into the paradisaical eschaton or resign one into

the arms of a God who died to save wormish sinners. For

the wisdom materials proclaim man to be his own deliverer

via the use of his mind, which he is to employ

redemptively to transform situations all for the glory of

man; or so they think.

____________________

¹Gladson, "Retribution Paradoxes in Proverbs

10-29," p. 46.

H. Gunkel pointed out the secular character of the

oldest sections of Proverbs and this tenet, unfortunately,

has been fostered by Eichrodt and rejuvenated by McKane's

works.¹ McKane typifies this position when he writes:

"They rely exclusively on rational scrutiny and on a

practised delicacy of appraisal and have no room in their

system for the religious authority which is exemplified in

the prophetic dabar."² Fichtner explains the name of

deity in the older proverbial materials as being without

reflection and devoid of substantial, Israelite religious

content.³ Irwin portrays the intellectuals in Israel as

viewing man's destiny as a "mundane affair. His personal

good was to be found in this life, and his achievement,

whatever it might be, related only to this world."⁴ Scott

____________________

¹Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament, 2:81-83.

²William McKane, Prophets and Wise Men, SBT 44, ed.

C. F. D. Moule et al. (Naperville, IL: Alec R. Allenson,

Inc., 1965), pp. 65-66. Also vid. the approach McKane

takes on the sentence literature in Prov 10ff. (Proverbs,

pp. 11-13). R. B. Y. Scott also manifests this attitude by

portraying Prov 10-22 and 25-29 as "more secular and less

didactic in tone" (Proverbs- Ecclesiastes, AB, ed. W. F.

Albright and D. N. Freedman [Garden City: Doubleday &

Company, Inc., 1965], p. 83). The best discussion on the

relation of the prophetic dabar and the sages' authority is

found in Crenshaw's Prophetic Conflict, (Berlin: Walter de

Gruyter, 1971), pp. 116-23.

³Johannes Fichtner, Die altorientalische Weisheit

in ihr israelitische-judische Auspragung: eine Studie zur

Nationalisierung der Weisheit in Israel, BZAW 62 (Giessen:

A. Topelmann, 1933), p. 98.

⁴William A. Irwin, "Man," in The Intellectual

Adventure of Ancient Man, ed. H. A. Frankfort, J. A.

similarly contrasts wisdom as anthropocentric with the

prophets as theocentric. Zimmerli speaks of autonomous

man and rejects proverbial elements which elucidate man's

creatureliness as secondary (Prov 15:11; 16:1; 20:12;

22:2).¹

It has been fortunate that the above secular

analyses of wisdom have been largely rejected;² yet,

Brueggemann has properly criticized the church for

ignoring the proverbial material due to the church's lack

of concern for the "mundane" issues discussed therein. He

states, "From time to time, the church has not really

cared if 'a city is exalted' or if 'it is overthrown'"

(Prov 11:11).³ Indeed this view of the secular character

of Proverbs may be a result of a simplistic reading of the

text.⁴

The second approach which has tended to secularize

____________________

Wilson, T. Jacobsen, and W. A. Irwin (Chicago: The

University of Chicago Press, 1977), p. 264.

¹Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 116; Walther

Zimmerli, "Concerning the Structure of Old Testament

Wisdom," pp. 176-77. Cf. also Schmid, Wesen und

Geschichte der Weisheit, p. 155.

²Rylaarsdam (Revelation in Jewish Wisdom

Literature, p. 21) and Leonidas Kalugila, in The Wise

King, prove conclusively the close relationship of the

gods and wisdom in the ancient Near East. Thus to talk of

secular wisdom is anachronistically ill-conceived.

³Brueggemann, In Man We Trust, p. 17.

⁴Derek Kidner, "The Relationship between God and

Man in Proverbs," TB 7-8 (July 1961):4.

wisdom rejects a quid pro quo deletion of God by secular

humanism. This humanistic position does not eliminate God

as the first position does, but, rather, emphasizes the

anthropocentric character of wisdom. For lack of a better

title, this will be designated as a theistic humanistic

approach to wisdom. Rankin begins his treatment of wisdom

by naming the wisdom literature "The Documents of Hebrew

Humanism"--"not in the sense of a rejection of the

supernatural, or even as intending a concern chiefly with

man's welfare, but because its general characteristic is

the recognition of man's moral responsibility, his

religious individuality and of God's interest in the

individual life."¹ This type of "humanism" is consistent

with the text. Man is not viewed as "cowering, and

self-denying," but, rather, in Brueggemann's formulation,

as the king of creation--as one trusted and responsible.²

Brueggemann's stress on affirming man's responsibility and

trustedness is helpful when placed into a theological

framework.

Thus, it should be noted that two types of

____________________

¹Rankin, Israel's Wisdom Literature, p. 1. John

Priest gives an interesting discussion of this issue,

including a definition of "humanism" which is crucial to

this whole discussion ("Humanism, Skepticism, and

Pessimism in Israel," JAAR 36 [1968]:311-26). Gladson,

"Retributive Paradoxes in Proverbs 10-29," p. 279.

2Walther Brueggemann, "Scripture and an Ecumenical

Life-Style: A Study in Wisdom Theology," Int 24.1

(January 1970):16.

"humanists" are found in these studies. The first,

secular humanists, emphasize humanism to the point of the

negation of God's involvement, which is usually written

off as a late accretion to wisdom. A second group,

theistic humanists, while acknowledging God's work, affirm

man's work and control of his world and reject any

inherent dichotomy between the two. This second

perspective presents a needed balance to those who reduce

wisdom to "the fear of the Lord," ignoring or theologizing

its anthropological quiddity. Yet, to say that self,

rather than God, is the starting place of wisdom would

abrogate the clear statements of the text (Prov 1:1-8).¹

Hence, Murphy correctly suggests a "theological

anthropology."² Numerous writers have rejected the

"secular humanist" position. Harvey successfully

incriminates this position, when he notes that the whole

of Proverbs 10-15 (the oldest wisdom) centers on the

"righteous man" and the "wicked," both of which have

____________________

¹James L. Crenshaw, "Popular Questioning of the

Justice of God in Ancient Israel," p. 382. His later

statement--"Moreover, a strong humanism pervades the

tradition, although that optimism regarding human

potential springs from a conviction that God has created

the universe orderly"--seems more accurate (Old Testament

Wisdom, p. 55).

²Murphy, "Interpretation of Wisdom," p. 292. Cf.

also Fox, "Aspects of the Religion of the Book of

Proverbs," p. 63.

strong theological overtones.¹

It may also be argued that the distinction between

sacred and profane and the caricature of the ancient wise

man as an agnostic scholar are foreign to ancient Near

Eastern culture, as Kalugila has recently suggested.²

Some scholars delight in looking down the well of history

only to see their own faces reflected in the waters below.

The secular humanist approach polarizes wisdom by

twentieth century glasses.³ Nel disapproves of the idea

of an autonomous man ethos in Proverbs and correctly

perceives the will and actions of man as subordinate to

the demesne of Yahweh (Prov 14:2; 16:1-3; 17:3; 20:9;

21:2; 21:31).⁴ Kidner, in a positive manner, states:

Similarly in the realm of conduct, which is Proverbs'

field, the one Lord makes known His will, and thereby

a single standard of what is wise and right, and a

satisfying motive for seeking it. So a sense of

purpose and calling lifts the teaching of Proverbs

above the pursuit of success or tranquility, clear of

the confines of a class-ethic or a dry moralism, into

the realm of knowing the living God 'in all (one's)

ways.'⁵

____________________

¹Harvey, "Wisdom Literature and Biblical Theology,"

p. 317; and Scott, Proverbs-Ecclesiastes, p. 26.

²Kalugila, The Wise King, pp. 12-17; 90-100.

³Roland E. Murphy, review of Wisdom in Israel, by

Gerhard von Rad, in CBQ 33 (1971):287.

⁴Nel, The Structure and Ethos, pp. 108-13.

⁵Derek Kidner, The Proverbs: An Introduction and

Commentary, The Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries

(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1964), p. 21.

Empirical, Rational, and

Eudaemonistic Wisdom

Having briefly surveyed the secular humanist and

theistic humanist approaches to wisdom, we will next give

an overview of empirical, rational and eudaemonistic

approaches. Each of these will have, in part, valid

insights; yet an overemphasis will prove to be the faux

pas of each system. A discerning eclectic approach will

have a kalogenetic effect on the understanding of the

text.

Those advocating an empirical approach to the

proverbs are not a homogeneous group. Some, such as

Gordis,¹ develop two types of wisdom, an

Erfahrungsweisheit (wisdom of experience) and a

theologische Weisheit (theological wisdom). One wonders

whether such a bifurcation reflects Proverbs which seems

to mix without effort these two perspectives that are so

distinct to modern, post-Kantian minds. Proverbs, for

Zimmerli, lacks any basis of authority outside of the

validating experience of man.² While the experiential

character of wisdom should be acknowledged (Prov 7:6),³

____________________

¹Robert Gordis, "The Social Background of Wisdom

Literature," HUCA 18 (1943, 1944):79-80.

²Zimmerli, "Structure of Old Testament Wisdom,"

pp. 183, 185. For Zimmerli, the starting point is man and

the question is "How do I as man secure my existence?" (p.

190).

³James L. Crenshaw, "Wisdom," in Old Testament Form

this must not be done at the expense of the revelatory and

divine ethos of biblical wisdom. Oftentimes, the proverbs

are observational without necessarily being moralistic.

They frequently are merely descriptive of empirical

realities (Prov 13:7; 18:16; 20:14, 29).¹

There is an empirical emphasis in Proverbs which

should not be ignored by a negatively-biased theological

parti pris which demeans or reinterprets the clear

statements of the text (Prov 26:12). The whetting of the

senses as a means of learning is frequent in Proverbs

(especially the eyes 7:6, 7; 17:24; 27:12; ear 2:2; 18:15;

and the use of one's mind 7:3; 18:15; 22:17). The

Sumerian words for wisdom are reflective of this outlook

as well: gis-tuku or gestu, meaning "ear" or "hearing."²

The frequent calls to attention (3:1; 4:1; 5:1) also

stress the need to harness one's faculties in the learning

process. Thus, wisdom comes to man by his sense

perceptions, in tandem with listening to divine torah,

____________________

Criticism, ed. John H. Hayes (San Antonio: Trinity

University Press, 1974), p. 231; Murphy, Introduction to

Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament, p. 30; and von

Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p.4.

¹Roland E. Murphy, Wisdom Literature: Job,

Proverbs, Ruth, Canticles, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, Forms

of the Old Testament Literature, ed. R. Knierim and G. M.

Tucker (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,

1981), p. 4; Crenshaw, "Wisdom", p. 77; and Fox, "Aspects

of the Religion of the Book of Proverbs," pp. 62-63.

²Kalugila, The Wise King, pp. 38f.

which should not be excluded (Ps. 1:2).¹ This empirical

approach is explicitly manifested elsewhere in wisdom as

well (Eccl l:13; Sir 17:6, 8).²

While an empirical element must not be ignored or

de-emphasized, it must not be seen as the starting point

of wisdom. The starting point and goal of wisdom is

clearly stated to be the fear of the Lord (Prov 1:7; Eccl

13:7). Mere empirical observations, while accounting for

many of the proverbs, leave a significant number

untouched. The intentions of a man, for example, are not

open to empirical verification, yet they are the point of

discussion of numerous proverbs (Prov 26:23-24; 27:6, 14).

These same proverbs prescribe caution, in that mere

outward appearances and empirical data may be deceiving.

Similarly, references to Yahweh and the cult (Prov 10:3;

11:1; 15:8; 21:27) are not open to empirical

verification.³

Nel correctly observes that the fear of Yahweh "does not

allow us to interpret wisdom as natural theology."⁴

____________________

¹Rylaarsdam, Revelation in Jewish Wisdom

Literature, p. 66; and Worrell, "The Theological Ideas of

the Old Testament Wisdom Literature," p. 88.

²von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 287; Luis Alonso-

Schokel, "The Vision of Man in Sirach 16:24-17:14," in

Israelite Wisdom: Theological and Literary Essays in

Honor of Samuel Terrien, ed. J. G. Gammie et al. (New

York: Union Theological Seminary, 1978), p. 238.

³Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints,"

pp. 182-86.

⁴Nel, The Structure and Ethos, p. 182.

It is clear that the proverbs are not merely bald

empirical observations, but, rather, they take the sensory

data of many particulars and, through a rationalistic

process, create a single, compressed statement, which will

explain the vast number of particular situations from

which it was taken and to which it may be applied.¹ All

this is done within a Yahwistic framework, which directs

the individual to the fear of Yahweh as a result of his

observations.

While certainly one would reject Scott's dichotomy

between reason/experience and revelation,² there is

definitely a stronger rational element in wisdom than is

found elsewhere in Scripture. The careful weighing of

various possibilities (Prov 15:16, 17) was part of the

task of the wise man, as was the movement from the

particulars to the general--both of which are rational

operations demonstrating the wise man's perceptiveness

(Prov 7:6-27).³ Since wisdom is viewed as a divine gift,

____________________

¹James G. Williams, Those Who Ponder Proverbs:

Aphoristic Thinking and Biblical Literature, Bible and

Literature Series, ed. D. M. Gunn (Sheffield: The Almond

Press, 1981), pp. 35-36, 89; Carole R. Fontaine,

Traditional Sayings in the Old Testament, Bible and

Literature Series, ed. D. M. Gunn (Sheffield: The Almond

Press, 1982), pp. 8, 49; also vid. Heda Jason's excellent

model of proverb form and function: "Proverbs in Society:

the Problem of Meaning and Function," Proverbium 17

(1971):620.

²Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 113.

³Zimmerli, Old Testament Theology in Outline, p.

however, the wise men themselves were careful not to

attribute these sagacious perceptions exclusively to their

own acumen, but acknowledged divine origin (Prov 3:4-5;

1 Kgs 3:5-15; Exod 31:1-5; 2 Sam 16:23). The distinction

between faith and reason was foreign to ancient Israel.

An outgrowth of the empirical/rational emphases of

wisdom has been to view them as pragmatic in character.

Though Paterson's division between utilitarianism and

absolute moral law is an incorrect view of Israel's

pragmatism (vid. Prov l7:8), Kelly does better by seating

the non-theoretical, work-clothes tenor of Proverbs firmly

in a theistic Gestalt.¹ Murphy properly warns against

simply writing off wisdom as mere pragmatism and

neglecting to comprehend its religious foundations.²

The eudaemonistic character of wisdom was

____________________

153; also Gladson, "Retributive Paradoxes in Proverbs

10-29," p. 279; and Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural

Constraints," pp. 47, 395.

¹John Paterson, The Wisdom of Israel (London:

Lutterworth and Abingdon, 1961), p. 86; B. H. Kelly, "The

Book of Proverbs," Int 2 (1948):345; cf. also Crenshaw,

Old Testament Wisdom, p. 19 and von Rad, Wisdom in Israel,

pp. 74, 77.

2Murphy, Introduction to Wisdom Literature of the

Old Testament, pp. 16, 46. Ernst Wurthwein, working with

Egyptian materials, notes that "a thoroughly religious

understanding of life and world stands behind the often

utilitarian-sounding counsels" ("Egyptian Wisdom and the

Old Testament," p. 117); so also J. W. Gaspar, Social

Ideas in the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament, The

Catholic University of America Studies in Sacred Theology,

No. 8 (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America

Press, 1947), p. 116.

emphasized by early wisdom studies, which viewed Proverbs

from an anthropocentric base. The goal of wisdom was the

happiness of the individual and the secure and successful

establishment of his life.¹ Its eudaemonistic character

was believed to be reflected in the retribution principle:

he who does good ethically will receive good materially,

that is, riches, security, life, and happiness. The

recent development of the connection of wisdom to the

ma'at principle has eliminated the viewing of wisdom as

simply eudaemonistic.² The basis is now seen as the

upholding of ma'at, or the world order, in which the

individual, if he participates compatibly, can secure for

himself a measure of happiness and security. This model

fits well both in Egypt and, to some extent, in Israel.

____________________

¹Zimmerli, "Concerning Structure of Old Testament

Wisdom," pp. 176-92, especially p. 190. Zimmerli deals

extensively with his fundamental question, "How do I as

man secure my existence?" (Prov 10:9). W. Baumgartner,

Israelitische und altorientalische Weisheit, Sammlung

Gemeinverstandlicher Vortrage und Schriften aus dem Gebiet

der Theologie und Religionsgeschichte, vol. 166, ed. P.

Siebeck (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1933), pp. 27-29.

2Harmut Gese, Lehre und Wirklichkeit in der alten

Weisheit, pp. 7-11. Also J. A. Emerton, "Wisdom," in

Tradition and Interpretation, ed. G. W. Anderson (Oxford:

Clarendon Press, 1979), pp. 216-17; Philip Nel, "A

Proposed Method for Determining the Context of the Wisdom

Admonitions," Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 6

(1978):33; Roland E. Murphy, "The Wisdom Literature of the

Old Testament," in The Human Reality of Sacred Scripture,

vol. 10 (New York: Paulist Press, 1965), p. 131; and

Harvey, "Wisdom Literature and Biblical Theology," p. 309.

Evolutionary Model: From

Secular to Religious

While most of the above perspectives on wisdom

have been modified to positions which reflect the

canonical text, the proposed evolutionary models still

refuse to accept the text by either reinterpreting the

data, or, much more commonly, via the use of a scissors

and paste methodology, reconstructing the text to fit

their model. Perhaps the most prevalent evolutionary

model held today is the movement from secular, early,

proverbial statements to later religious and Yahwistic

renditions. Baumgartner, for example, notes "how the

rules of mere worldly wisdom diminish, eudaemonistic

motives are replaced by moral and religious ones. . . ."¹

More recent has been McKane's atomistic approach, by which

he divides the sentence literature (Prov 10-29) on the

basis of three preconstructed classes: Class A (old

wisdom educational principles on how to live a successful

life); Class B (shows a concern for the community,

exposing anti-social behaviour); and Class C (identified

by the presence of Yahwistic elements). Thus, his

____________________

¹Baumgartner, "The Wisdom Literature," p. 214. He

also cites Gunkel and Fichtner as supporting this

position. Also of this school are: M. D. Conway, Solomon

and Solomonic Literature (New York: Haskell House

Publishers Ltd., 1973), p. 77; Charles C. Forman, "The

Context of Biblical Wisdom," The Hibbert Journal 60

(1962):129; Gaspar, Social Ideas in the Wisdom Literature

of the Old Testament, p. 119.

commentary, which has been hailed as the replacement for

Toy's classic on Proverbs, tears the text of Proverbs into

these three categories, then shuffles and comments on them

after they are reordered under these new headings. McKane

thereby violates the canonical shape and texture of the

text, which will be shown to be significant even in the

sentence literature. He also takes issue with von Rad's

idea of the religious element being original to the

proverbial materials.¹ Even more recently, Bryce has

constructed an evolutionary model, based on an Egyptian

Vorlage, which moves through adapted and assimilated

stages, to a stable, fully-integrated, Yahwistic piece of

literature.² Bryce uses a comparison between Amenemope

9:7-8 and Proverbs 15:16 to show that the Yahwistic

element was added.³

The evidence for such views is varied. Fichtner,

based on an analysis of the motive clauses, suggests that,

____________________

¹McKane, Proverbs, pp. 11-12 and also in his

Prophets and Wise Men, p. 48.

²Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, pp. 58, 220. Bryce

proffers three stages: adapted (minor changes),

assimilated (major modifications), and integrated (little

of the original meaning).

³Glendon E. Bryce, "'Better'-Proverbs: An

Historical and Structural Study," in Book of Seminar

Papers, vol. 2, ed. L. C. McGaughy, (Missoula, MT: Society

of Biblical Literature, 1972), p. 348. He assumes

borrowing by Proverbs.

in the early stages, the motives were eudaemonistic and,

later, there was a shift to more religious motivation.

But, obviously, he selects and dates the material he uses

for proof and fragments the canonical text to fit his

hypothesis.¹

Outside of Proverbs, McKane heightens the conflict

between the wise men and the prophets. In Hegelian

fashion, he views the Yahwistic elements in wisdom

sections as a later synthesis between the dabar-oriented

prophets, who relay a word from God, and the secular wise

men, who use 'esa. Thus, he perceives passages such as

Genesis 41:33-36 to be a reinterpretation fitted to

Israelite piety. Second Samuel 19:28 (also 14:20) is

explained as mere shrewdness, rather than as a divine

gift. McKane ignores or refashions the clear statements

of the text to fit his rather flimsily constructed model.

Such prescriptive methodology is a sad remnant of the

nineteenth century.²

Baumgartner elucidates three bases of his

evolutionary model: (1) the LXX, (2) later wisdom (Ben

Sirach), and (3) the hypostasis of wisdom in Proverbs 8.³

____________________

¹Johannes Fichtner, Die altorientalische Weisheit

in ihrer israelitisch-judischen Auspragung, pp. 60-97; and

Gladson, "Retributive Paradoxes in Proverbs 10-29," p. 30.

²McKane, Prophets and Wise Men, pp. 50, 59,

61.

³Baumgartner, "The Wisdom Literature," p. 214.

While a shift in the post-exilic period must be

acknowledged, especially when one compares Sirach with

Proverbs, this development should not be read back into

earlier proverbial materials. Murphy correctly labels

this post-exilic shift as a "theologizing" or, as others

would have it, a "torahization" of wisdom.¹ This is

clearly evinced in a comparison of Sirach 24 and Proverbs

8, where, for example, Sirach (24:22) identifies wisdom

with the Law of Moses. Does this demonstrate that the

Proverbial material went through a secular-to-religious

evolution or that in the post-exilic period a synthesis

took place, identifying wisdom and the Mosaic Law? It

seems to this writer that the exile may have sparked such

a synthesis.

Rylaarsdam gives a refutation of the rigid

evolutionary scheme. He writes:

We have previously indicated that the phrase [fear of

Yahweh] is a humble acknowledgment by man that he

cannot possess wisdom as God does. This is also true

in the early strata of Proverbs (15:11; 20:24; 24:12;

29:13).

The oldest parts of Proverbs teach that man

discovers wisdom; but it likewise feels that the roots

of wisdom are fixed in the God who is man's Creator.²

It is Crenshaw who has provided the most helpful analysis

____________________

¹Murphy, Introduction to the Wisdom Literature of

the Old Testament, pp. 44, 48; and his "Israel's Wisdom:

A Biblical Model of Salvation," Studia Missionalia 30

(1981):34-35.

²Rylaarsdam, Revelation in Jewish Wisdom

Literature, p. 70.

of the dabar/'esa debate. He accepts the notion that the

"prophetic outlook is vertical" and that the sages' is

horizontal, but "the difference is perspective, not amount

of authority." He concludes--against those who would

relegate the authority of Proverbs to a mere recording of

generalized observations of nature--"In short, between

'Thus saith the Lord' and 'Listen, my son, to your

father's advice' there is no fundamental difference."¹

Whedbee correctly destroys McKane's fantasy by noting his

failure to take into account the principle of "order"

which was so prevalent in Egyptian materials, a thousand

years prior to Solomon. Thus, the wise man was not

secular, but viewed the creation as "created and

guaranteed" by God.² Numerous other scholars also have

objected to McKane's position. Kovacs notes the presence

of priest scribes in Egypt, which would suggest that there

was no exclusive division between the religious and

secular. He also questions the procedure of editing out

religious language when it fits perfectly with its

context.³ Crenshaw rejects a rigid evolutionary

approach,

____________________

¹Crenshaw, Prophetic Conflict, pp. 119, 123.

²J. William Whedbee, Isaiah and Wisdom,

(Nashville, IL: A. R. Allenson, 1965), pp. 118-19; also

Bruce K. Waltke, "The Book of Proverbs," pp. 229, 238.

³Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints,"

pp. 306, 313.

based on the present limited knowledge of the forms and

the evolution of those forms.¹

Thus, it should be concluded that--supported by

the unity of the text itself, which will be demonstrated

in this paper, and by ancient Near Eastern parallels from

over a thousand years before the text of Proverbs--the

suggestion of an evolution from secular to religious is a

twentieth-century projection back into history.

Conclusion

The purpose of this chapter has been to survey

broad conceptual approaches to wisdom: humanistic,

empirical, rational, eudaemonistic, and evolutionary. The

various authors and positions have been tabulated and some

initial generalized comments made in reaction to these

approaches. In addition, there was a brief critique of

the secular-to-sacred evolution which was suggested in the

____________________

¹Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 263. Others who reject

this approach are: Roland Murphy, "Wisdom--Theses and

Hypostheses," in Israelite Wisdom: Theological and

Literary Essays in Honor of Sanmuel Terrien, ed. J. G.

Gammie et al. (New York: Union Theological Seminary,

1978), p. 40 (also see Murphy, "Wisdom Literature" p. 51);

Christa B. Kayatz, Studien zu Proverbien 1-9: eine form-

und motivgeschichtliche Untersuchung unter Einbeziehung

agyptischen Vergleichsmaterials, Wissenschaftliche

Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament, vol. 22

(Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1966), p. 2; and

Joseph Jensen, The Use of tora by Isaiah: His Debate with

the Wisdom Tradition, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly

Monograph Series, ed. P. W. Skehan, vol. 3 (Washington, DC:

The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1973), p. 30.

wisdom of pre-exilic Israel. The need for a detailed

examination of the "old" wisdom material should be

apparent from such discussions. In order to assess

properly how heavily each of the above should be stressed

and with what qualifications, there must be a detailed

scrutiny of the starting point of these discussions, that

is, the early wisdom itself. Thus, this dissertation will

examine Proverbs 10-15, which is accepted by all as some

of the oldest wisdom material in the canon. While we will

not return to make judgments on these matters, the

foundation of a syntactic analysis will be laid for a

further semantic, literary and theological analysis, which

will have rather pointed implications for many of the

above models. The syntactic analysis will reveal the

literary art, proverbial form and creative genius

exhibited by the wise men as they plied their craft,

recording the truth of the created order as they perceived

it. The wise man himself participated in the creative act

as he isolated, formulated and transformed the order he

perceived empirically into a verbal ordering which modeled

the creation he was attempting to describe. To examine in

detail how he utilized language to accomplish this feat

will bring us one step closer to the underlying principles

on which he operated. To examine how the sage

encapsulated his message will allow us to see how he

harmonized his own expressions with his own observations

on the careful (Prov 15:23; 25:11) and beneficial (Prov

12:25) use of words. An analysis of syntactic form

provides a necessary foundation for the semantic work

which will, in due season, help specify more precisely the

theological tendenz of the early wisdom of Israel. Thus,

this writer proposes a heuristic, cyclical approach by

which the Old Testament theologians offer suggested

insights, based on a general overview of the text. These,

then, must be fine-tuned by a meticulous analysis of the

text. This atomistic, detailed analysis must next be

integrated into the discourse and genre level patterns and

motifs which will, in turn, lead to the modification of

how the analysis itself is to be understood.

CHAPTER III

THE CANONICAL SETTING OF WISDOM

Introduction

While wisdom's role in the canon thematically and

presuppositionally has caused Old Testament theologians no

little concern, Old Testament exegetes have also gone

through a transition from asking "where may wisdom be

found?" to "where is wisdom not found?" This rather

recent recognition of the prolific influence of wisdom

within the canon will be surveyed, focusing on the

methodology used, rather than on the specific

argumentation for or against whether a particular passage

should or should not be designated as a text which

manifests the intellectual tradition of wisdom. The

purpose of this chapter will be (1) to survey areas where

wisdom studies have concentrated, pointing out the need

for an exact knowledge of what features characterize

wisdom before claiming its presence elsewhere, and (2) to

indicate the preponderance of the intellectual tradition

within the canon. The most balanced and discriminating

accounts of this area of study are found in an article

by Crenshaw¹ and in a book by Whybray.²

Recent lists of suggested wisdom passages often

include: Genesis 1-3, 37-50 (the Joseph narrative);

Deuteronomy 1-4, 32; 2 Samuel 9-20 and 1 Kings 1-2 (the

succession narrative); 1 Kings 3-11 (the Solomon

narrative); Psalms 1, 19b, 34, 37, 49, 51, 73, 90, 92,

104, 107, 111, 112, 119, 127, and 128; Isaiah 1-39;

Jeremiah; Ezekiel 28; Daniel; Hosea; Amos; Habakkuk;

Jonah; and even Esther.³

While this inventory is by no means exhaustive, it

does give the impression of the rising awareness of wisdom

influences/traditions outside of the Solomonic and Joban

wisdom corpus. It is interesting that Whybray and

Crenshaw, scholars who have specialized in wisdom studies,

____________________

¹James L. Crenshaw, "Method in Determining Wisdom

Influence upon 'Historical' Literature," JBL 88

(1969):129-42.

²R. N. Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition, pp.

71-155. Whybray will scrutinize the vocabulary approach.

He also gives a rather extensive bibliography to this

whole discussion on p. 1. Crenshaw, "Method in

Determining Wisdom Influence upon 'Historical'

Literature," p. 129.

³Vid. Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition, p. 154

and Crenshaw, "Method in Determining Wisdom Influence upon

'Historical' Literature," p. 129. Cf. also Kovacs,

"Sociological-Structural Constraints," pp. 173-182. For

an extensive list categorized by form, theme, vocabulary

and references to the wise, vid. Donn F. Morgan, "Wisdom

and the Prophets," in Studia Biblica, ed. E. A.

Livingstone, JSOT Supplement Series, 11 (1978), pp. 229-32.

rather than encouraging the spread of wisdom throughout

the canon, have actually immured it. Indeed, the infusion

of these new texts into the wisdom tradition has resulted

in the blurring of some of its distinctive features.

Methodology

Morgan correctly notes that there are four

criteria employed in determining wisdom's influence in a

non-"wisdom" text. These are: (1) vocabulary, (2) theme/

motif, (3) form/style, and (4) references to wise men.¹

Vocabulary Approach

The vocabulary approach has been one of the most

commonly-used methods for establishing wisdom's presence

in a text. While some have given long lists of "wisdom

vocabulary,"² abuses of this method have resulted when

some have viewed these words as technical terms through

which--using a simplistic, mechanical, concordance-like

process--wisdom's influence is detected. One must be

careful to exclude the "common cultural stock."

____________________

¹Donn F. Morgan, Wisdom in the Old Testament

Traditions, p. 68; idem, "Wisdom and the Prophets," p. 229;

and Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition, p. 71.

²H. Duesberg and I. Fransen, Les scribes inspires:

Introduction aux livres Sapientiaux de la Bible (Belgium:

Editions de Maredsous, 1966), pp. 934-35. They list 200

words (dabar, elohim, etc.). This list is obviously too

broad. Scott, The Way of Wisdom, pp. 76-77, lists about 70

words which he considers "characteristic vocabulary."

Alonso-Schokel correctly objects to a strict vocabulary

approach, suggesting that a text must embrace wisdom's

"structures and mentality as well."¹

It was Whybray's contribution to examine closely

the weighting of vocabulary in the determination of

suspected wisdom texts. He gives numerous ground rules

for ascertaining the terminology of the "intellectual

tradition": (1) "it must be clearly established which

terms are characteristic of Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes

and may thus properly be used as criteria"; (2) "only

words of central significance for the main concerns of

these books should be included"; and (3) there must be a

separation of words which are mainly confined to the

wisdom corpus and those which, while used extensively in

wisdom texts, are also found frequently elsewhere in

Scripture simply as a result of their being part of the

common cultural stock. Whybray further demonstrates his

semantic sensitivity to shifts in word meaning when he

notes that the meaning of a word may be genre-dependent,

to some extent. Thus, one must not only isolate the words

used by the wise, but also determine whether the meaning

is constant in the text being examined.²

Whybray's own analysis of wisdom vocabulary is the

____________________

¹L. Alonso-Schokel, "Sapiential and Covenant

Themes in Genesis 2-3," in SAIW, p. 470.

²Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition, p. 75.

best found anywhere. He divides his list into four

perceptive categories: (l) "Words Occurring Only in

Proverbs, Job and/or Ecclesiastes" (e.g., hasar-leb,

'asel, sikelut, and tahbullot); (2) "Words Occurring

Frequently Both in Proverbs, Job and/or Ecclesiastes and

Also in Other Old Testament Traditions" (e.g., 'awen,

'enos, 'orah, 'asere, bin, da'at, derek, hebel, musar,

mezimma, ma'gal, masal, nabal, 'awla, netiba, sod, 'esa,

rason); (3) "Words Characteristic of Proverbs, Job and/or

Ecclesiastes, but Occurring Occasionally in Other Old

Testament Traditions" (e.g., 'ewil, 'iqqes, heqer, 'orma,

peti, skl, tebuna, tokahat); and (4) "Words Apparently

Exclusive to the Intellectual Tradition" (e.g., bina,

ba'ar, kesil, les, leqah, nabon, sakal, 'arum, tusiyya).

He especially highlights the root hkm as characteristic of

wisdom texts.¹

Motif Approach

The common motif approach is quite frequently used

to demonstrate wisdom's presence in a text. Although

Ranston does not use his catalogue of ideas this way, he

does give what he considers to be recurrent wisdom thought

forms: (1) humanistic and universalistic outlook,

(2) primarily practical rather than abstract,

____________________

¹Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition, pp. 124-42.

His overemphasis on hakam is revealed in the Psalms (vid.

p. 92).

(3) observations concerning man (individually,

psychologically, and socially) and nature, (4)

indifference to the cult, and (5) perceptions of problems

with divine providence.¹ Following Mowinckel, Perdue

notes these motifs in wisdom: theodicy, retribution, and

the contrast between the righteous and wicked.² Murphy

adds "the two ways" and "the fear of the Lord" themes as

well as an emphasis on conduct (diligence, responsibility,

avoiding evil women). To these could be appended the

viewing of torah as a source of delight and proper/

improper speech.³ Several observations may be made on the

motif approach: (1) the motif must be clearly and

concisely defined within the wisdom corpus itself, if it

is going to be used as a criterion; (2) it must be shown

that the idea being used to detect wisdom's presence is

not characteristic of other traditions; and (3) careful

scrutiny must be given as to the transformations which the

____________________

¹Ranston, The Old Testament Wisdom Books and Their

Teaching, pp. 22-25.

²Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, pp. 262-64.

³Roland E. Murphy, "A Consideration of the

Classification,'Wisdom Psalms'," VTSup 9 (1963):160. Cf.

also Kenneth J. Kuntz, "The Canonical Wisdom Psalms of

Ancient Israel--Their Rhetorical, Thematic and Formal

Dimensions," in Rhetorical Criticism: Essays in Honor of

James Muilenburg, Pittsburgh Theological Monograph Series,

no. 1, ed. J. J. Jackson and M. Kessler (Pittsburgh: The

Pickwick Press, 1974), pp. 186-222; also Kuntz, "The

Retribution Motif in Psalmic Wisdom," ZAW 89 (1977):

223-33, and Kaiser, "Wisdom Theology and the Centre of Old

Testament Theology," p. 133.

concepts will go through when they are interfaced with

historical, psalmic and prophetic genres.

Form Approach and Summary

While the forms of wisdom will be treated in

detail later, it may be noted here that common structures

are used to trigger the recognition of the wisdom

tradition. Numerous catalogues of forms have been

prepared and the following are most commonly recognized as

wisdom forms: (l) the 'asre formula, (2) numerical

sayings, (3) better sayings, (4) an address of a teacher/

father to a "son," (5) alphabetic acrostics, (6) the use

of similes and metaphors, (7) rhetorical questions,

(8) admonitions, and (9) riddles.¹ Lindblom, in his

seminal article on the prophets, also adds the use of

proverbs/traditional sayings and parables.² These will be

examined later.

Thus, four criteria--(1) vocabulary, (2) forms,

(3) themes, and (4) explicit reference to wise men--are

taken as indicators of wisdom influence. While none of

____________________

¹Kuntz, "The Canonical Wisdom Psalms of Ancient

Israel," p. 191; Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 250; Scott, The

Way of Wisdom, p. 197; Morgan, Wisdom in the Old Testament

Traditions, p. 127; Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, pp. 263-64;

Murphy, Introduction to the Wisdom Literature of the Old

Testament, p. 41; and "A Consideration of the

Classification 'Wisdom Psalms,'" p. 165.

²Johannes Lindblom, "Wisdom in the Old Testament

Prophets," VTSup 3 (1969):201.

these by itself will be conclusive, the intersection of

any of these will strengthen the case. A brief survey of

works which attempt to validate wisdom's presence in the

canon will move diacanonically from the Law and the

historical sections, to the Psalms and Prophets.

Wisdom and the Pentateuch

The relationship between wisdom and torah has been

frequently discussed.¹ Kline obviously reflects a lack of

sensitivity to wisdom, when he writes, "The central thesis

of the wisdom books is that wisdom begins with the fear of

Yahweh, which is to say that the way of wisdom is the way

of the covenant."² Nel is more perceptive, viewing both

law and wisdom as mutually declarative of the order and

will of Yahweh.³ While the law and wisdom are explicitly

connected in Sirach (39:17b-20; 2:16; 19:20; 23:27;

24:23),⁴ some have consanguineously juxtaposed specific

legal stipulations and proverbial materials (Exod

____________________

¹Jensen, The Use of tora by Isaiah, p. 15.

²Meredith G. Kline, The Structure of Biblical

Authority (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing

Co., 1972), p. 65.

³Nel, The Structure and Ethos, p. 95; cf. also

Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 17.

⁴Wolfgang Roth, "On the Gnomic-Discursive Wisdom

of Jesus Ben Sirach," Semeia 17-19 (1980):59-77; Fox,

"Aspects of the Religion of the Book of Proverbs," p. 69;

and Kaiser, "Wisdom Theology and the Centre of Old

Testament Theology," p. 136.

22:21-24; Deut 10:18; 24:17-22; Prov 15:25; and 23:10).¹

Others have noted the common thread of "the fear of

Yahweh" (Lev 19:14, 32; 25:17, 43).²

Gemser early observed the connection between the

legal material and Proverbs, especially the proverbial

character of Exodus 23:8 (Deut 16:19; Prov 17:23) and its

condemnation of bribery. He also points to a parallel

about falsified weights (Lev 19:35 and Prov 11:1).³ The

legal use of proverbs is well-known in proverbial folklore

studies;⁴ hence their nexus in the Bible is not at all

peculiar.

____________________

¹F. Charles Fensham, "Widow, Orphan, and the Poor

in Ancient Near Eastern Legal and Wisdom Literature," JNES

21 (1962):135-37.

²Martin R. Johnson, "An Investigation of the Fear

of God as a Central Concept in the Theology of the Wisdom

Literature," p. 45. Johnson fails to heed Crenshaw's

warning of being careful not to make quick equations

between the same words in two different contexts ("Method

in Determining Wisdom Influence upon 'Historical'

Literature," p. 133). Rylaarsdam is correct when he notes

the connection of "the fear of Yahweh" and the Law in

Sirach (Sir 1:14, 16, 18, 20; 15:1) (Revelation in Jewish

Wisdom Literature, p. 31).

³B. Gemser, "The Importance of the Motive Clause

in Old Testament Law," VTSup 1 (1953):64-66. Moreover his

work on the motive clause, in "The Importance of the

Motive Clause in Old Testament Law," VTSup 1

(1953):96-115, may be compared to Nel's work, The

Structure and Ethos, pp. 18-70.

⁴Edwin M. Loeb, "The Function of Proverbs in the

Intellectual Development of Primitive Peoples," The

Scientific Monthly 74 (February 1952):100-104; and by the

same author, "Kuanyama Ambo Folklore," Anthropological

Records 13 (Berkeley: University of California Press,

1951), p. 102; also cf. John M. Thompson, The Form and

Gerstenberger and Richter have been credited with,

after studying the prohibitions in the law and in the

wisdom materials, the discovery of the original matrix of

apodictic law in wisdom.¹ Examples of some relatively

close parallels may be seen by comparing Proverbs 22:28

with Deuteronomy 19:14, Proverbs 23:10 with Exodus 22:21,

and Proverbs 24:17, 29 with Exodus 23:4f.²

Genesis and Wisdom

Many scholars have seen wisdom influence in the

early chapters of Genesis, which narrate the creation and

fall.³ Bowman, interestingly, cites the Jerusalem Targum

as reading Genesis 1:1, "In/or by by [sic] Wisdom behukma

____________________

Function, pp. 33-34. Thompson gives a very interesting

listing of comparisons between Egyptian instruction texts

and the Decalogue, pp. 112-14.

¹W. Richter, Recht und Ethos, Versuch einer Ortung

des weisheitlichen Mahnspruches (Munchen: Kosel-Verlag,

1966), pp. 41-47; and E. Gerstenberger, Wesen und Herkunft

des 'apodiktischen Rechts, Wissenschaftliche Monographien

zum Alten und Neuen Testament 20 (Neukirchen: Verlag des

Erzeihungsvereins, 1965), p. 128; Thompson, The Form and

Function, p. 8; Morgan, Wisdom in the Old Testament

Traditions, p. 40; and Brueggemann, In Man We Trust, p.

87.

²Gerstenberger, Wesen und Herkunft, p. 128; also

vid. his "Covenant and Commandment," JBL 84 (1965):38-40.

³Alonso-Schokel, "Sapiential and Covenant Themes

in Genesis 2-3," p. 50; Zimmerli, "The Place and Limits of

the Wisdom in the Framework of the Old Testament

Theology," SAIW, p. 320; Ronald D. Cole, "Foundations of

Wisdom Theology in Genesis One to Three."

the Lord created."¹ Without giving an evaluation of the

merits of each connection, the points of contact between

wisdom and Genesis 1-3 may be seen in the following:

(1) the good/evil motif (it is fascinating that it is tied

to a tree);² (2) the tree of life (which occurs only here

and in Proverbs 3:18; 11:30; et al.);³ (3) the shrewd

serpent (The word for "crafty" occurs 11 times in the Old

Testament--only here in Genesis and in Job and Proverbs.

Whybray designates this word as "exclusive to the wisdom

tradition.");⁴ (4) the presence of other "wisdom"

vocabulary (haskil, nehmad, et al.);⁵ (5) Adam

portrayed as a wise man (Job 15:6f.; Ezek 28:12f.);

(6) the orderliness of creation (and creation theology in

____________________

¹John Bowman, "The Fear of the Lord," in

Studies in Wisdom Literature, ed. W. C. van Wyk, OTWSA 15

& 16 (1972, 1973), p. 9.

²Scott, The Way of Wisdom, pp. 98-99; Morgan,

Wisdom in the Old Testament Traditions, pp. 46-47; and

Alonso-Schokel, "Sapiential and Covenant Themes in Genesis

2-3," p. 53.

³I. Engnell, "'Knowledge' and 'Life' in the

Creation Story," VTSup 3 (1960):103-19; Bruce V. Malchow,

"The Roots of Israel's Wisdom in Sacral Kingship," p. 152;

and Cole, "Foundations of Wisdom Theology," p. 92.

⁴Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition, p. 150. Cf.

also Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 49; and Cole,

"Foundations of Wisdom Theology," p. 95.

⁵George E. Mendenhall, "The Shady Side of Wisdom:

The Date and Purpose of Genesis 3," in A Light unto my

Path: Old Testament Studies in honor of Jacob M. Myers,

ed. H. N. Bream, R. D. Heim, and C. A. Moore

(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1974), p. 328.

general as the basis of wisdom theology); (7) the theme of

retribution; and (8) numerical ordering.¹ Whybray sees

Genesis 11 (the tower of Babel), as a parable of those who

are wise in their own eyes.²

Another pericope in Genesis which has been

considered to be influenced heavily by the wisdom

tradition is the Joseph narrative. von Rad has worked

hard to establish this nexus.³ He makes specific thematic

connections with wisdom in regard to Joseph's cool spirit,

in contrast to his brothers (Prov 14:29; 12:23), the

forbearance of revenge (Prov 24:29; 10:12), Joseph's trust

in divine providence (Gen 45:8 and Prov 16:9), even the

fear of Yahweh (Gen 42:18), and, of course, the wicked

woman motif. Morgan adds that the absence of historico-

political interests, the cult, and the salvation history

also reflect a wisdom literature perspective.⁴ Niditch

____________________

¹Alonso-Schokel, "Sapiential and Covenant Themes

in Genesis 2-3," pp. 53-55; and Cole, "Foundations of

Wisdom Theology," p. 83. In this whole discussion, vid.

Whybray's arguments for the absence of hokmah in this

context (The Intellectual Tradition, pp. 104-7).

²Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition, p. 107.

³Gerhard von Rad, The Problem of the Hexateuch and

Other Essays, trans. W. E. T. Dicken (New York:

McGraw-Hill, 1966), pp. 292-300; von Rad, Genesis: A

Commentary, OTL, trans. J. H. Marks (Philadelphia: The

Westminster Press, 1972), pp. 434-35; and von Rad, Wisdom

in Israel, pp. 200-201.

⁴Morgan, Wisdom in the Old Testament Traditions,

p. 49. Also cf. Martin R. Johnson, "An Investigation of

the Fear of God as a Central Concept in the Theology of

and Doran, via a comparative motif and folktale cycle

approach, note the shared sequential elements in Daniel,

Joseph and Ahiqar texts. Four themes are prominent:

(1) a person of low status is called before a person of

high status to answer a conundrum; (2) the person of high

status poses the enigma; (3) the person of low status

solves it; and (4) the person of low status is rewarded.¹

Crenshaw questions von Rad's approach by noting

several non-wisdom motifs which appear: (1) parental

negation of Joseph's wishes (Gen 48:17-20); (2) Joseph not

trained in the schools or by parental instruction;

(3) Joseph's lack of being able to control his emotions

(Gen 45:2, 14f.; 50:1, 17); (4) the use of dreams and

visions; and (5) the mentioning of kosher foods.² One

wonders whether the resemblances of the Joseph narrative

are more a result of the fact that they describe an

Egyptian court setting and were written by one trained in

Egypt, than that they originated from a wisdom matrix.

____________________

the Wisdom Literature," p. 14; and George W. Coats, "The

Joseph Story and Ancient Wisdom: A Reappraisal," CBQ 35

(1973):285-97.

¹Susan Niditch and Robert Doran, "The Success Story

of the Wise Courtier: A Formal Approach," JBL 96

(1977):180.

²Crenshaw, "Method in Determining Wisdom Influence

upon 'Historical' Literature," pp. 135-37, 142; cf. Kovacs,

"Sociological-Structural Constraints," pp. 215, 230.

Exodus, Deuteronomy and Wisdom

In Exodus, Childs has proposed that the birth of

Moses narrative be considered a wisdom piece, based

partially on its connection with the Joseph narrative.¹

Crenshaw looks with incredulity at such proposals.²

The finding of wisdom in Deuteronomy may be

largely credited to Weinfeld.³ It should be noted,

however, that, before Weinfeld, Ranston observed parallels

between Deuteronomy and Proverbs (cf. Deut 6:4-9 and Prov

1:8; 8:5), where they both give hortatory statements in an

educational context.⁴ Perhaps the most frequently-

acknowledged parallels are the comments on removing the

ancient landmarks (Deut 19:14; 27:17; and Prov 22:28;

23:10) and the prohibition of false weights (Deut

25:13-16; and Prov 11:1; 20:23).⁵

____________________

¹B. S. Childs, "The Birth of Moses," JBL 84

(1965), pp. 109-22; and Morgan, Wisdom in the Old

Testament Traditions, p. 48.

²Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 41, though he

does not specifically comment on Childs' proposal.

³M. Weinfeld, "The Origins of the Humanism in

Deuteronomy," JBL 80 (1961):241-47 and "Deuteronomy--The

Present State of Inquiry," JBL 86 (1967):249-62. Cf. also

C. Brekelmans, "Wisdom Influence in Deuteronomy," in La

Sagesse de l'Ancien Testament, ed. M. Gilbert (Leuven:

University Press, 1978), pp. 28-38.

⁴Ranston, The Old Testament Wisdom Books and Their

Teaching, p. 32.

⁵Morgan, Wisdom in the Old Testament Traditions,

pp. 97-99; and Emerton, "Wisdom," p. 222.

Uys sustains the parallel between Deuteronomy and

Proverbs via their mutual admonitions on behalf of widows.

He traces stipulations concerning widows in both ancient

Near Eastern legal codes and in Deuteronomy (Prov 15:5;

23:10; cf. Deut 14:28-29; 26:12-13; Sir 4:10), comparing

them to wisdom statements, although he makes no appeal for

taking Deuteronomy as a wisdom piece.¹ Murphy notices

common motifs of a preacher's setting forth the choice of

"life and prosperity, or death and doom," but

discriminately notes the distinction between legal and

covenantal materials and the proverbial statements, which

deal with more practical or propaedeutic morality,

designed to develop and equip man for the smaller

experiences that at the same time mold his moral

character: How would a person react to bad companions

(Prv 13:20)? What are the effects of jealousy (14:30)?

What are the consequences of pride (29:33)?²

Other shared motifs are specified by Weinfeld as:

(1) stress on the education of children, (2) respect for

____________________

¹P. H. de V. Uys, "The term 'almana in the Book of

Proverbs," in Studies in Wisdom Literature, ed. W. C. van

Wyk, OTWSA 15 & 16 (1972, 1973), pp. 75-77. In another

article in the same collection ("The Term yatom in the

Book of Proverbs," pp. 82-85), Uys notes that yatom is

found only in Prov 23:10 and in Deut 10:18; 14:29; 16:11,

14; 24:17 and 27:19. Again he is cautious enough to avoid

any explicit demands of wisdom in Deuteronomy.

²Murphy, Introduction to the Wisdom Literature of

the Old Testament, pp. 33f. Kalugila, The Wise King, pp.

83f., compares Deut 4:5, 6 with similar statements of

Hammurabi. One wonders whether a later reinterpretation

is needed to explain the biblical synthesis of law and

wisdom in Deut 4.

wisdom (Deut 16:13), and (3) the retributional benefits of

obedience. McKane, following Weinfeld, even suggests

Deuteronomy 4:5-6 as a deuteronomic reinterpretation of

old wisdom.¹ Weinfeld concludes that Deuteronomy was a

product of the court sages of Hezekiah and Josiah.²

Crenshaw correctly cautions against such an approach,

suggesting that many of these "parallels" may be accounted

for as part of the "common cultural stock" and that strict

vocabulary approaches "carry little cogency."³ Thus,

while Deuteronomy shares many features with wisdom, as

does the Joseph narrative, it is somewhat premature to

include them into a "wisdom corpus."

Wisdom and the Historical Books

In the historical material, Whybray has championed

the notion that the Succession Narrative (2 Sam 9-20; 1

Kgs 1-2) is a dramatization of proverbial wisdom. He

creatively illustrates proverbial principles from that

narrative: control of temper and patience (Prov 12:16) as

illustrated by Absalom's patience and waiting for the

proper moment to kill Amnon (2 Sam 13:22); avoidance of

treacherous companions (Prov 13:20; 16:29) as seen in

____________________

¹McKane, Prophets and Wise Men, p. 107.

²Weinfeld, "Deuteronomy--The Present State of

Inquiry," pp. 256-57, 262.

³Crenshaw, "Method in Determining Wisdom Influence

upon 'Historical' Literature," p. 130. Cp. Moses'

situation and 'Onchsheshonqy for commonality of setting.

Amnon's listening to the counsel of his friend (2 Sam

13:3); and the education of children (1 Kgs 1:6) and the

king's responsibility to wisdom. Elsewhere Whybray notes

the use of simile (2 Sam 14:14; cf. Prov 11:22) and

comparison (2 Sam 13:15; cf. Prov 15:16) as evidence for

the passage's connection with wisdom. Six years later, he

attempted to use the presence of hokmah to seal his proof

for wisdom's presence in this narrative (rejecting

Crenshaw's admonitions).¹ More recently, Morgan in

reference to 1 Kings 3-11, after an abbreviated discussion

of the Succession Narrative, shows how wide the acceptance

of these passages has been: "Virtually all commentators

find evidence for the wisdom tradition in these

chapters."²

Crenshaw sounds the death knell to infiltration of

wisdom into these passages. Few have heeded his call. He

notes that stylistic features and ideological patterns

peculiar to wisdom are not found in these passages. The

similarity in themes must be seen as natural since the

____________________

¹R. N. Whybray, The Succession Narrative: A Study

of II Samuel 9-20 and I Kings 1 and 2, Studies in Biblical

Theology, Second Series, No. 9, ed. C. F. D. Moule et al.

(London: SCM Press LTD, 1968), pp. 78-95, and later in

The Intellectual Tradition, pp. 89-91.

²Morgan, Wisdom in the Old Testament Traditions,

p. 52. He cites Whybray, Alt, Scott, and Coats. A. Alt,

"Solomonic Wisdom," SAIW, pp. 102-12 and R. B. Y. Scott,

"Solomon and the Beginnings of Wisdom in Israel," SAIW,

pp. 84-101.

Succession Narrative describes life in the court and it is

the court which is the source and setting of Proverbs.

While the two Sitz im Leben coincide, the perspectives are

disparate--the one being historical/legal/prophetic in

outlook, while the other is not. Virtually any historical

passage can be illustrated by Proverbs because it gives

principles which are derived from the experiences of life.¹

Wisdom and Esther

The inclusion of Esther into the wisdom corpus has

not been well-received and, indeed, its connection is

doubtful. Talmon proposes viewing Esther as a

historicized wisdom tale, that is, as a story illustrating

applied wisdom. However, he must make wisdom almost

amoral, as cleverness is of more value than right conduct

in this story. Thus, based on this misunderstanding of

wisdom, Talmon makes the connection with the power of the

king's word and wrath (Prov 19:12; 16:15) and portrays

Mordecai as a budding wise man who wins, by skillful

speech, his position in the royal court. The "witless

dupe" is Ahasuerus (the king, it may be added, contra

Proverbs) and the destinies of the wicked and the

righteous are amply illustrated in the Haman-Mordecai

____________________

¹Crenshaw, "Method in Determining Wisdom Influence

upon 'Historical' Literature," p. 137. Crenshaw is

followed by his student, Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural

Constraints," pp. 179-81.

antithesis. Affinities with the Joseph narrative are

forwarded to strengthen Talmon's hypothesis.¹ Crenshaw,

again playing his tutelary role, notes the nationalistic

flavor, Esther's use of sex, Mordecai's refusal to bow, as

well as the use of cultic phenomena, as uncharacteristic

of wisdom. The setting of Esther is the royal court and,

as a result, many of the statements of Proverbs are

exemplified in Esther; but that does not compel the

classification of this text as wisdom literature.

Wisdom and the Psalms

Few areas of wisdom study have sustained scholarly

interest as has the relationship between wisdom and the

Psalms. Numerous major contributions may be cited, having

been stimulated from two different directions. The first

stimulus has been the general proliferation of wisdom as

exhibited above. The second incentive has come from

Mowinckel's stress on the cultic nature of the Psalms.²

The presence of "wisdom psalms" has been somewhat of an

anomaly, since wisdom allegedly has a negative cult bias.

Mowinckel begins by connecting the temple personnel and

____________________

¹S. Talmon, "'Wisdom' in the Book of Esther," VT

13 (1963):418-55.

²Sigmund Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel's

Worship, vol. 1 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962), pp.

1-41; also A. A. Anderson, The Book of Psalms, vol.1

(Greenwood, SC: The Attic Press, Inc., 1977), pp. 47,

51-54; and Leopold Sabourin, The Psalms: Their Origin and

Meaning (New York: Alba House, 1974), pp. 29-47, 117-35.

the scribes--a connection easily made in light of ancient

Near Eastern sources, the Bible (Neh 13:13; Jer 36:5-6,

10-ll) and even explicit statements in Psalms (Ps 45:2).¹

Perdue cites the "Song of the Harper" as an example of

wisdom songs and Lambert corroborates by observing that

the ethical injunctions are a "well-known feature of some

Sumerian hymns" (vid. the Shamash Hymn which is believed

to be borrowed from wisdom material).²

Mowinckel has proposed a dual Sitz im Leben for

the wisdom psalms. He sees the twofold objective of these

psalms as not only to express personal piety, but also to

teach students a knowledge of the character and work of

God within the framework of the fear of Yahweh. Mowinckel

allows these Psalms to have non-cultic status.³ Jansen,

after analyzing the wisdom psalms (both canonical and

non-canonical), also suggests a dual role--in both the

school and the cult.⁴ Perdue coadunates the two by

____________________

¹Sigmund Mowinckel, "Psalms and Wisdom," VTSup 3

(1969):206-7.

²Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 265; Lambert, BWL,

pp. 118, 123; and Thompson, The Form and Function, p. 112.

³Mowinckel, "Psalms and Wisdom," p. 218. Perdue

sees both cultic and non-cultic wisdom Psalms to be

distinguished by the presence of cultic terminology

(Wisdom and the Cult, p. 268).

⁴Herman Ludin Jansen, Die spatjudische

Psalmendichtung: Ihr Entstehungskreis und ihr 'Sitz im

Leben' (Oslo: I Komnisjon Hos Jacob Dybwab, 1937).

Perdue says that this is the "most extensive analysis of

wisdom psalms" (Wisdom and Cult, p. 262).

suggesting the possibility of a temple school.¹ Murphy,

followed by Crenshaw, has properly noticed that scholars

have "shown only that these poems are the product of the

sages, that they spring from the milieu sapientiel; it has

not captured the precise life-setting of the alleged

wisdom psalms."²

Other connections between the Psalms and wisdom

are noted by Crenshaw. He brilliantly reverses the method

by examining wisdom hymns within the wisdom corpus (Prov

1:20-33; Job 28; Sir 24) and then comparing these hymns

with the Psalms. He also notes the presence of the names

of Solomon, Ethan and Heman (1 Kgs 4:30 [MT 5:10]) in the

Psalter (Ps 72, 88, 89, 127).³

Lists of wisdom Psalms vary from a minimal 1, 112,

127,⁴ to a much more inclusive list given by von Rad

____________________

¹Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, pp. 267-68.

²Roland E. Murphy, "A Consideration of the

Classification, 'Wisdom Psalms,'" VTSup 9 (1963):160, 167.

Murphy and J. Kenneth Kuntz, "The Canonical Wisdom Psalms

of Ancient Israel--Their Rhetorical, Thematic and Formal

Dimensions," pp. 186-222 is perhaps the finest examination

of this subject in English. Cf. also Murphy's work, "The

Retribution Motif in Psalmic Wisdom," ZAW 89

(1977):223-33.

³Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 235; Crenshaw,

"Wisdom," pp. 247-53; also cf. Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p.

263.

⁴Aage Bentzen, Introduction to the Old Testament,

vol. 1 (Copenhagen: Gad, 1958), p. 161.

(1, 34, 37, 49, 73, 111, 112, 119, 127, 128).¹ Kuntz

divides his list into three categories: (1) sentence

wisdom Psalms (127, 128, 133); (2) acrostic wisdom (25,

34, 37, 112, 119); and (3) integrative wisdom (1, 32,

49).²

Two criteria have been used in assessing the

wisdom character of Psalms. The Psalm must contain wisdom

themes, as listed above,³ or include "wisdom forms."⁴

Wisdom and the Prophets

The next section will present a brief digest of

____________________

¹Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 263; vid. Crenshaw,

"Wisdom," pp. 249-50, for an even longer list given by

Castellino. Cf. also Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 13.

James F. Ross argues strongly for Ps 73's inclusion

("Psalm 73," in Israelite Wisdom: Theological and

Literary Essays in Honor of Samuel Terrien, ed. J. G.

Gammie, et al. [New York: Union Theological Seminary,

1978], p. 167).

²Kuntz, "The Canonical Wisdom Psalms," pp. 217-20;

cf. Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 264.

³For discussions of a thematic nature, vid.

Murphy, "A Consideration of the Classification, 'Wisdom

Psalms,'" p. 165; Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 264;

Bullock, An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic

Books, p. 26; and, most beneficial, Kuntz, "The Canonical

Wisdom Psalms," p. 211. Scott, The Way of Wisdom, pp.

196-97. Ross even tries a vocabulary approach in "Psalm

73," pp. 167-68.

⁴For discussions of these forms in detail, see

Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 250; Kuntz, "The Canonical Wisdom

Psalms," p. 191; or Murphy, Introduction to the Wisdom

Literature, p. 41. Others who have done synthesized work

in this area are: Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 264;

Kaiser, "Wisdom Theology and the Centre of Old Testament

Theology," p. 133; Morgan, Wisdom in the Old Testament

Traditions, p. 127; and Scott, The Way of Wisdom, pp.

194-95.

the work done on the relationship between the wise men and

prophets. Crenshaw well notes that a scrutiny of this

relationship really was developed first by Fichtner, in

1949, when he suggested that Isaiah was a scribe. In

1960, Lindblom, in a cogent essay, expatiated the

connection between the wise men and the prophets,

supplementing Fichtner's work on Isaiah. Terrien applied

these results, thereby solidifying a nexus between Amos

and wisdom. Finally, two longer works by McKane and

Crenshaw developed and probed the issue even further.¹

The setting of both the wise men and prophets was centered

in the royal court, though some would opt for a tribal/

clan orientation (vid. Amos).² Ward is correct when he

bemoans the fact that, for so long, priority has been

given to studying the prophets and the enhancing of their

creative genius.³ Thus, there is a debate over who

____________________

¹J. Fichtner, "Isaiah among the Wise," SAIW, pp.

429-38 (more recently, Whedbee, Isaiah and Wisdom). J.

Lindblom, "Wisdom in the Old Testament Prophets," VTSup 3

(1969):192-204 is still one of the best sources. S.

Terrien, "Amos and Wisdom," SAIW, pp. 448-55; McKane,

Prophets and Wise Men; and James L. Crenshaw, Prophetic

Conflict.

2Morgan, Wisdom in the Old Testament Traditions,

p. 222; Hans W. Wolff, Amos' geistige Heimat,

Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen

Testament, vol. 18 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener

Verlag, 1964), pp. 51-52; cf. Kovacs, "Sociological-

Structural Constraints," p. 187.

³James M. Ward, "The Servant's Knowledge in Isaiah

influenced whom. Scott allows for the prophets

influencing the wise (citing Prov 21:3; and 16:6 as proof)

and Thompson opts for the reverse. Pfeiffer manifests the

antiquated view that the prophets (650 B.C.) were

considered earlier than the sages (450 B.C.), which would

suggest the movement of influence in the same direction as

Scott's view.¹ Ancient Near Eastern sources, however,

have exposed the fallaciousness of this view.

Lindblom notes that the prophetic awareness of

foreign wisdom (Edomite, Jer 49:7; Obad 8; Phoenician,

Ezek 28; Egyptian, Isa 19:11; Babylonian, Isa 44:25; Jer

50:35; and Assyrian, Isa 10:13) would imply a

consciousness of Israelite wisdom as well. It is odd that

such a favorable comparison between Solomon's wisdom and

the wisdom of non-Israelite sages is mentioned in

Scripture (1 Kgs 4:31f. [MT 5:10f.]) because certainly any

comparison of Israelite prophets to foreign prophets or

priests would not have been written in such a complaisant

____________________

40-50," in Israelite Wisdom: Theological and Literary

Essays in Honor of Samuel Terrien, ed. J. G. Gammie et al.

(New York: Union Theological Seminary, 1978), p. 121.

¹Scott, The Way of Wisdom, pp. 123-24; Thompson,

The Form and Function, pp. 100-102; and R. H. Pfeiffer,

"Wisdom and Vision in the Old Testament," ZAW 52

(1934):94.

manner.¹ While Whybray has objected,² it is suggested

that Israel had three groups of religious leaders:

prophets, priests, and sages (Jer 8:8; 18:18). The

difference is in "sphere and function rather than in

theory or theology."³

Some writers have fixated on the tension between

the wise men and the prophets which is manifested in the

scathing prophetic denunciations against the wise (Isa

19:11-13; 29:14-16; 30:1-5; Jer 9:22f.; 50:35; Ezek

28:2ff.).⁴

The wise men allegedly shunned all that was

precious to the prophetic message (salvation history,

covenant, and election).⁵ McKane concisely summarizes

the

____________________

¹Lindblom, "Wisdom in the Old Testament Prophets,"

p. 192; Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 55.

²Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition, pp. 24-27.

³Frank E. Eakin, "Wisdom, Creation and Covenant,"

Perspectives in Religious Studies 4 (Fall 1977):226. He

cites an excellent statement from Robert C. Dentan, The

Knowledge of God in Ancient Israel (New York: The Seabury

Press, 1968), p. 81. Contrast this to Scott, The Way of

Wisdom, p. 113 and, even more abrasively, Mckane, Prophets

and Wise Men, p. 128.

⁴Especially provocative is McKane's Prophets and

Wise Men, pp. 19, 65, 68, 128. Fox, "Aspects of the

Religious on the Book of Proverbs," p. 64, and, against

foreign wise men and their hybris, W. H. Gispen, "The Wise

Men in Israel," Free University Quarterly 5 (November

1957):11; Ranston, The Old Testament Wisdom Books and

Their Teaching, p. 20. Cf. Murphy, "The Wisdom Literature

of the Old Testament," p. 129; and Ward, "The Servant's

Knowledge in Isaiah 40-50," pp. 124-25.

⁵Gaspar, Social Ideas in the Wisdom Literature of

root of this altercation when he writes:

If the Israelite prophets were doing no more than

raising their voices against certain abuses and were

simply seeking to contain wisdom within its proper

limits, the theological importance of the conflict

would be greatly reduced . . . . The prophets are not

saying to these hakamim that they are unworthy

representatives of their tradition; they are calling

in question the basic presuppositions of the tradition

itself.¹

The tension is further highlighted in the 'esa/dabar

conflict. Numerous scholars have portrayed prophecy as a

dabar from God--often in the form, "thus says Yahweh."²

The sage, on the other hand, is characterized as having a

word, not based on divine commission, but on his

observations of creation. Thus, its level of authority is

a call to weigh the advice and scrutinize its value,

rather than demanding, as the prophets did, strict

obedience to a sovereign God who had spoken. This

authority distinction has been seen as the basis of this

conflict between prophets and sages. As cited above,

Crenshaw's judicious analysis has helped stay this alleged

authority crisis in wisdom.³

Thompson (and also Bryce), in a balanced manner,

____________________

the Old Testament, p. 109.

1McKane, Prophets and Wise Men, p. 128.

2Fichtner, "Isaiah among the Wise," pp. 429, 436;

Scott, The Way of Wisdom, pp. 114, 133; J. A. Emerton,

"Wisdom," in Tradition and Interpretation, ed. G. W.

Anderson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), pp. 223-24.

³Crenshaw, Prophetic Conflict, pp. 116-23.

remarks that the words against the sages do not

demonstrate any foundational opposition between the two

groups any more than the prophets' condemnations of false

prophecy imply their displeasure with the institution of

prophecy.¹

The existence of wisdom in the prophets exposes

the specious reasoning of those who would exaggerate the

tensions between the two groups. The evaluation of the

extent to which wisdom is found in a prophet is based

again on the presence of certain motifs, certain "wisdom"

forms and also vocabulary usages.²

Kovacs notes the juncture of prophecy, scribal

elements, and wisdom in the Egyptian texts, "The

Admonitions of Ipu-Wer" and "Prophecy of Neferrohu."³

Also interesting is Trible's mention of the connection

between the wisdom poem in Proverbs 1:20-33 and prophetic

____________________

¹Thompson, The Form and Function, p. 100; Glendon

E. Bryce, review of Wisdom in Israel, by Gerhard von Rad,

in TToday 30 (1974):438.

²For a general survey see Lindblom, "Wisdom in the

Old Testament Prophets," p. 201; Morgan, Wisdom in the Old

Testament Traditions, pp. 77ff.; or Morgan, "Wisdom and

the Prophets," pp. 229-32. For an interesting chart

utilizing the folklore analysis of N. Barley, see Carole

R. Fontaine, Traditional Sayings in the Old Testament, p.

252.

³Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints," p.

239; cf. Pritchard, ANET, pp. 444-46, 467.

homiletics.¹

The recent trend is to see wisdom everywhere. The

detection of wisdom in Isaiah² helped initiate and sustain

the interest in wisdom and the prophets. Isaiah continues

to be the focus of attention.

Jeremiah, on the other hand, has not been

sufficiently treated in regard to his personal involvement

with the wise, although his statements about the wise men

and their connection with other institutions have been

thoroughly examined (Jer 18:18; cf. Ezek 7:26). Lucas

observes the presence of proverbial sayings in Jeremiah,

which he attributes to the wise men (cf. Jer 17:9-10 with

Prov 16:2).³ A proverb may also be found in Jeremiah

13:12-14. Brueggemann also perceives some "wisdom" forms

in Jeremiah: (1) rhetorical questions (Jer 8:4-5, 8-9,

12, 19), (2) use of analogy (Jer 8:6-7), and (3) the

____________________

¹Phyllis Trible, "Wisdom Builds a Poem: The

Architecture of Proverbs 1:20-33," JBL 94.4 (December

1975):509.

²Fichtner, "Isaiah among the Wise," pp. 429-38;

Morgan, Wisdom in the Old Testament Traditions, pp. 76-83;

Joseph Jensen, The Use of tora by Isaiah; James W.

Whedbee, Isaiah and Wisdom; Ward, "The Servant's Knowledge

in Isaiah 40-50," pp. 121-36; and Scott, The Way of

Wisdom, pp. 79, 125, 128.

³Odilo M. Lucas, "Wisdom Literature in the Old

Testament," Biblebhashyam 4 (1978):288.

admonition (Jer. 9:3-4).¹

The minor prophets have been examined in detail

and many wisdom influences have been proposed. Gowan

gives a nice qualifier to this whole discussion when he

writes:

If no special relationship with the wisdom

movement is postulated for the prophet Habakkuk, this

fact in itself has some implications for the study of

wisdom itself. When we begin to find wisdom

influences everywhere in the Old Testament, surely

this teaches us that wisdom was not a closed

fraternity whose members spoke only with one another

and with their pupils, but that it represented a

certain outlook on life, conveyed in a special

language, which was well known to the average

Israelite.²

Various writers have worked with Habakkuk³ and Amos (which

has received much attention)⁴ and wisdom elements have

also been suggested in Micah and Hosea.⁵ One has even

____________________

¹Walter A. Brueggemann, "The Epistemological Crisis

of Israel's Two Histories (Jer 9:22-23)," in Israelite

Wisdom: Theological and Literary Essays in Honor of Samuel

Terrien, ed. J. G. Gammie et al. (New York: Union

Theological Seminary, 1978), p. 90.

²Donald E. Gowan, "Habakkuk and Wisdom," Perspective 9 (1968):164.

³Ibid.

⁴Crenshaw, "The Influence of the Wise upon Amos,"

ZAW 79 (1967):42-52; S. Terrien, "Amos and Wisdom," SAIW,

pp. 448-55; Morgan, Wisdom in the Old Testament Traditions,

pp. 67-72.

⁵Hans W. Wolff, "Micah the Moreshite--The Prophet

and His Background," in Israelite Wisdom: Theological and

Literary Essays in Honor of Samuel Terrien, ed. J. G.

Gammie et al. (New York: Union Theological Seminary,

1978), pp. 77-84. For brief comments on Hosea, see Morgan,

Wisdom in the Old Testament Traditions, pp. 72-74.

suggested that Jonah is a masal.¹

Finally, the bond between the wise men and

apocalyptic literature has been broached by von Rad, who

sees the apocalyptic genre as the daughter of wisdom

rather than of the prophets. He pictures the connection

in the strong use of the determined times motif which is

present in Daniel and in wisdom (cf. Eccl 3:1; 8:31; Sir

39:33f.).² Because the word hokma appears in Daniel 2 and

7, Whybray sees wisdom influence in apocalyptic as well.³

Crenshaw again points to the need for a control and

suggests that prophecy, rather than wisdom, be seen as the

matrix for apocalyptic.⁴

____________________

¹George M. Landes, "Jonah: A Masal?" in Israelite

Wisdom: Theological and Literary Essays in Honor of

Samuel Terrien, ed. J. G. Gammie et al. (New York: Union

Theological Seminary, 1978), pp. 137-58.

²von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, pp. 263-82 and Old

Testament Theology, vol. 2, trans. D. M. G. Stalker (New

York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1965), pp. 301-15.

3Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition, pp. 100-104.

De Vries lists thought forms, particularly their shared

conceptions of time and history. Simon J. De Vries,

"Observations on Quantitative and Qualitative Time in

Wisdom and Apocalyptic," in Israelite Wisdom: Theological

and Literary Essays in Honor of Samuel Terrien, ed. J. G.

Gammie et al. (New York: Union Theological Seminary,

1978), pp. 263-76 (it should be noted that De Vries

rejects the notion of wisdom as the origin of apocalyptic,

p. 272). Cf. also Morgan, Wisdom in the Old Testament

Traditions, p. 132; and John G. Gammie, "Spatial and

Ethical Dualism in Jewish Wisdom and Apocalyptic

Literature," JBL 93 (1974):356-85.

⁴James L. Crenshaw, review of Wisdom in Israel, by

Gerhard von Rad, in Religious Studies Review 2.2 (April

1976):10; cf. also Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural

Conclusion

This concludes a brief survey of the integration

of wisdom into the canon. Its purpose has been to provide

a synopsis of work which has been done in scholarly

circles concerning the nature and extent of wisdom in the

canon. It points out common forms, vocabulary, and motifs

between wisdom and the rest of the canon, demonstrating

that it is no longer to be considered the orphan of the

Old Testament. This survey also highlights the need for a

more clear methodology for determining wisdom influence,

as Crenshaw and Whybray have clarioned. Finally, it would

appear that if one is to ascertain the presence of wisdom

outside of the corpus of the wisdom books themselves, one

must have explicit knowledge of the forms, vocabulary, and

motifs employed in the wisdom books themselves. Thus,

this study hopes to provide an analysis of the syntactic

structure of the sentence literature which lies at the

____________________

Constraints," pp. 176, 195. De Vries agrees, in

"Observations on Quantitative and Qualitative Time in

Wisdom and Apocalyptic," p. 272.

heart of the old wisdom corpus.¹

____________________

¹Reference should be made at this point to

materials which interface wisdom with the New Testament.

The following provide a starting point in that direction.

Dieter Zeller, Die wesheitlichen Mahnspruche bei den

Synoptikern, Forschung zur Bible Band 17 (Wurzburg:

Echter Verlag, 1977). Robert L. Wilken, ed., Aspects of

Wisdom in Judaism and Early Christianity (Notre Dame:

University of Notre Dame, 1975). James M. Reese, "Christ

as Wisdom Incarnate: Wiser than Solomon, Loftier than

Lady Wisdom," BTB (1981):44-47. M. D. Johnson,

"Reflections on a Wisdom Approach to Matthew's

Christology," CBQ 36 (1974):44-64. Thomas Finan,

"Hellenistic Humanism in the Book of Wisdom," ITQ 27

(1960):30-48. Cain H. Felder, "Wisdom, Law and Social

Concern in the Epistle of James" (Ph.D. dissertation,

Columbia University, 1982). Monty W. Casebolt, "God's

Provision of Wisdom in I Corinthians 1:30 and James 1:5"

(M.Div. thesis, Grace Theological Seminary, 1983).

William A. Beardslee, "The Wisdom Tradition and the

Synoptic Gospels," JAAR 35 (1967):231-40; and Beardslee,

"Use of the Proverb in the Synoptic Gospels," Int 24:1

(1970):61-73. H. Gese, "Wisdom, Son of Man and Origins of

Christology: The Consistent Development of Biblical

Theology," Horizons in Biblical Theology (1981):23-57.

CHAPTER IV

THE HISTORICAL SETTINGS OF WISDOM

The Context of Sentence Literature?

Proverbs provides numerous difficulties,

particularly regarding how its sentences are to be

contextualized. Too many view Proverbs 10-15 as a

disjointed collection of atomic statements, each of which

is self-contained and bears little or no significant

relationship with what precedes or with what follows.

McKane, in his magnum opus on Proverbs, ruefully writes

concerning the unconnected character of the sentence

literature: "In such literature [sentence literature]

there is no context, for each sentence is an entity in

itself and the collection amounts to no more than the

gathering together of a large number of independent

sentences, each of which is intended to be a well-

considered and definitive observation on a particular

topic."¹ He further considers the associational features

between these individualistic units as interesting, but

secondary in nature. R. Gordon voices a similar literary

misconception when he writes: "The difficultly remains in

that each saying or section stands on its own and cannot

____________________

¹McKane, Proverbs, p. 413.

normally be related to what went before or to what

follows."¹ Murphy, while accepting the cohesiveness of the

sentence literature, cautiously rejects the notion that

neighboring proverbs provide a determinative context for

ascertaining the meaning of a particular sentence.² Others

appreciate Proverbs' a-historical character, allowing the

proverbial material to appeal to all men everywhere.³

The Multifaceted Context of Wisdom

While the above cautions are in order

hermeneutically (though this writer considers them

simplistic architectonically), there are several layers of

general context which provide the needed background for

appreciating the sentence literature. An investigation of

several possible matrices will provide a rather loose

functional and historical setting for the proverbial

sentences. Such sentence literature settings are

____________________

¹R. Gordon, "Motivation in Proverbs," Biblical

Theology 25.3 (1975):49. This statement will be shown to

be an impediment to collectional aspects of proverbs study.

This dissertation will, on the contrary, emphasize the

connectedness of the sentences as much as possible. Cf. B.

S. Childs, Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture

(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979), p. 79.

²Murphy, Wisdom Literature, pp. 63-64. Murphy is

well aware of the work of H.-J. Hermisson, Studien zur

israelitischen Spruchweisheit, pp. 171-83 and O. Ploger,

"Zur Auslegung der Sentenzensammlungen des

Proverbienbuches," in Probleme biblischer Theologie, ed.

H. W. Wolff (Munich: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1971), pp.

404-16.

³von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 32.

common not only to the Israelite milieu, but also are found

in all the major cultures of the ancient Near East

(Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Egyptian, and even

Ugaritic).¹ Wisdom's setting in the scribal school, royal

court and family will be surveyed, as will be its nexus

with the cult. However, not only its Sitz im Leben is

important, but one must also be aware of the literary

milieu. The subsequent chapter will provide a

classification of the various genres and literary forms

employed by the wise men. A form critical approach should

not straight-jacket the material by demanding a one-to-one

correspondence between a particular form and a specific

historical setting, as has been implied in some Psalmic

studies. Rather, the various forms and settings should be

viewed as hermeneutically fructiferous and indicative of

the great care taken by those who created, recorded and/or

arranged these sentences.

The procedure will be to move from the broader

questions of setting in life and setting in literature to a

detailed syntactic analysis of the sentence literature of

Proverbs 10-15. Then, via linguistic method, an attempt

will be made to draw poetic features together on the

syntactic level. This study will investigate how the

____________________

¹Philip Nel, "A Proposed Method for Determining the

Context of the Wisdom Admonitions," Journal of Northwest

Semitic Languages 6 (1978):36-37.

sentences employ Hebrew poetic forms and language to

produce such trans-contextual, time and culture

transcending proverbs. Having atomized and analyzed the

text, the cohesiveness of the sentences will be an object

of inquiry. As much as is possible, the ordering features

of the proverbial sentences, will be exposed which may

provide contextual indicators for understanding their

theological tendenz, and architectonic principles, which

may expose canonical intent.

Another area of contextualization should be

mentioned, regarding the excellent studies which are being

done in modern proverbial folklore. Archer Taylor has

shown the beauty of returning to the proverbial moment,

which originally generated the proverb, in a kind of

proverbial etymology. That is, the original setting does

not determine how it is presently used, nor does it inhibit

the potential meaning of the proverb; but, it certainly

does heighten one's appreciation for and interest in the

proverb. He notes, for example, that "like a bull in a

china shop" actually reflects a situation when a bull did

invade a china shop in London, in 1773.¹ Others have

____________________

¹Archer Taylor's work on proverbial materials is

well known in paroemiological circles, though it is almost

unheard of in biblical proverbial studies. Vid. his The

Proverb (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1931);

"Problems in the Study of Proverbs," Journal of American

Folklore 47 (1934):1-21; and "The Study of Proverbs,"

Proverbium 1 (1965):3-11. It is in "Method in the History

and Interpretation of a Proverb: 'A Place for Everything

examined living proverbial materials by isolating how they

actually are employed in a culture. Unfortunately, this

luxury is often outside of the purview of biblical

proverbial study.¹ Numerous studies have scrutinized the

function of proverbs in modern cultures. "How is this

proverb used?" has been a profitable question in

determining the meaning of a proverb. Kirshenblatt-

Gimblett demonstrates the importance of cultural use in

determining proverbial meaning when she shows the different

interpretations of the proverb "A rolling stone gathers no

moss." In Scotland, where moss is undesirable, it means:

"Keep abreast of modern ideas or you will soon become

antiquated and useless." On the contrary, in England,

where stately, draped moss is a symbol of stability, it

means: "If things are continually in a state of flux,

desirable features will not have time to develop." Thus,

the bond between culture and proverbial imagery is crucial

in constructing a hermeneutic of the proverb, which, if

possible, should reflect the proverb's original setting and

____________________

and Everything in its Place,'" (Proverbium 10 [1968]:236)

that the bull/china shop illustration is discussed.

¹Excellent examples of this type of analysis may be

seen by Alan Dundes and Ojo Arewa, "Proverbs and the

Ethnography of Speaking Folklore," in Analytic Essays in

Folklore, ed. Alan Dundes, Studies in Folklore, no. 2 (The

Hague: Mouton, 1975), pp. 35-49; and Carol Eastman, "The

Proverbs in Modern Written Swahili Literature: An Aid to

Proverb Elicitation," in African Folkore, ed. Richard M.

Parson (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1972), pp.

193-210.

its subsequent usages.¹

Seitel's method of analyzing the existential

situation of a proverb--via a scientific mapping of the

proverb situation onto a context situation (A:B::C:D where

"X says to Y that A is to B as C is to D)--has been

employed in biblical studies with tremendously rich results

by Carol Fontaine. She brilliantly analyzes Gideon's

proverbial riposte to the offended Ephraimites in Judges

8:2:--the gleanings of Ephraim = A, the vintage of Abiezer

= B::execution of chiefs = C, Gideon's rout of Midianites =

D, where A and C are greater than B and D.²

Such studies create a sense of despair and caution

in that the use and function of biblical proverbs are now

often beyond the horizon of the biblical enthusiast, except

for an occasional use of the proverb in an historical

setting (Judg 8:2, 18-21; 1 Sam 16:7; 24:13[14 MT]; 1 Kgs

____________________

¹Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, "Toward a Theory of

Proverb Meaning," Proverbium 22 (1973):821-27.

²Carol Fontaine, "The Use of the Traditional Saying

in the Old Testament" (Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University,

1979), p. 156. This dissertation has been published as

Traditional Sayings in the Old Testament: A Contextual

Study (Sheffield: The Almond Press, 1982). Cf. Peter

Seitel, "Proverbs: A Social Use of Metaphor," in Folklore

Genres, ed. Dan Ben-Amos (Austin: University of Texas

Press, 1976), pp. 125-44. Nigel Barley also comments in a

similar vein in his brilliant semantico-logical proverbial

model (Nigel Barley, "A Structural Approach to the Proverb

and the Maxim," Proverbium 20 [1972]:737-50). An

interesting study yet to be done is the examination of the

use of proverbs in Ecclesiastes, utilizing the model

provided by the proverbial folklorists.

20:11, all of which are discussed by Fontaine). The

parameters of this study, with regard to the utilization

of context, will be put in terms of suggested, generalized

situations in life. Then there will be a form analysis of

the sentence literature through a comparison with other

wisdom forms which the sages employed in conveying their

observations concerning life. Such a discussion should

not be viewed as a digression from a linguistic analysis

of the proverbial, poetic patterns. Rather, it provides

the needed broad synthetic and diachronic tapestry into

which a detailed and rather atomistic, synchronic,

linguistic analysis should be placed.

Introduction to the Sitz im Leben

The meaning of any group of symbols is dependent

on the context from which they originate and in which they

function. Form critical studies have been helpful in

reinstating the value of the historical setting, which had

been destroyed by nineteenth century "literary critics."

This is not to say that there are no problems with a Sitz

im Leben approach or with the chimerical data upon which

it must sometimes draw its conclusions.¹ Knight defines

the Sitz im Leben as "the environment from which any

literary entity might derive its meaning and in which it

____________________

¹Douglas A. Knight, "The Understanding of "Sitz im

Leben" in Form Criticism," SBLASP (1974):107.

might be designated to fulfill some purpose."¹

Hence, there are two aspects to Sitz im Leben: a

"milieu d'origine" and a "milieu usager." Numerous other

scholars have concurred.² Thus, if one would know not

only what the proverb says, but also what it means, he

must wrestle with its setting in terms of authorship (the

sociological milieu into which the author desires to

express himself) and into what settings it later came to

be used.

The query may be raised as to how the Sitz im

Leben is determined. While the following is by no means a

denigration of the value of form criticism, which has been

so helpful in the study of the psalmic material, several

problems do arise in attempting to use a single saddle for

two different types of literature. Form and content are

usually utilized to provide the basis for determining the

Sitz im Leben. Proverbs, however, provides several

problems in this regard. Fontaine correctly objects to

the coupling of proverbial content with original life

setting. This approach results in a hazardous

fragmentation of proverbs since the topics discussed

____________________

¹Ibid.

²Peter C. Craigie, "Biblical Wisdom in the Modern

World: 1. Proverbs," Crux 15.4 (1979):7; Bryce, A Legacy

of Wisdom, p. 151; and Marzal, Gleanings from the Wisdom of

Mari, p. 11; Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints,"

p. 5.

are very diverse--from the farm to the palace, from the

home to international affairs, from outward deportment to

inner thought patterns, from cultic to non-cultic

materials, in addition to judicial, school and home

instructions for both parents and children.¹ Fontaine

points out the need not so much to search for an elusive

Sitz im Leben as to examine how the proverbs actually

function in a given culture.²

Though the study of form should not be divorced

from situation, the isomorphic bonding of form and setting

is being assailed both from within the form critical

school³ and from those studying the wisdom corpus.⁴ The

very nature of proverbial material evades such neat

____________________

¹Fontaine, "Traditional Sayings in the Old

Testament," pp. 22-23, 303; Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p.

140; Roland E. Murphy, "Form Criticism and Wisdom

Literature," CBQ 31 (1969):482; and Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p.

236.

²Fontaine, "Traditional Sayings in the Old

Testament," pp. 25, 79, 126, 312.

³Knight, "The Understanding of 'Sitz im Leben' in

Form Criticism," p. 114; and David Greenwood, "Rhetorical

Criticism and Formgeschichte: Some Methodological

Considerations," JBL 89 (1970):418-19.

⁴Nel, The Structure and Ethos, pp. 4, 79, 82;

Murphy, "Form Criticism and Wisdom," p. 481; Glendon E.

Bryce, "The Structural Analysis of Didactic Texts," in

Biblical and Near Eastern Studies: Essays in Honor of

William Sanford LaSor, ed. G. A. Tuttle (Grand Rapids: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1978), p. 109; Crenshaw,

"Wisdom," p. 236; Murphy, "Form Criticism and Wisdom

Literature," p. 481; and Proulx, "Ugaritic Verse Structure

and the Poetic Syntax of Proverbs," p. 22.

categorizations. Barley well notes the uncanny ability of

proverbial forms to interpenetrate disparate cultures.¹

Others perceive the timeless character of the proverb as

severing any direct ties to a single, temporal setting.²

Bryce, rather significantly, adds a concluding

observational directive:

Now however, after more than a century of this

reconstructive enterprise, some scholars are beginning

to look with greater interest upon the first task,

that of interpreting the Bible in its final form.³

After much discussion, many are opting for a broad

Sitz im Leben which will accommodate the diversified

forms.⁴ Murphy is undoubtedly correct in describing

the general situation as didactic.⁵ Cases have been made

____________________

¹Nigel Barley, "A Structural Approach to the

Proverb and the Maxim," Proverbium 20 (1972):740, 746.

²Nel, The Structure and Ethos, p. 6; Murphy, "The

Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament," p. 140; and

Williams, Those who Ponder Proverbs, p. 40.

³Bryce, "The Structural Analysis of Didactic

Texts," p. 107.

⁴Morgan, Wisdom in the Old Testament Traditions,

p. 16; Fontaine, "Traditional Sayings in the Old

Testament," p. 42; Samuel Terrien, review of Wisdom in

Israel, by Gerhard von Rad, in USQR 29 (1973):131; R. B.

Y. Scott, "The Study of the Wisdom Literature," Int 24

(1970):29; and Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 2.

⁵Murphy, "Form Criticism and Wisdom Literature,"

p. 9; and also Gladson, "Retributive Paradoxes in Proverbs

10-29," p. 147.

for accepting an original setting of the family/clan¹ or

the court.² Others proffer a strong scribal influence for

Proverbs³ and Brown even proposes a commercial setting.⁴

Kovacs and Nel are perhaps more helpful when Nel, for

example, describes the types of ethos reflected in

wisdom--family, school, official (court), priestly,

prophetic, and individual.⁵ Kovacs speaks of the demesnes

or domains which wisdom addresses--Yahweh, king,

aristocrat, wise, righteous, ignorant, foolish, and

wicked.⁶ This paper will provide support for three areas

of origin and use--the family, the royal court/king, and

the schools/scribes.⁷

____________________

¹Erhard Gerstenberger, Wesen und Herkunft des

'Apodiktischen Rechts', pp. 110ff.; and von Rad, Wisdom in

Israel, p. 17.

²Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 327 cites Richter's

view from Recht und Ethos.

³B. W. Kovacs, "Is There a Class-Ethic in

Proverbs?" pp. 171-90. Kovacs sees the importance of three

types of wisdom: folk, royal and scribal

("Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 108).

⁴John P. Brown, "Proverb-book, Gold-economy,

Alphabet," pp. 173, 191.

⁵Nel, The Structure and Ethos, pp. 79-81.

⁶Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints," p.

518.

⁷Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 266; Crenshaw,

"Wisdom," p. 227; Roland E. Murphy, "The Interpretation of

Old Testament Wisdom Literature," Int 23 (1969):293, and

also his Introduction to the Wisdom Literature, p. 12.

The Importance of Scribes

Scribes

One facet of the Sitz im Leben which has recently

flowered in light of the prolific discoveries of ancient

Near Eastern materials is the role of the scribe in the

ancient world. It is impossible to overestimate modern

indebtedness to this group of ancient writers/officials,

for they provide the scholar with eyes to peer into

cultures which have been dead for over three thousand

years.¹

Not only were the scribes of immense literary

importance, but they were also the oil which lubricated

the cogs of the ancient governmental and temple machinery.

Oppenheim is not wrong when he states that "the

Mesopotamian scribe is likely to emerge as a central

figure in the workings of his civilization."² The complex

writing systems both in Egypt and Mesopotamia lent

themselves to a sharp bifurcation between the literate and

____________________

¹Barry Halvorsen provides a beautiful synthesis on

the scribe in the ancient world and also in Israel in

"Scribes and Scribal Schools in the Ancient Near East: A

Historical Survey" (Th.M. thesis, Grace Theological

Seminary, 1981).

²A. Leo Oppenheim, "A Note on the Scribes in

Mesopotamia," Assyriological Studies 16 (1965):253; also

Oppenheim, "The Position of the Intellectual in

Mesopotamian Society," Daedalus 104.2 (1975):38; and R. J.

Williams, "Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt," JAOS 92

(1972):214.

illiterate.¹ The script itself favored the development of

a scribal guild. Hammurabi's call for all to read his

code, Landsberger suggests, was a dream.² While some have

alleged that a democratization of reading accompanied the

development of the alphabet, this in no way necessitates

the antiquating of the need for scribes.³ Rainey observes

that everything was put in writing and the court scribes

had the responsibility of seeing that the material

recorded was put into proper "form."

The association of scribalism with guilds suggests

that closed groups would tend to cloister and segregate

____________________

¹Thompson (The Form and Function, p. 44) and Kovacs

("The Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 73) both

point to the difficulty of scripts as an impetus for

scribal groups.

²Benno Landsberger, "Scribal Concepts of

Education," in City Invincible: A Symposium on

Urbanization and Cultural Development in the Ancient Near

East, ed. C. Kraeling and R. M. Adams (Chicago: University

of Chicago Press, 1960), p. 98. Landsberger quotes from a

text mentioning a person who could not write his name: "I

am of Sumerian descent, the son of so and so. You are the

son of a dirty rowdy, you cannot even write your name."

This also shows the elitism among those who could write (p.

96).

³Brown ("Proverb-book, Gold-economy, Alphabet," p.

188) suggests such a democratization took place, in spite

of the "scribal monopoly." W. L. Humphreys ("The Motif of

the Wise Courtier in the Old Testament," p. 117) points out

the scribal duties of knowing the forms of various

governmental letters and documents and A. F. Rainey ("The

Scribe at Ugarit," Israel Academy of Science and Humanities

Proceedings 3 [1969]:130, 132) cites lexical texts in

Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurrian and Hittite at Ugarit. Such

correspondence would demand scribal training.

themselves into distinct locations. Mendelsohn notes that

Jabez was a scribal city (I Chr 2:55).¹

When one thinks of scribes, writing immediately

comes to mind and, unfortunately, his other duties are

often ignored. The importance of these men is not only to

be seen in their accurate transmission of texts,² but also

in their holding of key influential positions, both in

governmental and temple realms. Thus, their influence was

much broader than merely their ability to write.³

Scribes in Egypt

The importance of the scribe in Egypt may be seen

in his relationship to the king, who, in Egypt, was

considered to be a god. Horemheb, Pharaoh of Egypt, had

____________________

¹I. Mendelsohn, "Guilds in Ancient Palestine,"

BASOR 80 (1940):18. Cf. his "Guilds in Babylonia and

Assyria," JAOS 60 (1940):68-72. George Mendenhall comments

on the closedness of this type of society ("The Shady Side

of Wisdom: The Date and Purpose of Genesis 3," p. 322).

Gadd also notes the presence of adopted "sons" and women

within this group (C. J. Gadd, Teachers and Students in the

Oldest Schools [London: School of Oriental and African

Studies, University of London, 1956], pp. 23-24).

²Waltke, "The Book of Proverbs and Ancient Wisdom

Literature," BSac 136 (1979):227. Crenshaw notes that they

were "to embody the traditions they preserved" (Old

Testament Wisdom, p. 224).

³McKane properly condemns Eissfeldt and Mowinckel

for only viewing the scribes as learned writers and

ignoring their political clout (McKane, Prophets and Wise

Men, pp. 23, 44). J. Begrich, commits the root/meaning

himself represented in a statue as a scribe.¹ Imhotep, a

famous Egyptian scribe, was considered so influential that

he was deified by later generations.² Second in command

in Egypt, directly under the Pharaoh and with great

influence upon the Pharaoh, was the vizier. It was this

statesman who decided difficult court cases, made sure

that the law was upheld, and oversaw the ploughlands and

economy of Egypt. The pharaoh correctly said to Rekhmire'

that the vizier was "the mainstay of the entire land." It

is also interesting that it is assumed that the vizier

could read the room "full of all past judgments." The

scribe under him is called the "Scribe of Justice." The

vizier himself was also considered to be a scribe.³

The influence of the scribe upon the court may be

seen in the El Amarna letters, in which Abdi-Hepa of

____________________

fallacy, as he always seems to come back to the writing

capacity of the scribe ("Sofer und Mazkir," ZAW 58

[1940]:20-23.

¹IDB, s.v. "Education, Old Testament," by J.

Kaster, 2:28; and Adolf Erman, The Literature of the

Ancient Egyptians, p. xxvii. Indeed, writing itself was

considered to be a gift of the gods.

²Thompson, The Form and Function, p. 111. R. J.

Williams points out that Snofru, a fourth dynasty ruler,

himself wrote on papyrus and are record that even some

tombs were written on by the Pharaoh himself ("Scribal

Training in Ancient Egypt," JAOS 92 [1972]:215).

³R. O. Faulkner, "The Installation of the Vizier,"

JEA 41 (1955):18, 22-23; and Janet H. Johnson, "Avoid Hard

Work, Taxes, and Bosses: Be a Scribe!" (Unpublished paper,

Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, n.d.).

Jerusalem addresses his requests directly to the scribe of

Pharaoh and requests that the scribe communicate a message

to the pharaoh apart from the content of the document

itself.¹ This may explain not only Baruch's copying of

the words of Jeremiah, but also his presenting of them to

Jehoiakim (Jer 36:16-26).²

The scribes frequently functioned in diverse

governmental structures as commissioned by the king or

vizier.³ Not only did the scribes fulfill the writing

mania by which the Pharaoh's were made immortal, but they

also oversaw legal proceedings as judges, prosecutors and

cross-examiners.⁴ They maintained economic order in the

country as well, overseeing the care of dykes,

agricultural matters, import and export transactions, the

collection of taxes, and the distribution of monies to

governmental employees. They were experts in political

propaganda, so it is little wonder that the art of proper

____________________

¹A. Leo Oppenheim, "A Note on the Scribes in

Mesopotamia," in Studies in Honor of Benno Landsberger on

His Seventy-fifth Birthday, April 21, 1965, Assyriological

Studies 17 (1965), p. 253. He also notes a similar

phenomenon at Mari.

²James Muilenburg, "Baruch the Scribe," in

Proclamation and Presence: Old Testament Essays in Honour

of Gwynne Henton Davies, ed. J. J. Durham and J. R. Porter

(London: SCM, 1970), p. 227.

³Johnson, "Be a Scribe," pp. 4, 5.

⁴Halvorsen, "Scribes and Scribal Schools," p. 111.

speech is stressed in instruction texts.¹ In order to

pursue a professional career, scribal training was a

prerequisite.² Rainey points out that there were even

scribal soldiers.³ Scribes may also have had temple

reponsibilities.⁴

Of the four major types of wisdom literature which

have come from ancient Egypt (instruction texts [sebayit],

the onomastica, speculative reflections, and texts on the

scribal profession), a whole genre is given to the

praising of the scribal art and the satirizing of the

other trades. These texts are particularly informative as

to the role of the scribe in Egyptian culture. "In Praise

of Learned Scribes" and "The Satire on the Trades" commend

the immortal status of those who write over those who

build perishable tombs, condemn the baseness of the other

trades (the cobbler as a leather biter, for example),

and recommend the benefits of the life of a scribe as

follows:

____________________

¹E. W. Heaton, Solomon's New Men, p. 20.

²Humphrey, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the

Old Testament," pp. 22-23; and Cyril Alfred, The Egyptians

(New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1961), pp. 175-76.

³A. F. Rainey, "The Soldier-Scribe in Papyrus

Anastasi I," JNES 26 (1967):58-60.

⁴Johnson, "Be a Scribe," p. 2.

Behold, there is no profession free of a boss--except

for the scribe: he is the boss. . . . Behold, I have

set thee on the way of god. . . . Behold, there is no

scribe who lacks food, from the property of the House

of the King--life, prosperity, health!¹

The scribal connection with the temple is

important for wisdom-cult studies. In Egypt, Ugarit, and

Mesopotamia there is a strong link between the wise men

and the temple.²

Lastly, Khanjian is right when he highlights the

role of the scribes in international affairs. This aided

in the transmission of wisdom traditions between cultures.

Scribes were needed to provide written documents in the

proper languages and proper forms so that they would be

acceptable at foreign courts.³

Thus, one should not view the scribe as a mere

____________________

¹Pritchard, ANET, "The Satire on the Trades," p.

434. Cf. Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 223; Williams,

"Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt," p. 218 (where he

labels them as the "white kilt class"); Heaton, Solomon's

New Men, p. 105; and Fontaine, "The Use of the Traditional

Saying in the Old Testament," p. 281. Especially

interesting is the "Papyrus Lansing: A Schoolbook,"

translated by Miriam Lichtheim, in Ancient Egyptian

Literature, 2:168-77; and Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p.

100.

²Muilenburg, "Baruch the Scribe," p. 228; Erman,

The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 185. Cf.

Lambert, BWL, p. 8; Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 93; and

Rainey, "The Scribe at Ugarit," p. 127. Very helpful is

Rylaarsdam, Revelation in Jewish Wisdom Literature, pp.

12-13.

³Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 267. Heaton

notes in the Wenamun journey the king of Byblos had "a

letter scribe" to which the El Amarna tablets bear ample

witness (Solomon's New Men, p. 169).

copyist, although he was that, or as a simple creator of

documents (both royal and poetic), although he often did

such, for the scribes were also intertwined in the warp

and woof of the political structure and provided the

necessary skills for the maintenance and sustenance of

civilization itself. The term "secretary" provides a nice

translation in English, since "secretary" may mean a mere

copyist or, as in the case of the Secretary of State, may

indicate high governmental status and a relationship to

the president.

Scribes in Mesopotamia

The scribe in Mesopotamia functioned in a manner

similar to that of his Egyptian counterpart, although

differences in writing materials and governmental

structure would superficially alter his job description.

As in Egypt, he was a master of languages, often of both

the international Akkadian and the archaic Sumerian, in

addition to Hittite or regional vernacular languages and

dialects.¹ Reading and writing were not commonly

possessed skills. So, the three factors which were

responsible for producing the rise of a scribal class in

____________________

¹Oppenheim, "A Note on the Scribes in Mesopotamia,"

p. 256. Kramer translates a text, "A scribe who knows not

Sumerian, what kind of a scribe is he?" in The Sumerians:

Their History, Culture, and Character (Chicago: University

of Chicago, 1963), p. 226. Rainey, "The Scribe at Ugarit,"

p. 129; and Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 125.

Egypt were also at work in Mesopotamia: (1) the

difficulty of the writing script; (2) the governmental

needs; and (3) the temple economy.¹ The ability to write

was lauded in "In Praise of the Scribal Art," where the

scribe was commissioned "To write a stele, to draw a

field, to settle accounts . . . ."² Even in Sumer, some

of the proverb collections mention the advantage of the

scribal profession over the other trades, although

Oppenheim has noted that scribal snobbishness over the

other trades is not as prevalent in Akkadian texts as it

is in the Egyptian literature.³ Often families who had

mastered the tradition dwelt in segregated parts of the

city, in a guild-like setting.⁴

____________________

¹Speiser singles out the temple as a motivating

factor (E. A. Speiser, "Some Sources of Intellectual and

Social Progress in the Ancient Near East," in Studies in

the History of Culture: The Disciplines of the Humanities,

ed. P. W. Long [Freeport, NY: Books for Library Press,

1942], p. 58). Kramer, "Schooldays: A Sumerian

Composition Relating to the Education of a Scribe," JAOS 69

(1949):199. Oppenheim portrays him as one working for the

"Great Organizations" of the ancient world ("The Position

of the Intellectual in Mesopotamian Society," p. 39).

²Ake W. Sjoberg, "In Praise of the Scribal Art,"

JCS 14.2 (1972):127.

³Bendt Alster, Studies in Sumerian Proverbs, p. 13;

cf. also Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs, p. 154. A. Leo

Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead

Civilization (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,

1977), p. 242.

⁴Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 66; and

B. Cutler and J. MacDonald, "The Unique Ugaritic Text UT

113 and the Question of 'Guilds,'" UF 9 (1977):30.

Those who became scribes generally were from the

wealthier families and often scaled the political ladder

to high governmental posts. Olivier counts as many as

five hundred eighteen scribes in four cities.¹

Landsberger estimates that seventy percent of the scribes

had administrational positions, with the remainder being

employed by private individuals (the street scribes)

perhaps for taking letter dication. He suggests that ten

percent were involved in magical arts.² Landsberger lists

nineteen different scribal titles, thereby demonstrating

the diversity of scribal vocations, sometimes by comic

caricature: scribe for labor groups, deaf writer, wise

scribe, royal scribe, bungler, field scribe, mathematician

and adviser.³

____________________

¹Aage Westenholz, "Old Akkadian School Texts:

Some Goals of Sargonic Scribal Education," Archiv fur

Orienforschungen 25 (1974-77):95. J. P. J. Olivier,

"Schools and Wisdom Literature," Journal of Northwest

Semitic Languages 4 (1975):50.

²Benno Landsberger, "Scribal Concepts of

Education," in City Invincible, pp. 99, 119. Cf. Khanjian,

"Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 130 and Halvorsen, "Scribes and

Scribal Schools," p. 61.

³Benno Landsberger, "Babylonian Scribal Craft and

its Terminology," in Proceedings of the Twenty-Third

International Congress of Orientalists (London: The Royal

Asiatic Society, 1954), pp. 125-26. Humphreys ("The Motif

of the Wise Courtier in the Old Testament," p. 63) provides

a similar title list. Cf. Oppenheim, "The Position of the

Intellectual in Mesopotamian Society," p. 50 and Olivier,

"Schools and Wisdom Literature," pp. 50-51 for a listing of

scribal duties.

In Mesopotamia, the relationship between the

scribes and the king is more difficult to ascertain

because the kings do not present themselves as surrounded

by counselors, although foreign kings are often thus

described.¹ Ahiqar was a counselor to the king and, as

manifest in the title ummanu, was considered a scholar.

He was also the famous author of a well-known, extant,

wisdom text from Mesopotamia.²

The connection between the gods and the scribes

comes not only from the requisite presence of the scribes

in the regulation of the temple economy, but also,

especially in Mesopotamia, from the fact that magical

powers were often part of the scribe's repertoire,

although Gordon renders a Sumerian proverb: "A disgraced

scribe becomes a man of spells."³ Perdue notes, in

"Counsels of Wisdom," that the scribal responsibility to

the cult and to the personal deity is rewarded with

____________________

¹Oppenheim, "The Position of the Intellectual in

Mesopotamian Society," p. 40.

²Jonas C. Greenfield, "The Background and Parallel

to a Proverb of Ahiqar," in Hommages A. Andre Dupont-Sommer

(Paris: Librairie D'Amerique et D'Orient Adrien-

Maisonneuve, 1971), p. 49.

³Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs, p. 211; cf. Khanjian,

"Wisdom in Ugarit," pp. 50, 133; Crenshaw, Old Testament

Wisdom, p. 28 (who notes the function of scribes in

interpreting omen texts); and Westenholz, "Old Akkadian

School Texts," p. 107.

longevity and favor.¹ Adapa, another famous Mesopotamian

scribe, was so renowned for his wisdom that he became the

assistant to Ea who was said to have called the world

order into being.

Scribes in Israel

So far a survey has been made of the prominence of

scribes in the ancient Near East and their particular

connection with writing, often of wisdom texts, and their

relationship to the king and his court. The foreign wise

man is frequently referred to in Scripture as a type of

magician. In Genesis 41:8 the two terms appear in a

hendiadys construction.² Even within Israel, the case has

been made that Shisha (1 Kgs 4:3), the secretary, was a

foreigner, based on the difficulty of the writing script

and the fact that he is the only one of David's main

officials whose father is not listed.³

It will be shown that the scribe in Israel

functioned in much the same way as his counterpart in

Egypt and Mesopotamia. The same factors which provided

____________________

¹Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 100.

²Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition, p. 15; cf.

also 2 Kgs 25:19; Jer 52:25; and Exod 7:11.

³McKane, Prophets and Wise Men, pp. 27-28. Cf.

also Allan A. MacRae, "Akkadian and Sumerian Elements," in

Nuzi Personal Names, ed. I. Gelb, P. M. Purves and A.

MacRae (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1963),

p. 282.

the raison d'etre for the scribe elsewhere were also at

work in Israel. The demands of a growing bureaucratic

government, with more and more crucial international,

commercial and political contacts, required the expertise

of a scribe.¹ The need for utilizing Akkadian, the lingua

franca of the day, and the recording of documents in their

proper form required the professional scribal skills, as

the El Amarna letters suggest.² The temple structure lent

itself to scribal activity, not only because of the

massive economic details which were associated with the

construction and centralization of the temple, but also

because of the Hebraic emphasis on the canon and on the

proper teaching of torah.

One boon of an alphabetic script was the

democratization of learning which is manifested in Israel.

The necessity of canonical transcription and teaching,

however, would nonetheless favor a substantial scribal

presence even in a literate society. The literacy rate

among Israelites and Canaanites was apparently quite high,

as all were commanded to write the law on their door posts

(Deut 6:9) and monuments were erected for all to read

(Deut 27:2-8, the writer is aware of Hammurabi's boastful

____________________

¹John Paterson, The Wisdom of Israel, p. 55.

²Rainey, "The Scribe at Ugarit," p. 126; and

Oppenheim, "A Note on the Scribes in Mesopotamia," p. 254.

epilogue). Joshua's choosing of three men, who are to

write a description of the land (Josh 18:4, 8-9), and

Gideon's catching of a random young man outside of

Succoth, who wrote the names of the elders, demonstrate a

widespread ability to write (Judg 8:14).¹

With the development of the monarchy under David

and Solomon, there is a proliferation of governmental

offices. One of these, which is explicitly mentioned, was

the role of the scribe (2 Sam 8:17; 20:25; 2 Kgs 12:10;

18:18 [which also mentions a recorder]; Jer 36:12; 37:15;

Isa 37:2; et al.).² Second Chronicles 25:16 contrasts

the roles of the prophet and the adviser. The adviser's

counsel was favored more than the acrimonious prophetic

announcements, although some prophets also were involved

in recording the royal happenings (2 Chr 12:15). The

counselor and scribe, though not strictly synonymous,³

seem to have played similar roles at times in Israel.⁴

____________________

¹Kaster, "Education, Old Testament," p. 34.

²R. T. Anderson, "Was Isaiah a Scribe?" JBL 79

(1960):57. For a simple overview, vid. Bullock, An

Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books, pp. 23-24

and Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel, vol. 1 (New York:

McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1965), pp. 127-32. One should

not forget the command that the king himself copy the law

(Deut 17:18-20).

³Thompson (The Form and Function, p. 36) sees no

distinction between the scribe and wise man.

⁴For a scrutiny of the role of counselor, vid., P.

A. H. De Boer, "The Counsellor," VTSup 3 (1969):42-71.

This superb article notes the role of the counsellor

De Boer even maintains that Proverbs 8 is not a hypostasis

of wisdom but a description of Yahweh's counselor.¹

After the exile, the role of the scribe was

further developed by the coalescing of his function as

copyist and transmitter of the tradition with the

responsibility of interpreting the law (Ezra 7:6). An

examination of Ben Sirach demonstrates the movement of

later scribes towards torah (Sir 8:8-9).² Scott is

correct in pointing out that the title "secretary of the

law of the God of heaven" in the post-exilic period (Ezra

7:11; Neh 8:1-8) was indicative of the scribe's role in

the post-exilic religious community.³

Perhaps the clearest canonical picture of the

scribes or wise men as a group is found in Jeremiah. Not

only does the relationship between Jeremiah and Baruch

(Jer 36) highlight prophetic-scribal associations, but

Baruch's position with Jehudi and the "room of Elishama

the secretary" also shows scribal access to the royal

____________________

(Hushai, Ahithophel; Isa 3:1-3; Ezek 11:1-2) and notes the

divine aspect of this position (Isa 9:6). Perdue, Wisdom

and Cult, p. 141. Kovacs describes the counselor as the

ultimate scribe ("Sociological-Structural Constraints," p.

184).

¹Ibid., p. 71.

²Roth, "On the Gnomic-Discursive Wisdom of Jesus

Ben Sirach," Semeia 17-19 (1980):59.

³Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 17. Cf. Halvorsen,

"Scribes and Scribal Schools," p. 125.

archives.¹ Interestingly enough, Avigad reports on a

bullae which reads, "Belonging to Berechiah son of Neriah

the scribe" (cf. Jer 36:4).² The term hakam can be used

adjectivally to describe a wise person without positional

ramifications, but in Jeremiah 8:8, 9 and 18:18 it

strongly suggests that the "wise man" was a vocational

post.³

McKane argues that the class or profession of

"wise man" goes back to Solomonic times.⁴ Whybray has

vociferously objected to the proposal of there having been

a "wise man" position or class in Israel. Rather, he

portrays a few scribal families as taking care of the

needs of the small administrational needs in Israel.⁵ He

distinguishes sharply between the scribe and the hakam,

which, he suggests, never referred to a position.⁶

Whybray rejects Proverbs 22:17 as evidence to the contrary

____________________

¹Muilenburg, "Baruch the Scribe," pp. 215-38.

²Nahman Avigad, "Baruch the Scribe and Jerahmeel

the King's Son," IEJ 28 (1978):53.

³Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 28; von Rad,

Wisdom in Israel, pp. 20-21; De Boer, "The Counsellor," p.

61; Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, p. 239; and Kovacs,

"Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 243.

⁴McKane, Prophets and Wise Men, p. 41; contra

Scott, who sees it as developing after the time of

Hezekiah.

⁵Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition, p. 38.

⁶Ibid., p. 17.

because it is "prose" and does not have the article;

therefore, it is indefinite. Jeremiah 18:18, because of

its relationship with Ezekiel 7:26, is rejected as titular

too. His case is argued in much detail, yet commits the

semantic blunder of word-concept equation in his faulty

analysis of the word hakam.¹ His rejection of the

scribal-wise man connection and the role of "wise men" in

Israel has not been accepted by most scholars. Morgan

correctly critiques Whybray's position for begging as many

questions as it answers. Verses such as 1 Chronicles

27:32 point to the fallaciousness of Whybray's discussion

of scribes in Israel.² The exact function of the scribe

in the Solomonic government is elucidated in detail by

Mettinger and need not be repeated here.³

It is not the purpose of this section to

scribalize the wisdom material. Rather, it is to provide a

____________________

¹Ibid., pp. 15-32.

²Glendon E. Bryce, review of The Intellectual

Tradition in the Old Testament, by R. N. Whybray, in JBL 94

(1975):596-98; Morgan, "Wisdom and the Prophets," p. 219;

and Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 228. One wonders about the

consistency of Whybray himself and his comments on

Ecclesiastes 12:9 in "Qoheleth the Immoralist?" (Qoh

7:16-17)," in Israelite Wisdom: Theological and Literary

Essays in Honor of Samuel Terrien, ed. J. G. Gammie, et al.

(New York: Union Theological Seminary, 1978), p. 195.

³Tryggve N. D. Mettinger, Solomonic State

Officials: A Study of the Civil Government Officials of

the Israelite Monarchy, Coniectanea Biblica Old Testament

Series 5 (Lund: CWK Gleerup, 1971), pp. 25-51; also see

his work on the scribal school, pp. 140-57.

scenario in which one may properly appreciate the people

and positions which may have shaped Proverbs.

Class-Ethic?

The scribes, wise men and counselors played key

roles in the intelligentsia of Israel and were, in fact,

responsible for the collecting and transmitting of

proverbs, often under the direction of the king (Prov

22:17; 25:1). This leads to the question of whether or

not Proverbs presents an aristocratic ethic directed

strictly to young men on their way up the political

ladder. This class ethic Sitz im Leben is connected with

the scribes and wise men, who would normally form part of

the group of courtiers whose locus of existence centered

on the royal court.

Kovacs gives a concise definition of what is meant

by a class ethic (Standesethik): "the ethos of a specific

social group--a system of values and a corresponding

perspective on the world founded in that group and common

to it." It implies a certain closure to the world at

large and a strict addressing of the issues pertinent to

one's own group.¹ Humphreys and Gordis identify the

audience of Proverbs as the upper-class landowners and

____________________

¹Kovacs, "Class-Ethic in Proverbs?" p. 176. Cf.

Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints," pp. 85, 392,

411.

merchants, many of whom would have frequented the royal

court.¹

The evidence for the notion that Proverbs reflects

an upper-class ethic comes largely from the commonly

shared wisdom ethos. Gordis notes that ancient Near

Eastern wisdom generally was for young princes and scribes

who served in the royal court.² Gemser demonstrates a

similar class-ethic in 'Onchesheshonqy.³ Bryce also notes

that, of nine "better" proverbs in Amenemope, five of them

deal with riches and poverty. Similarly, in Proverbs

15-26, about six out of twelve "better" proverbs address

issues of finance.⁴ Gordis is correct in noting that only

the wealthy could afford to have their children in school

and the fact that the authorship of most proverbs is

____________________

¹W. Lee Humphreys, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier

in the Book of Proverbs," in Israelite Wisdom: Theological

and Literary Essays in Honor of Samuel Terrien, ed. J. G.

Gammie, et al. (New York: Union Theological Seminary,

1978), pp. 177-90; also vid. his fine dissertation, "The

Motif of the Wise Courtier," and Robert Gordis, "The Social

Background of Wisdom Literature," HUCA 18 (1943-44):77-118.

This article, along with Kovacs' article on the

class-ethic, are foundational reading for a proper

understanding of the setting of Proverbs.

²Gordis, "The Social Background of Wisdom

Literature," p. 91.

³B. Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchesheshonqy

and Biblical Wisdom Literature," VTSup 7 (1960):122.

⁴Glendon E. Bryce, "'Better'-Proverbs: An

Historical and Structural Study," in SBLASP, vol. 12

(1972), p. 347; cf. Robert Chisholm, "Literary Genres and

Structures in Proverbs" (Seminar paper, Dallas Theological

Seminary, May 1980), p. 24.

attributed to the king or his court again suggests an

upper class milieu.¹

Numerous statements in Proverbs reveal an urban

aristocratic mentality (Prov 17:26; 18:11, 18; 19:1, 6;

22:7, 16, as well as the king sayings in chaps. 16, and

20-21).² Proverbs 19:10 records:

It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury--

how much worse for a slave to rule over princes!

Wealth is uniformly viewed as good, though one should not

avariciously try to grab it if a violation of moral values

is necessitated (Prov 10:4, 22; 11:18; 13:18). Poverty is

often portrayed as a consequence of laziness (Prov 10:4)

or wickedness (Prov 13:21) and is always an undesirable

situation (Prov 10:15).³ The condemnation of bribery

(Prov 15:27; 17:23; 21:14), the rich temptress (Prov

7:16), and the disparaging view of a servant who rises to

power (Prov 30:21-23) all reflect an upper class posture.⁴

Several have postulated objections to this class

ethic approach: (1) the clan/tribal ethos of certain

Proverbs suggests an agrarian setting (Prov 10:5);

____________________

¹Gordis, "The Social Background of Wisdom

Literature," pp. 84-85.

²Humphrey, "The Motif of the Courtier in the Book

of Proverbs," p. 182.

³Gordis, "The Social Background of Wisdom

Literature," pp. 97-98.

⁴Ibid., p. 107; Kovacs, "Is There a Class-Ethic in

Proverbs?" p. 178.

(2) Proverbs addresses universal needs of mankind;¹ and

(3) the class ethic motif was a later accretion to

Israel's early wisdom sayings, which had a much more

democratic tendenz than those of Egypt and elsewhere.²

Others would suggest that Proverbs reflects a middle-class

ethos.³

Proverbial Court Setting

The origins and use of wisdom in the court will be

addressed here briefly and their relationship to the king

will be discussed somewhat later. von Rad sees the titles

found in Proverbs as demonstrative of the court setting of

the book (Prov 1:1; 10:1; 25:1; et al.).⁴ Humphreys notes

that, in the 538 sayings in Proverbs 10-29, only thirty

have the courtier as their primary focus; yet, much of the

book does canvass matters which are pertinent for a

____________________

¹James L. Crenshaw, "Studies in Ancient Israelite

Wisdom: Prolegomenon," SAIW, p. 20; Bullock, An

Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books, p. 23.

²Rylaarsdam, Revelation in Jewish Wisdom

Literature, p. 10; W. Baumgartner, "The Wisdom Literature,"

in The Old Testament and Modern Study, ed. H. H. Rowley

(Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1951), p. 214.

³Evode Beaucamp, Man's Destiny in the Books of

Wisdom, trans. J. Clarke (New York: Alba House, 1970), p.

7; and Heaton, Solomon's New Men, pp. 13, 118.

⁴von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 15; von Rad, Old

Testament Theology, pp. 429-30; Malchow, "The Roots of

Israel's Wisdom in Sacral Kingship," pp. 117-18.

court milieu.¹ The following have been taken as

reflective of a courtier setting: (1) the stressing of

the relationship to one's superiors (Prov 23:1);² (2) the

judicial aspect of numerous proverbs (Prov 16:10; 17:9,

15, 18);³ (3) the suggestions on how to curry the king's

favor (Prov 14:35; 16:13; 22:11; 25:6-7);⁴ (4) the

importance of counselors (Prov 11:14; 24:6); and (5) the

theme of the faithful messenger (Prov 10:26; 13:17).⁵ One

must be careful not to confuse a proverb's imagery, which

may be rural or agricultural, with its message, which may

be fitting for aristocratic concerns.

It is not being suggested that Proverbs came

exclusively from a court setting, as it obviously does not

solely reflect a court ethos.⁶ Rather, it is thought that

____________________

¹Humphreys, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the

Old Testament," p. 160.

²Gordis, "The Social Background of Wisdom Literature," p. 92.

³Nel, The Structure and Ethos, p. 80.

⁴Beaucamp, Man's Destiny in the Books ofWisdom,

p. 5.

⁵Gordis, "The Social Background of Wisdom

Literature," p. 92; Humphreys, "The Motif of the Wise

Courtier in the Book of Proverbs," p. 181; A. D. Crown,

"Messengers and Scribes: the and in the Old

Testament," VT 24.3 (July 1974):366-70; Beaucamp, Man's

Destiny in the Books of Wisdom, p. 5; Heaton, Solomon's New

Men, p. 48; McKane, Prophets and Wise Men, pp. 17, 36; and

Mettinger, Solomonic State Officials, pp. 52-62.

⁶Humphrey, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the

Book of Proverbs," p. 187. R. E. Clements, review of

one component of the multiplex setting, from which the

proverbial material was generated, was from and to the

aristocratic element of society. Thus, court setting is

highly favored due to the clear statements of the text

itself (Prov 1:1; 10:1; 25:1).

Schools and Wisdom

Egyptian Schools

The scribes and the court both demanded rigorous

training. Within the guilds, training often was the

passing on of skills within the "family," and, at the

royal court, schools were often the means whereby the

needed skills were acquired.

The first extant literary source making reference

to a school in Egypt is from the Tenth dynasty. Williams

suggests that, prior to that time, the training of youths

was carried out through apprenticeship programs.¹ Brunner

suggests that Egyptian education evolved from an

apprentice, familial setting to a school setting, which

often utilized familial terms ("father" and "son").² A

____________________

Wisdom in Israel, by Gerhard von Rad, in ExpTim 84

(1972):185; Fox, "Aspects of the Religion of the Book of

Proverbs," p. 60; and Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition,

p. 2.

¹Williams, "Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt," p.

215. Halvorsen ("Scribes and Scribal Schools," pp. 81-92)

gives a nice synopsis of the relevant material. Cf. also

Olivier, "Schools and Wisdom Literature," p. 55.

²Hellmut Brunner, Altagyptische Erziehung,

palace school existing in the twelfth dynasty is known

from the "Instruction of Duauf."¹ It was only after the

New Kingdom that education developed much outside of the

palace confines. As the school moved to an institutional

setting, it became less aristocratic.

The house of life in Egypt seems to have been a

scholarly resort where sacred books, letters, magic and

medicine literature, inscriptions, and the "annals of the

gods" were generated and transcribed. It was a

scriptorium closely connected with the temple, which often

housed a library.²

Education in the Egyptian schools was often by

sing-song recitation and the memorization of texts.³ A

father's description to his son of the happy lot in life

of the scribe in life should be contrasted to what the son

actually found in school. Williams has collected

numerous rather sadistically humorous texts, which detail

____________________

(Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1957), pp. 10-32. This is

a classic source of material on the Egyptian schools.

Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 251.

¹Pritchard, ANET, pp. 432-34.

²Alan H. Gardiner, "The House of Life," JEA 24

(1938):175-78. Mettinger (Solomonic State Officials, p.

141), on the other hand, views it as a university-type of

atmosphere. Cf. Halvorsen, "Scribes and Scribal Schools,"

p. 92.

³Williams, "Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt," pp.

216, 219; Erman, The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians,

p. 77.

the plight of the Egyptian student. Papyrus Anastasis,

for example, records the following admonition and

proverbial quotation:

Persevere in your daily tasks, and then you will

achieve mastery over them. Do not pass a day lazy, or

else you will be beaten; a lad's ear is actually on

his back, and he listens when he is beaten. . . .

Write with your hand, read with your mouth, and seek

advice. Do not tire. Do not spend a day in laziness,

or woe to your limbs! Penetrate the counsels of your

teacher and listen to his instructions. Be a scribe.¹

The Demotic text of 'Onchesheshonqy shows the

democratization of learning as a man's son is

admonished to "learn to write, to plough, to fowl. . . ."²

The materials copied in the schools were the

instruction texts (which stressed proper manners and

appropriate speech), the "Satire on the Trades," the

adventurous "Tale of Sinuhe," and "Kemyt" ("completion,"

which was a series of idioms and formulae used for a

millennium in the Egyptian schools).³ The training lasted

for four years.⁴

____________________

¹Williams, "Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt,"

p. 218.

²Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy," p.

116.

³Williams, "Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt," p.

217; Glendon E. Bryce, "Another Wisdom 'Book' in Proverbs,"

JBL 91.2 (1972):147; also Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, p.

138; and Bullock, An Introduction to the Old Testament

Poetic Books, p. 32.

⁴Williams, "Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt," p.

216.

Mesopotamian Schools

In Mesopotamia, the school was called the edubba

(Sumerian, meaning "tablet house") or the bit tuppi

(Akkadian). School materials at Shuruppak have been found

dating to 2500 B.C. and at Erech as early as 3000 B.C.¹

Other sites, such as Uruk, Ur, Eshnunna, Sippar, Nippur,

Mari, and even as far west as Ugarit, have yielded school

materials.² The schools have been found in three

locations: (1) the royal palace;³ (2) the temple;⁴ and

(3) private homes. This final location is suggested by

the finding of numerous school texts in individual

dwellings.⁵ There also seems to have been an institution

____________________

¹Kramer, Sumerians, p. 229. For a handy survey of

materials, vid. Halvorsen, "Scribes and Scribal Schools,"

pp. 11-76.

²Kramer, Sumerians, p. 236; Sjoberg, "The Old

Babylonian Eduba," pp. 176-78; and Khanjian, "Wisdom in

Ugarit," pp. 126, 136.

³Westenholz, "Old Akkadian School Texts," p. 108.

⁴Kramer surmises that the schools began as

appendages of the temple (Samuel N. Kramer, "The Sumerian

School: A Pre-Greek System of Education," in Studies

Presented to David Moore Robinson on His Seventieth

Birthday, ed. G. E. Mylonas, vol. 1 [Saint Louis:

Washington University, 1951], p. 241). However, he denies

that it was connected to the cult (S. N. Kramer, "Sumerian

Literature, A General Survey," in The Bible and the Ancient

Near East. Essays in Honor of William Foxwell Albright,

ed. G. E. Wright [reprint, Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns,

1961], p. 253). Landsberger also portrays most priests as

illiterate and Priesterweisheit as a misconception

(Landsberger, "Scribal Concepts of Education," p. 98).

⁵Gadd, Teachers and Students in the Oldest Schools,

p. 25. Sjoberg gives a useful survey of the location of

of higher learning in the edubba gula, or the bit mumme.¹

After the Old Babylonian period, the tablet-house

disappeared, thus moving education more into the hands of

the private sector.²

Westenholz gives four aims of Sumerian education:

(1) to provide the student with cuneiform writing skills;

(2) to teach the student Sumerian; (3) to develop the

ability to write letters and documents; and (4) to become

aware of the major works of Akkadian literature.³

Landsberger notes the stress on memory in the Mesopotamian

schools for accomplishing these goals:

In the Mesopotamian schools the conception of

dictation was absent. Instead the common practice was

that the 'older brother' or preceptor would write down

25 lines or so on a clay tablet. Then, on the reverse

of the same tablet, the student was required to write

from memory the whole section of the literary series

from which the particular composition had been

chosen.⁴

____________________

the finds in "The Old Babylonian Eduba," pp. 176-77. He

also surveys the curriculum.

¹Landsberger, "Scribal Concepts of Education," p.

112; McKane, Prophets and Wise Men, p. 39; and Humphreys,

"The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the Old Testament," p.

16.

²Ibid., p. 97.

³Westenholz, "Old Akkadian School Texts," p. 106;

cf. Sjoberg, "The Old Babylonian Eduba," p. 160; and Gadd,

Teachers and Students in the Oldest Schools, pp. 236-37,

who cites a text from Ur stating the purpose of Sumerian

education: "to turn the ignorant and illiterate into a man

of wisdom and learning."

⁴Lansberger, "Scribal Concepts of Education," p. 116.

The memorization often included long lists of animals,

gods, classifications, and vocabularies. Legal texts were

also learned.¹

The texts copied in the edubba have been linked to

wisdom literature.² Since Halvorsen has developed an

overview of the school texts (hymns and prayers, wisdom

literature, scientific texts, grammatical lists, omen

texts and royal correspondence), comments here will be

made only regarding the proverbial material.³ Kramer

divides the wisdom material into five categories:

proverbs, miniature essays, instructions, Edubba

school-life compositions, and disputes.⁴ The proverbs

served as simple models for the students, illustrating

patterns of proper and improper behavior, as well as

tuning their minds to proverbial literary devices and

paradigms.⁵

The school was headed by the ummia, who was the

____________________

¹Sjoberg, "The Old Babylonian Eduba," p. 161. She

also surveys the curriculum. Cf. Kramer, "The Sumerian

School: A Pre-Greek System of Eduation," p. 243.

²Olivier, "Schools and Wisdom Literature," p. 53.

³Halvorsen, "Scribes and Scribal Schools," pp.

43-52.

⁴Samuel N. Kramer, "Sumerian Wisdom Literature: A

Preliminary Survey," BASOR 122 (April 1951):28.

⁵Alster, Studies in Sumerian Proverbs, p. 13; cf.

Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs, p. 20.

school "father."¹ The "big brother" and the student were

the other constituents of the school setting.² "A

Failed

Examination," is a text in which the teacher severely

reprimands his erring student:

What have you done, what good came of your

sitting here? You are already a ripe man and close to

being aged! Like an old ass you are not teachable any

more. Like withered grain you have passed the season.

How long will you play around? But, it is still not

too late! If you study night and day and work all the

time modestly and without arrogance, if you listen to

your colleagues and teachers, you still can become a

scribe! Then you can share the scribal craft which is

good fortune for its owner, a good angel leading you,

a bright eye, possessed by you, and it is what the

palace needs.³

Again, as in Egypt, physical discipline was frequent,

administered by the "father" or "big brother."⁴ Kramer

narrates the normal school day of a student as consisting

of reading his tablet, eating lunch, writing a new tablet,

receiving an assignment, hopefully not being "caned," and

returning home to present his work, with delight, to his

____________________

¹Gadd, Teachers and Students in the Oldest

Schools, p. 16; Kramer, "The Sumerian School: A Pre-Greek System
of Education," p. 242; and also Kramer, "Schooldays: A

Sumerian Composition Relating to the Education of a

Scribe," JAOS 69.4 (1949):205; and Philip Nel, "The Concept

of 'Father' in the Wisdom Literature of the Ancient Near

East," Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 5 (1977):60.

²Gadd, Teachers and Students in the Oldest Schools,

p. 33.

³Landsberger, "Scribal Concepts of Education," p.

100.

⁴Gadd, Teachers and Students in the Oldest Schools,

p. 20; Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 53.

father.¹

Thus, the existence of a school structure has been

observed in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, dating back to the

earliest periods of writing. This allows for the

inference of the existence of a similar phenomenon in

Israel. The internal didactic tone of the book of

Proverbs would naturally fit a school setting if such an

institution can be found in Israel.

Schools in Israel?

The existence of a school in Israel has been

assumed by many scholars on the basis of Egyptian and/or

Mesopotamian analogies.² No direct evidence has been

found as yet, although there are materials which strongly

point in the direction of an Israelite school. The

following evidences favor an Israelite school:

(1) Albright's tablet found at Shechem, from a teacher at

Megiddo asking to be paid for services rendered (1400

____________________

¹Kramer, "Schooldays: A Sumerian Composition

Relating to the Education of a Scribe," p. 199.

²Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 327; H. J.

Hermisson, Studien zur israelitischen Spruchweisheit, pp. 96-98;

Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 107; Kovacs,

"Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 223; Jensen, The

Use of tora by Isaiah, p. 35; Mowinckel, "Psalms and

Wisdom," p. 206; Ernest Sellin, Introduction to the Old

Testament, revised and rewritten by Georg Fohrer

(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1968), p. 481; Olivier,

"Schools and Wisdom Literature," pp. 57-59; and W. Richter,

Recht und Ethos, pp. 182-83.

B.C.);¹ (2) a cuneiform liver inscription at Hazor, which

Albright takes as suggesting the existence of a Canaanite

school as early as the eighteenth century B.C.;² (3) the

Gezer Calendar which may be a school exercise tablet;³

(4) the use of cuneiform in Palestine (e.g., El Amarna

letters and copies of Gilgamesh found at Megiddo);⁴

(5) the town name Kiriath-Sepher (Josh 15:15) implies a

scribal center where training could be obtained;⁵ (6) the

administrational complexity of the monarchy would suggest

that there was a school to prepare persons for

governmental positions, as well as to train the children

____________________

¹W. F. Albright, "A Teacher to a Man of Shechem

about 1400 B.C.," BASOR 86 (1942):31; and Thompson, The

Form and Function, pp. 82-83.

²Landsberger, "Scribal Concepts of Education," pp.

105-6.

³W. F. Albright, "The Gezer Calendar,"

BASOR 92 (1943):16-26. Cf. Gaspar, Social Ideas in the Wisdom

Literature of the Old Testament, p. 146; and Kaster,

"Education, Old Testament," p. 30.

⁴Landsberger ("Scribal Concepts of Education," pp.

120-21) states that anywhere Gilgamesh was found implies

the presence of a school also. Gaspar, Social Ideas in the

Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament, p. 145; and

Olivier, "Schools and Wisdom Literature," p. 59.

⁵W. O. E. Oesterley, The Book of Proverbs (London:

Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1929), p. lxix; cf. Humphrey, "The

Motif of the Wise Courtier in the Old Testament," p. 115.

Whybray objects to this interpretation, suggesting instead

that Kiriath-Sepher merely implies a scribal guild, rather

than a school setting (Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition,

p. 36).

of the royal harem;¹ (7) the use of the technical terms

"father" and "mother" in wisdom literature may reflect a

school setting, as elsewhere in the ancient Near East;²

(8) the mentioning of the Levitical teachers (2 Chr

17:8-9; 35:3; Mic 3:11; Mal 2:6-7);³ and (9) specific

references hint at a school setting (Isa 28:9-10, 26).⁴

The first explicit reference to Israelite schools is found

in Sirach 51:23. Thus, with schools having been found in

Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Ugarit, and with the above

evidences suggesting the existence of a school in Israel,

it seems most probable that there was, in fact, a school

in Israel, at least by the time of the monarchy.

Numerous scholars have accepted a school setting

for the book of Proverbs. Indeed, recent paroemiological

studies confirm the didactic nature of proverbial

materials. The proverbial form has been utilized almost

universally in a didactic setting.⁵ Hermisson is usually

____________________

¹Olivier, "Schools and Wisdom Literature," p. 59;

and Halvorsen, "Scribes and Scribal Schools," p. 167.

Certainly the tightening of international ties during the

Solomonic enlightenment would also suggest such.

²Kovacs, "Is There a Class-Ethic in Proverbs?" p.

173.

³Kaster, "Education, Old Testament," p. 31; cf.

Aelfred Cody, A History of the Old Testament Priesthood,

Analecta Biblica 35 (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute,

1969), pp. 118, 187.

⁴Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 16.

⁵Fontaine, "The Use of the Traditional Saying in

credited with demonstrating the school-like character of

the Proverbs.¹ Other scholars have consented to this

setting as well.² Scott proposes that Proverbs,

Ecclesiastes and Sirach were the three textbooks of the

schools in Israel.³ Gordis is too speculative when

he proposes that there were two types of schools--a

conservative one, reflected in Proverbs, and a more

____________________

the Old Testament," p. 89; Alexander H. Krappe, The Science

of Folklore (London: Methuen Co., 1930), pp. 143, 147-48;

and L. A. Boadi, "The Language of the Proverb in Akan," in

African Folklore, ed. Richard M. Dorson (Garden City:

Anchor Books, 1972), p. 186. One can see the didactic

character of the Akan proverb in the following (which is

appropriate to this dissertation): "The child should take

a morsel small enough to fit his mouth." Rosalyn Saltz

("Children's Interpretations of Proverbs," Language Arts

56.5 (1979):508-21) does an experiment on the effectiveness

of proverbs in teaching children.

¹Hermisson, Studien zur israelitischen

Spruchweisheit, pp. 94-96; also Richter, Recht und Ethos,

pp. 183-92; and Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural

Constraints," p. 87.

²Olivier, "Schools and Wisdom Literature," p. 49;

U. Skladny, Die altesten Spruchsammlungen in Israel

(Gottingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1962), pp. 44-45;

Oesterley, The Book of Proverbs, p. lxi; Crenshaw,

"Wisdom," p. 228; Murphy, Wisdom Literature, p. 6; Nel, The

Structure and Ethos, p. 136; Craigie, "Biblical Wisdom in

the Modern World," p. 7; Kovacs, "Is There a Class-Ethic in

Proverbs?" p. 173; R. J. Williams, "Some Egyptianisms in

the Old Testament," in Studies in Honor of John A. Wilson,

September 12, 1969, Studies in Ancient Oriental

Civilization 35 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,

1969), p. 145; Emerton, "Wisdom," p. 226; von Rad, Old

Testament Theology, pp. 430-31; Humphreys, "The Motif of

the Wise Courtier in the Old Testament," p. 120; and

Murphy, "Form Criticism and Wisdom Literature," p. 482.

³Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 52.

radical one, whose tendenz is manifest in

Ecclesiastes.¹

The physical discipline encouraged in Proverbs may well

reflect an ancient school milieu (Prov 10:13; 13:24;

15:32; 19:18).² von Rad proffers that the proverbial use

of questions also favors a didactic setting (Prov 6:27;

23:29-30; 30:4).³

The school ethos may be displayed in the contrasts

between the wise and foolish men (Prov 12:15-16; 13:1),

the wicked and ideal women (Prov 12:4; 14:1; ch. 9

contrast ch. 31), and the willing worker and the otiose

sluggard (Prov 6:9-11; 19:15). Nel further notes that the

school ethos does not contrast with the parental ethos;

rather, it stands in loco parentis.⁴ The pedagogical

purpose is strong in Proverbs, not in the sense of

patching up a bad life, but in the avoidance of the bad

life by the acceptance of good counsel.⁵ From the

continual warning against immorality, it may be deduced

____________________

¹R. Gordis, "Quotations in Wisdom Literature," JQR

30 (1939):123 (also in SAIW, p. 220).

²Beaucamp, Man's Destiny in the Books of

Wisdom,

pp. 9-10.

³von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 18.

⁴Nel, The Structure and Ethos, p. 80.

⁵John L. McKenzie, The Two-Edged Sword: An

Interpretation of the Old Testament (London: Geoffrey

Chapman, 1959), p. 218.

that the students were young men rather than children.¹

It may also be suggested that their curriculum involved

the memorization of a few lines every day (cf. Isa

28:9-10, 23-30; possibly reflected in the sentences of

Prov 10-22).²

The school hypothesis has not gone unchallenged.

Whybray has scrutinized the arguments in favor of a

pre-exilic Israelite school and has found them wanting.³

His analysis cautions one about exclusively taking a

school setting for Proverbs; yet his position seems to

raise as many problems as it solves. He portrays the

wisdom teachers as open-air lecturers in an informal

setting--more akin to the "sons of the prophets." He opts

more for scribal families than for a school per se and

suggests that there is no evidence of an organized school

system prior to Sirach's comment (Sir 51:23). Crenshaw

and Gladson acquiesce to Whybray's analysis which

demonstrated the tentativeness of the pre-exilic school

and that one should be careful about identifying Proverbs

____________________

¹Gordis, "The Social Background of Wisdom

Literature," p. 84.

²Kovacs, "Is There a Class-Ethic in Proverbs?" p.

173; Christa B. Kayatz, Studien zu Proverbien 1-9, p. 4.

³Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition, pp.

35-43.

too closely with a school setting.¹ Crenshaw properly

rejects the tendency to account for the shift from

sentence forms to the admonition form in Proverbs as a

result of a school influence.² The presence of clan and

family wisdom elements, reflecting settings prior to the

school, points to a multiplex setting and to the schools

more in terms of use than of origin.³

This writer favors the view that a pre-exilic

school existed in Israel. However, because of the limited

data available, one should be cautious about viewing the

Israelite school as the primary setting for Proverbs.

Rather, the school setting should be seen as one more

component of the proverbial Sitz im Leben. The school

setting, like the scribal background of the proverbs, adds

another hue to the tapestry of a full appreciation of

Proverbs.

The King and Wisdom

The relationship between the king and Proverbs is

explicitly and repeatedly made in the biblical text (Prov

1:1; 10:1; 25:1). This is interesting in light of the

____________________

¹Crenshaw, "Prolegomenon," p. 16; cf. also Gladson,

"Retributive Paradoxes in Proverbs 10-29," p. 147.

²Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 78.

³Ibid., p. 236; and Nel, The Structure and Ethos,

p. 138. Vid. Murphy (Wisdom Literature, pp. 7-8) for a

balanced development of the various settings of the family

and the school.

ancient Near Eastern sources, particularly in Egypt, in

which the king and wisdom literature are also coupled.

Hence, the kingship will be surveyed, noting its

connection with wisdom.¹

The King and Wisdom in Egypt

It is well-known that in Egypt the king was

considered, not only as the son of the sun god Re, but was

also thought to be a god incarnate. He was identified

with Horus and at death became Osiris. Re himself was

held to be the first king of Egypt.² As a god, he was

required to maintain "justice" and the order of the

____________________

¹For excellent studies in the areas of kingship

and wisdom, one should examine the following standard works on

kingship: Henri Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods: A Study

of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of

Society and Nature (Chicago: The University of Chicago

Press, 1978); Ivan Engnell, Studies in Divine Kingship in

the Ancient Near East (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1967); S.

Hooke, ed., Myth Ritual and Kingship: Essays on the Theory

and Practice of Kingship in the Ancient Near East and in

Israel (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958); and Bruce V.

Malchow, "The Roots of Israel's Wisdom in Sacral Kingship."

For a recent discussion of this matter, vid. Gary Smith,

"The Concept of God/the Gods as King in the Ancient Near

East and the Bible," Trinity Journal 3.1 (1982):18-38.

²Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, pp. 33-35,

46-47; C. J. Gadd, Ideas of Divine Rule in the Ancient Near

East (London: Oxford University Press, 1948), p. 33;

Humphrey, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the Old

Testament," p. 10; Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 82; and

Harvey, "Wisdom Literature and Biblical Theology," p. 312.

For texts, vid. ANET, p. 234. Note the titles given to

Thutmose III; or, in the "Tale of Sinuhe," observe its

praise of Sesostris I (ANET, p. 20). Finally, the title

"The Divine Attributes of Pharaoh," in ANET, p. 431,

indicates how Pharaoh was viewed.

cosmos, and "to make the country flourish as in primeval

times by means of the designs of Maat." Frankfort further

notes the following text referring to the king's

brilliance: "Authoritative Utterance [hu] is in thy

mouth. Understanding [sia] is in thy heart. Thy speech

is the shrine of truth [maat]."¹ Kitchen also notes

that hu and sia are personified in Egyptian literature (cf. the

personification of wisdom in Proverbs 8).² Malchow

correctly elucidates the strong identification of sia

(wisdom) with the king. Interestingly enough, the king

was portrayed as the scribe of Re. Re himself was

assisted in the act of creation by Hu and Sia.³ The king

was also identified with Thoth and of Rekhmire it was

said, "Behold his Majesty knew all that had happened:

there was nothing that he did not know, he was Thoth in

all things. There was no word that he did not discern."⁴

Likewise, Rameses II is said to possess wisdom from the

god Re:

I [Re] make your heart divine like me, I choose you! I

____________________

¹Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, p. 51.

²Kitchen, "Some Egyptian Background to the Old

Testament," Tyndale Bulletin 6-7 (1961):5.

³Malchow, "The Roots of Israel's Wisdom in Sacral

Kingship," pp. 61-62. Leonidas Kalugila, The Wise King.

Kalugila's book is a masterpiece on this subject.

⁴Kalugila, The Wise King, p. 22.

weigh you, I prepare you, that your heart may discern,

that your utterance may be profitable. There is

nothing whatever you do not know. . . .¹

Kalugila further cites proof that Akhenaten considered

himself to have received wisdom from Re.² Surely the

Egyptian concept of wisdom was not secularly empirical.

Rather, wisdom was viewed as a gift of the gods. The

king's duty was also connected with ma'at, which is one of

the major themes in Egyptian "wisdom" literature. As the

son of the creator, and as the shepherd who would defend

the cause of the poor, widows, and orphans, the Pharaoh

was the one to banish the forces of chaos and to renew

order (ma'at) in the land.³

Not only is the idea of the kingship interlaced

with wisdom motifs, but the king is also explicitly linked

to numerous instruction texts. Merikare, for example, is

a pharaoh who wrote instructions to his son, as is also

the case of "The Instruction of Amenemhet." Both are from

Middle Kingdom Egypt. "The Instruction of Prince

Hardjedef" is also addressed to the king's son.⁴ Other

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 26.

²Ibid., pp. 20, 30.

³Humphrey, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the

Book of Proverbs," p. 180; Kovacs, "Sociological-

Structural Constraints," p. 136; and Kaligula, The Wise

King, pp. 35, 37. Cf. also Don Fowler, "The Context of the

Good Shepherd Discourses," (Th.D. dissertation, Grace

Theological Seminary, 1981).

⁴Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, p. 150; and Lichtheim,

Egyptian "wisdom" pieces advise support of the king

("Stela of Sehetep-ib-re") or are written by royal court

members (Ptahhotep and Amenemope).² Williams points out

that some instruction literature was utilized as

propaganda favoring the king, having been written by his

scribes for that purpose (cf. "Instruction of

Amenemhet").³ Thus, if one is to develop properly a

matrix of the wisdom materials, kingship is one component

which must be taken into account in Egypt.

The King and Wisdom in Mesopotamia

The kingship was perceived somewhat differently in

Mesopotamia, where the king was viewed as "the great man."

The kingship was regarded as having descended from heaven;

hence, it was a divine institution. At Ugarit, the king

was the foster son of the deity.⁴ The king was a man

____________________

Ancient Egyptian Literature, 1:125-29.

¹Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 218. For

the texts, see Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature 1:58-60,

135-38, or ANET, pp. 414-19.

²Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, p. 150;

Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 1:125-129.

³R. J. Williams, "The Literature as a Medium of

Political Propaganda in Ancient Egypt," in The Seed of

Wisdom: Essays in Honour of T. J. Meek, ed. W. S.

McCullough (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1964), p. 22;

and Halvorsen, "Scribes and Scribal Schools," p. 100.

⁴J. A. Soggin, "The Davidic-Solomonic Kingdom," in

Israelite and Judean History, ed. J. H. Hayes and J. M.

Miller, OTL (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1977), p.

371; and Malchow, "The Roots of Israel's Wisdom in Sacral

endowed with a divine office and he was chosen by the gods

to administer justice as their servant.¹ The king was not

considered to be a god, but was "god's foreman among the

labourers."² Like the Egyptian pharaoh, he was

commissioned to maintain harmonious relations between the

people and the gods, to restrain the power of chaos, and

to cultivate the cosmic order.³

What was the Mesopotamian king's relationship to

wisdom? Sulgi of Ur and Isme-Dagan of Isin boast of their

accomplishments in the edubba. Much later, Ashurbanipal's

zeal for learning was one of the great heritages received

from ancient Assyria.⁴ An interesting letter to

Ashurbanipal (ca. 650 B.C.) states:

In a dream the god Ashur said to (Sennacherib) the

grandfather of the king my lord, 'O sage!' You, the

king, lord of kings, are the offspring of the sage and

of Adapa. . . . You surpass in knowledge Apsu (the

____________________

Kingship," pp. 72-73.

¹Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, pp. 237-38; and

G. W. Ahlstrom, "Solomon, the Chosen One," p. 93. Cf.

also Norman W. Porteous, "Royal Wisdom," VTSup 3

(1969):247-61.

²Gadd, Ideas of Divine Rule in the Ancient Near

East, pp. 8-9; and Humphreys, "The Motif of the Wise

Courtier in the Old Testament," p. 59.

³Humphreys, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the

Old Testament," p. 58; and Kovacs, "Sociological-

Structural Constraints," p. 138.

⁴Sjoberg, "The Old Babylonian Eduba," pp. 160,

170, 172-75; and Halvorsen, "Scribes and Scribal Schools,"

p. 24.

abyss) and all craftsmen.¹

Elsewhere Ashurbanipal writes: "I, Ashurbanipal, learned

the wisdom of Nabu, the entire art of writing on clay

tablets."² He thus connects his wisdom to the gods and to

the ability to write. Wisdom was directly associated with

the kings of Mesopotamia and kings such as Samsu-iluna,

Esarhaddon, Nebuchadrezzar and Nabonidus associate wisdom

with their reigns.³ Wifall also notes a text where Sargon

II of Assyria requests "quick understanding and an open

mind" from the god Ea.⁴ Lipit-Ishtar and Enlil-bani of

Isin both claim to have received wisdom from the gods. Of

Enlil-bani it is written, "Asarilubi has bestowed on you

(wisdom) understanding, Nisaba, the lady, the goddess, the

great Nisaba. . . . The counsellor has called a revenger

for you, has given you wisdom. . . .⁵ Of Gudea, as he

began to build the temple, it was said: "The faithful

____________________

¹Pritchard, ANET, p. 450. Nabonidus similarly

talks of his divinely-given wisdom, received in a vision by

the god, "[Even] if I do not know how to write (with the

stylus)" (ANET, p. 314). Cf. Hammurabi's statements where

Marduk allegedly endued him with wisdom (ANET, p. 270).

Cf. Malchow, "The Roots of Israel's Wisdom in Sacral

Kingship," pp. 67-68; and Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 91.

²Kalugila, The Wise King, p. 52.

³Porteous, "Royal Wisdom," p. 252; and Engnell,

Studies in Divine Kingship in the Ancient Near East, pp.

189-91.

⁴Walter Wifall, "Israel's Covenant Wisdom," Bible

Today 64 (1973):1048.

⁵Kalugila, The Wise King, pp. 48-49.

shepherd, Gudea was very wise, he accomplished great

things."¹ Much later Sargon proudly states: "In my

universal wisdom, I who at the command of Ea was endowed

with understanding and filled with skill. . . ."²

Hammurabi, Addad-Nirari, and Sennacherib make claims of

being endowed with divine wisdom from Ea, Marduk or

Shamash.³ Thus, in Mesopotamia as in Egypt, wisdom was

certainly not viewed as a secular phenomenon. Kalugila

also notes that the epithets denoting wisdom, by which the

gods were known, were also applied to the kings.⁴

Several direct connections may be made between

specific "wisdom" texts and the kings. The "Instructions

of Suruppak," an early Sumerian wisdom poem, is from the

mysterious person of Suruppak, who appears in some of the

Sumerian King Lists.⁵ Fontaine cites a proverb which was

given by King Samsi-Adad to his son, who was appointed

ruler of Mari.⁶ Finally, the Akkadian wisdom text "Advice

to a Prince," which was found in Ashurbanipal's library,

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 49.

²Ibid., p. 51.

³Ibid., p. 56.

⁴Ibid., p. 47.

⁵Lambert, BWL, pp. 92-93; and Alster, Studies in

Sumerian Proverbs, pp. 16, 110.

⁶Fontaine, "The Use of the Traditional Saying in

the Old Testament," p. 275.

gives advice concerning the king's responsibilities in

omen-patterned counsels. This points to the king not only

as the author, but also as the addressee of wisdom

materials in Babylon (1000-700 B.C.).¹

The King and Wisdom in Israel

With this background of the relationship between

the king and wisdom in Egypt and Mesopotamia, it is not

odd that Israelite wisdom is also inseparably connected to

the kingship, particularly since Israel had called for a

king like the other nations (1 Sam 8:5, 20; 10:10).² This

connection is not only to be seen in light of the explicit

titles in Proverbs (1:1; 10:1; 25:1), which contain

references to Solomon, Hezekiah, and a non-Israelite king

who received instruction from his mother (Prov 31:1), but

the historical material, as well, highlights the nexus

between wisdom and the king. No genre in the canon has

been so consistently associated with royalty as the wisdom

texts. Other Jewish, non-canonical, wisdom texts

explicitly embrace a kingship setting (Wis 6-7), both in

terms of authorship and as a topic of concern (Wis 1:1;

____________________

¹Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, pp. 110-15;

and Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, pp. 99, 122. So the text

states: "If a king does not heed justice, his people will

be thrown into chaos, and his land will be devastated."

This text's connection of the cult and the king in wisdom

is explicit.

²Kalugila, The Wise King, p. 102.

Sir 10:1). Humphreys is correct when he notes that

ancient Near Eastern materials primarily and originally

addressed to the king were taken over and used in much

wider circles. Often they would be copied diligently in

the schools.¹ Thus, it is not strange that a similar

phenomenon is observed in Israel (Prov 25:1).

As seen repeatedly in the prophetic condemnations

of the king (cf. Prov 28:16; 29:2, 4, 12),² there is

certainly no confusion in Israelite wisdom concerning the

distinction between God and the historical kings. In

wisdom materials, the demesne of the king is always under

that of Yahweh's authority and rule (Prov 21:1).³ It was

by wisdom that kings should reign (Prov 8:13-16). The

king may be wise (Prov 20:26) or self-destructively

foolish (Prov 31:3); in either case, he, like all men,

must adhere to the cosmic principles laid down by Yahweh

or suffer the consequences. The king was to maintain the

cosmic harmony via his enforcing of the principles of

justice by which God had ordered creation. The king was

to be the upholder of "righteousness," which he

promulgated through teaching and through just and

____________________

¹Humphreys, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the

Old Testament," p. 166.

²Ibid., p. 152.

³Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints," p.

415.

well-considered decisions.¹

The Bible not only associates wisdom with its

kings, but also with the royalty of other nations (Isa

19:11). The boast of the king of Tyre takes on its proper

connotations when seen in light of Near Eastern parallels

of king-wisdom relations. God quotes the king of Tyre's

exultant heart as saying (Ezek 28:2-3):

'I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart

of the seas.' But you are a man and not a god though

you think you are as wise as a god. Are you wiser

than Daniel? Is no secret hidden from you? By your

wisdom and understanding you have gained wealth for

yourself . . . .²

Another point of interest is the root mlk, which leads to

derivations both in the fields of king and counselor.³

The court structure points again to the importance the

king placed on wisdom by surrounding himself not only with

scribes, but also with a "rememberer" and a "friend" from

whom he could obtain wise counsel.⁴

____________________

¹Malchow, "The Roots of Israel's Wisdom in Sacral

Kingship," pp. 52, 96. Malchow states his thesis, which is

quite compatible with the biblical text and with ancient

Near Eastern sources, that "kingship is the setting from

which the later wisdom movement proceeded in Israel" (p.

136).

²Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, p. 193.

³W. F. Albright, "Notes on Egypto-Semitic

Etymology, III," JAOS 47.3 (1927):214; cf. Malchow, "The

Roots of Israel's Wisdom in Sacral Kingship," p. 120. This

writer is keenly aware of the semantic root-meaning

fallacy. However the connection is an interesting one in

light of the other materials discussed.

⁴Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 13.

Solomon, the ideal wise king, is viewed as having

been endued with divine wisdom (cf. Near Eastern parallels

above) as a result of a dream at Gibeon (1 Kgs 3:9-15).¹

Prior to Solomon, David was said to have received divine

wisdom (2 Sam 14:20) and his role in judging law cases

would well manifest one who metes out justice by wise and

righteous decisions (2 Sam 12). In the statement of the

wise woman of Tekoa, the king's wisdom is compared to that

of the angel of Yahweh (2 Sam 14:17, 20). Thus, it is not

odd for Micah to parallel king and counselor in a

"synonymous" relationship (Mic 4:9). How natural it is,

then, for the ideal messianic king to be described as one

having the "Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the

Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge

and of the fear of the LORD" (Isa 11:2), and that He

should be called the "Wonderful Counsellor" (Isa 9:6).²

Besides the titular connection of the king and

Proverbs, the book itself gives prescriptions for the king

and provides didactic material for preparing the royal son

to become a king.³ Numerous writers have noticed the

____________________

¹Malchow, "The Roots of Israel's Wisdom in Sacral

Kingship," p. 39; and Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 9.

²Lindblom, "Wisdom in the Old Testament Prophets,"

p. 198; Porteous, "Royal Wisdom," p. 254; Gaspar, Social

Ideas in the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament, p.

162; and Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, pp. 138-39.

³Skladny, Die altesten Spruchsammlungen in Israel,

pp. 14, 28; and Malchow, "The Roots of Israel's Wisdom in

strong presence of the king directive literature in

Proverbs.¹ Skehan even uses the king-sayings as

structural indicators, signalling the work of the editor

both in Proverbs 16 and in 25.²

Bryce cautions against an overemphasis on kingship

when he numerically tabulates that of the 300 sayings in

Proverbs 16-25, only 24 deal explicitly with the king. He

compares Proverbs 25 to the panegyric loyalist texts from

Egypt.³ Lest one opt for a pan-royal approach to

Proverbs, one should note the clear distinction between

God and the king (Prov 21:1; 25:2).⁴ The critical remarks

made about the rule of an evil man (Prov 28:15-16; 29:4),

as well as numerous proverbs which do not reflect a royal

ethos per se (Prov 10:5; 23:1-3) also suggest that a

proverbial origin other than royal may be involved.

The explicit connection between wisdom and the

____________________

Sacral Kingship," pp. 112-13.

¹Humphreys, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the

Book of Proverbs," p. 185; Beaucamp, Man's Destiny in the

Books of Wisdom, p. 4; and Waltke, "The Book of Proverbs

and Ancient Wisdom Literature," p. 231. Kovacs beautifully

specifies the subtypes of material under royal wisdom into

more than ten categories (Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural

Constraints," p. 156.

²Patrick W. Skehan, Studies in Israelite Poetry and

Wisdom, p. 19.

³Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, pp. 148-49, 153.

⁴Humphreys, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the

Old Testament," pp. 133, 144, 147.

king has been surveyed briefly in the ancient Near Eastern

sources and in the Bible, both inside and outside of

designated wisdom books. All of these support a strong

nexus between the king and wisdom materials.

An extensive discussion of Solomon and his

connection with wisdom need not be pursued since the

abundant biblical and archaeological materials have been

collated by others.¹ Suffice it to say that Solomon's

strong Egyptian alliances may be proposed as a background

against which the collection of proverbs took its initial

form. The comparison of Solomon's wisdom to that of

Egypt's in a non-derogatory way (1 Kgs 4:30 [MT 5:10]) is

unique when juxtaposed to the comparisons made between the

prophets of Yahweh and the prophets of other nations. The

five-fold reiteration of the announcement of Solomon's

marriage to the pharaoh's daughter was significant to the

biblical historiographers (1 Kgs 3:1; 7:8; 9:16, 24;

11:l).² Even the structure of Solomon's government has

been said to have been modeled on Egyptian precedents.³

____________________

¹McCune, "Wisdom Theology and Proverbs: A

Historical and Theological Evaluation," pp. 153-300; and

Marion F. Christie, "The Reign of Solomon in the Light of

Biblical and Archaeological Data" (Ph.D. dissertation,

Vanderbilt University, 1952).

²This has been dealt with extensively in the

literature. Vid. Soggin, "The Davidic-Solomonic Kingdom,"

p. 375.

³Murphy, Introduction to the Wisdom Literature,

pp. 10-11. Also vid. Mettinger, Solomonic State Officials.

The frequent travels of Egyptian explorers, traders, and

military personnel through Palestine are well-known in the

historical texts and heroic tales of Egypt ("The Story of

Sinuhe," "The Journey of Wen-Amon to Phoenicia," "The

Asiatic Campaigns of Thut-mose III," and the various

campaigns of Seti I). Heaton, perhaps over-developing a

synthesis between the Solomonic court and Egypt, points

out the close relationships, both politically and

economically.¹ One should not, however, use these

comparative materials to ignore the canonical statements

that God gave Solomon great wisdom. Yet, the forms and

contents in which that wisdom expressed itself were

compatible to the international culture in which Solomon

lived. This includes Solomon's having received divine

wisdom.

The Cult and Wisdom

Although the cult is not considered a matrix in

the attempt to circumscribe the multiplex Sitz im Leben of

Proverbs, yet the discussion of the relationship between

wisdom and the cult has been a subject of controversy.

One of Crenshaw's fine students, Leo Perdue, has examined

this topic in detail. His extensive analysis may be seen

in his comprehensive listing of references to the

____________________

¹Heaton, Solomon's New Men, passim. Cf. also

Rylaarsdam, Revelation in Jewish Wisdom Literature, p. 3.

cult in ancient Near Eastern wisdom materials.¹ While

most scholars posit that wisdom has a tacitly neutral

attitude toward the cult (since it is outside the purview

of the empirical and pragmatic nature of wisdom), others

have noted, particularly in Ecclesiastes, wisdom's direct

antagonism to the cult.² von Rad has located the cultic

sphere "completely outside the jurisdiction of the teacher

of wisdom."³ However he does see the man addressed in

Proverbs as a member of the cultic community and as having

numerous ties with the cult. Gordis states that the wise

man had little enthusiasm for the cult and that Egyptian

and Babylonian wisdom reveals the same inclinations.⁴

Similarly, von Rad later suggests that there is a cleavage

between the wise and the priests, to which Bryce properly

____________________

¹Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, pp. 347-51. George E.

Bryce ("Omen-Wisdom in Ancient Israel," JBL 94 [1975]:19)

cites useful bibliographic materials on this subject..

²Crawford H. Toy, The Book of Proverbs, ICC

(Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1977), p. xxi; Bullock, An

Introduction to the Poetic Books, p. 24 (apparently

ignorant of Perdue's work); John Paterson, The Wisdom of

Israel, p. 85; J. Fichtner, Die altorientalische Weisheit,

pp. 35-43; and Murphy, Introduction to the Wisdom

Literature, p. 35. Ginsberg pictures an antagonism between

the wise and the cult (H. L. Ginsberg, "The Structure and

Contents of the Book of Koheleth," VTSup 3 [1969]:147).

³von Rad, Old Testament Theology, 1:433.

⁴Gordis, "The Social Background of Wisdom

Literature," p. 110; cf. Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 4.

objects.¹

In Egypt, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy" was

written by a priest of Re at Heliopolis.² The Sehetepibre

instruction also shows the mingling of wisdom with the

cult.³ The close association of Egyptian wisdom with

ma'at, which was personified as a goddess, led naturally

to a harmonization of wisdom and the cult.⁴ The case in

Mesopotamia is much more easily made, since the

omen-wisdom and the terms used in the biblical text

labeling the foreign wise men as magicians are plentiful.⁵

The "Counsels of Wisdom" refers to sacrifices, prayers and

other cultic responsibilities. In addition, the solution

to the Babylonian Theodicy is a cultic one (cf. Job).⁶

____________________

¹von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 188; and Bryce,

"Omen-Wisdom in Ancient Israel," p. 19.

²Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy and

Biblical Wisdom Literature," p. 106.

³Bryce, "Omen-Wisdom in Ancient Israel," p. 35.

⁴Khanjian, Wisdom in Ugarit, p. 91.

⁵Bryce, "Omen-Wisdom in Ancient Israel," p. 20; and

Malchow, "The Roots of Israel's Wisdom in Sacral Kingship,"

pp. 107-9.

⁶Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, pp. 100, 115. S. Langdon

(Babylonian Wisdom [London: Luzac and Co., 1923], p. 92)

translates the "Babylonian Proverbs": "Daily thy god

adore, With sacrifice and address becoming to incense

offerings . . . . Fear (of god) begetteth favour (of god).

Sacrifice increaseth life, and prayer dissolveth sin." The

"Advice to a Prince" gives the prince instruction on the

limits of temple conscription (Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom

Literature, p. 115).

The school texts found in the temple areas of Mari

and Sippar and within the proximity of the temple at

Ugarit should be viewed as diminishing any inherent

tension between wisdom and the cult. At Ugarit wisdom

texts came from "the library of the high priest." RS

15.10, for example, treats the making of a vow before

the gods.¹ School texts have been found in quantity in

the mortuary temple of Ramesses II at Thebes and written

records document the presence of a school in the temple of

Mut at Karnak and in the Amun Temple.²

In Israel, the direct connection between the

scribes/wise men and the priests is demonstrated in the

historical narratives. The high priest and royal

secretary act in concert, counting the temple money (2 Kgs

12:10). Abiathar, the priest, is said to have followed

the infamous counselor Ahithophel (1 Chr 27:33). The

priests are listed among the court leaders and sages, with

no apparent separation because of their "religious"

function (1 Kgs 4:2, 5). The presence of wisdom psalms in

the Psalter would also caution against emphasizing the

separation between the cult functionaries and the wise

____________________

¹Khanjian, Wisdom in Ugarit, pp. 64, 130-32, 143;

and Scott, "Solomon and the Beginnings of Wisdom in

Israel," VTsup 3 (1969):276.

²Williams, "Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt," p.

216.

men.¹

The priest's role in teaching may provide yet

another point of contact between the areas of cult and

wisdom (Lev 10:11; Deut 31:11; 33:10; Mal 2:6-7). This

became a predominant priestly duty in the post-exilic

period (Ezra 7:6). Though it may be correctly suggested

that the area in which the wise man taught was not "torah"

(i.e., not cultic), as shown by the themes covered in

Proverbs, one must be careful in "detorahizing" the wise

men (Jer 8:8, although Jer 18:18 is also realized).²

The kingship Sitz im Leben and the record of

Solomon's presence at the cultic center of Gibeon, where

he received wisdom from God in a vision, again suggest a

cult-wisdom nexus (1 Kgs 3). While the cult and the king

were welded together both in Mesopotamia and, particularly

in Egypt, the king in Israel also participated in the cult

in an unusual manner. Both David (2 Sam 6:13, 17-18) and

Solomon (1 Kgs 8:62-64; 9:25) participated in cultic

activities. Moreover, David's concern over the presence

of the ark, his writing of numerous Psalms for utilization

in cultic services, and Solomon's building and

____________________

¹Thompson, The Form and Function, p. 110; and

Halvorsen, "Scribes and Scribal Schools," pp. 136, 177.

²Cody, A History of Old Testament Priesthood,

pp. 118-19. Geo Widengren, "King and Covenant," JSS 2

(1957):1-21.

dedicating of the temple reflect strong cultic interest by

the king (cf. also Saul, 1 Sam 13:9; and Jeroboam, 1 Kgs

12:28-30). Thus, to separate wisdom and the cult seems a

bit anachronistic.¹

The negative comments in Proverbs concerning the

cult are correctly perceived by Perdue not as a rejection

of the cult per se, but as the denial of an opus operatum

mind-set, against which the prophets also voiced their

scathing criticism (Prov 15:8; 21:3; and, less acrid,

16:33).² The terms "abomination" (Prov 11:1, 20) and

"pleasing" (Prov 16:3) are viewed as cultic terms

reflecting a divine response to the ethical character of

the cultic participant.³ Proverbs does not always refer

to vows and prayer in a negative light (Prov 15:8; 30:1),

although it does warn against misuses (Prov 20:25; 28:9).

Moreover, cultic participation is even encouraged by the

wise man (Prov 3:9-10).

Bryce properly laments the modern "secular/

sacred" dichotomy which has been read back into ancient

____________________

¹Cf. Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, pp.

200-201.

²Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, pp. 160, 356;

Burdett, "Wisdom Literature and the Promise Doctrine," p. 10;

Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 383; and

Ranston, The Old Testament Wisdom Books and Their Teaching,

p. 24.

³Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, pp. 158, 225.

Israel.¹ Surely, if the wise man set out to describe the

order of his world and how to operate successfully within

that order, then the cult must be included, since it had

an important function in the Weltanschauung of the people

in ancient Israel. The themes of creation and

"retribution," as well as the ordering of the cosmos, are

common to both the cult and wisdom. The relationship of

apocalyptic literature to wisdom may also provide a point

of contact, particularly in the matter of dreams.²

One final point, before turning to the family as a

part of the matrix of Proverbs, is the relationship of

Yahwehism to the proverbial materials. Numerous scholars

have viewed the religious character of some Proverbs as a

later accretion to a largely secular, early wisdom

tradition, as discussed above.³

'Onchsheshonqy contains twenty-four "God

sayings."⁴ It is interesting that God, outside of

wisdom,

____________________

¹Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, pp. 190, 206.

Cf. Baumgartner, "The Wisdom Literature," p. 213.

²Malchow, "The Roots of Israel's Wisdom in Sacral

Kingship," p. 100; and De Vries, "Observations on

Quantitative and Qualitative Time in Wisdom and

Apocalyptic," pp. 268-69.

³Bullock, An Introduction to the Old Testament

Poetic Books, p. 50. Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," pp.

169, 187, 241, 247, 277. A good survey may be found by

David A. Hasey, "Wisdom and Folly in the Book of Proverbs"

(M.Div. thesis, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1973),

pp. 20-21, 27-28.

⁴Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy and

portrays Himself as a teacher (Isa 28:9-10, 26), as the

source of wisdom (1 Kgs 3:12; Isa 31:2), and possibly even

as a scribe/king (Exod 31:18).¹ It is no accident that,

in the approximately one hundred references to God in

Proverbs, they all use His name "Yahweh." "The fear of

Yahweh," (the very foundation and goal of wisdom) and

Yahweh's role as creator, undergird all of the proverbs.

These two central elements do not allow for simple scribal

insertions of an extraneous Yahweh tradition into a

secular core of proverbs. The interlacing of Yahweh

proverbs and kingship proverbs (Prov 16) forms a beautiful

unity, not to be dissected.²

The view of God which is portrayed in Proverbs is

in harmony with Kohler's observation that "God is the

ruling Lord: that is the one fundamental statement in the

theology of the Old Testament."³ The demesne of God

encompasses all others (Prov 16:2; 21:30) and provides a

basis for trust (Prov 16:3).⁴ Kaufman suggests that the

sovereignty of the demesne of God is what separates

____________________

Biblical Wisdom Literature," p. 117.

¹Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 16.

²Kidner, "The Relationship between God and Man in

Proverbs," Tyndale Bulletin 7-8 (July 1961):5. Kovacs has

a helpful chart of the Yahweh materials in Proverbs 15-22,

in "Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 535.

³Ludwig H. Kohler, Old Testament Theology,

trans. A. S. Todd (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1957), p.

30.

⁴Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints,"

Israelite wisdom from pagan wisdom, in which the gods are

derived from cosmic realm.¹ The whole discussion of the

limits of wisdom, as developed by von Rad, is essential

for understanding the interfacing of God with the wisdom

materials.² Proverbs is replete with hints and clear

statements demonstrating that the wise man was conscious

of the boundaries of each demesne (Prov 16:1, 2; 19:14,

21; 20:24; 21:30-31). Khanjian shows that the boundaries

of wisdom were also felt at Ugarit.³ Others have

developed the same theme in Egyptian instruction texts.⁴

The Family and Wisdom

Having surveyed work done on the setting of

____________________

pp. 411-12. Cf. also Stephen L. Haymond, "The Sovereignty

of God in Proverbs" (Th.M. thesis, Dallas Theological

Seminary, 1978).

¹Yehezkel Kaufmann, The Religion of Israel,

from its beginnings to the Babylonian Exile (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1960), pp. 21-22; and Ernst

Wurthwein, "Egyptian Wisdom and the Old Testament," SAIW,

p. 122.

²von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, pp. 99, 107. Also cf.

Zimmerli, "The Place and Limit of Wisdom in the Framework

of the Old Testament Theology," p. 326; J. A. Loader,

"Relativity in Near Eastern Wisdom," in Studies in Wisdom

Literature, ed. W. C. van Wyk, OTWSA 15 & 16 (1972-73), pp.

49-58; Rylaarsdam, Revelation in Jewish Wisdom Literature,

p. 74; Crenshaw, "Prolegomenon," p. 24; and Murphy,

Introduction to the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament,

p. 14. An excellent summary is given in Humphreys, "The

Motif of the Wise Courtier in the Old Testament," p. 158.

³Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," pp. 242, 276.

⁴Thompson, The Form and Function, p. 121;

and Humphreys, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the Old

Testament," p. 44.

Proverbs, from the scribes and scribal school to the king

and court, and having demonstrated that the cult and

Yahwehism are quite at home in a wisdom context, there

will now be an examination of the final component of the

matrix from which wisdom originated that is, the family

structure. This is perhaps the most encompassing setting

and the one most easily documented from the texts

themselves. It was necessary to address the other two

matrices (scribes/scribal school and the court/king) in

order to provide a proper appreciation of how the family

setting fits into and complements the other matrices.

Again, the procedure will be to survey the materials from

Egypt and Mesopotamia and then, finally, to examine

Israelite family ties to wisdom.

The Family and Egyptian Wisdom

The very form of the instruction texts of Egypt

"The instruction of X . . . for his son Y" suggests a

familial source. Waltke properly points out the

introductions of Ptah-hotep and Ka-gem-ni, which show the

aged masters gathering their children around them to

receive the mature instruction of a wise father.¹ So also

____________________

¹Waltke, "The Book of Proverbs and Ancient Wisdom

Literature," BSac 136 (1979):230. In agreement also is

Henri Frankfort, Ancient Egyptian Religion, 2nd ed. (New

York: Columbia University Press, 1961), p. 60. For texts,

vid. Pritchard, ANET, p. 412; and Lichtheim, Ancient

Egyptian Literature, I:60.

"The Satire on the Trades" is addressed to a son whom a

father is sending off to school.¹

The family environment does not leave off with

just the titles and calls to attention, but may be seen in

the ethos of the texts themselves. In Ptah-hotep, for

example, is found advice about taking a wife. Strong

domestic ties may be seen in the following instruction

from Ptah-hotep:

Thy lord also shall say: 'this is the son of that

one,' and they that hear it (shall say): 'Praised be

he to whom he was born.'²

The paternal ethos of Ani may be seen in his instruction:

Take to thyself a wife while thou art (still) a youth,

that she may produce a son for thee. Beget [him] for

thyself while thou art (still) young. Teach him to be

a man.

Ani continues with advice to be on guard "against the

woman from abroad," for she is destructive to the family

unit.³ 'Onchsheshonqy narrates the plight of a father,

who, realizing that he will spend the rest of his

life in prison, requests a roll of papyrus so that he may

____________________

¹Waltke, "The Book of Proverbs and Ancient Wisdom

Literature," p. 232; Pritchard, ANET, p. 432; Erman, The

Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 68; or Lichtheim,

Ancient Egyptian Literature, 1:185.

²Erman, The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, p.

65; also vid. p. 61.

³Pritchard, ANET, p. 420; Lichtheim, Ancient

Egyptian Literature, 2:136; and Heaton, Solomon's New Men,

p. 158.

instruct his son.¹

An objection to the family as the setting for

these texts may be raised by the fact that these were all

famous school texts and were used in a school setting, not

specifically in the home. This, indeed, must be accounted

for; yet, one should not miss how often the alleged

original authorial setting was the home. One must grant

that wisdom's functional setting was the school, but, in

one sense, the school itself was an extension of the home.

Others may see the term "son" as a technical term used of

students; however, one aptly points out that even the

employment of the familial term "son" has implications in

the direction of the home.² Finally, Humphreys observes

that sons often followed their fathers professionally,

even in the office of the Vizier.³ Thus, some of the

Egyptian materials are clearly set in a family milieu, as

far as seminal origin, and in the school, as far as use.

The Family and Mesopotamian Wisdom

The Mesopotamian literature is not as clear as its

____________________

¹Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy,"

SAIW, pp. 107, 119-20. Cf. also "The Instruction of

Amen-em-het," in Erman, The Literature of the Ancient

Egyptians, p. 72; or in Pritchard, ANET, p. 419.

²Joel T. Williamson, "The Form of Proverbs 1-9"

(Th.M. thesis, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1977), p. 33.

³Humphreys, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in

the Old Testament," p. 14.

Egyptian counterpart due to the nature of the texts

themselves. As early as "The Instructions of Suruppak,"

Suruppak was recorded as giving instructions to his son.

He, too, declared himself to be an old man who was

collecting instructions to which his son was expected to

give heed. The repeated calls for the son to pay

attention are common to instructional collections

throughout the ancient Near East.¹ Gordon notices the

family ethos of many of the Sumerian proverbs. He points

out that the mother appears more frequently than the

father and that the terms are not used as technical terms

in the contexts which he cites.² Numerous tablets have

been found in domestic residences in Nippur, Ur, and Kish,

which may indicate a guild or a family setting.³ The

guilds were often confined to certain families, although

adoption was quite prevalent.⁴ The Babylonian "Counsels

of Wisdom" are addressed to a "son" and the ethos that

flavors the counsels is frequently family-related and

fatherly in tone.⁵ Rainey observes that, in numerous

cases at Ugarit, the sons followed their fathers in the

____________________

¹Alster, The Instructions of Suruppak, pp.

35, 39.

²Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs, pp. 301, 316.

³Sjoberg, "The Old Babylonian Eduba," pp. 176-77.

⁴Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 123; cf. 1 Chr

26, 27 and Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 45.

⁵Lambert, BWL, p. 103.

scribal trade.¹ So "son" need not be viewed merely as a

technical term. At Ugarit, the usual wisdom address, "my

son," is found (RS 22.439:II:6). The counsel of

Shubeawilum comes from a father to a son who is departing

on a business trip (RS 22.439:II:5). The reflections on

father, elder brother, and mother (RS 22.439:II:32)

intimate a family ethos. That the counsels were copied in

a school setting, however, is not to be ignored.²

The Family and Proverbial

Folklore Studies

An interesting supplement to proverbial studies in

the ancient Near East may be seen in the recent folklore

studies on modern proverbial collections. The familial

element is still present in the proverbial mode of

expression of many cultures today. Dundes summarizes how

the proverbial form is employed.

A parent may well use a proverb to direct a child's

action or thought, but by using a proverb, the

parental imperative is externalized and removed

somewhat from the individual parent. . . . It is a

proverb from the cultural past whose voice speaks

truth in traditional terms.³

____________________

¹Rainey, "The Scribe at Ugarit," p. 128.

²Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," pp. 165-66, 240.

³Alan Dundes, Analytic Essays in Folklore,

p. 35. For an unbelievably thorough and useful annotated

bibliography of modern paroemiological research vid.

Wolfgang Mieder, International Proverb Scholarship: An

Annotated Bibliography, in Garland Folklore

Bibliographies, vol. 3 (New York: Garland Publishing,

Inc., 1982).

Dundes cites several Yoruba proverbs which highlight the

familial ethos.

If a man beats his child with his right hand,

he should draw him to himself with his left.¹

Likewise many Swahili proverbs are used in the

setting of a parental warning, even though their

nomenclature and imagery would probably never have placed

it in a family setting because of the lack of the explicit

use of familial terminology. This should provide a

caution about restricting the family ethos exclusively to

those proverbs which refer to mothers, fathers or sons.

Eastman cites the following Swahili proverbs from a known

familial setting.

He who digs a grave enters it himself.

Where there is a will there is a way.²

Thus folklore studies corroborate that proverbial

statements often function in and are generated from

familial settings. One of the tremendous aids gleaned

from modern folklore studies by biblical paroemiological

students has been the stressing of the need to examine how

the proverb actually functions in its context and in

____________________

¹Dundes, Analytic Essays in Folklore, p.

39.

²The connection with Proverbs 26:27 and with the

modern American proverb should be noted. Obviously

borrowing is very unlikely; rather such observations are

common to all men everywhere (Carol M. Eastman, "The

Proverb in Modern Written Swahili Literature: An Aid to

Proverb Elicitation," in African Folklore, ed. R. M. Dorson

[New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1972], pp. 202-3).

society.

The Family and Israelite Wisdom

Recently, biblical scholarship has returned to a

position which asserts that the proverbs reach back to the

pre-school days, to the clan/family.¹ Audet and

Couturier, for example, have noted that one should not

ignore the home as one component of the background for the

wisdom materials.² First, in the historical books, the

family was the basic social institution for the training

of children. This is reflected in the fact that a son

often followed in the trade or office of the father (1 Kgs

4:1-6). In addition, covenant recital and education was

specifically designated as one of the objectives of the

____________________

¹Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 2.

²J. P. Audet, "Origines comparees de la double

tradition de la loi et de la sagesse dans la proche-orient

ancien," International Congress of Orientalists (25th) vol.

1 (Moscow, 1960), pp. 325-27; and G. Couturier, "Sagesse

Babylonienne et Sagesse Israelite," Sciences

ecclesiastiques 14 (1962):293-309. Other scholars have

followed their lead: Roland E. Murphy, "Assumptions and

Problems in Old Testament Wisdom Research," CBQ 29

(1967):102; also his Wisdom Literature, p. 7; Odilo M.

Lucas, "Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament,"

Biblebhashyam 4 (1978):287; Morgan, Wisdom in the Old

Testament Traditions, p. 41; Bullock, An Introduction to

the Old Testament Books, p. 23; and Ranston, The Old

Testament Wisdom Books and Their Teaching, p. 73. Gaspar's

dissertation is particularly helpful as it focuses on each

member of the family and his role in the wisdom materials

(Social Ideas in the Wisdom Literature of the Old

Testament, pp. 29-101).

family unit (Deut 6:6-7).¹ Second, later wisdom texts

explicitly posit a familial setting origin. The aged

Tobit (4:5-21), for example, in a typical instructional

form, calls his son in for some fatherly advice.² Third,

the family in Proverbs has been examined by several

scholars. Concerning Proverbs 6:20-23 Crenshaw properly

comments that "the familial setting is virtually assured"

by the fact that a son is given instruction in which

reference is made to his mother.³ The warnings against

forces destructive to family life, such as the temptress

and marital unfaithfulness, are an integral part of the

text of Proverbs and are described in blushing detail in

numerous larger sections (Prov 5, 6, 7), as well as in the

proverbial sentence literature (Prov 22:14; 23:27, 28).⁴

____________________

¹Heaton, Solomon's New Men, p. 54; McKane,

Prophets and Wise Men, p. 18; and Kaster, "Education, Old

Testament," p. 30.

²Murphy, Wisdom Literature, p. 7.

³James L. Crenshaw, "Impossible Questions, Sayings,

and Tasks," Semeia 17-19 (1980):24; and Waltke, "The Book

of Proverbs and Ancient Wisdom Literature," p. 232. Waltke

well notes the Old Testament's placing of religious

training on the father (Gen 18:19; Exod 12:24; Deut 4:9-11)

and the mother (Prov 1:9; 4:3; 6:20; 31:1, 26) thereby

demonstrating the domestic situation of Proverbs. Cf. also

R. N. Whybray, Wisdom in Proverbs: The Concept of Wisdom

in Proverbs 1-9, vol. 45, in Studies in Biblical Theology,

ed. C. F. Moule (Naperville, IL: Alec R. Allenson, Inc.,

1965), p. 42.

⁴Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 23.

Gaspar (Social Ideas in the Wisdom Literature, pp. 68-79) develops

the strange woman motif also in Ecclesiasticus, which

parallels the ideas of Proverbs.

Nel and Kovacs trace the proverbial family ethos through

explicit references to the family members (Prov 13:1;

15:20; 17:25; 19:13, 18; 21:9, 19; 23:12-25; 27:11;

29:15).¹

The "Father" in Wisdom

The use of "father" terminology in a school

setting may indicate that the original setting of

instruction was in the home. As early as "The

Instructions of Suruppak" there is a connection of

instructional literature with a "father/son" relationship.

Suruppak gave instructions to his son, . . .

My son, let me give you instructions,

may you take my instructions,

Ziusudra, let me speak a word to you,

may you pay attention to it!²

Also interesting is Kramer's Sumerian "Schooldays" text,

where a boy refers to his father as opposed to his

"school-father" from whom he received his caning. The

teacher ("school-father") clearly connects his authority

with the boy's parents when he states: "Young man, you

____________________

¹Nel, The Structure and Ethos, p. 79; and

Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints," pp. 366, 378-79,

391, 565. Cf. also Gladson, "Retributive Paradoxes in

Proverbs 10-29," p. 209.

²Alster, The Instructions of Suruppak, p. 35.

Crenshaw notes the call to attention which is so common in

biblical proverbial sections (Old Testament Wisdom, p.

228). Cf. Samuel N. Kramer (History Begins at Sumer, p.

13) for another fatherly admonition to a wayward son

because of his reticence to produce at school under the

"school-father." Also vid. p. 68 for a farmer's

instructions to his son on cultivating tips.

"know" a father, I am second to him . . . ."¹

Not only in the Sumerian school was there a

"school-father," as Kramer has pointed out, but paternal

titles were also used in the Old Babylonian schools for

the headmaster, who was called the "father of the

tablet-house."² Ahiqar, the wise sage, was called the

"father of all Assyria" and from Karatepe comes an

inscription of Azitawadda in which the technical use of

the term father is displayed.

Yea every king considered me his father because of my

righteousness and my wisdom and the kindness of my

heart.³

So, too, the Ugaritic title or epithet given to the king

included the endearing term "father" (2 Aqht vi 49; Krt i

37).

The Egyptian instructional texts also purport to

have been directed from a father, often a pharaoh or

vizier, to his son (vid. Merikare, Amen-em-het, or

Ptah-hotep). The grievous Demotic tale of the priest

'Onchsheshonqy fits this model as well.4 In the Amarna

____________________

¹Kramer, "Schooldays," pp. 205-6; cf. Gadd,

Teachers and Students in the Oldest Schools, p. 28.

²Landsberger, "Babylonian Scribal Craft and its

Terminology," p. 124.

³Bezalel Porten, "The Structure and Theme of the

Solomon Narrative (1 Kings 3-11)," HUCA 38 (1967):115; and

Murphy, Introduction to the Wisdom Literature, p. 13.

⁴Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 3:163;

Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy and Biblical

letters pharaoh himself is called a father.¹

The domestic setting is often denigrated by those

who opt for taking the appellations "father" and "son" as

technical terms in a school setting. Surely the technical

use of "father" is well known. The term is used of God

both in the Old Testament (Jer 3:4; Ps 68:6) and in the

ancient Near East.² Priests were also addressed as

"father" (Judg 18:19) and Joseph, Pharaoh's counselor, is

given the title of "father" (Gen 45:8).³

De Boer has compiled data, particularly from

Mishnaic sources, displaying the frequent use of the term

"father" as a technical term by the rabbis. The

intertestamental material (1 Macc 2:65; 11:33) and

Josephus (Ant. XII, iii 4) are also compatible with this

usage.⁴ Furthermore, even the guild structures utilized

"father" terminology (1 Chr 4:14; Neh 3:8, 31).⁵

____________________

Wisdom Literature," p. 107; Philip Nel, "The Concept

'Father' in the Wisdom Literature of the Ancient Near

East," Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 5 (1977):107;

and Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, p. 171.

¹Malchow, "The Roots of Israel's Wisdom in Sacral

Kingship," p. 46.

²For an excellent survey, see Philip Nel, "The

Concept 'Father' in the Wisdom Literature," p. 62.

³De Boer, "The Counsellor," pp. 57-58; cf. also 2

Kgs 2:12 and 13:14.

⁴De Boer, "Counsellor," pp. 62-63.

⁵Halvorsen ("Scribes and Scribal Schools," pp.

144-48) gives an excellent overview of this subject, along

While recent discussions tend to emphasize the

technical meaning of "father" and ignore the familial use

of the term, Nel has best summarized how the word should

be understood.

It is evident that the concept father has a wide

range of meanings within the wisdom-literature, and

that one cannot keep to the 'basic meaning' of father.

Only the context, in which the item 'father' occurs as

a semantic member, determines the meaning of father

and not the word itself.¹

The "Mother" and "Wife" in Wisdom

Like the term "father," the term "mother" is often

found in wisdom settings. Gordon, in his excellent

analysis of Sumerian proverbs, notes the frequent presence

of a mother and the rather infrequent reference to a

father.² "The Instruction of Khety," arguing for the

superiority of the scribal art, states that nothing

surpasses writing--not even the affection of a mother.

This shows the non-technical use of the term "mother" in

____________________

with useful bibliography. Vid. David B. Weisberg, Guild

Structure and Political Allegiance in Early Achaemenid

Mesopotamia, Yale Near Eastern Researches 1 (New Haven:

Yale University, 1967); Mark Wischnitzer, "Notes to a

History of Jewish Guilds," HUCA 23.2 (1950-51):245-63; I.

Mendelsohn, "Guilds in Ancient Palestine," BASOR 80

(1940):17-21; and also his "Guilds in Babylonia and

Assyria," JAOS 60 (1940):68-72.

¹Nel, "The Concept 'Father' in the Wisdom

Literature of the Ancient Near East," p. 66.

²Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs, p. 301; cf.

also Nel, "The Concept 'Father' in the Wisdom Literature of the

Ancient Near East," p. 57; and Khanjian, "Wisdom in

Ugarit," p. 45.

Egyptian wisdom.¹ "The Instruction of Ani," also gives

reference to a "mother" where the young man is tenderly

encouraged to take care of his mother, besides being

admonished not to supervise an efficient wife too closely

or to pursue the woman from abroad.² The importance of

the mother of the king, while often genetic, is seen both

in the Assyrian sources (Nakiya, Sennacherib's wife and

Esarhaddon's mother, who received official correspondence

from state officials concerning sacrifices and military

operations) and in the Amarna letters, where a mother is

addressed directly as a person of political authority and

understanding.³ Biblical examples may be illustrated by

Jezebel and Athaliah. Proverbs reflects the counseling

role of the mother of the king (Prov 31:1).

In Israel, De Boer has shown the midrashic

technical use of the term "mother" in reference to the

Law. Earlier traces of this technical use may be seen in

the title given by the wise woman to the town of Abel as

"a mother in Israel" (2 Sam 20:19). It is interesting to

note that the title "mother" given to Deborah, may

____________________

¹Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 223;

and Pritchard, ANET, pp. 432-34. Note that boy's parents

rejoice when he has mastered the scribal art. This again

suggests a strong familial support of the school system.

²Pritchard, ANET, pp. 420-21; cf. Crenshaw, Old

Testament Wisdom, p. 33.

³De Boer, "Counsellor," pp. 64-65.

possibly have tituler overtones (Judg 5:7).¹

Most recent writers on wisdom, while acknowledging

the possibility of the technical use of "mother," suggest

that the references in Proverbs are not merely stylistic

but do, in fact, refer to a familial setting.² Whybray

observes that the use of "mother" as a teacher in Proverbs

(1:8; 6:20; 31:1, 26) was "unique in ancient Near Eastern

literature."³ The proverbial job description of the wife

of noble character depicts her as an instructor whose

mouth speaks wisdom (Prov 31:26). The inclusion of

intimate family matters into wisdom (Cant; Prov 5:15-18),

the encomium about the prudent wife (Prov 18:22; 19:14),

and the baleful and repeated laments over the quarrelsome

wife (Prov 21:9, 19; 27:15) stresses the familial matrix

of Proverbs.⁴

The "Son" in Wisdom

It is universally acknowledged that the term

"son," characteristic of wisdom addresses in Israel, Egypt

____________________

¹De Boer, "The Counsellor," p. 58.

²Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 93;

Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 250; and Murphy,

Wisdom Literature, p. 7.

³Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition, p. 41.

⁴Gordis, "The Social Background of Wisdom

Literature," pp. 111-12.

and Mesopotamia, often denotes a "student."¹ In Egypt,

Williams notes that the advanced age of Ptahhotep and the

story of Djedi's advice to Prince Hardjedef (where Djedi

is said to be 110 years old) strongly suggest that they

are addressing their students, rather than physical

sons.²

The apprentice relationship is made explicit in "Papyrus

Lansing: A Schoolbook."³ Others have taken the term

"son" to refer to an adopted relationship between the student

and teacher. It is clear both in Egyptian and Israelite

wisdom sources that grown men are being addressed--often

ones with the responsibility of ruling about to be placed

upon their shoulders. While the technical use of "son" is

inferred in numerous pieces of Egyptian wisdom, the

familial use of the term is seen in the historical

____________________

¹Bullock, An Introduction to the Old

Testament Poetic Books, p. 75.

²Williams, "Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt," p.

215. One wonders however, about the ages of the sons.

Judging from the advice given, the sons would have reached

manhood already. Moreover, the age of child bearing, as

indicated in the ages of Abraham and Isaac, would suggest

that age alone is not a conclusive argument.

³Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature,

2:168. Here the apprentice is told by the sage to "Love writing,

and shun dancing; then you become a worthy official." The

student later responds in thanks to his teacher's wise

instruction: "You beat my back; your teaching entered my

ear. . . . Sleep does not enter my heart by day; nor is it

upon me at night. (For I say): I will serve my lord just

as a slave serves his master" (p. 172). Cf. also Kovacs,

"Sociological-Structural Constraints," pp. 250-51; and

Hellmut Brunner, Altagyptische Erziehung (Wiesbaden: Otto

Harrassowitz, 1957), pp. 1-55.

settings described in some of the prologues. "The

Instruction of King Amen-em-het" is addressed to a son,

warning him in an intimate fashion about the dangers of

the palace. "The Instructions of Ani" advises his son on

marriage, the proper care of his mother, and other

familial topics.¹

In Mesopotamia, the situation is quite the same,

with the addition of the guild structure. Kitchen,

surveying the use of "my son" in Mesopotamia, notes its

use as a structural divider in the prologues of the

Old-Sumerian Suruppak.² In the Sumerian edubba,

"son" was the title given to a student.³ Mendelsohn has shown

the extensive use of "son" terminology in the guild setting,

both in Mesopotamia and in Israel.⁴ MacRae finds traces

____________________

¹Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, pp.

218-19. The historical setting of "The Instruction of 'Onchsheshonqy"

has been discussed above. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian

Literature, pp. 159-63.

²Kitchen, "Proverbs and Wisdom Books of the Ancient

Near East," p. 81. He gives a very handy survey of the

ancient sources. Also see Alster, The Instructions of

Suruppak, pp. 35-45 (Lines 7-9, 39, 66, 84, 154, 165 et

al.); and Kramer, "Sumerian Wisdom Literature: A

Preliminary Study," p. 30.

³Landsberger, "Babylonian Scribal Craft and its

Terminology," p. 124; and Gadd, Teachers and Students in

the Oldest Schools, p. 15.

⁴Mendelsohn, "Guilds in Babylonia and Assyria," p.

69; and "Guilds in Ancient Palestine," p. 18; cf. use of

the term "sons of the prophets." Lambert notes this usage

particularly in the Cassite period (Lambert, BWL, p. 13).

of this phenomena in the personal names at Nuzi.¹ The

calling of students "sons" also occurs at Ugarit.²

These technical usages are found in Israel too (2

Kgs 2:3, 5, 15 ["sons" of the prophets]; Neh 3:8, 31; 1

Chr 4:14 [possibly guild sons].³ Several times the term

"son of the King" does not refer to his actual, son, but

is a type of cognomen for an official (1 Kgs 22:26-27 [2

Chr 18:25-26]; Jer 36:26; 38:6).⁴

Thus, it must be recognized that the familial

vocabulary may reflect a school or technical sense; yet,

such terminology, when accompanied by explicit familial

statements, demonstrates that one should not neglect the

family as a wisdom matrix. The tender admonitions of

Proverbs 4:1-5 and the frequent reference to family

members (wives, parents, brothers [Prov 17:2, 17; 18:9,

19; 19:7]) all indicate that, though such materials may be

utilized in the school, their direction and reflective

____________________

¹I. Gelb, P. M. Purves and A. MacRae, Nuzi

Personal Names, pp. 282-83. Here MacRae notes Akkadian fathers of

non-Akkadian named "sons." Thus actual parentage is

doubtful.

²Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," pp. 165, 191, 255.

³Mendelsohn, "Guilds in Ancient Palestine," p.

18; Halvorsen, "Scribes and Scribal Schools," pp. 54, 81, 144;

cf. also Murphy, "Form Criticism and Wisdom Literature," p.

481.

⁴Humphrey, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the

Old Testament," p. 94; and De Vaux, Ancient Israel, 1:119.

nature draw on and point to their domestic orientation.¹

Popular and Folk Wisdom

A complementary original setting which has been

suggested more recently has been to reckon the

thematically royal proverbs to a court setting and to

allow for the more domestic proverbs to have originated in

a pre-monarchial clan setting. Morgan portrays "popular

wisdom" as that "which reflects a popular ethos in some

way detached from (or unaffected by) the monarchy and the

more complex forms and more theological (religious?)

concerns." Popular wisdom is usually detected by its

form. As far back as Eissfeldt's work in 1913, one-line

proverbs (Gen 10:9; 1 Sam 19:24; 2 Sam 5:8; 1 Kgs 20:11;

Ezek 12:22; 16:44; 18:2; Hos 8:7; Amos 6:12; Isa 5:19),

parables (2 Sam 12:1-4), riddles (Judg 14:14-18) and

fables (2 Kgs 14:9; Judg 9:8-15) were identified as

folk/popular/clan wisdom. Examples of popular wisdom are

also found in Proverbs (Prov 10:6, 11, 15; 11:2, 22, 27;

13:3; 14:4, 23; 18:11, 14; 20:19). All of these forms

were developed and utilized in pre-monarchial Israel and

were originally viewed as being more simple in form than

____________________

¹Roland E. Murphy, "The Kerygma of the Book of

Proverbs," Int 20 (January 1966):4; also his Introduction

to the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament, p. 12; and

Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 33.

the later, more artistic, wisdom forms.¹ Those who

emphasize "popular wisdom" often see an evolution from a

simple, one-line form to a more artistic wisdom sentence

(Kunstsprichwort--artistic saying).²

Folk wisdom has been characterized as:

(1) originating among the folk, often with a long history

of transmission; (2) anonymous; (3) brief;

(4) paradigmatic; (5) more "secular"; and (6) non-didactic

(e.g., Ezek 18:2; Jer 31:29). Fontaine summarizes

Eissfeldt's categorization into four types: (1) sayings

called mashalim by the text (1 Sam 10:12; 24:13 [MT

24:14]; Ezek 12:22); (2) sayings preceded by "and

therefore they say" (Gen 10:9; 2 Sam 5:8; 20:18; Ezek

9:9); (3) texts which have a proverbial ring to them (Gen

16:12; Judg 8:2, 21; 1 Sam 16:7); and (4) folk proverbs

(Volkssprichwort; Prov 10:6, 9, 15; 11:2).³ Scott

notes

____________________

¹Morgan, Wisdom in the Old Testament Traditions,

pp. 31, 32-39; and Otto Eissfeldt, Der Maschal im Alten

Testament, BZAW 24 (Giessen: Verlag von Alfred Topelmann,

1913). Also vid. Carole R. Fontaine's fine work:

Traditional Sayings in the Old Testament: A Contextual

Study.

²Ernst Sellin and Georg Fohrer, Introduction to

the Old Testament, trans. David E. Green (Nashville: Abingdon

Press, 1968), p. 311. For a chart, vid. Eissfeldt, Der

Maschal im Alten Testament, p. 43; or Fontaine, "The Use of

the Traditional Saying in the Old Testament," p. 6. Priest

correctly questions the neat distinction between popular

and aristocratic wisdom (Priest, "Where is Wisdom to be

Placed?" p. 282).

³Vid. Fontaine's ("The Use of the Traditional

Saying in the Old Testament," p. 8) summary of Eissfeldt,

the predominance of a moralizing element in folk proverbs,

as compared with the more observational character of

literary proverbs.¹

E. Gerstenberger suggests a tribe, rather than a

court, as the setting for wisdom. Richter traces the

apodictic and wisdom sayings to a family or clan setting.

These studies have pushed wisdom back prior to the court

setting to a clan/tribal origin (Sippenethos).²

Crenshaw correctly summarizes the situation when he writes:

"Israel's sapiential tradition seems to have arisen during

the period of the clan, flourishing subsequently at the

royal court and in houses of learning."³ Nel also traces

____________________

Der Maschal im Alten Testament, pp. 45-46. Crenshaw, Old

Testament Wisdom, p. 93; also his "Wisdom," p. 231. Murphy

points out the contrast between Volksspruch (folk saying)

and the Kunstspruch (artistic saying) (Roland E. Murphy,

"The Interpretation of Old Testament Wisdom Literature,"

Int 23 [1969]:300). Morgan gives an extensive listing of

popular proverbs in Wisdom in the Old Testament Traditions,

pp. 34-35.

1R. B. Y. Scott, "Folk Proverbs of the Ancient Near

East," in SAIW, p. 418. Scott collects the types of

proverbs into seven, deep-structure, semantic categories.

He gives excellent and numerous examples of each type (pp.

49-55). Cf. also Fontaine, "The Use of the Traditional

Saying in the Old Testament," p. 317.

²Gerstenberger, Wesen und Herkunft des

'apodiktischen Rechts', pp. 110-17, 146-47; Richter, Recht

und Ethos; Nel, "A Proposed Method for Determining the

Context of the Wisdom Admonitions," p. 35; Khanjian,

"Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 2; Emerton, "Wisdom," p. 223;

Jensen, The Use of tora by Isaiah, p. 60; Kovacs, "Is There

a Class-Ethic in Proverbs?" p. 173; and J. L. McKenzie,

"Reflections on Wisdom," JBL (1967):8.

³Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, pp. 57, 78; and

the original setting back to the family educational system

in the pre-Mosaic period.¹ Ancient Near Eastern parallels

are not lacking and Fontaine, using the traditional

sayings in the Amarna Letters, suggests that popular

sayings are indigenous to "pre-Conquest" Palestine.²

Lambert, noting the absence of popular proverbs in the

Babylonian collections, explains that in the more

academically-inclined Cassite period, the scribes did not

wish to record or preserve traditional sayings, which were

common among the uneducated, but drew their traditional

proverbs from Sumerian originals.³

Thus, many writers distinguish between family/clan

wisdom and royal court wisdom. The aim of the first is

the mastering of life, while the goal of the second is the

education of a select group in matters of the court.⁴

____________________

"Wisdom," p. 227; cf. also Roland E. Murphy,

"Wisdom--Theses and Hypotheses," in Israelite Wisdom:

Theological and Literary Essays in Honor of Samuel Terrien,

ed. J. G. Gammie et al. (New York: Union Theological

Seminary, 1978), p. 37.

¹Nel, "A Proposed Method for Determining the

Context of the Wisdom Admonitions," p. 36.

²Fontaine, "The Use of the Traditional Saying in

the Old Testament," p. 331. Her discussion of this whole

area is most helpful (pp. 1-50), as is her perceptive and

refreshing analysis of some traditional sayings in their

historical settings. She skillfully employs the tools of

modern paroemiology.

³Lambert, BWL, pp. 275-76.

⁴James L. Crenshaw, "Method in Determining Wisdom

Influence upon 'Historical' Literature," JBL 88

Though folk wisdom undoubtedly continued even after the

development of court wisdom, many think that there was a

development from the clan to the court and later to a more

theologized scribal wisdom (Ben Sirach). Although a

unilinear development is rejected, a general movement is

detected by many scholars.¹ This evolution seems

compatible with the historical data.

One-Line to Two-Line Evolution?

Another suggested development, which was proposed

by Eissfeldt and embraced by Schmidt, is the one-line to

two-line evolution, by which simple one-line, popular

sayings were transformed into two-line, didactic, artistic

proverbs.² Thompson accepts this position, as seen in the

following statement: "But given a popular, one line prose

proverb, one can easily imagine its becoming poetic

____________________

(1969):130. Crenshaw also adds a category of scribal

wisdom, which had as its aim the education of all into a

dogmatico-religious tradition via a dialogico-admonitory

format ("Wisdom," p. 227). Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p.

137.

¹Fontaine, "The Use of the Traditional Saying in

the Old Testament," p. 39; Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 18;

Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 227; Morgan, Wisdom in the Old

Testament Traditions, p. 33; and von Rad, Wisdom in Israel,

p. 11.

²Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 232; Johannes Schmidt,

Studien zur Stilistik Der Alttestamentlichen

Spruchliteratur (Munster: Verlag der Aschendorffschen

Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1936); Eissfeldt, Der Maschal im Alten

Testament; Udo Skladny, Die altesten Spruchsammlungen in

Israel pp. 5-6; cf. Gladson, "Retributive Paradoxes in

Proverbs 10-29," p. 54; and McKane, Proverbs, pp. 2-3.

through the addition of a parallel stich; and one may

suspect that this often happened."¹ An example of an

accretive process may be seen in the Abu Salabikh and

Classical versions of the Sumerian "Instructions of

Suruppak."² Gordon notes that 95 of 154 preserved

Sumerian proverbs are one line in length and 44 are two

lines.³

Thompson proposes a mechanism by which he thinks

the one-line saying was extended into two lines--via a

riddle game in which the first line was answered by its

respective second. He cites similar practices in Chinese

and African Kuanyama proverb usages as supportive of this

thesis, which Gemser originally proposed.⁴

____________________

¹Thompson, The Form and Function, p. 67.

²Alster, The Instructions of Suruppak, pp.

15, 35. Compare, for instance, the call to attention in the

prologue of each version:

My son, let me give you instructions,

May you pay attention to them!

(Abu Salabikh I.8-9)

My son, let me give you instructions,

May you take my instructions!

Do not neglect my instructions!

Do not transgress the word I speak!

The instructions of an old man are precious,

may you submit to them!

(Classical Version, Lines 9-13)

³Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs, p. 154.

⁴Thompson, The Form and Function, pp. 32, 92;

Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, s.v. "Proverbs," by

James A. Kelso, 10:413, 415; and Edwin M. Loeb, "Kuanyama

Ambo Folklore," Anthropological Records 13 (1951):332.

The evolution from one-line to two-line proverbs

has been challenged and most recent scholars reject this

evolutionary model as the explanation for the difference

between the one-line and two-line proverbs.¹ Both

Crenshaw and Murphy cite the reverse possibility--that is,

that the one-line saying is a fragment of an original two-

line wisdom saying.² Claiming that the one-line saying

is necessarily earlier smacks of being a simplistic

diachronic solution to a complex matter. The fable of

Jotham and longer forms were often used in the

pre-monarchial period. There simply is not enough data to

support a historical, developmental theory, since the

pre-history of these forms is vague, in terms of origin,

development, and use.³

____________________

¹P. J. Nel, "The Genres of Biblical Wisdom,"

Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 9 (1981):139; also

Nel, The Structure and Ethos, p. 16; Patrick Skehan, "A

Single Editor for the Whole book of Proverbs," in SAIW, p.

338 (24); von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 27; Christa B.

Kayatz, Studien zu Proverbien 1-9, pp. 4-5; David

Greenwood, "Rhetorical Criticism and Formgeschichte: Some

Methodological Considerations," JBL 89 (1970):420; and

Fontaine, "The Use of the Traditional Saying in the Old

Testament," p. 33.

²Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 232; Murphy, "Form

Criticism and Wisdom Literature," p. 478; and Fontaine,

"The Use of the Traditional Saying in the Old Testament,"

p. 31.

³Murphy, "The Interpretation of Old Testament

Wisdom Literature," p. 300; and Gladson, "Retributive

The examination of the Egyptian literature, which

provides a clear model of wisdom forms within a more

clearly defined historical setting and over a longer

period of time, has caused this one-line to two-line

developmental theory to be rejected. Gemser, in his

superb analysis of 'Onchsheshonqy, notes that

'Onchsheshonqy, although being one of the latest pieces of

Egyptian instructions, reflects a less developed character

in form and content than earlier works of Ptah-hotep or

Meri-ka-re which have much longer literary units.

'Onchsheshonqy is also less philosophically sophisticated

than the earlier works. Gemser warns against seeing a

"straight line of development of Egyptian wisdom and

proverbial literature."¹ Kitchen, particularly aware of

Egyptian wisdom as well as the biblical data, objects to a

unilinear evolution:

First, all lengths of basic unit (especially one to

six lines) occur in all areas, and at all periods.

Again from the mid-3rd millennium onwards there is no

unilinear development in either Egypt or Mesopotamia,

e.g. from 1-line to 2-line and so on.²

The Mesopotamian literature is not much different from the

Egyptian, as the later Akkadian literature contains less

____________________

¹Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy and

Biblical Wisdom Literature," in SAIW, pp. 159-60; Emerton,

"Wisdom," p. 229; Kayatz, Studien zu Proverbien 1-9, pp.

4-5; and Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 232.

²Kitchen, "Proverbs and Wisdom Books of the Ancient

Near East," p. 88.

essay material than the earlier Sumerian.¹

Some writers reject the nexus between Proverbs and

folk wisdom. Hermisson, following Bentzen's earlier

suggestion, objects to the folk setting as a source of the

Proverbs; instead he puts them in a school environment.²

Some, such as Nel, are hesitant to designate a proverb as

popular or folk if it is found in the setting of the book

of Proverbs.³ Murphy, for example, doubts if there is a

single folk proverb in the biblical text of Proverbs.⁴

Conclusion

In conclusion, a survey has been made of the

various settings and factors which have influenced the

origin and use of the book of Proverbs. A multiplex matrix

____________________

¹Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 75.

²Aage Bentzen, Introduction to the Old Testament,

vol. 1 (Copenhagen: G. E. C. Gad, 1949), pp. 168, 173; and

Hermisson, Studien zur israelitischen Spruchweisheit, pp.

64-94. Hermisson apparently drew heavily from Andre

Jolles, a German literary critic, in Jolles' Einfache

Formen, 3rd ed. (Tubingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1965), pp.

1-22. An interesting discussion of both Hermisson and

Jolles is presented by Fontaine, "The Use of the

Traditional Saying in the Old Testament," pp. 12ff. Cf.

also Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 233.

³Nel, "The Genres of Biblical Wisdom Literature,"

p. 138; cf. his The Structure and Ethos, p. 15.

⁴Murphy, "The Interpretation of Old Testament

Wisdom Literature," p. 300; Waltke, "The Book of Proverbs

and Ancient Wisdom Literature," pp. 228-29; and Morgan,

Wisdom in the Old Testament Traditions, p. 32.

has been suggested which would include three basic

components: (1) the scribes and schools; (2) the king and

his court; and (3) the family. One may wonder about the

function of such a diachronic chapter in a discussion

which has as its goal the synchronic grammatical analysis

of proverbial poetry. However, in examining strictly

linguistic approaches, the writer has perceived several

problems. They are: (1) once a linguistic schema

(whether Transformational grammar, dependency grammars,

case grammar, or tagmemics) is opted for, all research is

put aside for a rather priggish analysis of the text

itself; (2) the ignoring of genre development and

historical setting, which, while not necessarily vital for

linguistic analysis, are necessary in the establishment of

a full aesthetic appreciation and adequate understanding

of the texts; and (3) the pragmatic context within which

one understands linguistic symbols must not be limited

merely to the corpus of text being examined nor even the

totality of semiotic signals which compose the language as

a whole, for one must also be acutely aware of the

historical, cultural, sociological, inter/intra-personal

contexts which are present. This chapter attempts to

provide such a background, thereby broadening the scope

and significance of the paper--hopefully without

degenerating into superficiality which often accompanies a

widening of horizons. This chapter, in addition to the

preceding ones, allows one to see where past wisdom and

proverbial studies have gone. Its purpose has been to

demonstrate the need and appropriate slot for a linguistic

analysis of the canonical sentence literature in the

broader domain of wisdom studies. It is within this deep

diachronic framework that the synchronic syntactic

analysis of the text should be appreciated. Rather than

viewing the difficulties of establishing a historical

setting as a muddled maze or an inescapable quagmire to be

avoided at all cost, it should provide a needed loose

tapestry against which the rich hues of a synchronic

syntactic analysis may find its significance. To analyze

the proverbial sentences merely syntactically would be to

examine the beauties of a single thread while ignoring its

relationship to the tapestry which gives the thread its

meaning.

CHAPTER V

THE STRUCTURAL SETTING OF WISDOM

Introduction: Importance of

Literary Form

The multifarious settings of wisdom provide the

generalized scenarios in which the expression of

individual wisdom forms should be understood. It must be

acknowledged, contrary to normal form critical procedures,

that no necessary one-to-one connection can be dictated

between form and Sitz im Leben. Rather, a multiplex

setting as sketched above provides the general historical

arena in which the sagacious word-smith plies his craft.

One should not ignore the form utilized by the sage to

express his wisdom. Certainly the care that he admonishes

the young to take in the verbalization of their ideas into

carefully chosen words (Prov 10:20, 32; 15:28; 25:11, 15)

would be observed by the wise man himself (Eccl 12:10).

As the examination of form has proven to be an

indispensible interpretive aid in psalmic literature, so

too it is fundamental for any real appreciation of the

proverbial corpus.¹ Crenshaw's "Prolegomenon" points out,

____________________

¹Claus Westermann, The Psalms: Structure,

Content and Message (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House,

1980);

in contrast to prophetic studies, the lack of work done on

the isolation of the literary forms characteristic of

wisdom.¹

Muilenburg, introducing rhetorical criticism,

correctly observes that "a responsible and proper

articulation of the words in their linguistic patterns and

in their precise formulations will reveal to us the texture

and fabric of the writer's thought, not only what it is

that he thinks, but as he thinks it."² The importance of

structure in any semiotic system is essential for

understanding the meaning symbolized in that system. Thus

structure should not be viewed as mere literary

____________________

Leopold Sabourin, The Psalms: Their Origin and Meaning

(New York: Alba House, 1970); and A. A. Anderson, Psalms,

in New Century Bible, ed. R. E. Clements and M. Black

(Greenwood, SC: The Attic Press, Inc., 1972). The

historical books have also benefited from the study of form

(e.g., Meredith Kline, Treaty of the Great King [Grand

Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1963]; and R. J.

Vannoy, Covenant Renewal at Gilgal [Cherry Hill, NJ: Mack

Publishing Co., 1978]).

¹James L. Crenshaw, "Prolegomenon," in SAIW,

p. 13. In 1969 Murphy also made a similar observation

(Murphy, "The Interpretation of Old Testament Wisdom

Literature," p. 301). Both of these men have since then

made contributions in the area of form criticism and wisdom

(Crenshaw, "Wisdom," in Old Testament Form Criticism, ed.

J. H. Hayes [1974], pp. 225-64; and Murphy, Wisdom

Literature, in The Forms of the Old Testament Literature

[Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Comp., 1981]).

²James Muilenburg, "Form Criticism and Beyond,"

JBL 88 (1969):7. Cf. also Martin Kessler, "A

Metholodogical Setting for Rhetorical Criticism," in Art

and Meaning, JSOT Supplement Series 19, ed. D. J. Clines et

al. (1982), pp. 1-19.

ornamentation or meaningless rhetorical garnishments.¹

Rather it is only through the form that meaning may be

discovered. One should not fixate on one linguistic level,

since meaning comes at all levels.² To suggest that

words alone are the sole bearers of meaning and that only

propositional truth-valued meaning is significant is to

ignore the text, which proffers meaning down to the

sub-word level of the morpheme and as high as the sentence,

paragraph, and discourse levels.

____________________

¹Porten, "The Structure and Theme of the Solomon

Narrative," p. 95; Luis Alonso Schokel, "The Vision of Man

in Sirach 16:24-17:14," in Israelite Wisdom: Theological

and Literary Essays in Honor of Samuel Terrien, ed. J. G.

Gammie et al. (New York: Union Theological Seminary,

1978), p. 235; Glendon E. Bryce, "The Structural Analysis

of Didactic Texts," in Biblical and Near Eastern Studies:

Essays in Honor of William Sanford LaSor, ed. G. A. Tuttle

(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1978), p.

108.

²Kenneth L. Pike and Evelyn G. Pike, Grammatical

Analysis (Arlington, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics

Publications in Linguistics, 1982), p. 4; E. J. Lovelady,

"A Tagmemic Analysis of Genesis 37" (A Seminar paper

presented to J. R. Battenfield: Grace Theological

Seminary, 1973), pp. 3-4; and Robert E. Longacre, "Some

Fundamental Insights of Tagmemics," Language 41

(1965):73-74. This last article is also found in Advances

in Tagmemics, ed. Ruth M. Brend, in North-Holland

Linguistic Series, ed. S. C. Dik and J. G. Kooij

(Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1974), pp.

11-23. Also vid. Longacre, An Anatomy of Speech Notions

(Lisse: The Peter De Ridder Press, 1976), pp. 255-308 for

a more semantic, deep structural application of this same

principle. Biblical students have tended to fixate

myopically on the word-clause levels in their study of

grammar. W. Kaiser's attempt at lifting awareness to the

paragraph level is both refreshing and disappointing

(Toward an Exegetical Theology: Biblical Exegesis for

Preaching and Teaching [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House,

1981]).

The larger units are not to be viewed merely in an

additive sense, combining words in a linear fashion, for

the discourse itself comes to its audience as a semantic

carrier just as much as individual words. An interesting

example of structural meaning at the sentence level may be

illustrated from Dundes, who writes of a triad of proverbs

which, although the words and imagery are totally diverse,

has a common sentential thrust.

He who is bitten by a snake fears even a rope.

A scalded cat fears even cold water.

Whoever is burned on hot squash blows on cold yogurt.

The point here is not to atomize semantically the imagery

and semantic components of each word, but to stand back and

appreciate the shared message that the sentences generate.¹

Would it not be obviously unproductive to do a word study

on the word "bitten" to discover the meaning of the

proverbial sentence? Thus, all levels of language bear

meaning and each level should be appreciated accordingly.

Ryken correctly states the importance of literary form to

interpretation:

A reader of Scripture is opening the door to

misunderstanding whenever he ignores the literary

____________________

¹Dundes, "On the Structure of the Proverb," p. 105.

Fontaine notes the following examples off: "If it rained

duck soup, he'd be there with a fork." and "If it rained

five-dollar gold pieces, he'd be there with boxing gloves

on" (Fontaine, "The Use of the Traditional Saying in the

Old Testament," p. 65 [cf. Prov 19:5, 9]).

principles of various literary forms. When he fails

to ask literary questions he will go astray.¹

The forms must not be reduced to their truth content;

rather, their aesthetic value must be sweetly savored. One

must not miss the delight in the risible comparison of the

golden ring in a pig's snout with a beautiful woman without

sense (Prov 11:22), nor the disgust at the otiose sluggard

whose hand is too lazy to return to his mouth (Prov 19:24,

cf. also 26:14, 15).² Meticulous care must be taken to

observe the surface structure as the key that unlocks the

deep structure meaning of these terse sayings.³

With all the complexity and multiplicity of the

various form types, one should not miss the unifying

feature--that is, they are all composed in poetry.⁴ With

the current debates on the essential features of Hebrew

poetic meter, parallelism, and line-forms, any discussion

____________________

¹Leland Ryken, "Good Reading in the Good Book,"

Christianity Today (January 17, 1975), p. 6. Cf. also

Robert Gordis, Poets, Prophets, and Sages: Essays in

Biblical Interpretation (Bloomington: Indiana University

Press, 1971), p. 61; and J. J. Gluck, "The Figure of

'inversion' in the Book of Proverbs," Semitics 5 (1977):24.

J. Williams also gives a detailed analysis of form-content

relationships in proverbs (J. G. Williams, Those Who Ponder

Proverbs: Aphoristic Thinking and Biblical Literature

[Sheffield: The Almond Press, 1981], pp. 71-75).

²Thompson, The Form and Function, p. 74.

³Fontaine, "The Use of the Traditional Saying in

the Old Testament," p. 17; and Thompson, The Form and

Function, pp. 15, 48-49.

⁴von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 24.

of proverbial form must bring the present advances of

poetic analysis to bear on the study of proverbial form.

It is interesting to note the lack of integration between

modern poetic discussions and proverbial studies, which,

if they are discussed at all, reflect a simplistic

Lowth-Gray-Robinson Standard Description semantic model.¹

A survey of the form types employed in wisdom is

significant in that it will heighten an aesthetic

appreciation of the imagery and the exacting care the

sages took to convey their thoughts in a form which would

enhance the communication of their message. This chapter

will examine the various forms in the following manner.

First, some of the deep structure thought forms will be

categorized. Second, a catalogue of various types of form

lists will be enumerated. Third, the broad wisdom genres

will be exampled (viz., onomastica, riddles, fables,

etc.). Fourth, a closer look will be taken at

specific proverbial forms (viz., admonition, numerical

____________________

¹For example Thompson's fine work on the function

of Proverbs is marred by a simplistic view of parallelistic

structure which may be pedagogically helpful in introducing

the concept of parallelism but certainly inadequate as a

means of poetic analysis. Thompson, The Form and Function,

p. 61 where he gives examples of synonymous (Prov 17:4),

synthethic (Prov 16:4), antithetic (Prov 12:23) and

comparative (Prov 25:14) parallelisms. Cf. also Bullock's

discussion in An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic

Books, pp. 41-48. A. M. Cooper's dissertation is a

pleasant exception, "Biblical Poetics: A Linguistic

Approach" (Ph. D. dissertation, Yale University, 1976), pp.

112-40 where he analyzes Prov 8:22-31.

saying, better-than saying etc.). These forms will

demonstrate the sages' concern for and use of a proper

literary expression of his message.

Deep Structure Thought Forms

The function of proverbs in Israelite society is

an area which lends itself to much speculation and which

demands that more attention be paid to proverbs in

non-collectional, user-oriented contexts. Thompson

speculates that there are four basic functions of

proverbs. These are: 1) philosophical (e.g., the

numerical proverb as an attempt of man to order his

world); (2) entertainment (Prov 11:22; 19:24; 26:17; and

possibly riddles in Prov 16:24; 20:17; 22:1); (3) legal (2

Sam 20:18; Prov 11:1; 23:10, which use is also found in

African proverbial folklore); and (4) instructional (the

common call of the "son" to attention).¹ Williams

objects that Thompson's functions are rather arbitrary and

develops the idea that the form has the logical function

of "establishing likenesses and priorities, positing

antitheses, indicating reasons, etc." Williams'

suggestions develop Thompson's category of the

philosohical function of Proverbs, although his underlying

criticism of the speculative nature of Thompson's work is

____________________

¹Thompson, The Form and Function, pp. 68-83. He

also develops these functions in Egyptian and Mesopotamian

texts.

an appropriate caution.¹

Scott's list of deep structural purposes of

proverbs has often been repeated in the literature with

few actually developing its potential in the text. Scott

brilliantly proposes seven deep structure wisdom thought

forms, which are: (1) identity, equivalence, invariable

association (Prov 29:5); (2) non-identity, contrast,

paradox (Prov 27:7); (3) similarity, analogy, type (Prov

25:25); (4) contrary to right order, futile, absurd (Prov

17:16); (5) classification and clarification (Prov 14:15);

(6) value, relative value or priority, proportion or

degree (Prov 22:1); and (7) consequences of human

behaviour or character (Prov 20:4).² These categories

will imbricate at times but provide a useful starting

point in the examination of proverbial deep structure.

Folklore studies have been extremely fruitful as

they have often utilized a structuralist point of view.

Kuusi observes that the imagery used does not determine

the message of the proverb as demonstrated in the examples

above (snake bitten/fears rope). Fontaine distinguishes

____________________

¹Williams, Those Who Ponder Proverbs, p. 104.

Note, in a similar vein that Dundes moves away from a

functional approach to a more "formal" criterion of a

proverb (Dundes, Analytic Essays in Folklore, p. 104).

²Scott, The Way of Wisdom, pp. 59-63; Bullock, An

Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books, pp. 159-60;

Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 71; and "Wisdom," p.

230.

between image, message and architectural formula. These

are helpful divisions which are often overlooked by those

who confuse image and message.1 The details of

semantico-logical structures may be seen in Dundes'

formulation: (1) the equational proverb (A = B; "Time is

money," "Seeing is believing," "He who hesitates is lost,"

or "Where there's a will there's a way"); (2) the negation

proverb (A =/= B; this includes Scott's category of relative

value proverbs--"Two wrongs don't make a right" or

"Hindsight is better than foresight"); (3) complementary

distribution (if you have B, you can't have A--"You can't

have your cake and eat it too"); (4) causal (A causes B;

"Haste makes waste" or "Familiarity breeds contempt"); (5)

oppositional causal (A cannot produce B; "You can lead a

horse to water but you can't make him drink"); and (6)

chronological reversal (reverses the usual chronological

order; "Don't count your chickens before they hatch" or

"Catch the bear before you sell its skin").2 Fontaine

____________________

¹Fontaine, "The Use of the Traditional Saying in

the Old Testament," p. 124.

²Dundes, Analytic Essays in Folklore, pp. 110-13.

Dundes also rejects Milner's "Quadripartite Structures,"

Proverbium 14 (1969):379-83 as subjective and atomisitic.

Nigel Barley's brilliant article ("A Structural Approach to

the Proverb and Maxim with Special Reference to the

Anglo-Saxon Corpus," Proverbium, 20 [1972]:737-50).

provides a linguistic-semantic model for proverb analysis.

Cf. also Anna-Leena Kuusi, "Towards an International

Type-System of Proverbs," Proverbium 19 (1972):698-737;

and, more grammatically oriented, "An Approach to

Categorisation of Phrases" Proverbium, 23 (1974):895-904.

has employed these methods with great profit to the

biblical traditional sayings, although, as yet, they have

not been applied to the text of Proverbs.¹

Form List Survey

The types of forms utilized by the wise men have

been listed and examined in recent studies. Two

perspectives may be seen in the various listings of form

types. First, there are those working with ancient Near

Eastern materials either from Egypt, with its

instructional texts, or from in Sumer and its resultant

Mesopotamian materials. Gordon proposes that there are

the following types of proverbs: precept, maxim, truism,

adage, byword, taunt, compliment, toast, short fable,

parable, anecdote and character sketch.² He further

enumerates eleven genres in Sumerian and Akkadian wisdom

texts, citing examples of each type. He lists the

following: (1) proverbs; (2) fables and parables;

(3) folk-tales; (4) miniature "essays"; (5) riddles;

(6) "edubba" compositions; (7) wisdom disputations;

(8) satirical dialogues; (9) practical instructions;

____________________

¹Fontaine, "The Use of the Traditional Saying in

the Old Testament," pp. 103, 258, 304.

²Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs, p. 18. He is followed

by Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," pp. 9-11, 68, 94, 209.

Khanjian gives useful definitions for each of the above

(pp. 9-11). Vid. ch. II for examples of each of these.

(10) precepts; and (11) "righteous sufferer" poems.¹

Second, in biblical studies, two scholars have

greatly contributed to the discussion of wisdom forms.

Nel develops over fourteen types and Crenshaw, with his

usual meticulousness, discusses the following types: (1)

proverb; (2) riddle; (3) fable and allegory; (4) hymn and

prayer; (5) dialogue; (6) confession (autobiographical

narrative); (7) lists (onomastica), and (8) didactic

narrative (e.g., the Joseph story).² The purpose of this

study is not to scrutinize the details of each of the

forms, but to survey them in order to provide a Sitz im

Literatur for the detailed analysis of the proverbial

"sayings" (Aussagen) in Proverbs 10-15.

While there were numerous form types in the

repertoire of the wise man, Proverbs employs basically two

genres: (1) the wisdom admonition or instruction

(Mahnwort); and (2) the sentence or saying (Aussage).³

Nel and Crenshaw see many more sub-types. However, the

difference is one of definition of genre or sub-genre and

____________________

¹E. I. Gordon, "A New Look at the Wisdom of Sumer

and Akkad," BO 17.3-4 (May-July 1960):124. Cf. Perdue,

Wisdom and Cult, p. 93.

²Crenshaw, "Wisdom," pp. 229-62. He also gives

extensive bibliography at the beginning of his discussion

of each form.

³McKane, Proverbs, p. 3; and Robert Chisholm,

"Literary Genres and Structures in Proverbs" (An

unpublished paper submitted to Dr. Donald Glenn, Dallas

Theological Seminary, 1980), p. 1.

of classification, rather than one of lack of perception.

So Crenshaw develops, along with the admonition and

saying, three other types of Proverbs: (1) numerical; (2)

comparison; and (3) antithetic proverb.¹ The point here

is not to analyze the methods of classification or to

discern, if possible, the distinction between stylistic

devices, thematic/semantic types, and bona fide literary

genres, but is simply to surface the tremendous variety of

structures employed by the sages.

Some writers opt for a topical approach to the

proverbs, which are collected, "systematized," and

classified by their message or imagery.² McKane uses a

rather forced division into: Class A--old wisdom for

living a harmonious life; Class B--focusing on the

concerns of the community; and Class C--proverbs

containing "God-language." This division is so artificial

and fragmentational to the unity of the canonical order as

to need little criticism other than an exposure to the

text itself.³ More semantically related forms may be

seen

____________________

¹Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 230; Nel, "The Genres of

Biblical Wisdom Literature," pp. 129-30.

²Kenneth J. Jensen, Wisdom: The Principal Thing

(Seattle: Pacific Meridian Pub. Comp., 1971). Derek

Kidner, Proverbs: an Introduction and Commentary, in

Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL:

Inter-Varsity Press, 1964), pp. 31-56 is also quite a

helpful digest of a topical sort (God and man; wisdom, the

fool, the sluggard, the friend, words, the family, and

life/death).

³McKane, Proverbs, p. 11. Kovacs,

in the comparative or better proverbs, "like" proverbs,

paradoxes, YHWH and king proverbs, 'asre sayings, and even

numerical sayings.

The problem of distinguishing between genre and

proverb type may be traced back to the debate over the term

masal itself.¹ Crenshaw notes that the term

not only refers to similitudes (Ez 16:44; Gen 10:9; I

Sam 10:11), but also to popular sayings (Jer 23:28;

31:29; I Sam 24:13; Is 32:6; I Kings 20:11), literary

aphorisms (Prov 10:1-22:16; 25-29); Qoh 9:17-10:20),

taunt songs (Is 14:4; Mic 2:4; Hab 2:6-8; Ez 12:22-23;

18:2-3), bywords (Deut 28:37; I Kings 9:7; Jer 24:9;

Ez 14:8), allegories (Ez 17:1-10; 20:45-49; 24:3-14),

and discourses (Num 23:7, 18; 24:3-24; Job 27:1; 29:1;

Ps 49:4; 78:2).²

The survey of forms used in wisdom will begin with

broad genre types found under the general rubric of

"wisdom."

Examination of General Wisdom Forms

Onomastica

The onomastica (lists) seem to be the wise man's

attempt to use language to order his world in an

____________________

"Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 293 and Bullock,

An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books, p.

181-82 both object to McKane, although Bullock

unfortunately returns to a simplistic topical arrangement,

which is also problematic.

¹Eissfeldt (Der Maschal im Alten Testament) sees

it etymologically as being "to compare" and "to rule."

McKane views it more as a "paradigm" or "model" (Proverbs,

pp. 22-33).

²Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 230.

encyclopedic manner by compiling numerous connected

phenomena into long lists. These would then be copied and

learned by the scribal students. The onomastica may

reflect the believed connection between name of the item

listed and its essence.¹

The onomastica in Egypt date from the Middle

Kingdom (ca. 2000 B.C.) to the Ptolemaic period. The

purpose of this type of text is voiced in the "Onomasticon

of Amenope":

Here begins the teaching, in order to expand the mind,

to teach the ignorant, to know everything that is:

what Ptah created, what Thoth brought into being, the

sky and its objects, the earth and what is in it, what

the mountains spew forth, what Nun covers, all things on

which Re shines, everything that grows on the back of

the earth, conceived by Amenope, scribe of the holy

books in the House of Life.²

Amenope's list contains 610 items which are grouped into

categories such as: the sky, water and earth, persons and

occupations, towns, buildings and their parts, beverages,

parts of an ox, and kinds of meat.³ Much earlier the

Sumerians had apparently devised similar types of

____________________

¹Harvey, "Wisdom Literature and Biblical Theology

(Part One)," p. 315; and Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural

Constraints," p. 235.

²Williams, "Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt," p.

219; cf. A. H. Gardiner, Ancient Egyptian Onomastica, 3

vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1947); Scott, The

Way of Wisdom, p. 34; cf. also "The Instruction of Duauf,"

in Pritchard, ANET, pp. 432-34.

³Heaton, Solomon's New Men, p. 114; Murphy, Wisdom

Literature, p. 11; also his "The Interpretation of Old

Testament Wisdom Literature," p. 291.

collections and passed them down to the Babylonians, who

utilized them in keeping the Sumerian language alive.¹

Although the connection between the onomastica

and various Israelite texts (Ps 104; Job 28; 36:27-37:13;

Sir 38:24-39:11; and possibly even Gen 1 and 10) is not

without its difficulties, von Rad makes an interesting

comparison, tabulating the Onomasticon of Amenope, Job 38,

Psalm 148, Sirach 43, and the Song of the Three Children,

each of which demonstrates list features.² The Wisdom of

Solomon 7:17-20 may also allude to this type of learning

among the wise of its time when it says,

For it is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what

exists, to know the structure of the world and the

activity of the elements; the beginning and end and

middle times, the alternations of the solstices and the

changes of the seasons, the cycles of the year and the

constellations of the stars, the natures of animals and

the tempers of wild beasts, the powers of spirits and

the reasonings of men, the varieties of plants and the

virtues of roots . . . .³

Numerous scholars have made the connection between the

onomastica and statements made about Solomon's encyclopedic

knowledge of trees, birds, reptiles, and fish, such as

____________________

¹Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 36; Kovacs,

"Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 234; Schmid,

Wesen und Geschichte, pp. 97-98; Albrecht Alt, "Solomonic

Wisdom," in SAIW, p. 107.

²von Rad, "Job XXXVIII and Ancient Egyptian

Wisdom," in SAIW, pp. 267-91. This article may also be

found in von Rad's book, The Problem of the Hexateuch and

Other Essays (London: Oliver & Boyd, 1965), pp. 281-91.

³Cited in Crenshaw, "Wisdom," pp. 258-59.

1 Kgs 4:33 [MT 5:13]. It is interesting that the next

verse points out the international appreciation of

Solomon's wisdom.¹ Crenshaw notes the disparity between

the topics discussed in 1 Kings 4:32-33 [MT 5:12-13] and

that which is actually recorded of Solomon's wisdom. He

suggests that these verses do not necessarily need to be

understood in light of the onomastica; rather they may be

understood in relation to the fables and animal proverbs

which are found in the canonical wisdom corpus.²

Finally, while Roth denies the connection between

the numerical proverbs (Prov 30:29-31; 24-28) and the

onomastica, Crenshaw suggests that onomastic thinking may

be behind the formulation of numerical proverbs.³

Riddle

Who has woe? Who has sorrow?

Who has strife? Who has complaints?

Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

Answer:

Those who linger over wine,

who go to sample bowls of mixed wine

(Prov 23:29-30)

The riddle is an intriguing form which has been

examined in detail on a structural level in folklore

____________________

¹Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, p. 164; and Nel, "The

Genres of Biblical Wisdom Literature," p. 135.

²Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, pp. 50-51.

³W. M. W. Roth, Numerical Sayings in the Old

Testament: A Form Critical Study, in VTSup 13 (1965), p.

25; and Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 39.

studies. A riddle has been defined as "a traditional

verbal expression which contains one or more descriptive

elements, a pair of which may be in opposition; the

referent of the elements is to be guessed at."1 Crenshaw

specifies the two key elements of a riddle are: (1) a clue

element, and (2) a snare or block element, which conceals

the answer to the question.² The riddle is often founded

on a metaphor which maps one category onto another. It

differs from the proverb in that a riddle has both given

and hidden terms, while the proverb lacks the hidden term.

That is not to say that a proverb may not double as a

riddle or that its two elements may not be transformed into

a given and hidden sequence.³

It is suggested that the riddle may have functioned

in several capacities in ancient Israel. Muller notes the

following types of riddles: (1) popular riddle (Judg

____________________

¹Dundes, Analytic Essays in Folklore, pp. 97-98;

Robert A. Georges and Alan Dundes, "Toward a Structural

Definition of the Riddle," Journal of American Folklore 76

(April-June 1976):111-18; and D. G. Blauner, "The Early

Literary Riddle," Folklore 78 (Spring 1967):49-58.

²Crenshaw, "Impossible Questions, Sayings, and

Tasks," Semeia 17-19 (1980):20. Also see Crenshaw's

helpful bibliography on riddles in "Wisdom," pp. 239-40.

An example of the clue/block sequence may be seen in the

following rather "corny" riddles: "Something has an ear

and cannot hear (corn)"; "What has eyes but can't see?

(potatoes)"; "What has a mouth but doesn't eat? (a river)";

and "What has leaves but doesn't grow? (a table)."

³Barley, "A Structural Approach to the Proverb and

Maxim," p. 739; Dundes, Analytic Essays in Folklore, p.

108.

14:10-18) which would be used at festive occasions;

(2) symbolic dreams or enigmatic oracles which often occur

in a prophetic contexts (Ezek 17:1-10; Isa 5:1-8; Dan 5;

Gen 37:40-41); (3) royal contests where the riddle

challenged one's brilliance (1 Kgs 10); and possibly (4)

court-school wisdom riddles (Prov 1:6).1 Thus, riddles may

have operated in diverse sociological contexts and literary

settings in the Old Testament.

The lack of explicit use of riddles in the wisdom

literature has led some to surmise a connection between the

numerical proverb and the riddle.² Roth, proffers the

suggestion that "both are born out of the recognition that

one does not know but wishes to know." Both also suppose a

question and call for an answer. The numerical saying,

however, is more comprehensive and serious, pulling

together perceptions about numerous integrative items,

while the riddle focuses on one specific, and often

curious, connection.³

____________________

¹H.-P. Muller, "Der Begriff 'Ratsel' im Alten

Testament," VT 20 (1970):465-89, especially p. 475;

Crenshaw, "Wisdom," pp. 243-44; and Khanjian, "Wisdom in

Ugarit," p. 11.

²Murphy, Introduction to the Wisdom Literature of

the Old Testament, p. 8. He suggests that Sir 25:1-2, 7-10

is a riddle. H. Torczyner ("The Riddle in the Bible," HUCA

1 [1924]:135) sees riddles underlying the numerical

proverbs of Proverbs 30.

³Roth, Numerical Sayings in the Old Testament, p.

96.

Thompson notes the bond between riddles and

didactic intentions in China and Africa. Proverbial pairs

are used in a riddling fashion by the teacher who cites one

line or one proverb and the student is to respond with a

matching one.¹ Numerous proverbs have been shown to have

riddle origins. Proverbs 16:24 is easily transformed into

a riddle when it requests, "What are pleasant like a

honeycomb, giving sweetness to the soul and health to the

body?" The answer is "pleasant words."² von Rad rejects

the riddle as a Gattung because of the diversity of its

settings, but accepts Proverbs 23:29f. as being in a riddle

form.³

Thus the following reasons are given in support of

a connection between wisdom and riddles: (1) Solomonic use

of riddles (1 Kgs 10:1); (2) statements in the text (Prov

1:6); (3) suggested possible riddles in Proverbs; (4) the

didactic function of the riddle which has been observed in

numerous cultures; and (5) its presence elsewhere in the

biblical corpus (Judg 14:13, 14). The infrequent explicit

use of the riddle in the canonical wisdom materials,

however, remains a puzzle itself.

____________________

¹Thompson, The Form and Function, pp. 32,

92.

²Ibid., p. 75. He also cites Prov 20:17 and 22:1

as examples.

³von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 37. He also

views Sir 22:14 as a riddle.

Allegory and Fable

Drink water from your own cistern,

running water from your own well

(Prov 5:15).

But the vine answered,

'Should I give up my wine, which cheers both gods and men,

to waving over the trees?'

(Judg 9:13)

Two more forms of wisdom which do not appear very

much in the biblical wisdom material are the fable and

allegory. Fundamentally, they both are extended

metaphors--intended to teach or entertain by a reflective,

comparative process. The fable is well-known throughout

the ancient Near East in wisdom settings. For example, the

Turin Love Songs in Egypt portray a sycamore tree and a

moringa tree describing their excellencies in promoting

love. The sycamore obtained the upper hand as the tree

favored by Hathor, the goddess of love.¹

The scribes in Sumer used natural phenomena to

elucidate matters of life for their students via the fable

form.² Examples of this form which have been preserved

____________________

1W. C. van Wyk, "The Fable of Jotham in its Ancient

Near Eastern Setting," in Studies in Wisdom Literature, ed.

W. C. van Wyk, OTWSA 15 and 16 (1972-73), pp. 90-91. The

Egyptian text is found in W. K. Simpson, The Literature of

Ancient Egypt, pp. 312-15. For more discussion of the

fable vid. R. J. Williams, "The Fable in the Ancient Near

East," in A Stubborn Faith, ed. E. C. Hobbs (Dallas:

Southern Methodist University Press, 1956), pp. 3-26.

²Wyk, "The Fable of Jotham in its Ancient Near

Eastern Setting," p. 93; and Gadd, Teachers and Students in

the Oldest Schools, p. 39.

from Sumerian schools include: "The Dispute between Summer

and Winter," "The Dispute between Cattle and Grain," and

"The Dispute between the Tree and the Reed."¹ Akkadian

schools also employed this form in the "Dispute Between the

Date Palm and the Tamarisk."² Often the topics of

discussion were political. Crenshaw notes that, while it

is possible that the references to Solomon's wisdom

concerning natural phenomena (1 Kgs 4:33 [MT 5:10]) may

refer to this genre, they are more likely to reflect the

onomastica.³

No fables appear in the extant Israelite wisdom

literature; yet its presence in historical texts

demonstrates its existence in Israelite society.

Allegories do appear in Proverbs 5:15-23 and Ecclesiastes

12:1-6. Israel undoubtedly used the animal world to teach.

Although obviously not a fable, the sluggard is admonished

to go to the ant and be instructed (Prov 6:6).

Hymn

The hymn is a form which is usually found embedded

in another unit. Wisdom hymns often deal with the "cosmic

____________________

¹Kramer, The Sumerians, p. 218.

²Pritchard, ANET, pp. 410-11. For other examples

vid. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom, pp. 150-212.

³Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 245; cf. von Rad, Wisdom in

Israel, p. 44.

transcendence of wisdom" (Prov 1:20-33; 8:22ff.; Job 28;

Sir 24; Wis 6:12-20; 7:22-8:21). The hymnic element

provides a link (in topic and in form) between the wisdom

books and the wisdom Psalms (cf. Ps 34, 112, 128). The

hypostatization of ma'at and the creation concept in

Egyptian hymns are taken by Kayatz as evincing an Israelite

dependence on Egyptian forms (vid. the wisdom hymn in Prov

8). While the concept of the hypostatization of wisdom in

the text of Proverbs is highly problematic, the parallels

with Egyptian hymns of this sort do provide an interesting

point of comparison.¹

Dialogue and Imagined Speeches

You will say,

'How I hated discipline!

How my heart spurned correction!

I would not obey my teachers

or listen to my instructors

I have come to the brink of utter ruin

in the midst of the whole assembly'

(Prov 5:12-14).

The dialogue (Streitgesprach) is a form which

characterizes the book of Job. The dialogue form is also

observed in the "Babylonian Theodicy." Interestingly

enough, it is constructed as a wisdom poem in acrostic

____________________

¹Christa Kayatz, Einfuhrung in die

alttestamentliche Weisheit, Biblische Studien 55

(Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1969), pp. 70-78.

Cf. Crenshaw, "Wisdom," pp. 248, 254; and von Rad, Wisdom

in Israel, p. 209.

form.¹

Crenshaw discusses "imagined speeches," which

appear repeatedly in the early chapters of Proverbs

(1:11-14, 22-33; 4:3-9; 5:12-14; 7:14-20; 8:4-36; 24:30-34;

et al.) and are often coincident with hymnic expressions.²

Parallels may be drawn from the prophetic speeches in which

ridicule (Prov 1:26), calling and not being heard (Prov

1:24; Mic 3:4; Isa 65:12), and seeking and not finding

(Prov 1:28; Hos 5:6, 15; Amos 8:12) are common to the

occasions when wisdom opens her mouth.³

The "I-style," (also called "confession" or

"autobiography") narrative is rather unique in the Old

Testament.⁴ The "I-style" brings both the student and

teacher to observe life in situs and adds the necessary

personal touch and direction to the educational process.

It also inculcates the sharpening of observational and

reasoning skills. The autobiographical style highlights

the modeling role of the instructor. This form is common

in Egyptian texts ("The Instruction for King Merikare" and

"The Instruction of Amenemhet") as well as in Babyonian

____________________

¹Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, pp.

21-91; Pritchard, ANET, pp. 596-604.

²Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 256.

³Murphy, Wisdom Literature, pp. 51-52.

⁴von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 37; and Murphy,

Wisdom Literature, p. 51.

texts (e.g., Ludlul bel Nemeqi).¹ Crenshaw notes that the

call of the autobiographical narrative is to the "house of

instruction" in Sirach (33:16-18; 51:13-22) and suggests

that autobiographical confessions were used by teachers to

demonstrate their credentials.² This form provides a

fascinating connection between narrative patterns and

proverbial poetic forms.

Proverbial Forms

Having briefly surveyed the larger structures

employed by the wise men, attention should now be turned to

those forms which are characteristic of the book of

Proverbs in particular. This will provide a backdrop for a

more exacting syntactical analysis of the sentence

literature. One should not view the sentence literature as

the sole means of wisdom expression; rather, it should be

seen as one literary technique among many which the wise

men could activate to articulate their message. It is also

important to note the size of the literary units employed

by the wise men. As the sentence literature is examined,

it will be important to remember that the sages had

appreciation for and skill with larger literary units.

They did not think just in terms of fragmentary, isolated

____________________

¹Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, pp. 108-9; and Crenshaw,

"Wisdom," p. 256.

²Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 258.

sentences which incarcerated a truth without regard to its

integration with other perceptions of reality or to the

literary context in which the sentence was found.

In the discussion of proverbial form, there is a

rather undefined mixing of categories. Nel has wrestled

with this problem and has concluded that the line

separating a genre (Gattung) and a literary device is a

very fine one.¹ The separation of semantic and structural

features has not been fixed within studies on wisdom

literature. Thus, wisdom studies have discussed structural

features such as rhetorical questions, quotations (and

wellerisms), acrostics, and "there is . . . but . . . ."

Other studies have classified proverbs on a more semantic

level (paradoxical proverbs), often according to the

presence of certain cue words (like, Yhwh, abomination,

'asre [macarisms]). Though the isolation of these

categories has been helpful in appreciating the various

forms/devices which are repeatedly employed by the wise

men, yet the lack of a stable methodology has encouraged an

open-ended multiplication of categories, which could become

counter-productive and ripe for Occam's razor. This

proliferation of categories is particularly true of the

semantic level which is so multifarious. Even the

syntactic level, which is more limited in the number of

variations it may employ, is often used with such great

____________________

¹Nel, The Structure and Ethos, p. 7.

variety as to defy an exact boxing into neat categories

(as will be demonstrated). The "better-proverbs," for

example, may vary the order of the elements and the

syntactic forms used to fill the slots (nouns,

infinitives, whole clauses). Deletions also may alter the

alleged "fixed" structure itself. Thus, in the following

listing of devices and proverbial types, one should not

overlook the transformations and variations of these

structures. A meticulous examination of each form is

outside of the focus of this paper. This study will

merely survey the forms and cite recent work done on each.

It is an attempt to express an appreciation for

structures/devices which are found repeatedly in Proverbs

and to gain an aesthetic sensitivity for the literary nuts

and bolts of the wise men's craft. This sensitivity

should help the interpreter not only to think the writer's

thoughts after him but as he thought them.

The book of Proverbs may be divided according to

the literary structures it manifests. These are:

1:7-9:12 Wisdom Teachings

10:1-22:16 Two-line antithetical proverbs

22:17-24:24 Many forms (e.g., four-line

proverbs)

25:1-29:27 Two-line antithetical proverbs

and comparative proverbs

30:1-31:9 Two/four-line proverbs and

numerical proverbs

31:10-31 Acrostic poem.¹

____________________

¹Bullock, An Introduction to the Old Testament

Poetic Books, p. 170.

Many have seen basically two types of sentence

literature in Proverbs (although to classify the whole of

Proverbs as "sentence literature" is overly simplistic).

The two types are: (1) Exhortations/admonitions (Mahnwort,

often found in Prov 1-9; 22:17-24:22; 31:1-9); and (2)

sentences or sayings (Aussage, found largely in Prov

10:1-22:16; 24:23-34; 25-29).¹ The basic difference

between the two is that admonition (Mahnwort) utilizes an

imperative/jussive and a motive clause while the sentence

(Aussage) uses the indicative.

The Admonition (Mahnwort)

Let love and faithfulness never leave you;

bind them around your neck,

write them on the tablet of your heart

Then you will win favor and a good name

in the sight of God and man

(Prov 3:3-4).

The admonition is found both in Mesopotamia and in

Egypt. In Egypt, Ptahhotep's writing provides an

illustration of the imperatival sense of the admonition:

Know your helpers, then you prosper,

Don't be mean toward your friends,

They are one's watered field,

And greater than one's riches,

For what belongs to one belongs to another.²

The commands may come in various forms, such as: (1) one

positive; (2) one negative; (3) a positive and a negative;

____________________

¹McKane, Proverbs, pp. 1-10. Cf. Crenshaw,

"Wisdom," pp. 230-32.

²Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 1:72.

and (4) a cluster of imperatives.¹ An introductory

conditional clause is found in many of the Egytian

admonitions. This clause specifies the circumstances in

which the imperatives apply.² Kayatz divides the Egyptian

admonitions into those which are "casuistically begun" and

those which are "imperativally begun." So Ptahhotep

advises:

If you are mighty, gain respect through knowledge

And through gentleness of speech.

Don't command except as is fitting,

He who provokes gets into trouble.³

Kayatz develops four types of motivational clauses

in Egyptian Instructions: (1) generalizing statements

(substantiate the imperative by providing the principle

that underlies it); (2) purpose clauses (show the

imperative as effective in accomplishing desired purposes);

(3) descriptions of character; and (4) reflections (induce

obedience by elliciting reflection).⁴ An example of a

generalizing admonition may be seen in Ptahhotep:

____________________

¹Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 58. Joel T.

Williamson "The Form of Proverbs 1-9," p. 10 cites three

models of the admonition from Kayatz, McKane and Smith.

He gives a convenient listing of examples of each of these

in the Egyptian texts and follows Kayatz, Studien zu

Proverbien 1-9 (pp. 13-14).

²McKane, Proverbs, p. 76; and Kayatz, Studien zu

Proverbien 1-9, pp. 11, 32-36.

³Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, 1:70.

⁴Kayatz, Studien zu Proverbien 1-9, p. 74.

Examples of each of these types are given in Williamson,

"The Form of Proverbs 1-9," pp. 16-23.

Let not thy heart be puffed up because of thy

knowledge;

be not confident because thou art a wise man.

Take counsel with the ignorant as well as the wise.

The (full) limits of skill cannot be attained,

and there is no skilled man equipped to his full

advantage.¹

The predominance of the admonition form in the Egyptian

sources is demonstrated in "The Instruction of

'Onchsheshonqy" where there are 258 admonitions and 217

sayings.²

The admonition form is also extant in the Sumerian

and Akkadian sources (examples will be taken from

Suruppak, the "Counsels of Wisdom," and Ahiqar). For

example, the imperatival form appears in Suruppak, from

which Alster cites single and double imperatival forms.

The following Sumerian admonitions have an apodictic

character: "Do not buy an ass at the time of the harvest"

and "Do not steal, do not kill yourself."³ Conditional

statements are also coupled with the admonitions, like

they were in Egyptian literature. An example may be taken

from the "Counsels of Wisdom":

My son, if it be the wish of the prince that you are

his.

If you attach his closely guarded seal to your

person

Open his treasure house, enter within,

____________________

¹ANET, p. 412.

²Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchshehonqy and

Biblical Wisdom Literature," in SAIW, p. 145.

³Alster, Studies in Sumerian Proverbs, pp. 40-42.

For apart from you there is no one else (who may do

this)

Unlimited wealth you will find inside,

But do no covet any of this,

Nor set your mind on double-dealing.

For afterwards the matter will be investigated.¹

The motivational clause following an imperative may be

illustrated from Ahiqar vii.95-110:

[My s]on, ch[at]ter not overmuch so that thou speak

out [every w]ord [that] comes to thy mind; for men's

(eyes) and ears are everywhere (trained) u[pon] thy

mouth.²

The life setting of the admonition has been the

subject of much debate. Gerstenberger, connecting the

admonitions and the apodictic laws, suggests a family

setting for both, based on the negative form which is so

often used (Prohibitive form: lo' + Impf.; Vetitive form:

'al + Jussive).³ Richter, on the other hand, after

examining the prohibitive and vetitive forms, prefers a

upper class background in the schools.⁴ Whybray,

recognizing the presence of the admonition in Egyptian

instructions and the lack of the explicit use of hkm words,

____________________

¹Lambert, BWL, p. 103.

²ANET, p. 428.

³Gerstenberger, Wesen und Herkunft des

'apodiktischen, pp. 60-65, 110-13. Cf. Nel, The Structure

and Ethos, p. 77.

⁴Richter, Recht und Ethos, p. 117. Khanjian,

"Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 19

also rejects Gerstenberger's suggestion.¹ Nel properly

repudiates both restrictive settings as being based on the

form, rather than the content of the admonitions. He then

proceeds to trace the ethos of the family, school, court,

priests, and prophets in the text of Proverbs. He opts for

a "city" setting which allows for a multiplex origin.² Any

isomorphic mapping of the form onto a setting which does

not take into account the complex character and content of

the wisdom sayings is misguided. Though Nel is undoubtedly

correct that the admonition form does not indicate its

setting and that the frequency of admonitions has its

highest concentrations in collections A and C, which are

clearly didactic, yet one wonders how closely one can link

ethos with setting, as it is obvious that a teacher may

discuss matters which have their loci outside of the

classroom. Solomon is surely not to be portrayed as a

provincial farmer because he discussed trees and

animals.³

____________________

¹Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition in the Old

Testament, pp. 59, 114.

²Nel, The Structure and Ethos, pp. 82, 125. Nels

tracing of these themes in the text is a helpful synthesis.

Murphy also rejects the dual setting for the saying and

admonition, based on form alone, and maintains a didactic

setting for both (Wisdom Literature, pp. 6-7). Cf. also

Murphy, "Form Criticism and Wisdom Literature," pp. 480-81.

³Nel, The Structure and Ethos, p. 68. Glendon E.

Bryce, "Omen-Wisdom in Ancient Israel," JBL 94.1 (1975):36,

rejects Gerstenberger's conclusions. Zimmerli also notes

the great frequency of admonitions in chapters 1-9. While

chapters 10-22 contain 375 proverbs, only 10 are

admonitions and chapters 25-29 have 127 sayings, but only

The admonition has been grammatically defined, in

Nel's thorough study, as consisting "of an admonitory

element, in the grammatical form of an Imperative, Jussive,

Vetitive or Prohibitive and a motive element, which might

vary in grammatical form, length and explication."¹ Other

peripheral features which appear in the instruction

sentences are conditional clauses, a call to attention, and

a summary instruction. These three are found in Egyptian

texts as well.² Thus the admonition may be described as:

+ (call to attention) + (condition) + (imperative) +

(motivation) + (summary instruction). The two primitive

elements are the imperative and the motivation. It is

recognized that the motivational element is sometimes left

implicit.

The imperative element may express itself with four

basic verbal patterns: (1) imperative; (2) jussive;

(3) vetitive (negative of a jussive/imperative);³ and

(4) prohibitive (negative of the imperfect). Thus the

admonitions will break into positive and negative oriented

statements. Six basic types emerge from this

positive/negative orientation. First, there is the single

____________________

¹Nel, The Structure and Ethos, pp. 74, 125.

²Williamson, "The Forms of Proverbs 1-9," pp.

35-39.

³Ronald J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax: An

Outline, p. 35, section 186.

positive command, which may be manifested either by an

imperative (Prov 4:23; 16:3; 22:6; 25:16, 17; 31:8-9) or,

much more rarely, by a jussive (Prov 1:23; 19:25a).

Second, the command may be expressed by a single negative

in vetitive form (Prov 3:11-12; 23:10-11; 22:22; 24:28;

25:8; 31:3) or--as it appears once--with the prohibitive

(Prov 20:19). Somewhat less frequently, command dyads

occur, manifesting a third form of two positive commands.

Three options occur at this point: (1) the imperative/

imperative (Prov 8:5-9; 9:5-6); (2) the jussive/imperative

(Prov 4:4) and imperative/jussive (Prov 23:26-28); and

(3) the jussive/jussive (Prov 4:25). A fourth category is

the dyading of a negative and a positive command (either as

a vetitive and an imperative [Prov 3:1-2, 21-24; 23:4-5] or

an imperative/vetitive sequence [Prov 1:8-9; 4:1-2, 5-6a;

8:33-36; 23:12-14; 24:11-12, 21-22]. Fifth, although rare,

there may be a double negative (vetitive/prohibitive, Prov

22:24-25). Lastly, there may be a cluster of three or four

command forms (Prov 3:5-6; 4:13, 14-19; 20-22; 6:20-23;

23:19-21, 22-25; 30:8-9).¹ Nel notes the connection

between the negative command and the negative aspect of the

motivation which accompanies it (Prov 22:26-27; 22:22-23;

____________________

¹This material was synthesized from a chart by Nel,

The Structure and Ethos, pp. 65-67. Cf. also Chisholm,

"Literary Genres and Structures in Proverbs," pp. 3-4 and

his listing on pages 14-23.

23:9, 20-21) and positive prescriptions bearing positive

type motivations (Prov 23:17-18; 3:11f; 8:33-34). He

cites only three exceptions (Prov 22:22-23; 23:10-11; and

24:11-12), all of which mention YHWH.¹

The motive clause has been the object of much

study recently² and is linked almost inseparably to the

command of the admonition in Proverbs. The motive clause

provides the rationale explaining why a certain injunction

should be carried out. It is of interest that the wise

man did not simply legislate that his students obey his

advice; nor did he always invoke Yahweh as the basis upon

which one was to respond, although that motif is included

at points (Prov 22:23; 23:11; 24:12, 18; 25:22). Most

often, the wise man appealed to "a sense of self-interest

and relied upon a capacity to reason things out."³ Quite

frequently the motivation is in reference to rewards and

punishments. This is not in terms of an eschatological,

divine judgment, but is, rather, in terms of the cause and

____________________

¹ Nel, The Structure and Ethos, p. 87.

²Major works on the motive clause are: Nel, The

Structure and Ethos, pp. 18-65; H. J. Postel, "The Form and

Function of the Motive Clause in Proverbs 10-29" (Ph. D.

dissertation, University of Iowa, 1976), pp. 1-194; B.

Gemser, "The Importance of the Motive Clause in Old

Testament Law," VTSup 1 (1953):50-66; and R. N. Gordon,

"Motivation in Proverbs," Biblical Theology 25.3

(1975):49-56 (which has a helpful summary chart on page

56).

³Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 21; and von

Rad, Wisdom in Israel, pp. 90-91.

effect principles which operate presently in the created

order of the world (Prov 3:1, 2; 4:4; 6:25, 26; 14:7). So

Proverbs 29:17 advises:

Discipline your son and he will give you peace,

he will bring delight to your soul.

When one harmonizes his life with order, the results of

life, health, and prosperity follow. The individual who

violates order must bear the negative consequences

inherent in the deed.¹ The temporal rewards and

punishment motif is also strongly manifested in Proverbs

outside of the confines of the motivational clauses as

well (Prov 1:18-19; 10:4, 6; 11:3-6, 8; 12:3, 6, 10-11,

13, 20; et al.).²

The bond between the admonition and motivation is

seen to be inseparable by Nel, who maintains that every

admonition has a motivation. The weakness of this

position is divulged in his discussion of Proverbs 31:8-9

and 27:2, where he states that the motivation is

"inherent."³ Zimmerli and Zeller more properly allow for

admonitions without motivations (Prov 24:27, 28, 29;

____________________

¹Fox, "Aspects of the Religion of the Book of

Proverbs," HUCA 39 (1968):60.

²Gordon, "Motivation in Proverbs," p. 56. Gordon

discusses motivation in general and does not deal with the

motive clause specifically. Vid. Gladson, "Retributive

Paradoxes in Proverbs 10-29," for an interesting

development of this concept.

³Nel, The Structure and Ethos, pp. 64, 68.

31:8, 9).¹

The previous notion that admonitions were

agglomerations of wisdom fragments built into larger and

larger units in a unilateral, evolutionary manner has been

proven to be incorrect by both the Egyptian and

Mesopotamian literature.² Thus Nel, Kayatz, and Waltke

correctly reject Richter's and Gerstenberger's hypotheses

that the motivation clauses were later tagged onto the

admonitions in the postexilic period.³ One should note the

examples cited above from Sumerian and Old Kingdom Egyptian

literature which exhibit strong motivational elements as an

integral part of the admonition complex.

The introductory particles and forms of the

motivation are quite varied. Nel states:

The motivative clauses are usually introduced with ki

[Prov 24:1-2, 23:9, 6-8; 3:11-12; 4:13, 23; 7:24-27;

1:8-9], pen [Prov 25:8, 16, 17; 26:4, 5; 31:4-5;

5:7-14], waw [Prov 16:3; 29:17; 1:23; 3:5-6, 9-10,

21-24; 14:7], le...(+Inf. Cstr.) [Prov 5:1-2; 7:1-5],

gam [Prov 22:6], lema'an [Prov 19:20], ki-yes [Prov

19:18a], 'aser [Prov 22:28; 6:6-8], or with a secondary

____________________

¹Walter Zimmerli, "Concerning the Structure of

Old Testament Wisdom," in SAIW, p. 183; and Dieter

Zeller, Die weisheitlichen Mahnspruche bei ben

Synoptikern, p. 22.

²McKane, Proverbs, pp. 6-7. McKane here

refutes J. Schmidt, Studien zur Stilistik.

³Nel, The Structure and Ethos, pp. 72, 142;

Waltke, "The Book of Proverbs and Ancient Wisdom

Literature," p. 228; and Kayatz, Studien zu Proverbien

1-9, pp. 36ff.

verbal clause in the form of a simile [Prov 5:18b-20;

23:4-5] popular proverb [Prov 20:19, 18; 17:14].¹

Basically, there have been two ways of cataloging

the motive clauses. First, Nel organizes the motivations

on a functional, syntactic level (e.g., result clause [Prov

24:19-20, 21-22; 27:11]; causal clause [Prov 3:11-12;

22:22-23; 23:1-3; 24:1-2]; predication [Prov 4:14-19;

5:1-6; 6:6-8; 14:7; 23:26-28, 31-36]; interrogative [Prov

5:15-18a; 22:26-27; 24:28]; conditional [Prov 24:27];

secondary command [Prov 13:20a; 20:13b, 22]) and notes when

it is a final clause (Prov 16:3; 19:20; 22:10, 24-25; 25:8;

26:4, 5) or subordinate clause (Prov 19:25; 31:3, 6-7). He

also observes when the motivation precedes the imperative

form (Prov 20:19) and when it is left implicit (Prov

24:14).² Second, others would categorize the motive

clauses more semantically (vid. Kayatz's four categories

listed above [p. 238]).³ Nel also proposes four semantic

bases for the motivation: (1) its reasonableness; (2) its

____________________

¹Nel, The Structure and Ethos, p. 68; cf. also

Gemser, "The Importance of the Motive Clause in Old

Testament Law," p. 53; and Phyllis Trible, "Wisdom Builds a

Poem: The Architecture of Proverbs 1:20-33," JBL 94

(1975):512, 516.

²Nel, The Structure and Ethos, pp. vii, viii,

18-57.

³Kayatz, Studien zu Proverbien 1-9, p. 74; cf. also

Williamson, "The Forms of Proverbs 1-9," pp. 16-22; and

Chisholm, "Literary Genres and Structures in Proverbs," pp.

4-5. Gemser, having studied motivation clauses in the Law

and Prophets, states: "One can discern four or five kinds

of motivation: 1) the motive clauses of a simply

dissuasiveness (which forwards the end results of one's

actions [Tun-Ergehen nexus]); (3) its explanatory power

(predicational and observational elements); and (4) its

promissory character (Prov 1:23; 3:1-2, 7-8, 9-10, 21-26,

this type occurs only in chapters 1-9 cf. prophets).

Reasonable: Do not speak to a fool,

for he will scorn the wisdom of your words

(Prov 23:9).

Dissuasive: Do not withhold discipline from a child;

if you punish him with the rod, he will not die.

Punish him with the rod

and save his soul from death

(Prov 23:13-14).

Explanatory: Do not wear yourself out to get rich;

have the wisdom to show restraint.

Cast but a glance at riches,

and they are gone.

For they will surely sprout wings

and fly off to the sky like an eagle

(Prov 23:4-5).

Promissory: Listen, my son, accept what I say,

and the years of your life will be many

(Prov 4:10).¹

____________________

explanatory character, 2) those of ethical contents,

3) those of a religious kind, cultic as well as

theological, and 4) those of religous-historical contents"

("The Importance of the Motive Clause in Old Testament

Law," pp. 55-56). He also does an excellent job of showing

how the ancient Near Eastern law codes employed this form,

although one should not revert to the conclusions of

Richter and Gerstenberger.

¹Nel, The Structure and Ethos, pp. 86-88. For

motivation as promise, vid. Postel, "The Form and Function

of the Motive Clause in Proverbs 10-29," p. 45. Nel tries

to connect semantic and syntactic categories, suggesting

that the dissuasive clause are final, result are

subordinate clauses, and the explanatory are predicational

in syntax (p. 87).

As has been noted above, the admonition is rare in

Proverbs 10-22:16 and much more frequent in Proverbs 1-9

and 22:17-24:34, both of which have a strong didactic

character. The form of the admonitions in Proverbs

22:17-24:34 is noticeably longer than those of 10-22:17

and chapters 25-29.¹

An optional element which is often found in

conjunction with the admonitions is the conditional

clause, which, as shown above, is found frequently in

Egyptian sources.² Two introductory particles used by the

condition are (Prov 1:10, 11; 3:30; 6:1; 23:2b; 25:21)

and (Prov 6:3b; 23:1, 31; 26:25).³

An aspect which is ubiquitous in the early

chapters of Proverbs is the call to attention, which

appears to be part of the instruction formula (Prov 1:8-9;

3:1-2; 4:1-2, 4; 5:1; 7:1; it provides a convenient

structural marker in those passages). This device is used

____________________

¹Nel, The Structure and Ethos, p. 68.

²Kayatz, Studien zu Proverbien 1-9, p. 14; McKane,

Proverbs, p. 76.

³Chisholm, "Literary Genres and Structures in

Proverbs," p. 6.

with some frequency in Egyptian,¹ Sumerian,² Akkadian,³

and, more recently, Ugaritic sources.⁴ This form is

reflected in the confrontational settings of the prophets

as well (Amos 7:16; Isa 1:10).⁵

Two other devices that should be noted in

connection with the instructional proverbs are the summary

instruction and the prologue. The summary instruction

occurs in Egyptian wisdom and gives an overview of the

topics to be developed in the instruction.⁶ Proverbs

(3:3-4; 5:15-16; 8:33-36) uses this device coincidentally

with the admonition form. The prologue often involves a

string of infinitives, states the reason for the

instruction, and gives information concerning the author

and recipients (cf. Prov 1:1-7). Numerous examples are

____________________

¹Kitchen, "Studies in Egyptian Wisdom Literature,"

p. 191. Kitchen here translates a text called "The

Instruction by a Man for His Son," which begins with a

paternal call to attention. Cf. also "The Instructions of

Amen-em-opet," in Pritchard, ANET, p. 421.

²Alster, The Instructions of Suruppak, p. 35.

³Lambert, BWL, pp. 71, 106-7.

⁴Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 156, 254, 215, in

which he refers to RS 22.439:I:1. Cf. Williamson, "The

Form of Proverbs 1-9," pp. 36-38.

⁵Jensen, The Use of tora by Isaiah, p. 69; cf. von

Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 18.

⁶Vid. Pritchard, "The Instruction of Amenemhet,"

ANET, p. 418; "The Instruction of Amenemope," ANET, p. 424;

and Williamson, "The Form of Proverbs 1-9," pp. 38-39.

found in the Egyptian instructional texts.¹

Numerical Sayings

There are three things that are too amazing for me

four that I do not understand;

the way of an eagle in the sky,

the way of a snake on a rock,

the way of a ship on the high seas,

and the way of a man with a maiden

(Prov 30:18-19).

The numerical saying is based on a careful

observation of the order of nature, and a subsequent

collection and classification of phenomena into a

numerical pattern, which reflectively correlates the

phenomena by juxtaposing the elements, thereby heightening

the interest of the reader to discover the point of

commonality.² Thus the numerical saying attempts to order

diverse phenomena through a point of similarity. Its

purpose is didactic as well as philosophical. Both

Crenshaw and Ogden point out the ease which this form

____________________

¹Kayatz, Studien zu Proverbien 1-9, p. 24; and

Kitchen, "Proverbs and Wisdom Books of the Ancient Near

East," pp. 83-85. Kitchen has a discussion on the whole of

Proverbs 1-9 as an extended prologue, with meticulous

comparison to Egyptian models.

²Major works on the numerical sequence are: W. M.

W. Roth, Numerical Sayings in the Old Testament, p. 1-100;

M. Haran, "The Graded Numerical Sequence and the Phenomenon

of 'Automatism' in Biblical Poetry," VTSup 22

(1972):238-67; Graham S. Ogden, "Numerical Sayings in

Israelite Wisdom and in Confucius," Taiwan Journal of

Theology 3 (March 1981):145-76; James L. Crenshaw,

"Impossible Questions, Sayings, and Tasks," Semeia 17-19

(1980):22; M. Weiss, "The Pattern of Numerical Sequence

affords the memory.¹ The topics discussed by the numerical

sequence have been categorized by Ogden as follows:

(1) nature (Prov 30:15b-16, 18-19, 24-28, 29-31);

(2) society (Prov 30:21-23; Sir 25:1, 2, 7-11; 26:5, 28;

50:25-26); (3) ethics (Prov 6:16-19; 26:24-25; 30:7-9 [two

of which explicitly mention YHWH]; Sir 23:16-17; Eccl

7:16-17); and (4) theology (Job 5:19-22; 33:14-15).²

Crenshaw notes the frequent appearance of sexually oriented

topics in the numerical saying (Prov 30:18-19; Sir

26:5-6).³ It is interesting that Confucius also uses the

numerical saying form to discuss sexual topics.⁴ Davis has

shown that one of the functions of the numerical sequence

is a heightening of the intensity of the phenomenon being

observed, with the actual numerical values often being more

of rhetorical than mathematical significance (Amos 1:3;

____________________

in Amos 1-2: A Re-examination," JBL 86 (1967):416-23; R.

B. Y. Scott, "Folk Proverbs of the Ancient Near East," in

SAIW, pp. 53-54; and his The Way of Wisdom, p. 70.

¹Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 236; and Ogden, "Numerical

Sayings in Israelite Wisdom and in Confucius," p. 170.

²Ogden, "Numerical Sayings in Israelite Wisdom

and

in Confucius," pp. 153-59.

³Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 238.

⁴Ogden, "Numerical Sayings in Israelite Wisdom and

in Confucius," p. 160. Confucius does not employ the x/x+1

formula but does use a double numerical expression of the

form x/x.

2:1; Mic 5:5 et al.).¹

This numerical form is used to solidify a nexus

between the prophets and wise men. Its presence in

historical, legal, epic, prophetic and psalmic texts

further supports its prolific character.² The appearance

of the numerical sequence in Sumerian, Akkadian, Aramaic,

and Ugaritic, as well as in Hebrew, is not surprising.³

Examples may be cited from Gilgamesh (XI 60-61; 300-301),⁴

Ahiqar, and later Judaism (Pirke Aboth 1:2, 19; cf.

Sir 25:1, 2, 7-11; 26:5, 28).⁵ Even Confucius gives

____________________

¹John J. Davis, "The Rhetorical Use of Numbers in

the Old Testament," Grace Journal 8:2 (1967):41-44.

Chisholm utilizes Roth's "ethical and reflective"

categories to divide the numerical proverbs ("Literary

Genres and Structures in Proverbs," pp. 30-31).

²Crenshaw, "The Influence of the Wise Upon Amos,"

p. 49; and Thompson, The Form and Function, p. 105. It is

of interest that Nel classifies it as one of the genres of

wisdom literature ("The Genres of Biblical Wisdom

Literature," pp. 134-35), although Crenshaw more correctly

views it as a sub-genre ("Wisdom," pp. 230, 236).

³D. Freedman, "Counting Formulae in the Akkadian

Epics," JANES 3 (1971):65-81; cf. Gevirtz, "On Canaanite

Rhetoric: The Evidence of the Amarna Letters from Tyre,"

Or 42 (1973):168.

⁴Pritchard, ANET, p. 428; Story, "The Book of

Proverbs and Northwest Semitic Literature," p. 324; William

F. Albright, "The Goddess of Life and Wisdom," AJSL 36

(1919-20):285; Thompson, The Form and Function, p. 43; John

Gray, The Legacy of Canaan (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1957), p.

211; Story, "The Book of Proverbs and Northwest Semitic

Literature," p. 324; and Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 236. Cf.

Georg Sauer, Die Spruche Agurs (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer

Verlag, 1963), pp. 70-112; and Thompson, The Form and

Function, p. 55.

⁵Ogden, "Numerical Sayings in Israelite Wisdom and

at least ten numerical aphorisms (although he does not

employ the graded numerical sequence x/x+1 characteristic

of Canaanite rhetoric).¹

The form of the numerical proverb is basically a

title-line--which points to the common element and states

the numbers employed--plus a following list.² Quite a wide

variety of numerical sequences have been employed with the

formula x/x+1, which has been labelled the "graded

numerical sequence."³

Two suggestions have arisen for the origin of the

numerical saying. Numerous writers have noted the

connection of the numerical saying and the riddle; that is,

both have a non-obvious or hidden element which heightens

fascination. Although the hidden element is stronger in

the riddle it is also present, in subdued form, in the

____________________

in Confucius," p. 148.

¹Ibid., p. 159. Confucius said, for example:

"When attending a Gentleman (or Prince), you are subject to

three errors: speaking before you are spoken to, which is

impetuousness; not replying when spoken to, which is

reticence; speaking without observing his facial

expression, which is blindness." For the international use

of numbers in Proverbs, one should refer to Kuusi, "Towards

an International Type-System of Proverbs," pp. 711-35.

² Roth, Numerical Sayings in the Old Testament, p.

³For a listing of the various numerical options,

vid. Davis, "The Rhetorical Use of Numbers in the Old

Testament," pp. 40-41.

numerical sequence.¹ The onomastica have also been

suggested as a possible origin for the numerical saying,

since both participate in a listing mode of expression.²

The graded numerical sequence has received

attention from those examining poetic features. Kugel uses

it to support his "A, and as a matter of fact B" or "A

what's more B" approach to parallelism in Hebrew poetry.³

He ignores Haran's work,⁴ which points out that the meaning

may be restricted to the first number and might not always

extend to the second, as Kugel assumes (cf. Ps 62:12; and

several Ugaritic texts). O'Connor more properly places the

numerical sequence as a coloration feature manifesting

a trope of coordination.⁵

____________________

¹von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, pp. 35, 122; Nel, "The

Genres of Biblical Wisdom," p. 134; Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p.

237; Fohrer, Introduction to the Old Testament, pp. 311-12;

Williams, Those Who Ponder Proverbs, p. 39; and Khanjian,

"Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 12.

²von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, pp. 122-23; and

Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, pp. 43, 50. Crenshaw

relates the form to clan wisdom while others incorrectly

view it as a late development. Ogden cites Roth, McKane

and himself as viewing the numerical proverbs as a later

stage in the development of proverbial form (Ogden,

"Numerical Sayings in Israelite Wisdom and in Confucius,"

p. 147).

³James L. Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry:

Parallelism and its History (New Haven: Yale University

Press, 1981), p. 42.

⁴Haran, "The Graded Numerical Sequence and the

Phenomenon of 'Automatism' in Biblical Poetry," pp. 255-56.

⁵O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure p. 378; cf.

Moshe Held, "The Action-Result (Factitive-Passive) Sequence

Better-Than Sayings

Better a poor man whose walk is blameless,

than a rich man whose ways are perverse

(Prov 28:6).

Another form employed in the proverbial literature

is the "better-than" saying.¹ There are two approaches to

understanding the "better-than" saying. First, Schmid

suggests that the comparative element is not central;

rather, it should be viewed as an "exclusive proverb" which

is a negative assertion which excludes the undesireble

element (e.g., 1 Sam 24:17).² Bryce accents the

antithetical character in his binary opposition mode, which

is very close to the structural analysis of Milner.³

Modifying Bryce's approach, one may structure the "better-

proverb" of Proverbs 16:8 as follows:

____________________

of Identical Verbs in Biblical Hebrew and Ugaritic," JBL 84

(1965):275.

¹The most helpful recent articles are Glendon E.

Bryce, "'Better'-Proverbs: An Historical and Structural

Study," SBLASP 2 (1972):343-54; and Graham S. Ogden,

"Better Proverb (Tob-Spruch), Rhetorical Criticism, and

Qoheleth," JBL 96 (1977):489-505.

²Schmid, Wesen und Geschichte der Weisheit, p. 159.

Crenshaw prefers the term "excluding proverb" which

highlights the antithetical relationship (Old Testament

Wisdom, p. 69). Cf. also von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 29.

³Bryce, "'Better'-Proverbs: An Historical and

Structural Study," p. 350. Cf. George B. Milner,

"Quadripartite Structures," Proverbium 14 (1969):379-83.

One should also note Barley's caution in light of a fuller

semantic structure which allows for binary oppositions not

always expressed in terms of positive and negative valued

components ("A Structural Approach to the Proverb and Maxim

with Special Reference to the Anglo-Saxon Corpus," p. 736).

Better a little with righteousness;

than much gain with injustice.

n (=little) + P (=righteousness)

p (=much) + N (=injustice)

n + P > p + N (final formula)

Hermisson, Zimmerli, and others view the

"better-proverbs" in a more relativistic sense. While

normally the wise man portrays a dichotomous world

characterized by the righteous/wicked and wisdom/folly, in

the "better-proverbs" he deals with the large medial areas

which are more preferential than ethically normative.

These proverbs demonstrate a sensitivity to reality which

does not always come to one in terms of right and wrong,

but often merely as a discrete choice of preference based

on the degree of pragmatic value.¹ Ogden describes the use

of the "better-proverb" in Qoheleth as an introductory or

summary device which foregrounds the main point of

discussion by repeating it in this form. It may also

function as a motive for a preceding imperatival form (Eccl

4:17 [MT 5:1]; 5:3 [MT 5:4]).²

The actual form of the "better-proverb" is quite

____________________

¹Hermisson, Studien zur israelitischen

Spruchweisheit, pp. 155-56. Cf. also Bryce,

"'Better'-Proverbs: An Historical Structural Study," p.

353; Kovacs, "Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 45;

Zimmerli, "Concerning the Structure of Old Testament

Wisdom," p. 188; Scott, "Folk Proverbs of the Ancient Near

East," p. 54, also his Way of Wisdom, p. 76. Perdue

(Wisdom and Cult, pp. 182, 239) strongly rejects Schmid's

suggestion.

²Ogden, "Better Proverb (Tob-Spruch), Rhetorical

flexible. The simple form is bOF + A + Nmi + B and often

the A and B elements are developed into an "A + x is better

than B + y" form (Prov 12:9; 16:8).¹ Most often the filler

elements are nouns (Eccl 4:3, 6, 9, 13; 6:9; 9:4, 16, 18)

although infinitives (Eccl 7:2, 5) and whole clauses (Prov

12:9; Eccl 5:3 [MT 5:4]) are also acceptable. The order

may be switched so that the least desirable element is

presented first (Eccl 6:3b), but this is rare. In Ben

Sirach, the introductory is dropped (Sir 40:19-26; cf.

also Eccl 4:2, 17 [MT 5:1]; 7:1; 9:17).²

It is interesting to note that the "better-

proverb," though not yet discovered in Mesopotamian

literature, is found frequently in Egyptian sources dating

back to the Middle Kingdom (13 examples) through the New

Kingdom (21 examples) and is also used in the later period.

'Onchsheshonqy, for example, gives this evaluation:

"Better dumbness than a hasty tongue" and "Better sitting

still than carrying out an inferior mission."³ Even in

Israel the use of this form is well attested in the oldest

____________________

Criticism, and Qoheleth," pp. 491, 495, 497.

¹Ibid., p. 492; and Bryce, "'Better'-Proverbs: An

Historical and Structural Study," p. 349.

²Bryce, "'Better'-Proverbs: An Historical and

Structural Study," p. 352; and Ogden, "Better Proverb

(Tob-Spruch), Rhetorical Criticism, and Qoheleth," p. 492.

³Cf. Bryce, "'Better'-Proverbs: An Historical and

Structural Study," pp. 345-47, 354; Ogden, "Better Proverb

wisdom sections (Prov 12:9; 15:16-17; 16:8, 16, 19; 17:1;

19:1; 21:9, 19; 25:24; 28:6). Sirach also makes frequent

use of it much later (Sir 16:3; 19:24; 20:2, 18, 25, 31;

29:22; 30:14-17; 33:21; 37:14; 40:18-26).1 Some have

suggested an Israelite dependence on this originally

Egyptian form possibly having its source in the comparative

lists.2 One should also note that this device links

Israelite and Egyptian wisdom, in contrast to Mesopotamian

wisdom, in which this device is not extant.

Finally, other variations related to the

"better-than" proverbs are the "not-good" proverbs, which

use the formulaic לֹא טוֹב (Prov 17:26; 18:5; 28:21) or

טוֹב (Eccl 2:24; 3:12, 22; 8:15), and other sayings which

use without the comparative aspect (Prov 15:23), which

are apparently akin to the "abomination" (Prov 11:1) and

"delight" proverbs elsewhere.³

____________________

(Tob-Spruch), Rhetorical Criticism, and Qoheleth," p. 489;

Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy and Biblical

Wisdom Literature," pp. 111-12; and Scott, The Way of

Wisdom, p. 29.

¹Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p. 208; Crenshaw,

"Wisdom," p. 238.

²Bryce, "'Better'-Proverbs: An Historical and

Structural Study," p. 348.

³Glendon E. Bryce, "Another Wisdom 'Book' in

Proverbs," JBL 91 (1972):149; Murphy, Wisdom Literature, p.

66; and Ogden, "Better Proverb (Tob-Spruch), Rhetorical

Criticism, and Qoheleth," pp. 493-94.

Comparative Sayings

For as churning the milk produces butter,

and as twisting the nose produces blood,

so stirring up anger produces strife

(Prov 30:33).

The comparative proverb has been noted by many

writers (Prov 25:25, 28; 26:23; 10:26; 26:11, 21; 30:33)

and is related to the "better-than" proverbs.¹ Indeed, the

simile and metaphor were used heavily in Proverbs as early

as Sumerian times.² This juxtaposing of diverse images in

a comparative sense comes close to the essense of

proverbial analogical thinking.³ Dundes, perhaps

overstating the case, observes that "all proverbs are

potentially propositions which compare and/or contrast."⁴

Williams has labeled the rapid juxtaposition of images in

Proverbs as "stroboscopic" and has beautifully shown how

Wittig's model may be used on the metaphors of Proverbs.⁵

____________________

¹Murphy, Wisdom Literature, p. 66; von Rad, Wisdom

in Israel, pp. 29, 119-20; and Thompson, The Form and

Function, pp. 62-63, 71, 94.

²Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs, p. 15, lists Sumerian

proverbs which contain similes and metaphors. E.g., "Like

a clod (which has been) thrown into the water, he will be

destroyed in his splash" (1.79). Cf. also Thompson, The

Form and Function, p. 47; and Scott, The Way of Wisdom, p.

75.

³Thompson, The Form and Function, p. 7.

⁴Alan Dundes, "On the Structure of the Proverb," in

Analytic Essays in Folklore, ed. Alan Dundes (The Hague:

Mouton, 1975), p. 111; cf. Fontaine, The Use of the

Traditional Saying, pp. 69, 297.

⁵James G. Williams, "The Power of Form: A Study of

Such comparative forms are also acceptable in English

traditional sayings, as seen in the following similes: "As

gentle as a lamb;" or "As quiet as a mouse".¹ Fontaine

describes the function of metaphorical expressions in

Proverbs as follows:

The metaphorical proverb allows its users to move

easily from message to application, and provides its

user with protection from those who might disagree by

means of the 'indirection' of its language.²

The actual form of the "comparative" or "like"

proverb usually is indicated by the presence of a

comparative preposition (vid. Prov 12:4; 15:4; 16:27;

20:1), although the explicit comparative preposition may be

absent (vid. Prov 25:11, 12).³

Yhwh Sayings

When a man's ways are pleasing to the LORD,

he makes even his enemies live at peace with him

(Prov 16:7).

The "Yhwh sayings" are those which explicitly

____________________

Biblical Proverbs," Semeia 17-19 (1980):52-55; and Susan

Wittig, "A Theory of Multiple Meanings," Semeia 9

(1977):75-103. Williams' excellent article also well

describes five basic features of aphoristic expression:

(1) assertive, self-explanatory; (2) insight; (3) paradox;

(4) brevity and conciseness; and (5) the attempt to bring

sound and sense together and the juxtaposing of images and

ideas (pp. 38-39).

¹Cf. also Thompson, The Form and Function, pp.

22-23.

²Fontaine, The Use of the Traditional Saying, p.

80.

³Thompson, The Form and Function, pp. 62-63,

94;

mention the divine name (e.g., Prov 16:1-7). Due to the

acceptance of the theory that wisdom evolved from a secular

to a sacred Weltanschauung, numerous scholars would suggest

that the presence of Yhwh sayings in the older collections

are Yahwistic reinterpretations of the older, more secular

aphorisms. Thus, some have said that proverbs which

suggest the limit of wisdom because they invoke God's

actions and planning (Prov 16:9; 19:21; 20:24; 21:30-31)

are religious accretions to a predominantly empirically

oriented wisdom which originally focused on governmental

functions.¹ In his magnum opus, McKane clearly splits off

the Yhwh sayings into his Class C which is identified by

the presence of God-language. Interestingly enough, McKane

clearly recognizes the religious character of wisdom both

in Egypt and in Mesopotamia, yet rejects its presence in

the origins of Israelite wisdom. His procedure is to

atomize the sayings by grouping them into his preconceived

three-fold categorization. This not only destroys the

larger structures--which this paper will demonstrate are

present--but also reflects a scissors and paste

evolutionary model which unfairly biases the text by a

forced twentieth-century framework.² This approach

____________________

Williams, "The Power of Form," p. 42.

¹McKane, Prophets and Wise Men, pp. 50, 53.

²This criticism is purposefully harsh because this

writer views this fission/fusion sequence in McKane's

emasculates the fundamental pou sto of wisdom, that is, "the

fear of Yahweh." The connection of wisdom to the divine is

found in the historical sections which narrate early wisdom

motifs (1 Kgs 3:9, 12; 2 Sam 14:17, 20; et al.), and is

also seen regularly in the oldest collections of Proverbs

(10:3, 22, 27, 29; 11:1, 20; 12:2; 14:2; et al.). This

bond is found centuries before the biblical proverbs both

in the titles of the gods (in Egypt, Toth is regarded as a

fountain of wisdom, and in Mesopotamia, Ea, the father of

Marduk, is the "Lord of Wisdom") and in the texts which

relate the source and limit of wisdom to the gods.¹ In

Egypt, Pharaoh and the gods were the ones who sustained

ma'at.² Khanjian frequently comments on the presence

____________________

categories as not only making his work difficult to use,

but also as destructive of the meaning of the sayings

themselves by neglecting the interrelationships between

juxtaposed aphorisms. McKane, Proverbs, pp. 11, 17, 415;

cf. also his earlier work, Prophets and Wise Men, pp.

48-50; Jensen, The Use of tora by Isaiah, p. 42. Michael

V. Fox, "Aspects of the Religion of the Book of Proverbs,"

p. 57; H. D. Preuss, "Das Gottesbild der alteren Weisheit

Israels," VTSup 23 (1972):117-45. Another divide and

conquer approach may be seen in Moneuve D. Conway, Solomon

and Solomonic Literature (New York: Haskell House

Publishers, Ltd., 1973), pp. 77-79, where Conway takes

10:20, 21 as "Solomonic," 10:22 as a Yahwistic accretion,

10:25 as "Solomonic," and 10:27 as another accretion.

¹Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 230; Gladson,

"Retributive Paradoxes in Proverbs 10-29," pp. 93-94;

Roland K. Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament

(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Co., 1969), pp. 1005-6;

Thompson, The Form and Function, p. 44; and Gemser, "The

Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy and Biblical Wisdom

Literature," p. 117.

²Humphrey, "The Motif of the Wise Courtier in the

of the gods in wisdom at Ugarit.¹

The appearance of the name Yahweh in about one

hundred proverbs suggests that von Rad may be correct when

he proffers that all the sayings of the book of Proverbs

must be understood in light of the Yahwistic proverb:

There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan

that can succeed against the Lord

(Prov 21:30).

von Rad has been one of the leaders in returning the

Yhwh-sayings to their proper prominence in the wisdom

corpus (cf. Prov 16:7-12 where there is a clear

concatenation of empirical and Yhwh sayings).²

Abomination Sayings

The LORD detests the sacrifice of the wicked,

but he loves those who pursue righteousness

(Prov 15:9).

Another semantic category of proverbs is the

"abomination saying." These are sayings which employ the

term hbAfaOt, usually in the form "X is an abomination (to

the Lord)" (Prov 11:1, 20; 12:22; 15:8, 9; 17:15; 20:10,

____________________

Book of Proverbs," p. 187.

¹Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," pp. 1, 62, 169, 187,

241, 247, 271.

²von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, pp. 62, 91, 95, 310.

Bulloch, An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books,

p. 52; F. Derek Kidner, "The Relationship between God and

Man in Proverbs," Tyndale Bulletin 7-8 (1961):5 and Murphy,

"Wisdom and Yahwism," p. 123. Gaspar gives an analysis of

Sirach's religious character in Social Ideas in the Wisdom

Literature of the Old Testament, pp. 130-31.

23; 21:27; 28:9).¹ It is of interest that the Sumerian

proverbs repeatedly employ the formula "is an abomination

to Utu," where Utu is the god of justice.²

The counterpart of the "abomination saying" is the

"delight saying," which employs the term NOcrA. These two

are quite frequently antithetically paralleled (Prov 11:1;

12:2, 15:8).

Macarisms ('asre Sayings)

The righteous man leads a blameless life;

blessed are his children after him

(Prov 20:7).

The beatitude or macarism uses the term 'asre

(blessed). It has been suggested that this form provides a

nexus between the cult and wisdom (Prov 3:13; 8:32, 34;

14:21; 16:20; 20:7; 28:14; 29:18; Eccl 10:17; Sir 14:1-2;

Ps 1:1).³ Although somewhat different, the beatitude type

proverb appears in Egyptian wisdom as well.⁴

____________________

¹von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 115; Kovacs,

"Sociological-Structural Constraints," p. 236; and Murphy,

Wisdom Literature, p. 69.

²Bendt Alster, "Paradoxical Proverbs and Satire in

Sumerian Literature," JCS 27 (l975):205.

³Nel, "The Genres of Biblical Wisdom Literature,"

pp. 137-38; Perdue, Wisdom and Cult, p. 229. Murphy, Wisdom

Literature, p. 61; and Jensen, The Use of tora by Isaiah,

pp. 40-41.

⁴Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy and

Biblical Wisdom Literature," p. 142.

"There is . . . but . . ." Sayings

One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing,

another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth

(Prov 13:7).

The form "there is . . . but . . ." or -saying

has been observed by Gladson in Proverbs (11:24; 12:18;

13:7; 14:12; 16:25; Eccl 6:1-2).¹ In this form there is

an interesting combination of cue word and structure,

which often highlights the paradoxical nature of

appearance and reality.

Paradoxical Sayings

Do not answer a fool according to his folly,

or you will be like him yourself.

Answer a fool according to his folly,

or he will be wise in his own eyes

(Prov 26:4-5).

The paradox has been observed by several writers.²

A paradox may take the form of two juxtaposed proverbs

(Prov 26:4, 5), two parallel lines within a single saying

(Prov 20:17), or may be semantically triggered within a

single line (Prov 11:24; 25:15; 29:23).

Paradoxical sayings are also humorously observed in

the following Sumerian proverbs:

From 3600 oxen there is no dung.

Like a cow that has not given birth you are looking for

____________________

¹Gladson, "Retributive Paradoxes in Proverbs 10-29," p. 188.

²von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 127; and Thompson,

The Form and Function, p. 70.

a calf of yours which does not exist!¹

So, too, modern proverbs may be joined to create a

paradox: "Haste makes waste," and "He who hesitates is

lost."² Such proverbs are important in understanding the

character and authority of proverbial statements which are

partial descriptions of reality, and which should not be

extrapolated outside the sphere of their individual

relevance. Overlapping proverbs must be taken into

account, for reality is often more complex than the single

component which the proverb is developing.

The Acrostic, Rhetorical Question and Quotation

Of what use is money in the hand of a fool,

since he has no desire to get wisdom?

(Prov 17:16)

Three forms of a more structural nature are the

acrostic, rhetorical question, and quotation. The acrostic

may be observed in the description of the ideal wife in

Proverbs 31. Skehan has also noted acrostic features in

Proverbs 2 in which several stanzas begin with 'aleph and

____________________

¹Alster, "Paradoxical Proverbs and Satire in

Sumerian Literature," p. 208. This paradoxical form is

also developed in Sumerian "Wellerisms," often put

fablishly into the mouth of animals ("The ass was swimming

in the river, and the dog clung to him: 'When will he

climb out and be eaten' [he said]" (p. 212).

²Thompson notes the following Japanese proverb

pair: "A wife and a floor mat are good when fresh and new"

and "A wife and a kettle get better as they grow older"

(The Form and Function, p. 70; cf. Mario Pei, "Parallel

Proverbs," Saturday Review [May 2, 1964]:17).

the last three stanzas begin with lamed.¹ This form is

employed in the Babylonian Theodicy,² was well known in

Hellenistic and Roman times,³ and has been used to order

modern proverbial collections in German (A. D. 1480) and

English.⁴ There has been a long standing scribal

fascination with the alphabet.⁵

One suggested use of acrostics, which highlights

the scribal delight with this form, has been the Akkadian

and Latin use of this form to indicate the name of the

____________________

¹Skehan, "The Seven Columns of Wisdom's House in

Proverbs 1-9," CBQ 9 (1947):190. (This article is also

found in his book Studies in Israelite Poetry and Wisdom,

p. 9; cf. Murphy, Wisdom Literature, p. 52). This writer

finds this approach somewhat incredulous.

²Lambert, BWL, pp. 63, 67; Perdue, Wisdom and Cult,

p. 105; and Bulloch, An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic

Books, p. 35. For discussion of the acrostic itself, vid. Norman K.

Gottwald, "Acrostic," in The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible,

ed. George A. Buttrick, et al. (Nashville: Abingdon Press,

1962), 1:28. Encyclopaedia Judaica, s.v. "Acrostics (and

Alphabetizing Compositions)," 2:229-30; and George Zemek,

"Old Testament Acrostics" (Postgraduate Seminar Paper in

Old Testament History and Backgrounds, Grace Theological

Seminary, 1977), pp. 1-41.

³Ralph Marcus, "Alphabetic Acrostics in the

Hellenistic and Roman Periods," JNES 6.2 (1947):109-15.

⁴Taylor, The Proverb, pp. 6-8.

⁵William J. Horowitz, "Some Possible Results of

Rudimentary Scribal Training," UF 6 (1974):75-76; D. R.

Hillers, "An Alphabetic Cuneiform Tablet from Taanach,"

BASOR 173 (February 1964):45; and S. A. Strong, "On Some

Babylonian and Assyrian Alliterative Texts--1,"

Proceedings Of The Society Of Biblical Archaeology 17

(1895):138-39.

author.¹ Such forms clearly demonstrate that the wise men

sought to compose in larger literary units. Several

purposes for the acrostic have been suggested:

(1) magical; (2) pedagogical; (3) artistic; (4) mnemonic;

and (5) to give the impression of "exhaustive

completeness.² In Proverbs 31 all but number one seem

possible.³ Since this form appears in diversified types of

genres it should not be limited to wisdom literature, but

should be viewed as a literary device which is interactive

in many artistic forms of expression and for various

reasons (Pss 9; 10; 25; 34; 37; 111; 112; 119; 145; Lam,

and possibly Nah).

The rhetorical question is another form found both

in Proverbs (17:16; 20:9; 23:29; 30:4) and in disputational

speeches (cf. Job 6:5-6; 8:11; 12:11-12; Jer 18:14). The

disputation is drawn out by the question "Do you not know?"

(Isa 40:21; cf. Job 12:9).⁴ The rhetorical question is

____________________

¹Gordis, Poets, Prophets, and Sages, p. 83.

²George Zemek, "Old Testament Acrostics," pp. 18-19.

³Vid. Ethelbert W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech

Used in the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1968),

p. 185, for a thematic structuring of Proverbs 31.

⁴Norman C. Habel, "Appeal to Ancient Tradition as a

Literary Form," SBLASP (1973):34-54.

also found in Egyptian¹ and Mesopotamian wisdom.² Its

occurrence in Proverbs suggests that a didactic setting is

not totally foreign to this device.³ The rhetorical

question may be understood as a statement in the dress of a

question.⁴ Proverbs 6:27-28 reveals this when it "asks":

Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes

being burned?

Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being

scorched?

Crenshaw, demonstrating his usual perceptiveness,

develops the impossible question form both in wisdom texts

(Eccl 7:13, 24; Sir 1:2-3) and in other types of literature

(Amos 6:12; Jer 2:32; 13:23; 2 Esdr 4:7). He observes the

connection between these questions and the riddle, and

concludes: "I have suggested that 'wonder' best describes

____________________

¹Pritchard, ANET, p. 419. In "The Instruction of

King Amen-em-het" are found the questions: "Had women ever

marshalled the battle array?" and "Had contentious people

been bred within the house?" Cf. David A. Hasey, "Wisdom

and Folly in the Book of Proverbs" (M.A. thesis, Trinity

Evangelical Divinity School, 1973), pp. 3-4.

²Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, pp. 247-48,

where the proverb asks rhetorically: "Has she become fat

without eating?" and "Would you place a lump of clay in the

hand of him who throws?" Cf. Langdon, Babylonian Wisdom,

p. 83.

³von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 18; and Crenshaw,

"Wisdom," p. 232.

⁴The entertainment aspect of this form may be

reflected even in modern times with the questions: "Do

chickens have lips?" and "Do bears sleep in the woods?"

Note O'Connor's comment on the deep structure being an

assertion rather than a question (Hebrew Verse Structure,

p. 12).

the feeling involved by this literary form."¹

The quotation is not a dominant form in Proverbs;

however, Ecclesiastes and Job use it with great

effectiveness. Proverbial statements are often included in

the material quoted (Eccl 7:2; 5:9-10).² Fox notes that

the writer may agree or disagree with that which he

quotes.³

Final Comments Concerning Form

After surveying, in brief fashion, a few of the

forms and devices employed by the wise men, it is apparent

that they were concerned not merely with a terse issuing

of truth but also with the manner in which that truth was

formulated. Great care, whether consciously or

unconsciously, was taken to match form and content in an

effort to provide a wholistic message, with all levels

being activated to display divine wisdom accurately and

beautifully. In order to recapture the moment of writing,

one must not only appreciate the truth portrayed by the

____________________

¹James L. Crenshaw, "Impossible Questions, Sayings,

and Tasks," Semeia 17-19 (1980):21, 31. Cf. also his

Old Testament Wisdom, pp. 205-6.

²Two excellent articles on this subject are R.

Gordis, "Quotations in Wisdom Literature," JQR 30

(1939-40):123-47 (also found in Crenshaw's SAIW pp. 220-44)

and Michael V. Fox, "The Identification of Quotations in

Biblical Literature," ZAW 92.3 (1980):416-31 (this

scrutinizes Gordis' position).

³Fox, "the Identification of Quotations in Biblical

Literature," p. 417.

words of the sayings, but one must also realize that as

words are bearers of meaning so, too, the other semiotic

systems and structures carry meaning. The acrostic,

onomasticon, riddle, hymn, imagined speech, and numerical

saying all reveal that the wise men were apt at utilizing

larger literary structures.

The focus of this paper is on Proverbs 10-15, where

the proverbial saying predominates. Many have viewed this

section as a haphazard collection of proverbs--thrown

together with no connection, order or literary finesse.

One of the purposes of this paper is to show some of the

larger structures, not just to analyze syntactically the

antithetical sayings which compose Proverbs 10-15. One

objective of this chapter was to heighten a sensitivity to

the forms employed by the wise men. Such studies have

helped immensely in understanding the wisdom portions of

the Old Testament. Has not the study of the covenant form

(by Kline, Eichrodt, Hillers, and McCarthy) shed light on

historical sections? Who would deny the insights gained

from the form categorization of the Psalms by Gunkel,

Westermann, and Mowinckel? Similarly, the importance of

form for wisdom, the orphan of the Old Testament, is

fundamental for a full appreciation of the uniqueness of

this mode of expression. Unfortunately, studies in this

area which have appeared in the last ten years, have been

somewhat dilatory and unapplauded when they have

appeared.¹

____________________

¹I have in mind particularly the works of Crenshaw

(1978), Murphy (1981), Nel (1982), Thompson (1974), and a

most interesting article (which has been largely ignored)

by K. A. Kitchen, "Proverbs and Wisdom Books of the Ancient

Near East: The Factual History of a Literary Form,"

Tyndale Bulletin 28 (1977):69-114.

CHAPTER VI

APPROACHES TO HEBREW POETRY

Introduction to Poetry

While it may appear banally prosaic to observe

that the proverbial form is consistently poetic, yet to

appreciate fully this mode of expression or to describe

its intricacies formally is nigh impossible. One of the

goals of this study will be--after surveying recent

developments in the analysis of Hebrew poetry--to generate

and apply a deictic method which exposes the structure of

poetic form, thereby allowing it to be read more carefully

and appreciated more fully. The question may be raised as

to the fundamental features which constitute this

linguistic art form.

It is interesting to see how poets conceive of

their work. Poets, such as Samuel Johnson, emotively

describe their craft as "the art of uniting pleasure with

truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason." Poe

defines poetry as "the rhythmical creation of beauty" and

Watts-Dunton calls it "the concrete and artistic

expression of the human mind in emotional and rhythmical

language." Lascelles Abercrombie remarks, "Poetry is the

expression of imaginative experience, valued simply as

such, in the communicable state given by language which

employs every available and appropriate device."¹ The

master Shakespeare similarly quips that "The truest poetry

is the most feigning."² From a reader's perspective,

Perrine writes:

Literature, then, exists to communicate

significant experience--significant because it is

concentrated and organized. Its function is not to

tell us about experience but to allow us imaginatively

to participate in it. It is a means of allowing us,

through the imagination, to live more fully, more

deeply, more richly, and with greater awareness.³

Turner and Poppel, while treating poetic meter,

account for the kalogenetic synaesthesia of poetry from

the perspective of recent physiological studies of the

brain. The ability of poetry to activate the right

hemisphere of the brain via its metrical variations,

musical patterns and pictorial imagery is one way to

explain its alluring power. Thus, poetry allows the mind

to function wholistically, which is one reason why poetry

____________________

¹Walter Balair and W. K. Chandler, Approaches

to Poetry, 2nd ed. (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.,

1953), pp. xi-xii. Cf. John D. Hemmingsen, "An

Introduction to Hebrew Poetic Structure and Stylistic

Techniques" (Th.M. thesis, Western Conservative Baptist

Seminary, 1979), pp. 1-2.

²M. O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure (Winona

Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1980), p. 7, quoting from As You Like It

3.3.20.

³Laurence Perrine, Sound and Sense: An

Introduction to Poetry (New York: Harcourt, Brace and

World, Inc., 1969), p. 5.

is able to trigger the emotive and memory processes.¹

This may explain why poetry is didactically employed in so

many cultures.

From a linguistic perspective, poetry is described

by Jakobson as projecting "the principle of equivalence

from the axis of selection [a paradigmatic axis] into the

axis of combination [a syntagmatic axis]."² O'Connor

develops the potentiality of this statement. He notes

that the abstractness of this approach--rather than

demeaning meaning in favor of a reductionistic, phonetic

analysis--allows for an inclusion of syntactic, semantic,

as well as phonetic (meter, rhyme, and alliteration inter

alia) equivalences.³ Poetry differs from prose in its

symmetry, its regularity, and its repeated patterns. The

equivalent [paradigmatic] units, from any linguistic

____________________

¹Frederick Turner and Ernst Poppel, "The Neural

Lyre: Poetic Meter, The Brain, and Time," Poetry 142

(1983):289-306.

²R. Jakobson, "Linguistics and Poetics," in

Essays on the Language of Literature, ed. S. Chatman and S. R.

Levin (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967), p. 303. Cf. P.

Kiparsky, "The Role of Linguistics in a Theory of Poetry,"

in Language as a Human Problem, ed. E. Haugen and M.

Bloomfield (New York: Norton, 1974), p. 235 and S. R.

Levin, Linguistic Structures in Poetry (The Hague: Mouton

& Co., 1964), p. 30.

³M. O'Connor, "'Unanswerable the Knack of Tongues':

The Linguistic Study of Verse," in Exceptional Language and

Linguistics, ed. L. Obler and L. Menn, (New York:

Academic Press, 1982), pp. 146-48, 151-52. Cf. Olga

Akhmanova, Linguostylistics: Theory and Method (The Hague:

Mouton, 1976), pp. 11-17.

plane, may be mapped syntagmatically onto the line.¹ Thus

there are recurring elements of poetic sameness² which

produce expectancy and the feeling of isomorphic symmetry,

while at the same time there are variational features

which, by their very non-conformity, heighten delight. If

one will attempt to come to grips with the poetic mode of

expression, there must be a careful monitoring of the

elements of sameness and the variational techniques which

the poet employs.

Form and meaning are inextricably bound together

in poetry. Alonso-Schokel observes that "The literary

work is a revealing of meaning, and not a concealing of

meaning, through the artifice of form."³ Further, he

____________________

¹Interestingly enough, T. H. Robinson (The

Poetry of the Old Testament [London: Duckworth, 1947], p. 20)

observes this pattern, but develops it only on the semantic

level. He notes how this patterning causes a sense of

"expectancy," which is satisfied by the repetition or

recurrence of conceptual units. Vid. his "Basic Principles

of Hebrew Poetic Form," in Festschrift Alfred Bertholet zum

80. Gerburtstag, ed. W. Baumgartner et al. (Tubingen: J.

C. B. Mohr, 1950), p. 439.

²R. Jakobson, "Grammatical Parallelism and its

Russian Facet," Language 42 (1966):399. Here Jakobson

notes the root meanings of oratio prosa as "speech turned

straightforward" and versus as "return." Cf. J. Lotz,

"Elements of Versification," in Versification: Major

Language Types, ed. W. K. Wimsatt (New York: Modern

Language Association, 1972), pp. 1, 6.

³A. Alonso-Schokel, "Hermeneutical Problems of a

Literary Study of the Bible," VTSup 28 (1975), p. 10. This

writer views the work being done in rhetorical criticism as

a delightful movement beyond destructive literary

criticism, and even beyond form criticism, which has been

so helpful in Psalmic studies. Cf. Alonso-Schokel,

poignantly points out that the religious nature of the Old

Testament text does not negate the fact that it is

literature.1 What is sought after here is neither a dead

formalism after sacrificing the literary beauty of Hebrew

poetics on the altar of scientific, linguistic empiricism,

nor a degeneration into sloppy "aestheticism." Rather the

goal is to scrutinize the linguistic phenomena and the

aesthetic ornamentation, both of which are fundamental in

establishing the meaning of a text. It is only through

form that one can attain meaning. Thus, to observe the

____________________

Estudios de poetica hebrea (Barcelona: Juan Flors, 1963);

J. Muilenburg, "Form Criticism and Beyond," JBL 89

(1969):1-18; J. J. Jackson and M. Kessler, Rhetorical

Criticism: Essays in Honor of James Muilenburg,

Pittsburgh theological monograph series, 1 (Pittsburgh:

Pickwick Press, 1974); M. Kessler, "A Methodological

Setting for Rhetorical Crirticism," Semitics 4

(1974):22-36; M. Kessler, "Rhetoric in Jeremiah 50 and

51," Semitics 3 (1973):18-35 (who develops anaphora,

epiphora, anadiplosis and consonantal and vocalic patterns

in Jer 50 and 51). M. Kessler, "A Methodological Setting

for Rhetorical Criticism," in Art and Meaning: Rhetoric

in Biblical Literature, ed. D. J. A. Clines et al. (JSOT

Supplement, Series 19, 1982), pp. 1-19; and David

Greenwood, "Rhetorical Criticism and Formgeschichte: Some

Methodological Considerations," JBL 89 (1970):418-26.

O'Connor (Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 10) properly objects

to Alonso-Schokel's suggestion that analysis may begin on

a "styleme" level. Rather, O'Connor desires to seat

stylistics and rhetorical criticism on a grammatical

foundation.

¹Alonso-Schokel, "Hermeneutical Problems of a

Literary Study of the Bible," pp. 8, 13. Stek with more

acerbity, finds fault in the training of many, which

focuses on language, history, and theology, with little

time for the aesthetic aspect of Old Testament literature

(J. H. Stek, "The Stylistics of Hebrew Poetry: A

(Re)New(ed) Focus of Study," Calvin Theological Journal 9

[1974]:15).

form more carefully leads to a more perceptive

understanding of the meaning. That forms are not

irrelevant is demonstrated by the fact that the inspired

prophets and poets took the care to communicate God's

words in poetic Gestalten and God Himself addresses His

people in well-composed verse.¹ In Ecclesiastes, the sage

also described his attentiveness to such matters when he

wrote:

Not only was the Teacher wise, but also he imparted

knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out

and set in order many proverbs. The Teacher searched

to find just the right words, and what he wrote was

upright and true (Eccl 12:9-10).

Gevirtz cites an interesting example, from Amarna, of

Jerusalem's IR-Hepa, who requested that the scribe "tell

it to the king [Pharaoh] in good (i.e., eloquent) words."²

Poetic form, as language in general, is

hierarchical. The hierarchies may be seen on three

planes: phonological, syntactic, and semantic. Each of

these planes also has a hierarchy of its own.³ In

____________________

¹H. Kosmala puts it very well in "Form and

Structure in Ancient Hebrew Poetry: (A New Approach)," VT

14 (1964):423.

²S. Gevirtz, "On Canaanite Rhetoric: The Evidence

of the Amarna Letters from Trye," Or 42 (1973):164. Cf.

also Ezek 33:31-33.

³A hierarchical approach is modeled on the brain

itself, as Turner and Poppel point out ("The Neural Lyre:

Poetic Meter, the Brain, and Time," pp. 281, 303) and has

been one of the tenets of structuralist linguistics (K.

Pike, Grammatical Analysis [Arlington, TX: The Summer

phonology one may look at supra-segmental devices (stress,

pitch, and juncture) which may aid in metrical analysis.

One may examine phonetic patterns which activate the

devices of alliteration, assonance, consonance,

onomatopoeia, and rhyme. It may be asked if the phonetic

patterns of a dirge are different than that of a prayer or

a hymn of praise.¹ Likewise on the semantic plane the

hierarchies proceed from lexical selection (word pairs,

stereotyped phrases, merismus, semantic parallelism of

words, repetition, catch words) to proposition (with an

____________________

Institute of Linguistics, 1982], pp. 3-4; or H. A. Gleason,

Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics [New York: Holt,

Rinehart and Winston, 1961]), although as linguists they

both are hesitant about development of the semantic

hierarchy. David G. Lockwood (Introduction to

Stratificational Linguistics [New York: Harcourt Brace

Jovanovich, Inc., 1972], p. 25) develops a helpful model.

This writer is well aware of the developing field of

pragmatics, which may also provide another very fundamental

approach to language.

¹Levin, Linguistic Structures in Poetry, pp. 43,

46-47; also his "Linguistics and Literature:

Suprasegmentals and the Performance of Poetry," in The

Practice of Modern Literary Scholarship, ed. Sheldon P.

Zitner (Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1966),

pp. 344-45; Raymond Chapman, Linguistics and Literature:

An Introduction to Literary Stylistics (London: Edward

Arnold Pub. Ltd., 1973), p. 86; W. K. Wimsatt,

"Introduction," in Versification: Major Language Types, p.

xix; Percy G. Adams, "The Historical Importance of

Assonance to Poets," Publications of the Modern Language

Association of America 88 (1973):15; David Abercomble,

Studies in Phonetics and Linguistics (London: Oxford

University Press, 1965), p. 25. Donald C. Freeman

(Linguistics and Literary Style [New York: Holt, Rinehart

and Winston, Inc., 1970]) gives a helpful treatment of

pertinent materials (vid. p. 16f. et al. where further

bibliography in this field may be located).

infinite variety of, and repetitions between, semantically

parallel lines) to concept and discourse (strophic

patterns of theme and semantic structure, repetition).¹

Finally, there is a morphological or syntactic hierarchy,

which has not received proper attention until recently.

The syntactic hierarchy may deal with morphological

features of the word (morphological parallelism, e.g.,

yqtl-qtl sequences; singular-plural shifts; gender

variations), word order (inclusio, chiasmus,

deletion-compensation techniques, and double-duty

features), phrase and clause level syntax (repetition,

parallelism); line level syntactic correspondences

(matching [repetition]; parallelism; transformations), and

discourse grammatical features.² Collins is only

partially correct when he faults biblical poetics as

____________________

¹While the semantic level has been recognized in

the Lowth-Gray-Robinson semantic parallelism approach to

Hebrew poetry, little has been done employing recent

semantic theory. Stephen A. Geller's fine dissertation

(Parallelism In Early Biblical Poetry, Harvard Semitic

Monograph Series, vol. 20, ed. F. M. Cross [Missoula, MT:

Scholars Press, 1979]) has inchoated studies in that

direction. The very term "semantics" (often referred to

with disdain) is presently being given new life as some of

the best linguistic minds are now turning to this last

linguistic horizon, viz., the study of meaning itself.

Recent advances in semantics are slowly making their way

into biblical studies (vid. Moises Silva, Biblical Words

and Their Meaning: An Introduction to Lexical Semantics

[Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1983).

²The clarion call for an analysis of poetic grammar

was given by R. Jakobson, in Grammatical Parallelism and

its Russian Facet," pp. 399-429 and "Linguistics and

Poetics," pp. 296-322. Cf. Victor Erlich, "Roman Jakobson:

focusing on the semantic layer (parallelism) and the

phonological patterns (meter) while ignoring the syntactic

relationships.¹ Rather, the semantic layer has also

suffered neglect under the semantic reductionism of the

Lowth-Gray-Robinson standard description approach. The

study of poetics must not limit itself to merely one

plane, but must isolate and examine each facet as

extensively as possible and then heuristically interface

and integrate each plane with the others, in attempting

to view the poem as a complex whole. While such an

approach may be written off as mere idealism, the tools

and techniques for such a program are being refined

presently by linguists, grammarians, and semanticists.

____________________

Grammar of Poetry and Poetry of Grammar," in Approaches to

Poetics, ed. S. Chatman (New York: Columbia University

Press, 1973), pp. 1-27. Jakobson was followed by Paul

Kiparsky ("The Role of Linguistics in a Theory of Poetry,"

Daedalus 102/3 [1973]:231-44), and the works of S. R. Levin

cited above have been implemented in biblical studies via

four superb dissertations (O'Connor, Hebrew Verse

Structure; A. M. Cooper, "Biblical Poetics: A Linguistic

Approach" [Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1976];

Terence Collins, Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry: A

Grammatical Approach to the Stylistic Study of the Hebrew

Prophets, Studia Pohl: Series Maior 7 [Rome: Biblical

Institute Press, 1978]; Geller, Parallelism in Early

Biblical Poetry and a few articles (of particular interest

are Adele Berlin, "Grammatical Aspects of Biblical

Parallelism," HUCA 50 [1979]:17-43; E. L. Greenstein, "How

Does Parallelism Mean?" in A Sense of Text ed. A. Berlin,

S. Geller, and E. Greenstein [Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns,

1983], pp. 41-70; and his "Two Variations of Grammatical

Parallelism in Canaanite Poetry and Their Psycholinguistic

Background," JANES 6 [1974]:87-105) which represent a

syntactic approach to Hebrew poetry.

¹Collins, Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry, p. 280.

Hebrew poetry composes over one-third of the canon

of the Old Testament. Nevertheless it has not been well

appreciated or described. Perhaps it is because of the

difficulties of translating poetic features into a

receptor language which employs devices other than those

of the original language¹ or because of the difficulty of

isolating the features of Hebrew prosody in general.

Kugel attacks the very notion of Hebrew poetry by noting

that Hebrew did not even have a term with which to

designate "poetry." He also points out scansion problems

which arise in the switching of prose and poetry

stichometric arrangements followed in many recent versions

(Jer 30:6-11, especially v. 10). He attempts to show the

folly of such lineations by a risible example in which he

scans the legal text of Numbers 5:12-15, semantic

parallelism and all.² Cooper, on the other hand, studies

____________________

¹Northrop Frye, The Great Code: The Bible and

Literature (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,

Publishers, 1982), p. 9. Demonstrating a rather poor

understanding of biblical poetry, but sensitive to

translation problems of poetry, is William Smalley,

"Translating the Poetry of the Old Testament," The Bible

Translator 26 (1975):201-11. Also vid. Smalley's

bibliography on translating poetry, p. 211.

²James L. Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry:

Parallelism and Its History (New Haven: Yale University

Press, 1981), pp. 64, 69, 78. The fusion of word and

concept cannot be semantically demonstrated. Thus, just

because one does not possess a term for a concept does not

mean that the concept itself does not exist. His example

from Jeremiah, however, is unconvincing and his

"parallelisms" in Numbers demonstrate the need to define

the features of semantic parallelism more carefully rather

sir, mizmor, masal, etc. as terms used to describe the

poetic mode of expression.¹ Part of the problem of

describing Hebrew poetry has been resolved with O'Connor's

determination of the constraints of a poetic line. In

light of the foregoing discussion, the highly patterned

structure of poetry should provide a key for

distinguishing between prose and poetry. Even Kugel

observes elliptical terseness and rhetorical heightening

as poetic markers.²

The "Standard Description," as O'Connor has

labeled it, portrays Hebrew poetry as being composed of

two essential features: parallelism and meter.³ This

chapter will begin on the phonological level by briefly

considering the rationale for and against metrical

systems. The discussion will then move to semantic

parallelism and other devices which are employed on

____________________

than to dismiss the concept's nexus with poetry. Indeed,

O'Connor's suggestion that semantic parallelism is a trope

would free it from exclusively poetic use. Therefore, it

is not odd that such a trope would be utilized in a prose

legal text.

¹Cooper, "Biblical Poetics: A Linguistic

Approach," pp. 3-5. Cf. also Robinson, The Poetry of the

Old Testament, pp. 49-66.

²Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp. 87, 89.

He cites an English example: "Red sky at morning, sailors

take warning." The lack of the definite article and

subordinating conjunctions and various types of gapping all

contribute to this concise, piquant style. Cf. IDBSup, s.

v. "Hebrew Poetry," by M. Dahood, p. 671.

³O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 29.

various semantic levels. An examination the of

Lowth-Gray-Robinson system will reiterate Pardee's call

for a more careful examination of the trope parallelism.¹

Finally, the more recent syntactically based models will

be eclectically harmonized and O'Connor's substitution of

a syntactic constraint system in place of a metrical

element will be adopted.²

Phonological Analysis

Metrical or Not Metrical;

That is the Question

A brief survey of metrical approaches will

____________________

¹Dennis Pardee, "Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry:

Parallelism," a paper received in correspondence with Dr.

Pardee, prepared for the First International Symposium on

Antiquities of Palestine, delivered in Aleppo, September

1981.

²This writer obviously owes a great debt to

O'Connor for the production of his poetic encyclopedic

Hebrew Verse Structure, which, from what could be

understood of that tome, has so influenced this writer's

conception of Hebrew poetics. As the flaws and immaturity

reflected in this chapter are the responsibility of this

writer, so too any of the springs of insight manifested in

this work have already surfaced in O'Connor's Hebrew Verse

Structure which Edwin Good of Standford has correctly

lauded as "the most important [work on poetry] since Robert

Lowth (1762)." Edwin Good, review of Hebrew Verse

Structure by M. O'Connor, in JAAR 50 (1982):111. [This

writer is also grateful for the three hours Michael

O'Connor spent explaining his approach and in giving this

plebian a glimpse at how poetry should be read.] Geller

evinces his lack of care in reading O'Connor, when he

states that O'Connor "explicitly denies one of the

theoretical bases of the 'standard description': that

matters of perception, effect, and meaning play a vital

role on the study of literature" in "Theory and Method in

the Study of Biblical Poetry," JQR 73.1 (1982):68-70. He

describe the way in which many have phonologically

quantified Hebrew poetry. Such a discussion will serve to

heighten the sensitivity toward metrical concerns, to

point to the magnitude of O'Connor's proposal, and to

compensate for the deficient work done on meter by

evangelicals who have perceived phonology (metrics, in

particular) as something of a bete noire either because it

appears to have no effect on meaning or because it prompts

a metri causa approach which freely emends the text solely

on the basis of meter.¹

Why have scholars so tenaciously pursued the

concept of meter in Hebrew poetry? There are at least

five reasons for this approach. First, metrical features

in poetry are perceived as a language universal. Turner

and Poppel state, "Metered poetry is a highly complex

____________________

also unperceptively boxes O'Connor as a Bloomfieldian

"that tries to exclude 'meaning' as much as possible from

the study of language." One wonders, as well, whether

Geller has also poorly read Bloomfield (Leonard

Bloomfield, Language [New York: Henry Holt, 1933]).

O'Connor's point in Hebrew Verse Structure was not to show

us how to read poetry, but to specify the constraints and

parameters which determine the poetic line. This writer

has had the priviledge of observing O'Connor read poetry

and has witnessed his astonishing acuity and sensitivities

to the thought forms, devices, and meanings of poetry.

¹While the metri causa conjectural

emendations

approach has generally fallen into desuetude, yet Douglas

Stuart, still acquiesces: "Emendation may rarely be

attempted metri causa alone" (Studies in Early Hebrew

Meter, Harvard Semitic Monograph Series 13 [1976], p. 22;

cf. Gottwald, "Poetry, Hebrew," p. 834). One wonders on

what basis it is ever admissible.

activity which is culturally universal."¹ Support for

this is marshalled from two quarters: (1) meter does

appear in the poetry of all cultures from which we have

poetry (interestingly enough, he cites Hebrew as an

example of metrical poetry);² and (2) metrical patterns

reflect biological factors, since the brain is essentially

"rhythmic." The right hemisphere of the brain is

triggered by rhythmic sequences, which is why poetry is so

memorable.³

Second, the regularity of line shape suggests that

metrical considerations are involved. Mere parallelism

____________________

¹Turner and Poppel, "The Neural Lyre: Poetic

Meter, the Brain, and Time," pp. 277, 285-86.

²They cite Wimsatt's Versification: Major

Language

Types, which has reference to Western systems (French,

Italian, Spanish, English, German, Slavic and Celtic);

Oriental systems (Japanese and Chinese) and Uralic

(Hungarian, and Moravinian from Central Russia), and J.

Rothenberg's Technicians of the Sacred (New York:

Doubleday Co. Inc., 1968), which contains samples from over

80 different cultures. O'Connor responds to this by

allowing for the possibility of meter in Hebrew poetry but

notes that the real constraints which determine line

regularity are not metrical but syntactic. This does not

negate the presence of meter, but merely places regularity

on a descriptive syntactic base, rather than on an

impossible-to-implement phonological base (Hebrew Verse

Structure, pp. 64-67).

³Turner and Poppel, "The Neural Lyre: Poetic

Meter, the Brain, and Time," pp. 277, 281, 290. Stress and

pitch patterns are a phenomenon of all language and one

wonders if brain-poetry links should not be extended to the

brain-language connection in general. Moreover, syntax, as

it functions in all realms of language, may be provide a

patterning basis upon which metrical considerations may be

built.

does not account for this phenomenon.¹ Metrical

descriptions of line length note 2:2, 3:3, 3:2 (qinah), as

well as the less common 2:3, 2:4, 4:2, 4:3, and 4:4 line

shapes.²

Third, the association of Hebrew poetry and music

lends support in favor of a metrical feature. Indeed,

many of the early poems were explicitly called "songs."

Since it is not known precisely what type of music was

practiced in ancient Israel, two schemes have been

suggested by metricists: (1) songs were chanted (older

metricists opted for this view); and (2) songs were sung

with melody and meter "which were more precise than those

of a chant."³ The chant does not provide an adequate

reason to sustain a metrical scheme, however, as present

Jewish synagogues chant both prose and poetry. Indeed,

the Talmud records R. Yohanan as having said, "Whoever

reads Scripture without melody and the Mishna without

chant, to him applies the biblical verse: 'I gave them

____________________

¹O'Connor aptly points out that this is the faux

pas of the Gordon-Young approach (Hebrew Verse Structure,

p. 65).

²Hemmingsen, "An Introduction to Hebrew Poetic

Structure and Stylistic Techniques," pp. 45-48; also

Robinson, The Poetry of the Old Testament, pp. 30-39;

Gottwald, "Poetry, Hebrew," p. 834; and R. G. Boling,

"'Synonymous' Parallelism in the Psalms," JSS 5 (1960):222.

³Stuart, Studies in Early Hebrew Meter, pp.

18-19.

laws which were not good.'"¹ O'Connor objects, noting

music's inability to provide a proper footing for a

scientific metrical analysis. It is obvious that many

metrical poems are not and have not been adapted to

musical form and many prose statements have accommodated

musical expression.² Rather, music may cover metrical

inequities via lengthening or contracting the line when

necessary. Turner and Poppel point out that musicality

actually "diminishes the importance of the line."³

Fourth, recent studies have used the orality and

formulaic patterns of poetry to support a metrical

approach.⁴ Cross uses the alleged formulaic character of

Ugaritic poetry as providing for the regularity in the

verse system. He maintains that this system can be

monitored best by a syllable counting approach. O'Connor

____________________

¹Babylonian Talmud, Megilla 32a; cf. Kugel,

The

Idea of Biblical Poetry, p. 109. Kugel helpfully develops

the idea that "not good" means that they will be forgotten.

He then proceeds to stress the mnemonic value of chanting.

For an excellent study on the phenomenon of memory and

orality in former times see, B. Gerhardssohn, Memory and

Manuscript; Oral tradition and written transmission in

rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity (Lund: OWK

Gleerup, 1961).

²O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, pp. 40-41.

³Turner and Poppel, "The Neural Lyre: Poetic

Meter, the Brain, and Time," p. 289.

⁴F. M. Cross, "Prose and Poetry in the Mythic and

Epic Texts from Ugarit," HTR 67 (1974):1. Biblical work on

oral aspects of poetry have been fascinating and helpful:

Robert Culley, Oral Formulaic Language in the Biblical

Psalms, Near and Middle East Series 4 (Toronto: University

again points out weaknesses in this model. Cross is able

to gain a reprieve by allowing for "prose" intrusions into

poetic texts, which would explain variant counts.

O'Connor shows that the parallels between oral research

and the biblical texts are not exactly analogous.¹

Fifth, while not used as a basis for argumentation

today, the historical witness of Philo and Josephus,

followed by the church fathers who studied Hebrew--Origen,

Eusebius, and Jerome, inter alia--has been used to suggest

that there is meter in Hebrew poetry.² Kugel observes

that the concept of meter was introduced by Hellenized

Jews. He acridly concludes: "There is indeed an answer

to this age-old riddle: no meter has been found because

none exists."³

The rationale for modeling Hebrew poetry on a

metrical basis has been presented and its weaknesses

pointed out. Perhaps the most telling observation is

that, after over two millennia of commenting on the

____________________

of Toronto Press, 1976); and William R. Watters, Formula

Criticism and the Poetry of the Old Testament, BZAW 138

(Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1976).

¹O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, pp. 42-47.

²Gottwald, "Poetry, Hebrew," p. 830; and Dominic

Crossan, "The Biblical Poetry of the Hebrews," Bible Today

13 (1964):833-34. Kugel presents the best analysis of

these men and others from a historical perspective (The

Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp. 128 [Philo], 140f. [Josephus],

147 [Origen and Eusebius], 152 [Jerome]. Cf. also Cooper,

"Biblical Poetics: A Linguistic Approach," pp. 12-14.

³Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, p. 301.

presence of meter, no consistent system has been

discovered. The following discussion will summarize four

methods which have been employed in counting meter.

How and What to Count

There are basically four approaches for

quantifying metrical line constraints. Since these

approaches have been explained and executed in numerous

places, the discussion of the various types will not be

developed.¹ The traditional approach is the one developed

by Ley-Budde-Sievers. This method counts the number of

stresses and ignores the number of unstressed syllables.

Margalit provides a recent example of this method in his

attempt to find meter at Ugarit. His plethora of

qualifications as to what gets counted and what does not

demonstrates the conjectural nature of this endeavor.²

____________________

¹From a multi-language approach, Lotz gives a

helpful chart of the types of meter which exist in the

various languages (John Lotz, "Elements of Versification,"

p. 16). Perhaps the best survey is by R. C. Culley,

"Metrical Analysis of Classical Poetry," in Essays on the

Ancient Semitic World, ed. J. W. Wever and D. B. Redford

(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1970), pp. 12-28.

Other helpful summaries may be found in O'Connor, Hebrew

Verse Structure, pp. 33-36; Cooper, "Biblical Poetics: A

Linguistic Approach," pp. 20-32 (who notes, that while Ley

rejected the concept of a metrical foot, Sievers believed

the feet to be typically anapests [uu-] p. 23); and, of

course, Stuart, Studies in Early Hebrew Meter, pp. 1-10.

T. H. Robinson, "Basic Principles of Hebrew Poetic Form,"

pp. 440-50. For a useful chart comparing the counts of

three schools vid. Stuart, Studies in Early Hebrew Meter,

pp. 220-29.

²Margalit, "Introduction to Ugaritic Prosody,"

A second approach has been taken by Bickell

(1882), Hoelscher (1924), and Mowinckel. This method

alternates stressed and unstressed syllables. Bickell

held the idea that Hebrew poetry was iambic (u-: short,

long) or trochaic (-u: long, short) with occasional

anapests (uu-: short, short, long). This results in more

accents per line, although extensive emendations are often

required.¹

A third group, working from a parallelism type

base, suggests that thought units are the items which

should be counted. Consequently they count major content

words. Again, which "words" count and which do not, how

words and ideas interconnect, as well as the irregularity

of the line itself, have posed problems for this method.

The numerical results of this are close to the

Ley-Budde-Sievers approach.² O'Connor correctly labels

this view as a fusion of the two elements of the standard

description (parallelism and meter).³

____________________

p. 291; and G. D. Young, "Ugaritic Prosody," JNES 9

(1950):132-33.

¹Stuart, Studies in Early Hebrew Meter, pp.

5-6.

²Gordis, Poets, Prophets, and Sages: Essays in

Biblical Interpretation (Bloomington: Indiana University

Press, 1971), p. 65; Robinson, "Basic Principles of Hebrew

Poetic Form," p. 444; Cooper, "Biblical Poetics: A

Linguistic Approach," p. 1; Kosmala, "Form and Structure in

Ancient Hebrew Poetry (A New Approach)," VT 14

(1964):423-45; and Kosmala, "Form and Structure in Ancient

Hebrew Poetry," VT 16 (1966):152-80.

³O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 49.

The final method of monitoring meter is by a

strictly descriptive syllable count. It is interesting

that Kugel culls from history a comment by Marianus

Victorius that Hebrew poetry is based solely on the number

of syllables, not on feet as Greek and Latin. However,

elsewhere he goes on to "confirm" Jerome's statement about

Hebrew hexameter by observing spondees [--: long, long]

and dactyls [-uu: long, short, short].¹ Turner and

Poppel, in their studies in various languages, conclude:

"The average number of syllables per LINE in human poetry

seems to be about ten." They attribute it to the

limitations and patterns of the human mind.² Freeman

suggests that syllable counting is the first step in

scansion and metrical analysis and has "priority of

application."³ Syllable counting has been done from two

different perspectives, which see: (1) syllable counts

are used to reveal the existence of Hebrew syllabic meter;

and (2) syllable counts simply describe "the order or

structure which exists in Hebrew verse, without being

____________________

¹Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, p.

251.

²Turner and Poppel, "The Neural Lyre: Poetic

Meter, the Brain, and Time," p. 298. They provide

parameters of 4-20 syllables for a line, with 7-17 as the

most common in non-tonal languages (p. 286). Culley notes

that 8-10 syllables is the normal line in Hebrew and

charts his data ("Metrical Analysis of Classical Hebrew

Poetry," pp. 26-27).

³Donald C. Freeman, Linguistics and Literary Style

(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1970),

associated with a metrical pattern."¹ O'Connor notes that

Culley and Freedman (and this writer would add Geller) use

syllable counts in the second manner simply as a

descriptive tool, while Cross and Stuart incorrectly use

them in the first manner. Stuart's categories of mixed

meter (juxtaposing couplets of various lengths, viz. 7:7,

8:8, etc.); irregular meter (uneven lengths within a

colon, viz. 7:6, 9:7; 7:8, etc.) and unbalanced meter

(couplets having different counts but constituting a

pattern, viz. 7:5::5:7) demonstrate the non-uniformity of

this approach.² O'Connor points out that Stuart

systematically emends the text to fit his system by "the

deletion of ky, 't, 'sr, and other particles.³ Cooper

demurs for similar reasons, particularly noting that

Stuart's countings are not as regular as he suggests and

that he does not prove his syllabic meter.⁴ Stuart

____________________

p. 319. Also vid. pp. 309-10 for an interesting

perspective on metrics.

¹O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 34.

²Stuart, Studies in Early Hebrew Meter, p.

14. Geller notes that in his corpus 24% was syllabically

asymmetrical (imbalanced by two or more syllables). He

specifically lists lines manifesting a four-two syllable

variation (Parallelism in Early Biblical Poetry, pp.

371-72.

³O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, pp. 35-36.

⁴Cooper, "Biblical Poetics: A Linguistic Approach," pp. 29-30.

ironically castigates Freedman for not emending the

text.¹

This writer thinks that the strict syllable count may be a

beneficial monitor of line length or mass which is based

on syntactic constraints and manifests itself in

phonological patterns.

Non-metrical Approaches

G. D. Young, in an influential article, supported

C. Gordon's idea "that regular meter can be found in such

poetry is an illusion."² Kugel also opts for this

position, which has been labeled "metrical nihilism."³

O'Connor properly points out that they fail to account for

the regularity which is present in the line.⁴ Due to the

almost universal presence of meter in the poetic

structures throughout the world, such pessimism seems

misplaced. Perhaps more in order is a return to Lowth's

position of metrical agnosticism. This proposal holds

that most likely there is a metrical pattern in Hebrew

prosody, but it is, as yet, undiscovered. Yoder notes

____________________

¹Stuart, Studies in Early Hebrew Meter, p.

²G. D. Young, "Ugaritic Prosody," p. 133; cf. C.

Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook, Analecta Orientalia 38 (Rome:

Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1965), pp. 130-31.

³Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp. 190,

297.

⁴O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 65.

Cf. also Pierre Proulx, "Ugaritic Verse Structure and the Poetic

Syntax of Proverbs" (Ph.D. dissertation, Johns Hopkins

University, 1956), pp. 16-17.

four reasons why this is still a good alternative:

(1) emendations are required to make present metrical

systems "work"; (2) present metrical models often

disregard parallelism and syntax; (3) rules which make

meter work are also appropriate in the description of

prose (he notes Sievers' application of his metrical

patterns to Genesis); and (4) the various systems are

contradictory.¹ Gevirtz also acquiesces to this

position.²

A Syntactic Alternative

The preceding rather jejune discussion was

intended to heighten the sensitivity toward metrical

considerations, which are often totally ignored in

evangelical circles as synonymous with metri causa textual

emendation. It was also intended to prepare the ground

for O'Connor's solution, which will replace metrical

considerations by syntactic constraints in an attempt to

monitor and to specify the linear regularity observed in

Hebrew prosody. It has been shown, although not in

detail, that the pursuit of a phonological base for

metrical considerations has been a rather futile one.

____________________

¹Yoder, "Biblical Hebrew," in Versification:

Major Language Types, p. 58.

²Stanley Gevirtz, Patterns in the Early Poetry of

Israel, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 32

(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1962), p. 2.

Indeed, the problems of the evolution of the Hebrew

language with vowel shifts, case ending problems, and

various anacrusis or lengthenings, which may have occurred

at the time of poetic composition are no longer available

for analysis. Many have concluded with Pardee that

"meter, in the strictest sense of the term at least, was

not the constitutive feature of Ugaritic and Hebrew

poetry."¹ Cooper makes a brief comparison of a syllabic

count and syntactic unit approach in the Son of Lamech

(Gen 4:23-24). By using a syntactic approach (2:2), he

demonstrates linear equality on lines which by the

syllable counting method are unequal (9:9:7:7:7:7).²

Geller, in his description--which is one of the most

complete and complex in existence--has observed the

regularity of syntactic line lengths (with 2:2, 3:3 and

4:4 as the most common, and other being 3:2; 4:2; 2:3;

____________________

¹Pardee, "Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry:

Parallelism," p. 1. Cf. also his "Types and Distributions

of Parallelism in Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry,"

Communication prepared for the Annual Meeting of the

Society of Biblical Literature (New York, December 21,

1982), in which he faults Geller for including metrical

considerations in his description of Hebrew poetry (pp. 3,

4). Cf. Geller's statement for ranking meter over semantic

and grammatic parallelism in Parallelism in Early Biblical

Poetry, p. 366 (he qualifies this on pp. 371-72, however).

²Cooper, "Biblical Poetics: A Linguistic

Approach," pp. 33-34. Cf. also pp. 105-9 where he

systematizes line types similarly to what Collins and

O'Connor have done. Also vid. W. K. Wimsatt, Hateful

Contraries, Studies in Literature and Criticism (Lexington:

University of Kentucky Press, 1965), pp. 142-43.

4:3; 2:4; 3:4 and 4:5) and has provided a complete list of

syntactic line lengths in his corpus.¹ O'Connor goes to

the heart of the matter by objecting to a phonological

base for meter. He suggests that a syntactic base

provides the constraints which determine line length.²

Phonological Ornamentation: Alliteration,

Paronomasia and Onomatopoeia

While the question of meter continues to be a

subject of debate, other phonological schemes should not

be neglected. Though these features are phonaesthetic in

character, it is obscurantic to ignore such features with

which the poets themselves so meticulously adorned their

texts.³ Indeed, the audiences would expect such.

____________________

¹Geller, Parallelism in Early Biblical Poetry, p.

10.

²O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, pp. 56,

60-61, 138, 147. If this writer is not incorrect, this is the

major thesis of O'Connor's book and it provides, for the

first time, a basis for determination of the line which has

for so long eluded scholars. Without a definition of the

line it is no wonder such difficulties have accrued in

Hebraic poetic studies. O'Connor's constraints and

emphasis on syntax provide a foundation upon which the

works of Collins, Cooper, Berlin, Greenstein and Geller may

be appreciated. The thesis of O'Connor's book was strictly

to nail down the structure of the line, which he did

admirably.

³J. J. Gluck, "Assonance in Ancient Hebrew Poetry:

Sound Patterns as a Literary Device," in De Fructu Oris

Sui: Essays in Honour of Adrianus van Selms, ed I. H.

Eybers et al. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1971), p. 78. Percy

G. Adams, "The Historical Importance of Assonance to

Poets," Publications of the Modern Language Association of

America 88 (1973):16. Cf. Bruno Hildebrandt, "Linguistic

Analysis of Sound and Rhyme in Poetry," in Papers from the

Alliteration may be designated as phonological

repetition.¹ It is a device used to heighten the feeling

of sameness in a text, thereby expressing its cohesive

unity in phonetic form. In short, alliteration is a

synthesis of sound and sense. There is need for a

standardization of terminology. Pardee observes the

disparity between the definition of alliteration in the

Oxford English Dictionary as "the commencement of certain

accented syllables in a verse with the same consonant or

consonantal group" and a broader definition, which is

reflected in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and

Poetics, allowing for "any repetition of the same sound(s)

or syllable in two or more words of a line (or line

group), which produces a noticeable artistic effect."²

This study will operate under the broader description.

Thus, Shakespeare's play on initial alliteration in the

____________________

1977 Mid-America Lingusitics Conference, ed. D. M. Lance

and D. E. Gulstad (Columbia, MS: University of Missouri,

1978), p. 454.

¹Akhmanova, Linguostylistics: Theory and

Method, p. 23; Raimo Anttila, "Comments on K. L. Pike's and W. P.

Lehman's Papers," in The Scope of American Linguistics, ed.

Robert Austerlitz (Lisse: The Peter De Ridder Press,

1975), p. 60. Where the phonaesthetic pattern "slide,

slip, slouch, slime, slush, sludge, slither, slink, sleek,

etc." is noted.

²Pardee, "Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry:

Parallelism," p. 31, n. 57. A. Preminger, F. J. Warnke,

and O. B. Hardison, ed. Princeton Encylopedia of Poetry and

Poetics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965), p.

15. Cf. also P. Kiparsky, "Linguistics in a Theory of

Poetry," pp. 241-42.

title "Love's Labour's Lost" may be compared to

medial alliteration of "that brave vibration" of Robert Herrick.¹

Final alliteration forms a type of rhyme:

The 'age demanded' chiefly a mould in plaster,

Made with no loss of time.

A prose kinema, not assuredly, alabaster

Or the 'sculpture' of rhyme.

Fussell reiterates how "plaster" and "alabaster" are drawn

together by the end alliteration (rhyme) for comparison in

sound and also for semantic contrast.² Such close

reading should be beneficially employed in the analysis of

biblical poetry. Multiple unit repetitions may also

reverse the order of vowels and consonants. While little

more than a simple mentioning of this phenomenon has

appeared in biblical studies, the work of Margalit has not

only demonstrated this feature in Ugaritic but has also

circumscribed parameters for discovering it elsewhere.³

He suggests that:

To be significant, a letter should occur: (a) at

least three times per seven verse-unit verse; and/or

(b) twice in a single word or once in each of two

adjacent words (especially at the beginning); and/or

____________________

¹Examples are taken from the Princeton

Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, pp. 15, 16.

²Paul Fussell, Poetic Meter and Poetic Form

(New York: Random House, 1979), pp. 110-11.

³Margalit, "Introduction to Ugaritic Prosody," pp.

310-13. Pardee also confirms this in his Ugaritic studies

restricting it to a consonantalism. ("Type and

Distributions of Parallelism in Ugaritic and Hebrew

Poetry," p. 5).

letters, not necessarily in the same order, and not

necessarily in the scope of a single word.¹

O'Connor offers a parsimonious caution that

alliteration should not be confused with word repetition

and that prefix and suffix repetitions be taken cum granis

salis and not as proof of alliteration per se.² Because

alliteration may be seen as a repetitional feature, this

writer, while observing O'Connor's caution from his

poetically sensitive perspective, suggests that the

repetition of certain words appear to be selected as much

on the basis of phonetics as semantics, as will be shown

perhaps in Proverbs 11:7-12 with the repeated use of the

preposition בְּ. Gluck is correct when he states,

"Alliteration is part of many proverbs and popular idioms,

reinforcing a truism with a chime."³ One tenet of this

paper will be to demonstrate the use of this device in the

proverbial text. This scheme of phonetic repetition was

used not only to scintillate aesthetically, but also like

other forms of repetition, to provide a linguistic

cohesion on the intra- and inter-line level, as

well as on the "strophic" levels of the proverbial

____________________

¹Margalit, "Introduction to Ugaritic Prosody," p.

311. Cf. O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 143.

²O'Connor, "The Rhetoric of the Kilamuwa

Inscription," BASOR 226 (1977):16, 17.

³Gluck, "Assonance in Ancient Hebrew Poetry: Sound

Patterns as a Literary Device," p. 78. His examples

include Prov 6:2; 11:1a, 22a; 13:3a, 12; 14:1.

sentence literature.

Assonance is an artistic use of vowel repetition

in stressed syllables of adjacent words.¹ Adams notes

that, in general, alliteration (consonance) is more

noticeable.² Gluck shows that assonance in passages such

as Isaiah 1:18-20 and 5:2 is often supportive of

alliterative (consonantal) features.³ Because of the

problem with Hebraic vocalization and the tendency of

vowels to change with time, one must be cautious about

this aspect of phonological repetition.⁴ This feature

will not be systematically studied in the corpus.

Another sound pattern which is used with great

effect is paronomasia. Gluck provides a brilliant article

in which he distinguishes six types of this trope in

Isaiah. While this form of word play or punning is often

regarded as a mark of doltishness in modern culture it was

____________________

¹Edward P. J. Corbett, Classical Rhetoric for the

Modern Student (New York: Oxford Universtiy Press, 1971),

pp. 471-72.

²Adams, "The Historical Importance of Assonance to

Poets," p. 8.

³Gluck, "Assonance in Ancient Hebrew Poetry: Sound

Patterns as a Literary Device," pp. 82-83.

⁴Adams, "The Historical Importance of Assonance to

Poets," p. 8. Pardee ("Types of Distributions of

Parallelism in Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry," p. 5) has tried

his hand at vocalization of Ugaritic texts looking for

assonance and has "come up with very little on vowel

patterning."

not so regarded in ancient Israel.¹ A thorough

investigation of this trope has not been performed in the

proverbial corpus. However, a few examples from a cursory

examination of the text should suggest the fruitfulness of

such an approach. (1) The equivocal pun, where a single

grapheme may have two diverse semantic meanings (double

entendre) which are played upon (Prov 3:3, 8; 6:2). An

example is provided by Moffatt who manifests this feature

in his translation of Proverbs 10:6b and 10:11b. The

Hebrew colon is exactly the same; yet in one he takes

as "to cover" and in the other as "to conceal." His

suggestion accommodates the context and influence of the

bi-colon rather than just the clausal context.² Another

possible case may be seen in the Revised Standard Version

of Proverbs 11:7, where אוֹנִים is translated "iniquity"

rather than "power" or "strength."³ (2) The metaphony

creates ambiguity by the mutation of vowels (Isa 1:29).

(3) Parasony interchanges a consonant resulting in an

unexpected meaning (Isa 1:28). (4) Farrago refers to

____________________

¹Gluck, "Paronomasia in Biblical Literature,"

Semitics 1 (1970):52. In a footnote, Gluck notes the pun:

"The bun is the lowest form of wheat" (The pun is the

lowest form of wit) (p. 52). Cf. also A. Guillaume,

"Paronomasia in the Old Testament," JSS 9 (1964):282-90.

²James Moffatt, A New Translation of the Bible (New

York: Harper and Brothers Pub., 1922).

³BDB, p. 20.

words which sound chaotic from their semantic content, but

which produce an imagery nevertheless (Isa 8:1; 28:10).

The word play on diverse and unexpected meanings may be

seen in Proverbs 10:2, where "treasures" and "riches" are

said to be of no "value." This play focuses on the

contrast between the wicked, for whom normally positive

things are of no profit, and the righteous, for whom even

the negative experience of death is escapable.

(5) Associative puns twist diction by taking two

components, which are normally not associated, and

juxtaposing them in order to create new imagery (e.g.,

uncircumcised of heart Lev. 26:41). An example of this

type may be seen in Proverbs 10:21, where it is the lips

of the righteous which feed many, rather than, the usual

conception that lips should be fed. (6) Assonantic puns

are word plays which are accompanied by a recurrence of

sound, thus catching the ear and binding the significant

words together phonetically (Isa 7:13-14; 24:17). A

possible example may be seen in Proverbs 10:5 where a is

added to בַּקַיִץ (in summer), thus resulting in בַּקָּצִיר (in

harvest). This causes the reader to reflect on slothful

sleep of one who slumbers, even through the time when all

helpers are needed (harvest), as compared to the

industriousness of the diligent, who is sedulous with

productive labor even during the slow summer season. So,

too, in Proverbs 11:13 there is an assonantic play with

the words מְגַלֶּה־סּוֹד (spreads a secret) and מְכַסֶּה דָבָר (hides

a matter), where a secret (סוֹד) which is spread is

alliteratively linked to the concealing of a דָּבָר which is

normally open to be proclaimed. Thus the assonance

reveals that the ordering of the participles should have

been reversed. In Proverbs 11:18, שֶׁקֶר (deceptive) and שֶׂכֶר

(wages) are sound-bound. They unite the bi-colon via a

common sound but have diverse and contrastive meanings.

That is, the wages of the wicked are deceptive but he who

sows righteousness obtains true wages. These words

emphasize the contrast between the results of the wicked,

who seek only money and get deceptive wages, and those who

sow righteousness, who actually get that which is desired

by the wicked: wages.

A final phonetic feature of poetry is

onomatopoeia--the formation of words to sound like that

which they describe (Ps 93:4; Judg 5:22).¹ While this

trope is not overly abundant in Proverbs, it does occur.

For example, in Proverbs 10:18 the soft hissing of the

malignant murmurer may be heard in the repeated silibants

which are graphemically written by three different letters

( ס, שׂ, שׁ).

____________________

¹Gottwald, "Poetry, Hebrew," p. 835.

In summary, it has been shown that phonetic

features are important both in terms of the poet's

endeavor to use sound patterns creatively and of the

audience's expectations. Cognizance of these devices will

lead the reader to a more complete picture of the poetic

moment. In a day when Hebrew in America is so poorly read

orally, the reminder of the importance of phonetic

features for composition and audience response suggests

that the oral reading of Hebrew is not done simply for

purist or pedantically pedagogical reasons but for

aesthetic and exegetical reasons as well. The systems of

meter were discussed in order to point out the superiority

of replacing the muddled maze of meter with a more

descriptively verifiable system of syntax. A syntactical

base should not eliminate stress patterns, phonological

schemes, and tropes from a close reading of the text, but

should help define the most basic unit, i.e., the line

itself.

Semantic Analysis

Standard Description Approach¹ to

Semantic Parallelism

The discussion of the history of the notion of

parallelism as applied to Hebrew poetry has been developed

____________________

¹Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp. 176-79

(Ibn Ezra and Kimchi), 201-3 (dei Rossi). Cf. also A.

Baker, "Parallelism: England's Contribution to Biblical

Studies," CBQ 35 (1973):433-36. Kugel also treats the work

exhaustively in Kugel's Idea of Biblical Poetry. Lowth

was obviously anticipated by Jewish scholars like Azariah

dei Rossi, David Kimchi and Ibn Ezra. Kugel does an

excellent job specifying precisely how each contributed to

the overall historical development of this idea.¹ For

purposes of this study, the discussion will proceed as

follows: (1) an enumeration of Lowth's model; (2)

modifications at the hands of Gray, Robinson et al.; (3)

exploration of other semantic descriptions; (4) the

problems of this type of semantic approach; and (5) other

semantic line binders (word pairs; repetitions; merismus,

etc.). The intention is not to reiterate all that has

been done on this subject, but is merely to illustrate how

this system looks at poetry, to point out its flaws, and

then to indicate the direction that may preserve a

semantic approach. This approach to poetry is being

assaulted and/or neglected by those of the metrical and

syntactic schools.

Lowth's insight was not that parallelism was

employed in poetry, for many had seen and classified it as

a trope or figure. Rather, for Lowth, parallelism was no

mere ornament; it was an evidence of lineation.1 Lowth

____________________

of Lowth in relation to his contemporary Schoettgen whose

ten rules and use of rhetoric were a foretaste many of

Lowth's "discoveries" yet avoided many of the Lowthian

problems (Kugel, Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp. 266-72.)

¹Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp. 285-86.

defined parallelism as "The correspondence of one verse or

line with another."¹ Normal definitions mention

parallelism of thought and sense between lines perhaps

adding that the word units in one line will usually be

answered in the corresponding line.² Hence von Rad speaks

of a "stereometric" way of thinking.³ More recently, two

different definitions (approaches) have been beneficial.

Kugel has generalized the concept by acknowledging that

the symmetry between the two lines may range from

one-hundred percent correspondence (repetition) to zero

correspondence. He describes the relationship of the

colon as: "parallelistic not because B is meant to be a

parallel of A, but because B typically supports A, carries

it further, backs it up, completes it, goes beyond it."⁴

Thus B has a "what's more" character in relation to A, and

may take many semantic shapes.⁵ Most would agree with

____________________

¹R. Lowth, Isaiah. A new translation; with a

preliminary dissertation (London: Charles R. and George

Webster, 1794), p. x. Cited from Baker, "Parallelism:

England's Contribution to Biblical Studies," p. 431.

²Young, "Ugaritic Prosody," p. 132; Robinson,

The Poetry of the Old Testament, p. 26.

³von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 13. The connection

of such a trope to thought patterns is a bit presumptuous

linguistically and demonstrates the need for an integration

of recent linguistic poetics and wisdom studies.

⁴Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp. 7, 52.

⁵Ibid., pp. 43, 57. For a similar conception vid.

Adele Berlin's superb article, "Grammatical Aspects of

Biblical Parallelism," p. 41.

Greenstein:

Biblicists have for centuries used the term

'parallelism' to refer to the repetition of the

components of one line of verse in the following line

or lines. It could be a repetition of sense, or

words, or sound, or rhythm, or morphology, or syntax,

or any combination of these.¹

While O'Connor's major contribution has already been

mentioned, his designation of semantic parallelism as a

trope rather than as the sole feature of poetry--is also

of great significance.²

It is well known that Lowth divided parallelism

into: synonymous, antithetic, and synthetic. These

categories have been understood as follows. Anderson

defines synonymous parallelism, as being "where the same

thought is repeated by the other line, in different but

synonymous words."³ An example may be seen in Proverbs

16:18:

____________________

¹Greenstein, "How Does Parallelism Mean?" p. 43.

²O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, pp. 88, 96;

3A. A. Anderson, Psalms, vol. 1, New Century Bible

ed. R. E. Clements and M. Black (Greenwood, SC: the Attic

Press, Inc., 1977), p. 41; he follows G. B. Gray, The Forms

of Hebrew Poetry, The Library of Biblical Studies, ed. H.

M. Orlinsky (New York: KTAV Publishing House, 1972

reprint), pp. 49, 59. Cf. also Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72:

An Introduction and Commentary on Books I and II of the

Psalms, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove,

IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1973), p. 3; and Leopold

Sabourin, The Psalms: Their Origin and Meaning, p. 26.

These, as well as other sources which could have been

cited, are to demonstrate the prolific acceptance of

Lowth's categories.

Pride goes before destruction,

A haughty spirit [goes] before a fall.¹

This is usually diagrammed A B C//A' B' C' where A and A'

(and so forth) are synonyms. Similarly, antithetic

parallelism is described as balancing "the parallel lines

through opposition or contrast of thought."²

Hatred stirs up dissension

Love covers over all wrong (Prov 10:12).

Again, the terms may be matched (A B C// A' B' C').

Finally, synthetic parallelism has been largely rejected

today, although it is still found in some noteworthy

scholarly commentaries. Synthetic parallelism occurs when

the second line continues (rather than repeats or

contrasts) the thought of the first line. Many have

objected to its being called parallelism at all. Gottwald

designates it as "formal parallelism" because the thoughts

are not strictly parallel, though there is allegedly a

parallelism in form.³

____________________

¹Biblical quotations are purposefully given in

English without Hebrew accompaniment.

²Anderson, Psalms, p. 41. Cf. also Toy, Proverbs,

ICC (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1904); C. F. Keil and F.

Delitzsch, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, vol. 6

Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B.

Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1973 reprint), p. 8; McKane,

Proverbs, p. 463; and W. O. E. Oesterley, The Book of

Proverbs: With Introduction and Notes (London: Methuen

and Co., 1929), p. xiv.

³Gottwald, "Poetry, Hebrew," p. 832. Hemmingsen

provides a very concise discussion of all three in "An

Introduction to Hebrew Poetic Structure and Stylistic

Techniques," pp. 14-25. It is interesting that McKane

The blessing of the Lord brings wealth,

and he adds no trouble with it

(Prov 10:22).

Lowth's ideas were given "canonical" shape at the

hands of G. B. Gray (1915). With Gray and T. H. Robinson,

the movement was away from any metrical allowances to a

strictly parallelistic approach--which is ultimately

reflected in Young's metrical nihilism.¹ Not only was

there a de-emphasis of meter, but also the notion of

parallelism itself was restricted to a thought or a

semantic unit phenomenon which "controls the form which

every line of Hebrew poetry takes."² A new addition to

the classifications was the idea of complete/incomplete

parallelism with/without compensation. Complete

____________________

still accepts this category (Proverbs, p. 463), which again

illustrates the need to connect poetic studies and the text

of Proverbs. An interesting chart, giving the frequencies

of the various types of parallelisms in Proverbs by chapter

is found in Robert Chisholm's, "Literary Genres and

Structures in Proverbs," A Paper Presented to Prof. Donald

Glenn at Dallas Theological Seminary (May, 1980), p. 36.

Cf. Stuart S. Cook, "The Nature and Use of the Proverbs of

Solomon" (Th.M. thesis, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1975),

pp. 35-36; von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 29; Thompson, The

Form and Function of Proverbs, pp. 61-62; and a summarizing

chart by Udo Skladny, Die altesten Spruchsammlungen in

Israel, p. 67. Geller particularly attacks this concept,

Parallelism in Early Biblical Poetry, pp. 376-77.

¹T. H. Robinson, "Basic Principles of Hebrew Poetic

Form," pp. 444-45; O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, pp.

33-34; Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp. 75, 295;

Collins, Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry, p. 6.

²Robinson, "Basic Principles of Hebrew Poetic

Form," pp. 444-45.

parallelism is when, for every term in the first colon

there is a matching term in the second. Incomplete is,

obviously, when a term is missing (A B C//A' C').

Compensation is when the matching line lacks a term but an

extra term which does not correspond per se is added in

order to give the line the required balance.1 An example

of incomplete parallelism without compensation may be seen

in Proverbs 2:18:

For her house leads down to death

and her paths to the spirits of the dead.

The A B C// A C is obviously missing a B term. An example

with compensation may be seen in Proverbs 2:1:

My son, if you accept my words

and store up my commands within you.

This verse manifests an A B C// B' C' D form where D

compensates for the absence of a match for "my son." Thus

Proverbs 2:1 may be labeled a synonymous parallelism with

compensation.

Since the time of Gray and Robinson, other types

of parallelism have been appended to the standard lists.

Perhaps the most frequent addition is emblematic

parallelism. This form employs a metaphor/simile in one

____________________

¹Gray, The Forms of Hebrew Poetry, pp. 59, 74.

Gray's organization around features which were employed to

vary the lines and features of sameness was extremely

helpful and demonstrated great insight, which others who

have used his system have failed to attain.

of the parallel lines.¹ An example of this type may be

seen in Proverbs 10:26, which actually contains a double

simile in the first line:

As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,

so is the sluggard to those who send him.

A second type of parallelism usually appended is the

staircase parallelism. While it is not prominant in

Proverbs (cf. 31:4), it is used in the Psalms (cf.

29:1-2). It is highly repetitional--repeating part of the

first line, but adding a new element, which gives it a

staircase effect.²

One final procedure has been utilized in the

expanding of semantic parallelism. Realizing the

inaccuracy and ineptness of the categories listed above

some have moved in the direction of a total

reclassification--often looking at colonic relationships

as well as specific semantic unit symmetries between the

colon. These proposals have been somewhat helpful in

____________________

¹Anderson, Psalms, p. 41; Gottwald, "Poetry,

Hebrew," p. 833; Hemmingsen, "An Introduction to Hebrew

Poetic Structure and Stylistic Techniques," p. 26. Chisholm

does a nice job with this type, which occurs frequently in

Proverbs. He syntactically describes three forms

("Literary Genres and Structures in Proverbs," pp. 25-26).

²A. Fitzgerald, "Poetry of the Old Testament," New

Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 11 (1968), p. 464. Hemmingsen,

"An Introduction to Hebrew Poetic Structure and Stylistic

Techniques," p. 27. Greenstein calls this "climatic

parallelism" ("Two Variations of Grammatical Parallelism in

Canaanite Poetry and Their Psycholinguistic Background,"

JANES 6 [1974]:97) as does S. E. Loewenstamm ("The Expanded

Colon in Ugaritic and Biblical Verse," JSS 14 [1969]:177).

describing propositional relationships. Kugel models the

second line's (the second line=B; the first=A) subjunction

as follows: (1) incomplete B completed by reference to A;

(2) incomplete A completed by B; (3) actual repetition of

a term in B; (4) "pair-words;" (5) sequentiality,

subordination expressed or implied (e.g., qtl-yqtl); and

(6) unusual word order (chiasm, etc.).¹ This appears to

be a syntactic-semantic hodgepodge and hardly functional

as he suggests.

Included with this reanalysis of semantic

relationships between the cola should be Geller's

excellent dissertation, which develops a loose semantic

notation for scientifically tracing the relationships

between the units. He tags each poetic unit with one of

the following semantic descriptors: (1) synoynm;

(2) list; (3) antonym; (4) merism; (5) epithet; (6) proper

noun; (7) pronoun; (8) whole-part (WP or PW);

(9) concrete-abstract; (10) numerical; (11) identity; and

(12) metaphor. Geller's semantic grades (A-D) then rate

how closely the semantic units cohere (A = close synonyms;

B = more distant synonyms; C = almost no semantic

parallelism though possibly in the same syntactic slot;

and D = total repetition). While his non-standard

notational system obfuscates his model (rendering it

____________________

¹Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp. 54-55.

unusable for many), the attempt reflects a sensitivity to

modern semantics which holds great promise.¹ Moreover,

Geller's attempt to give an integrative approach--which

includes a close reading of syntax, semantics, and

metrical descriptions--is presently the most advanced

system of Hebrew poetic analysis.

A pattern has been developing in the study of

parallelism. Lowth allowed for syntactic as well as

semantic parallelism. Later there seems to have been a

constriction (Gray-Robinson) which de-emphasized metrical

considerations and immured parallelism in strict semantic

parallels. Problems inherent in the approach have

resulted in the mild proliferation of new types of

parallelism being "discovered." It is to these problems

this study will turn.

Problems with Semantic Parallelism

It is now appropriate to scrutinize the concept of

semantic parallelism in order to locate precisely where

the problems lie and perhaps give direction as to some

possible solutions.

Perhaps the greatest problem that has been caused

____________________

¹Geller, Parallelism in Early Biblical Poetry, pp.

33-42. Kaddari also had done work earlier in this

direction (M. Z. Kaddari, "A Semantic Approach to Biblical

Parallelism," JJS 24 [1973]:167-75). Cf. Theodore of

Mopsuestia, in Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp.

40-41.

by the present approach to semantic parallelism is what

may be pejoratively labeled as "semantic reductionism."

von Rad illustrates this problem when he uses Job 28:28 to

show "that there is no interest in exact definition of

terms." He reiterates that the parallel lines mean

"approximately" the same thing in Proverbs 4:24.¹

Bryce also hints at "semantic reductionism" when he

observes that Hebrew parallelism: "tended toward an

equation of sayings and a blurring of the particularity of

a situation necessary for understanding and interpreting

omens."² Note the illicit equation of literary trope and

thought structure. Gordis, at one point, defines

parallelism as "the repetition of the same idea in

different words, which is the very foundation of biblical

poetry."³ Pederson stereotypes the Hebrew poet as

expressing "his thought twice in a different manner. . . .

He repeats and repeats."⁴ Kugel well objects, "The

medial

____________________

¹von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, pp. 28, 146. It is

interesting to note how the pendulum has swung since the

medieval practice of omnisignificance, which totally

distinguished the meaning of each bi-colon (cf. Kugel, The

Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp. 103-5.

²Bryce, "Omen-Wisdom in Ancient Israel," p. 31.

³Gordis, Poets, Prophets, and Sages: Essays in

Biblical Interpretation, p. 61. Cf. also William Mouser's

rather muddled statement that a proverb displays

"synonymous parallelism when the two ideas brought

together are saying the same thing in different words"

(Walking in Wisdom, p. 28).

⁴J. Pederson, Israel: Its Life and Culture

pause all too often has been understood to represent a

kind of 'equals' sign."¹ Craigie points out the problem

of a "this equals that" type of approach to poetics, which

has been employed philologically to solve problems with

difficult words by simply equating them to their

paralleled synonyms. He correctly identifies this as a

"false inference from parallelism."²

Several have recently objected to semantic

reductionism. O'Connor and Kaddari question the meaning

of "synonym," which itself is subject to misleading

polysemy.³ The tools for a close semantic reading are

now

____________________

(London: Oxford University Press, 1926), p. 123. For

other illustrations of this perspective, vid. W. McClellan,

"The Elements of Old Testament Poetry," CBQ 3 (1941):207;

or W. Smalley, "Translating the Poetry of the Old

Testament," p. 202. Boling gives a list of synonyms and

goes no further semantically ("'Synonymous' Parallelism in

the Psalms," JSS 3 [1960]:221-55).

¹Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, p. 8.

²P. C. Craigie, "The Problem of Parallel Word Pairs

in Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry," Semitics 5 (1977):48, 56.

That is, of course, not to reject the collocational value

of parallel word pairs; rather it cautions against strict

equations and directs to the exact specification of the

relationships between such words. Indeed parallelism has

been a boon for various hapax legomena and this should not

be denigrated.

³O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, pp. 50-51, 96;

and Kaddari, "A Semantic Approach to Biblical

Parallelism," p. 168. Collins also objects to a mere

statement that two units are parallel without examining the

relationship between them (Line-Forms In Hebrew Poetry, pp.

8, 93). Geller, who perhaps has done the most in resolving

this problem, also objects to the reducing of semantic

analysis to the statement that terms are antithetical or

synonymous (Parallelism in Early Biblical Poetry, p. 31).

being developed in linguistic circles. Obviously the

study of linguistic semantics is a difficult one, not only

as a result of the complexities of language itself, but

also because of the various schools and technical jargon

which surround such studies. These technical studies hold

great promise for the fine analysis of Hebrew poetics.¹

Another area about which Kugel has been vociferous is the

use of parallelism as a diagnostic feature for locating

Hebrew poetry. He and others have pointed to the trope of

parallelism in prosaic sections and have noted that some

____________________

¹This writer has found the works in the following

brief semantic bibliography to be of benefit. Eugene Nida,

Exploring Semantic Structures (Munchen: Wilhelm Fink

Verlag, 1975) and his Componential Analysis of Meaning: An

Introduction to Semantic Structures (The Hague: Mouton,

1975); Geoffrey Leech, Semantics (Hardmondsworth: Penguin

Books, 1974); Katharine Barnwell, Introduction to Semantics

and Translation (England: Summer Institute of Linguistics,

1980); John Beekman, The Semantic Structure of Written

Communication (Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics,

1981) and his A Semantic Structure Analysis of Second

Thessalonians (Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics,

1982); Robert Longacre, An Anatomy of Speech Notions

(Lisse: The Peter de Ridder Press, 1976); Moises Silva,

Biblical Words and Their Meaning (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,

1983); J. P. Louw, Semantics of New Testament Greek

(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982); Wallace Chafe,

Meaning and the Structure of Language (Chicago: University

of Chicago Press, 1970); and Arthur Gibson, Biblical

Semantic Logic: A Preliminary Analysis (New York: St.

Martin's Press, 1981). More difficult and comprehensive

are the works of John Lyons, Semantics I and Semantics 2

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977); and Jerrold

Katz, Semantic Theory (New York: Harper and Row, 1972). A

voluminous bibliography may be compiled easily from the MLA

International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the

Modern Languages and Literature.

poetic sections are not parallelistic per se.¹ Indeed,

Collins' "line" form Type 1 (The bi-colon contains only

one Basic Sentence); easily provides numerous examples

against such an equation.²

Another major problem, which has resulted from the

way semantic parallelism has dominated via a myopically

simplistic fascination with a mere slotting of a bi-colon

into synonymous, antithetic, or synthetic type, is the

neglect of intra-lineal and distant parallelism.³ Others

have objected to the inattention given to syntactic and

phonetic parallelism because of a preoccupation with a

semantic A = A' type of analysis.⁴

One final troublesome area is the using of

parallelism to emend the text. Some are a bit too hasty,

when semantic units do not match up, to help the "feeble"

____________________

¹Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp. 49, 65,

70; Berlin, "Grammatical Aspects of Biblical Parallelism,"

p. 18; and Cooper, "Biblical Poetics: A Linguistic

Approach," p. 76. Against, for example, Robinson, "Basic

Principles of Hebrew Poetic Form," p. 444.

²Collins, Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry, pp. 25,

58-88.

³Pardee, "Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry: Parallelism," p. 17.

⁴Collins, "Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry," JSS 23

(1978):228, 230. See Gene Schramm, "Poetic Patterning in

Biblical Hebrew," in Michigan Oriental Studies in Honor of

George G. Cameron, ed. Louis Orlin (Ann Arbor: Department

of Near Eastern Studies, The University of Michigan, 1976),

p. 171, where he develops phonetic patterning.

text by emending and thereby provide a "better" match.¹

The purpose here was not simply to point out the

problems with semantic parallelism, but to shift it from

an essential feature constituting Hebrew prosody, to an

artistic trope frequently employed by the poets as they

released their creative genius in literary form. An

attempt has also been made to broaden the base of

parallelism to include syntactical and phonological

patterning. Finally, this section has functioned to point

out the weaknesses of a simplistic boxing and equating

type of semantics which has been practiced under the guise

of "semantic parallelism." This study has suggested the

need for someone to master present structural, generative

and formal types of semantics from a linguistic

perspective and then to take these recently-created tools

to the poetic texts of scripture. A semantic analysis

should include the study of the diverse semantic

relationships found in the word pair phenomenon and the

relationships between matching semantic units within the

parallelisms. Such a close reading should also attempt,

perhaps using the techniques of proposition calculus or

predicate logic, to map and compare, on a propositional or

sentential level. Such a program has great possibility,

____________________

¹Cf. Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, p. 131 or McKane,

Proverbs, pp. 446-47 (on Prov 12:6); and Oesterley, The

Book of Proverbs, p. 91.

not of exhausting the meaning of the poems, but of

deictically providing a more accurate and aesthetically

satisfying reading of the text.

Other Semantic Elements

The Dyad of Words

The dyad of words is commonly called a "fixed word

pair" and has been viewed as a necessary addendum to the

concept of semantic parallelism.¹ Ginsburg, as the one

who developed this pattern defines word pairs as:

"certain fixed pairs of synonyms that recur repeatedly,

and as a rule in the same order."² It is obvious from an

example from Luther's comments on the Diet of Worms that

such a phenomenon is not limited to Hebrew but is a

characteristic of all languages, whether parallelism is

dominant or not. Luther comments, in a dyad of words:

"But God's will, the best of all, be done in heaven and

earth."³ It should be apparent that Ginsburg's

restricting of the phenomenon to synonyms is also

misplaced (vid. father/mother in Prov 10:1). While

____________________

¹Berlin, "Grammatical Aspects of Biblical

Parallelism," p. 18. Who says, "The most important

component of biblical parallelism seems to be parallel word

pairs."

²Fischer, Ras Shamra Parallels, 1:77.

³Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church,

vol. 7 (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,

1910), p. 331.

O'Connor observes that verbal dyading is rarer, he found

one third of the lines of his corpus contained the dyading

feature.¹ From a scrutiny of this phenomenon, certain

semantic patterns have emerged: (1) abstract-concrete

pairing; (2) part-whole pairing; and (3) merismus

patterns.² Avishur has found three ways that these are

syntactically arranged in Hebrew: (1) syndetic parataxis

(Lam 3:4 "my flesh and my skin grow old" cf. Job

10:11); (2) parallelism (Job 7:5, where the same two words are

found in parallelism); (3) bound structure (Lev 13:43,

where the same pair appears in bound form).³ It should be

clear from its syntactic usages that this phenomenon is

not limited to poetic sections. Indeed, O'Connor is

correct when he argues against the existence of a poetic

____________________

¹O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, pp. 107-108.

Bibliographies tracing the proliferation of dyadic word

usages may be found in Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry,

pp. 28-29 and Cooper, "Biblical Poetics: A Linguistic

Approach," pp. 44-45. A very complete list of word pairs

may be found in M. Dahood and T. Penar, "Ugaritic-Hebrew

Parallel Pairs," Ras Shamra Parallels 1 pp. 71-382 where

624 dyads were found, to which Dahood later added 66 more,

in Ras Shamra Parallels, 2:3-5. Stanley Gevirtz, Patterns

in the Early Poetry of Israel (Chicago: the University of

Chicago Press, 1963), passim.

²Dahood, "Poetry, Hebrew," IBDSup, p. 669; Berlin,

"Grammatical Aspects of Biblical Parallelism," p. 31;

A. M. Honeyman, "Merismus in Biblical Hebrew," JBL 71

(1952):11-18.

³Y. Avishur, "Pairs of Synonymous Words in the

Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical

Hebrew," Semitics 2 (1971, 1972):17-18. Cf. Cooper,

"Biblical Poetics: A Linguistic Approach," p. 10.

dictionary composed of such fixed pairs which the poet

allegedly evoked as he orally composed his poem.¹ Craigie

also rejects the idea that there was a "Canaanite poetic

thesaurus."² One should also consider Alster's isolation

of word pairs in Sumerian, and his statement that "any

poetry, insofar as it employs parallelism, will make use

of similar word pairs."³ O'Connor goes further to show

that such pairing is a linguistically universal phenomenon

and that "the creation of the dyads used in Hebrew verse

is not nearly so much the result of special poetic

annexation of parts of the language as it is poetic

penetration into all the resources of speech."⁴ He

demonstrates the same dyading phenomenon in English

examples: here and there, now and then; man and woman,

now or never, cowboys and Indians, friend or foe, bow and

arrow, and land and sea. He observes that these dyads are

ordered by semantic ("me first" principle; "star before

____________________

¹O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 102; P. C.

Craigie, "A Note on 'Fixed Pairs' in Ugaritic and Early

Hebrew Poetry," JTS 22 (1971):141-42; and "The Poetry of

Ugarit and Israel," Tyndale Bulletin 22 (1971):6.

²P. C. Craigie, "The Problem of Parallel Word Pairs

in Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry," Semitics 5 (1977):53.

³Alster, (Studies in Sumerian Proverbs, p. 31)

gives examples of bread/beer; day/night; love/hate; etc.

He warns against using such pairs as a sole basis to

reconstruct the text ("A Note on 'Fixed Pairs' in Ugaritic

and Early Hebrew Poetry," p. 142.)

⁴O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 102.

extra" [Charlton Heston and a cast of thousands] and the

principle of chronology [wash and wear]) as well as

phonological patterns. The phonological principles

include: (1) the shorter first (vim and vigor); (2) vowel

in the second word is longer (trick or treat); (3) second

word has more initial consonants (sink or swim); (4) the

second word has fewer final consonants (sink or swim);

(5) second word has the more obstruent initial consonant

(most obstruent are stops [p,t,b,k etc.]; spirants,

nasals, liquids [l,r] then glides [y, w]) e.g., wear and

tear); (6) second word has a vowel with lower second

formant features (progression goes from high front vowel

(i) to low vowels (a) to high back vowels (u); e.g., this

or that, ping-pong); and (7) the second word has less

obstruent final consonant than the first (kith and kin).¹

This has helped put dyads or fixed pairs in their proper

linguistic context. Dyads are a method by which the poet

can bind a line together via construction or by

coordination when it occurs in a single colon, or bind two

lines together if they occur in parallel slots in the

bi-colon. While a close examination of word dyading in

Proverbs will not be undertaken, it is important to be

aware of this phenomenon which occurs with great frequency

____________________

¹Ibid., 98, 99. O'Connor uses the work of Cooper

and Ross, "Word Order," in R. E. Grossman, et al. Papers

from the Eleventh Regional Meeting (Chicago: Chicago

Linguistic Society, 1975), pp. 63-111.

in the proverbial corpus (e.g., Prov 10:1--father/mother,

wise/foolish; Prov 10:2--righteous/wicked).

Repetition

The presence of repetition has not been

appreciated until recent times. Gordis appropriately

critiques Gray's systematic attempt to eliminate

repetition via textual emendations.¹ Numerous scholars

have begun to consider how often and with what function

repetition appears in the poetic texts. It is of interest

that both Geller and O'Connor note that about 20% of their

texts contain this trope.² The numerous suggestions

concerning the function of repetition in poetry include

its use as: (1) a didactic pedagogical device;³ (2) an

intra-, inter-linear binder via the principle of

sameness;⁴ (3) a device helping to emphasize and focus

____________________

¹R. Gordis, review of The Forms of Hebrew Poetry

Considered with Special Reference to the Criticism and

Interpretation of the Old Testament, by G. B. Gray, in CBQ

34 (1973):242.

²Geller, Parallelism in Early Biblical Poetry, pp.

297-98. O'Connor gives a whole chapter to this phenomenon

(Hebrew Verse Structure, pp. 361-70; his discussion will

provide a model for our examination of this trope in

Proverbs). Cf. Pardee, "Types and Distributions of

Parallelism in Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry," p. 2; and J.

Muilenburg, "A Study in Hebrew Rhetoric: Repetition and

Style," VTSup 1 (1953):97-111.

³von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 54.

⁴Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, p. 56.

attention;¹ (4) a discourse/strophe level feature in an

inclusio, (or other means of binding the discourse/strophe

together);² and (5) a contrast heightener, via the binding

of two units together in order to be contrasted (this

function occurs frequently in Proverbs, where a repeated

word will be modified by opposites; vid. Prov 10:1 note

the repetition of "son" but modified by the contrasting

"wise" and "foolish").

As there are various functions of repetition there

are also various forms. One repetitional variation is the

figura etymologica (the same root but different

syntactical function),³ which does not manifest continuity

____________________

¹This is how it is viewed most frequently.

Chapman, Linguistics and Literature, p. 53; Stek, "The

Stylistics of Hebrew Poetry," p. 17; and Hemmingsen, "An

Introduction to Hebrew Poetic Structure and Stylistic

Techniques," pp. 90-91.

²Chapman, Linguistics and Literature, pp. 102-3.

³O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 109. He

defines repetition as involving "the same lexeme,

performing the same syntactic function whether singular or

plural, suffixed or not, if a noun, in construct or not,

and if a verb, no matter how it is inflected within a

verbal theme or form; figura etymologica covers all other

cases, notably the use of two verbal roots in different

stems" (p. 109). Pardee makes the distinction between

"verbatim repetition" and "weak repetitive parallelism."

This writer will view repetition as "verbatim repetition,"

which is O'Connor's trope of repetition. "Weak repetition"

will be used for words from the same lexeme functioning in

the same syntactic category (nouns, verbs, adjectives,

etc.), without noting singular-plural, perfect-imperfect

type differences; and figura etymologica will be restricted

to words from the same root but operating in different

syntactic categories (nouns-verbs, nouns-adjectives, etc.).

This is done because this writer, while viewing differences

of form.¹ Another variational technique is the shifting

in the location of repetitional unit, whether intra-linear

(Prov 10:9; 11:2), or between cola (Prov 10:1), or in

successive bi-cola in a kind of catch word manner (Prov

10:14, 15), or in distant repetition where repetitions are

separated by at least one bi-colon (these often function

on the discourse level, e.g., Prov 10:6b, 11b). Chapman

provides standard rhetorical terms to describe the

positioning of such repetition: (1) anaphora ("repetition

of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive stages

[lines]"); (2) epistrophe ("repetition at the end of

successive stages"); (3) symploce ("repeats at the

beginning and at the end" [but different in the middle of

the line]; (4) anadiplosis ("links the end of one stage to

the beginning of the next"); (5) epizeuzis ("repeats a

word or phrase without any break at all" [juxtaposition of

repeated units].² It will be demonstrated that the

____________________

in "weak repetition" as significant, sees them as a

manifestation of sameness rather than of differences. Cf.

Pardee, "Types and Distributions of Parallelism in Ugaritic

and Hebrew Poetry," pp. 1-2.

¹Ibid., p. 369. Y. Avishur, "Addenda to the

Expanded Colon in Ugaritic and Biblical Verse," UF 4

(1972):1-10; S. E. Loewenstamm, "The Expanded Colon in

Ugaritic and Biblical Verse," JSS 14 (1969):176-96.

²Chapman, Linguistics and Literature, pp. 79-80.

Cf. also Corbett, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern

Student, pp. 472-75. Cf. O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure,

p. 144. Such terminology may also be helpful in describing

the position of semantically paralleled units.

repetition of words is significant because it provided a

method by which the collector bound the proverbial

sentence literature together.

Chiasm is a reversal of the normal ordering of a

line, which stresses features of equivalence by the

variation in order. Semantically parallel terms can be

drawn together in patterns such as A B/B' A' or A B C/C'

B' A'.¹ Repetitions are frequently found in these

patterns (e.g., Isa 6:10 heart/ears/eyes//eyes/ears/

heart, cf. Prov 10:11). Chiastic structuring may also

function on a macro-structure (Ps 27) as well as on the

bi-colon level (Prov 10:4).² Dahood proposes that "when

the poet uses the chiastic word order, the synonymy of the

parallel members tends to be stricter than when the order

is not chiastic."³ Thus, the chiastic ordering brings

____________________

¹O'Connor (Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 393)

classifies the following types. The first colon has a 123

structure and the second may then be categorized as: front

simple chiastic 213; back simple chiastic 132; back flip

chiastic 231; front flip chiastic 312; mirror chiastic 321.

He also notes various gappings which may occur with the

chiastic ordering.

²Robert L. Alden, "Chiastic Psalms: A Study in the

Mechanics of Semitic Poetry in Psalms 1-50," JETS 17

(1974):11-28. Also see his "Chiastic Psalms: A Study in

the Mechanics of Semitic Poetry in Psalms 51-100," JETS 19

(1976):191-200; and Hemmingsen, "An Introduction to Hebrew

Poetic Structure and Stylistic Techniques," pp. 99-102.

³Mitchell Dahood, "Chiasmus in Job: A

Text-Critical and Philogical Criterion," in A Light unto

My Path: Old Testament Studies in Honor of Jacob M. Myers

ed. H. N. Bream et al. (Philadelphia: Temple University

Press, 1974), p. 120. Also cf. Dahood's article in IBDSup,

together units of equivalence and adds cohesion to the

bi-colon or strophe. Semantic-sonant chiasm may

interweave equivalences from the semantic and phonetic

levels (Mic 4:6ab). Recently Watson has done an

interesting work on such tight chiasms which involves a

sound-sense nexus.¹

An interesting example of what may be called

"complex chiasm" occurs in Proverbs 10:31-32.

פִּי־צַדִּיק יָנוּב חָכְמָה

The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom,

וּלְשׁוֹן תַּהְפֻכוֹת תִּכָּרַת

but a perverse tongue will be cut out (Prov 10:31).

שִׂפְתֵי צַדִּיק עֵדְוּן רָצוֹן

The lips of the righteous know what is fitting,

וּפִ רְשׁעִים תַּהְפֻכוֹת

but the mouth of the wicked only what is perverse

(Prov 10:32).

Note the A B/B A structure in 10:31a, "mouth of the

righteous," and 10:32b, "mouth of the wicked" (repetition

of the word "mouth" is connected to the common

antithetical pair, righteous/wicked). The parts of the

____________________

p. 145. N. Lund, "The Presence of Chiasmus in the Old

Testament," AJSL 46 (1930):104-26. Lawrence Boadt, "The

A:B:B:A Chiasm of Identical Roots in Ezekiel," VT 25

(1975):693-99.

¹Wilfred Watson, "Further Examples of

Semantic-Sonant Chiasmus," CBQ 46 (1984):31-33; cf. John S.

Keselman, "Semantic-Sonant Chiasmus in Biblical Poetry,"

Bib 58 (1977):219-23; and R. F. Smith, "Chiasmus in

Sumero-Akkadian," in Chiasmus in Antiquity, ed. J. W. Welch

(Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 1981):17-35.

mouth are seen in 10:31b (tongue) and 10:32a (lips),

resulting in a mouth/tongue//lips/mouth type of chiasm.

However, other elements of this proverb pair would suggest

that there is an A B/A B odering (i.e., the repetition of

"perverse" in 10:31b and 32b and the paralleling of the

righteous in 10:31a and 32a). Thus it seems to this

writer that there is a chiastic effect given by the body

parts (mouth/tongue//lips/mouth) but there is a normal

A B/A B ordering in the character of the person using

those parts (righteous/perverse//righteous/wicked).

תַהְפֻּכוֹת repeats interestingly in a different syntactic slot.

Thus "complex chiasm" seems to be appropriate nomenclature.

Another device which orders equivalent classes in

a unique manner, often on the macro-structure level, is

inclusio or the figure of enveloping.¹ Inclusio is

actually a special form of repetition where an equivalence

item at the beginning is repeated at the end of the unit.

It is often used to bind larger structures and provides a

convenient literary marker delimiting discourse units.²

____________________

¹Stek, "The Stylistics of Hebrew Poetry: A

(Re)New(ed) Focus of Study," pp. 19, 28. Leon J.

Liebreich, "Psalms 34 and 145 in the Light of their Key

Words," HUCA 27 (1956):181-92, and his "The Compilation of

the Book of Isaiah," JQR 48 (1956-57):114-38.

²Hemmingsen, "An Introduction to Hebrew Poetic

Structure and Stylistic Techniques," pp. 96-99. Jakobson,

notes the frequent "parallelism at a distance" at the

beginning and end of a poem in "A Postscript to the

Discussion on Grammar of Poetry," p. 28.

Dahood, with his usual perceptiveness, elaborates on three

types of inclusio: (1) exact repetition; (2) repetition

of word pairs; and (3) repetition of root consonants

arranged in different order (e.g., מָצָא -- אָמַץ Ps 89:20-21

[21-2 MT]).¹

Variational Techniques: Double

Duty and Gapping

The only two features of divergence or variation

which will be mentioned are double-duty usage and gapping.

Compensation techniques move the poem in the direction of

equivalence rather than divergence.

A double-duty usage is a word or phrase which is

explicit in one line and implicit in the other; i.e., it

is a form of ellipsis. Hemmingsen aptly points out the

improper translation in the KJV of Psalm 9:18 [19 MT],

which--because it missed the double duty character of the

negative--totally misconstrues the meaning:²

For the needy shall not always be forgotten,

And the hope of the lowly shall perish forever.

Obviously the second line should read like the NIV, "nor

the hope of the afflicted ever perish." Particles,

prepositions and suffixes often function in double-duty

____________________

¹IBDSup, s.v. "Poetry, Hebrew," pp. 670, 672.

²Hemmingsen, "An Introduction to Hebrew Poetic

Structure and Stylistic Techniques," p. 105.

usages.¹ O'Connor suggests that an example of a

double-duty suffix is found in Proverbs 10:1. Here, he

suggests that the third masculine singular suffix ("his")

in the phrase "his mother" (10:1b) should be referenced

back to "father" as well.

Gapping is another form of ellipsis. O'Connor

discusses this feature, noting the rightward gapping

characteristic of verbs (SVO:SO),while object gapping is

often leftward (SV:SVO).² Earlier in his work he

mentions three types:

Blitz: removes the common term of a comparison

'May my future be like his future.'

'May my future be like his.'

Conjunction reduction:

'Hannah sang and Hannah prayed.'

'Hannah sang and prayed.'

Verb gapping:

'Caesar conquered the Gauls,'

'Nicomedes, Caesar.'³

Gaps in the text call for a higher reader involvement;

therefore this variation leads to more engaging poetry.⁴

The complete line usually carries all the information

needed to interpret it, but the incomplete line, with

____________________

¹O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure p. 127; Dahood

has also done much work on this poetic device in his book,

Psalms III 101-150, AB (Garden City: Doubleday, 1970), pp.

368-69.

²O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, pp. 404-6. Cf.

Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, p. 322.

³O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Strucuture, pp. 122-26.

⁴Greenstein, "How Does Parallelism Mean?" p. 57.

gapped elements, activates the reader's memory/expectation

as he interprets the incomplete in light of his

remembrance/expectation of the complete.¹ Compensation

techniques push gapping in the direction of equivalence.

While this study will not examine the phenomenon of

gapping or double-duty usages in any formal manner, it is

felt that such topics should at least be broached as part

of the intuitive baggage one should bring to the text to

help gain a sensitivity for the types of devices the poets

had at their disposal. These types of variations may

affect the syntactical deep structure. Hence, they must

be accounted for if one desires to model the syntax of

Hebrew poetics.

The semantic features of Hebrew parallelism have

been briefly surveyed (semantic parallelism, words pairs,

repetitions, compensation, and various orderings of

equivalence [chiasm, inclusio]) as have been features of

variation [double-duty, gapping]. Now attention will be

turned to the syntactic features which characterize Hebrew

prosody and the model which will be employed in this study

will be presented.

____________________

¹Greenstein, "Two Variations of Grammatical

Parallelism in Canaanite Poetry and Their Psycholinguistic

Background," p. 94.

Syntactic Analysis

Introduction

With the growing recognition of the difficulties

of semantic parallelism, and with the development of more

exacting linguistic methods of syntactic analysis,

attention has turned toward a syntactic modeling of Hebrew

poetry. Most of those who are presently involved in this

endeavor trace their roots to Roman Jakobson's statement:

Pervasive parallelism inevitably activates all the

levels of language--the distinctive features, inherent

and prosodic, the morphologic and syntactic categories

and forms, the lexical units and their semantic

classes in both their convergences and divergences

acquire an autonomous poetic value. This focusing

upon phonological, grammatical, and semantic

structures in their multiform interplay does not

remain confined to the limits of parallel lines but

expands throughout their distribution within the

entire context; therefore the grammar of parallelistic

pieces becomes particularly significant.¹

The recent dissertations of O'Connor (Michigan), Geller

(Harvard), Cooper (Yale), and Collins (Manchester), as

well as articles by Pardee, Berlin, and Greenstein, have

helped compensate for the long neglect of syntactic

parallelism.² Kaddari has argued that syntactical

studies

____________________

¹Jakobson, "Grammatical Parallelism and its Russian

Facet," pp. 423-24. Cf. Pardee, "Ugaritic and Hebrew

Poetry: Parallelism," p. 6. Kugel improperly views this

approach as an attempt to "salvage" semantic parallelism

(The Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp. 314-23, which apparently

was tacked on to his dissertation before he understood

O'Connor). Cf. Pardee, "Types and Distributions of

Parallelism in Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry," p. 6.

²O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure; Geller,

Parallelism in Early Biblical Poetry; Cooper, "Biblical

must precede semantic studies and he is not wrong in that

assertion.¹ Berlin has done a superb job of defining

categories for handling the varieties of grammatical

parallelism. Grammatical parallelism is composed of two

components: morphological parallelism and syntactic

parallelism. "Morphological parallelism is the pairing of

parallel terms [semantically paired] from different

morphological classes (parts of speech) or from the same

morphological class but containing different morphological

components."² Syntactic parallelism is semantically

paralleling stichs which have different syntax. Berlin

also separates between syntactic repetition (O'Connor's

"matching") and syntactic parallelism.³ Berlin further

cites examples of each of these. It will be one of the

functions of this study to monitor grammatical repetition

(matches) and parallelism, both morphologically and

____________________

Poetics: A Linguistic Approach"; Collins, Line-Forms in

Hebrew Poetry; Berlin, "Grammatical Aspects of Biblical

Parallelism"; Greenstein, "Two Variations of Grammatical

Parallelism in Canaanite Poetry and Their Psycholinguistic

Background"; and his "How Does Parallelism Mean?"; Pardee,

"Types and Distributions of Parallelism in Ugaritic and

Hebrew Poetry"; and his "Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry:

Parallelism."

¹Kaddari, "A Semantic Approach to Biblical

Parallelism," p. 171.

²Berlin, "Grammatical Aspects of Biblical

Parallelism," pp. 20-21.

³Ibid.

syntactically.¹

The results will be examined in categories akin to

Berlin's morphological studies. The syntactic component

will be also traced and classified into categories which

will employ both O'Connor's constraint system and Collins'

line-type approach. This should help answer the call of

Pardee that someone provide a synthesis of Collins' and

O'Connor's models.²

In order to facilitate the lucid presentation of

the method adopted here, one must understand both

O'Connor's and Collins' approaches. Hence, the following

discussion is drawn from selected aspects of their methods

for monitoring syntactic features of Hebrew poetry.

O'Connor's Constraints and Tropes

O'Connor has circumscribed the line by modeling it

via a system of syntactical constraints.³ Thus, data may

be compiled using his paradigm and then a comparison made

____________________

¹Ibid., pp. 21-39. As her discussion concentrates

on syntactic parallelism she does little with syntactic

repetition, which O'Connor has called the trope of

"matching." This study will try to examine the features of

both phenomena.

²Pardee, "Types and Distributions of Parallelism in

Ugaritic and Hebrew Poetry," p. 3.

³James S. Hedges, "Correlation of Line and Syntax

in Shaped Poems," in Papers from the 1977 Mid-America

Linguistic Conference, ed. Donald M. Lance and Daniel E.

Gulstad (Columbia, MS: University of Missouri, 1978), p.

449.

between his corpus and the text of Proverbs 10-15, which

represents 348 lines. While the proverbial corpus is much

more limited than O'Connor's sample of 1,225 lines, this

present study may help respond to Barr's rather inane

criticism that O'Connor dealt with "only a poor sample of

biblical poetry."¹ O'Connor defines the elements of his

constraint system as follows:

Unit: individual verbs, nouns, etc.; along with

particles dependent on them

Constituent: verbal phrases, nominal phrases, etc.;

along particles dependent on them

Clause predicators: verbal or verbless clauses²

After applying these categories to his corpus O'Connor

discovered that a series of constraints could be generated

to account for all the lines (when he uses "lines" he

means one half of the bi-colon) of his corpus. The lines

have between 0 and 3 clause predicators (0 accounting for

non-verbal clauses), between 1 and 4 constituents, and

between 2 and 5 units, with no constituent composed of

more than 4 units.³ He places his findings into a

convenient matrix which shows that all lines have no

____________________

¹J. Barr, review of Hebrew Verse Structure, by M.

O'Connor, JJS 34 (1983):118.

²O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 68. Three

pages of his book are extremely important in understanding

this work; they are pp. 68, 138, and 319. Also vid.

Kugel's summary in The Idea of Biblical Poetry, pp.

315-23.

³O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 87.

"fewer than the leftmost or more than the rightmost number

on any level."¹

Clause predicators 0 1 2 3

Constituents 1 2 3 4

Units 2 3 4 5

This matrix should be read that no line may have fewer

than one or more than three clause predicators; or it may

be a non-verbal clause. Each line contains no less than

one constituent (VP, NP, etc.), with no more than four per

line; and no less than two units (V, N, Adj, etc.), with

no more than five per line. This provides a structural

description which accounts for the regularity in line

length and also provides parameters for understanding the

limits of variation. O'Connor then, through a process of

combinations and permutations, generates the configuration

of all 1,225 lines in his corpus. Next, he takes each

line permutation and gets a frequency count, in order to

gain intuition concerning which lines occur with more

regularity in the text.2 For example, he gives the three

most frequent line types (Class 1) as:

13. 1 clause, 2 constituents, 2 units/ 245 cases

14. 1 clause, 2 constituents, 3 units/ 229 cases

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 138.

²Ibid., pp. 317-19. Here he gives the number of

times that each line type occurred. This chart will

provide a means of comparison after the analysis of the

proverbial corpus is performed.

17. 1 clause, 3 constituents, 3 units/ 275 cases

749 cases

This provides a standard by which the proverbial corpus

may be measured. Subsequently, O'Connor maps out his line

types #1-35 onto a "constellation conspectus," which lists

the clause types according to grammatical parts of speech

(VSO [verb, subject, object]) and the line types across

the top by giving the frequency of occurrences in the

chart.

The "Constellation conspectus" is the point at

which a comparison may be made to Collins' system. The

following example will easily demonstrate what O'Connor

does in his system:¹

Total #17 #18 #19

VSO 9 8 1 0

VSP 26 23 3 0

VPS 22 16 5 1

VOP 48 40 8 0

VPO 38 32 5 1

He also tracks the number of units in noun phrase

constituents as follows:²

Total 2nd con np 3rd con np

1u 2u 1u 2u (u=units)

VSO 9 9 0 8 1

VSP 26 24 2 25 1

VPS 22 21 1 16 6

VOP 48 45 3 43 5

VPO 38 37 1 32 6

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 335. Cf. pp. 327, 331, 333, 344, 349,

and 353.

²Ibid., p. 336. Cf. also pp. 325, 327, 331, 333,

344, 348-49, 353, and 357.

An example of the counting of units, constituents

and clauses may help clarify how this data is generated

from Proverbs 10:1:

אָב יְשַׂמַּח חָכָם בֵּן

(father) (makes happy) (wise) (son)

A wise son makes a father happy,

וֹ אִמ תּוּגַת כְּסִיל בֵן וּ

(his)(mother) (grief) (foolish) (son) (but)

but a foolish son is grief to his mother.

Each line is composed of a single clause (the first is a

verbal clause [clause predicate=1]; the second is a

non-verbal clause [clause predicate=0]). There are two

nominal constituents in each line as well (NP=wise-son,

N=father and NP=foolish-son, NP=grief-of-his-mother). In

10:1a there are two units in the first noun phrase

(wise-son) and one unit in the second (father) resulting

in the configuration of 10:1a being 1 clause, 3

constituents, and 4 units. The first noun phrase in 10:1b

has two units (foolish-son) and the second constituent has

two units (grief-of, his-mother; note the pronominal

suffix is not counted as a unit). The configuration of

10:1b is 0 clause, 2 constituents and 4 units. Other

information that will have to be tracked will be a

grammatical configuration (10:1a SVO; 10:1b SPr) and the

size of each nominal phrase (10:1a S=2 units; O=1 unit;

____________________

¹The normal abbreviations are S=subject, V=verb,

O=object, Pr=predicate of verbless clause, P=preposition,

A=adverb.

10:1b S=2 units; Pr=2 units). Having tabulated this data

from the 348 lines of the corpus, a comparison will be

able to be made with O'Connor's statistics. Because of

the limited size of the proverbial corpus, only major

tendencies of high frequency will be of any true

significance when there is no further proof.¹ O'Connor's

general results are as follows:

The clause constraint allows between zero and three

clauses in a line, but 898 lines (75%) have one

clause; the other three possibilities are much less

frequently used. One hundred and thirty eight lines

(11%) have no clauses, 157 lines (13%) have two, and 7

[0.6%] have three.

Of the range of constituent groupings, two

dominate: there are 571 2-constituent lines (48%) and

485 3-constituent lines (40%). There are, in

contrast, 98 1-constituent lines (8%) and only 46 with

4 constituents (4%). A majority of lines, 690 (57%)

have three units; 298 (25%) have two units, 190 (16%)

have four, while only 22 (2%) have five.²

He also ranks the usual order of nominal elements as

S-O-P-A and notes that the commonest word order is verb

initial (two-thirds of the clauses).³ Nominal sentences

were not frequent enough in his corpus to be able to make

definitive statements, although SPr was found 43 times and

PrS 34 times.⁴ These results will be related to the data

____________________

¹The reason why more lines were not examined is

that the difficulty of the tagmemic aspect rendered such an

increase extremely difficult. O'Connor's system by itself

is quite easily and quickly employed.

²O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 316.

³Ibid.

⁴Ibid., p. 333.

from the proverbial corpus and appropriate comparisons and

contrasts made.

Besides the tropes of coloration (binomination,

coordination, and combination) and gapping, which will not

be treated here, the trope of matching will be a

phenomenon which will be carefully scrutinized. Matching

(which is the same as Berlin's syntactic repetition) is

defined to be the identity of constituent or unit

structure in juxtaposed lines and may run from two to

seven lines in length. Basically it calls for a syntactic

repetition (VS/VS or VS/SV; VSO/VSO or SVO/OVS, etc.).

About one third of O'Connor's corpus exhibits this trope.

This feature, as well as Berlin's morphological repetition

and parallelism, will be monitored under the designations

of isomorphism (repetition) and homomorphism (grammatical

parallelism).

Collins' Types, Forms, and Arrangements

O'Connor's constraints have provided a description

and syntactical definition of the line; likewise, Collin's

system of line types will provide a workable and

understandable hierarchy for the specific syntactic

analysis of line types.¹ Collins designed this system to

____________________

¹Collins, Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry, p. 7. A

summary and brief explanation of his system may be found in

Collins, "Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry," pp. 228-44 or

Cynthia Miller, "Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry: A Linguistic

Analysis of Job 19" (Paper for Hebrew Exegesis of Job

be simple, consistent and comprehensive. He accomplishes

the first two, but misses the last one, as may be seen in

a comparison of his line forms to O'Connor's more

comprehensive list of constraints.¹ He begins with four

basic sentence types, which are:

A S V

B S V A/P

C S V O

D S V O A/P²

With these four basic sentences in mind, he goes on to

define the following four basic line-types:

I. The line contains only one Basic Sentence.

II. The line contains two Basic Sentences of the

same kind, in such a way that all the

constituents in the first half-line are repeated

in the second, though not necessarily in the

same order.

III. The line contains two Basic Sentences of the

same kind, but only some of the constituents

of the first half-line are repeated in the

second.

IV. The line contains two different Basic Sentences.

Thus combining the basic sentence types with the basic

line types results in the following specific line-types:

____________________

Class, Grace Theological Seminary, 1980), pp. 1-44.

¹Collins, Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry, p. 22. He

does not cover multiple clause predication.

²Collins, Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry, p. 23. Note

the change in abbreviations (Collins' NP¹=S, NP²=O, and

M[verbal modifier]=A/P [A=adverbial, P=prepositional

phrase]) to conform with O'Connor's, which are more

syntactically descriptive.

I A, I B, I C, I D.

II A, II B, II C, II D.

III A, III B, III C, III D.

IV A/B, IV A/C, IV A/D (and so on).¹

Some comments are in order in an attempt to integrate

Collins' and O'Connor's approaches. First, when Collins

uses the term line, he means a whole bi-colon, but

O'Connor designates a line as one-half of the bi-colon.

Second, Collins' line type II is close to what O'Connor

describes in his trope of matching (Berlin's repetitive

syntax). Line type III includes O'Connor's trope of

gapping, which, if the constituents match except for the

gapped terms, he accepts as a form of matching, while

Collins separates them (O'Connor is more deep structure

oriented and is Collins more surface structure oriented at

this point). Collins' fourth line-type is Berlin's

syntactic parallelism.¹ These parameters result in the

following table which summarizes the slots into which

Collins groups his specific line-types.

____________________

¹Ibid., pp. 23-24.

²One of the initial frustrations of this writer was

the lack of standardization of poetic terminology (stich,

hemi-stich, colon, bi-colon, line, verse, etc.). One has

only to wrestle with Geller's work to realize the problem

and the need for the standardization of abbreviations and

the removal--or at least the careful definition--of jargon

in a way that is lucid and memorable.

SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC LINE-TYPES

I A S + V

I B S + V + A/P

I C S + V + O

I D S + V + O + A/P

_________________________________________________________

II A S + V -- S + V

II B S + V + A/P -- S + V + A/P

II C S + V + O -- S + V + O

II D S + V + O + A/P -- S + V + O + A/P

__________________________________________________________

III A S + V -- S

S + V -- V

III B S + V + A/P -- S + V

S + V + A/P -- S + A/P

S + V + A/P -- V + A/P

S + V + A/P -- S

S + V + A/P -- V

S + V + A/P -- A/P

III C S + V + O -- S + V

S + V + O -- S + O

S + V + O -- V + O

S + V + O -- S

S + V + O -- V

S + V + O -- O

III D (S) + V + O + A/P-- V + O

V + O + A/P-- V + A/P

V + O + A/P-- O + A/P

V + O + A/P-- V

V + O + A/P-- O

V + O + A/P-- A/P

(S is normally omitted in III D)

_________________________________________________________

IV A/B S + V -- S + V + A/P

A/C S + V -- S + V + O

A/D S + V -- S + V + O + A/P

IV B/A S + V + A/P-- S + V

B/C S + V + A/P-- S + V + O

B/D S + V + A/P-- S + V + O + A/P

IV C/A S + V + O -- S + V

C/B S + V + O -- S + V + A/P

C/D S + V + O -- S + V + O + A/P

IV D/A S + V + O + A/P-- S + V

D/B S + V + O + A/P-- S + V + A/P

D/C S + V + O + A/P-- S + V + O

This "Summary of Specific Line-Types"¹ was generated from

the four "Basic Sentences" (A = S V, B = S V A/P, C = S V

O, D = S V O A/P) and the four general line types (I is a

bicolon and contains only one basic sentence; II contains

two basic sentences of the same kind [syntactic matching];

III contains two basic sentences of the same kind with

missing constituents [gapping]; IV is a bi-colon and

contains two different basic sentences).

Collins then adds another set of four categories

to move from line-types to line-forms. This next category

simply monitors the presence or absence of an explicit

subject.

i) with S in both cola (hemi-stichs)

ii) with no S in either cola

iii) with S in the first cola only

iv) with S in the second cola only²

Finally, returning to each basic sentence type (A, B, C,

D), each basic sentence will have a certain number of

permutations which constitute its specific arrangement.

Thus for example:

Line-Type 1 A i has two different arrangements:

1= S V

2= V S

Line-Type 1 B i has six different arrangements:

1= S V A/P

____________________

¹Collins, Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry, p. 25. This

is Collins' chart, with the modification in abbreviations

to make it fit conventional descriptors.

²Ibid., p. 162. Thus, for example, each line will

be labeled as IV A/B i or IV C/B ii, depending on whether

or not the subject is present.

2= S A/P V

3= V S A/P

4= V A/P S

5= A/P S V

6= A/P V S¹

Thus, a huge number of line types may be generated from a

fairly simple scheme of four basic sentences (A, B, C, D),

and four line-types (I, II, III, IV), four ways of

recognizing whether or not the subject is explicit (i, ii,

iii, iv), and specific arrangements which are simply

permutations of the ordering of the elements of the four

basic sentences. Thus, Collins examines his 1,943 line

prophetic corpus and designates each line according to his

nomenclature [e.g., III D i) 2 where 2 is the number of

the arrangement]. This provides a rather easily-used tool

for monitoring and sorting the syntax of the poetic lines.

He takes the idea that a few simple forms generate an

"infinite" number of possible line forms from Chomsky's

transformational grammar.2

It will be one of the goals of this study to

examine the proverbial corpus and employ this model, which

will provide a base for comparison of line types. The

____________________

¹Ibid., pp. 58, 60 with appropriate adaptations.

²Ibid., pp. 32-39.

atomistic, non-strophic, bi-colonic nature of Proverbs

provides an opportunity for looking at bald bi-cola which

may render clues as to the nature of the line itself. One

must not forget, however, that such lines are proverbs;

hence, genre considerations also may be at work in shaping

the line. An interesting footnote to Collins' study is

his associating to specific structures certain types of

semantic sets, which he suggests are inherent in the

line-type.¹ Lastly, he perceives what he calls

"interweaving" where the semantic content matches

constituents in different syntactic categories; that is, a

subject of the first colon may match semantically the

object of the second. This phenomenon of semantic-

syntactic "interweaving" has been observed in Proverbs and

will be noted when appropriate.² An example may be seen

in Proverbs 10:1, where "makes glad" (verb) is paralleled

to the construct noun "grief of his mother."

Resultant Model

The resultant model from the meshing of O'Connor's

and Collins' systems may be seen in the following

____________________

¹Collins, Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry, pp. 240-49.

²Ibid., p. 231. This writer was delighted to find

a fitting term (i.e., interweaving) for this phenomenon

which had been observed, although somewhat rarely, in

Proverbs.

illustration from Proverbs 10:1.

10:1a O V S

אָב יְשַׂמַּח־ חָכָם בֵּן

father happy wise son

1 unit 1 unit 2 units

1 constituent 1 constituent 1 constituent

1 Clause predicator

10:1b Pr S

וֹ אִמּ תּוּגַת כְּסִיל בֵן וּ

his mother grief foolish son but

2 units 2 units

1 constutent 1 constituent

0 Clause Predicators

O'Connor's system results in:

10:1a 1 clause predication, 3 constituents, 4 units

10:1b 0 clause predication, 2 constituents, 4 units

Thus his formulae are:

10:1a 1 3 4

10:1b 0 2 4

Collins' system results in the following line-types:

10:1 S V O -- S Pr

The S V O stich (10:1a) is a basic sentence type C. The S

Pr stich (10:1b) is basic sentence type not included in

his initial model but later designated as "nom." which

becomes a fifth basic sentence type.¹ Thus, Proverbs 10:1

____________________

¹Ibid., pp. 215-16. Note the incorrect cross-

reference given on p. 48, n. 45.

is classified as: IV C/nom.: i)1,a. Notice the

modification in the representation 1,a which gives the

arrangement of 10:1a (SVO) as 1 and the arrangement of

10:1b (SPr) as "a" ("b" = [Pr S] ordering). One of the

complications is that, each line type I, II, III, IV,

generates a different set of arrangements thereby

complicating the system. It is the specific arrangements,

however, which allow one to apply the system to actual

texts and shows one of the weaknesses of this very

productive approach in that it does not specify distinctly

all arrangements.¹

The one function of this study, then, will be to

utilize O'Connor's constraints and Collins' line-types to

tabulate how the proverbial corpus compares or contrasts

with the results of these two systems. For comparative

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 168. Note for IV C/B: i)3 there are

three possible arrangements which are lumped under one

heading. A double numerical system may solve this problem.

The first number would exactly specify the arrangement of

the first stich and the second number the second stich. It

is interesting that on pp. 216f. he does not even give an

arrangement specification for nominal sentences. Note that

this system also does not account for four constituent line

types, thus demonstrating the superiority of O'Connor's

approach and the need to further extend Collins' approach.

Collins does develop an arrangement system for gapped

orderings via an alphabetic sequence: a = V O; b = O V;

c = V A/P; d = A/P V; e = O A/P; f = A/P O; g = V; h = O;

j = A/P. Again, he does not include four constituent

clauses which are gapped to three. Another problem with

his handling of arrangements may be seen in the

proliferation of arrangement permutations for II C: i)

type, for which he generates 36 arrangement types. This

could have been avoided by specifying the order of each

stich seperately (vid. pp. 109-12).

purposess this may be helpful. The poetry of Proverbs may

now be compared with O'Connor's early poetry corpus (over

1,200 lines) and Collins' poetry of the prophets (over

1,900 lines). It is to be expected that genre,

particularly in Proverbs, may also put further constraints

on the structure of the line.

Conclusion

This chapter has sought to show that one must

appreciate poetic features of equivalence and difference

on three major levels: phonological, semantical, and

syntactical.¹ Principles of phonetic equivalence may be

exhibited in alliteration, consonance, assonance,

paronomasia, or rhyme. The elusive Hebrew meter may also

reflect phonological equivalences. Onomatopoeia may use a

similarity between sound and sense to flavor the text.

On the level of semantics, equivalence is evinced

in repetitions, the various types of semantic

parallelisms, word dyads, chiasms, inclusios and

compensations. Features of semantic variation may be seen

in double duty usages, gapping, repetitional variation

techniques from different stems and parts of speech,

____________________

¹This writer is well aware of the new burgeoning

fields of pragmalinguistics or pragmatics, socio-

linguistics and psycho-linguistics, all of which presently

are being developed and which will undoubtedly further help

in the analysis of the poetic moment (vid. the next chapter

on linguistics).

as well as in the way in which the word pairs are

connected (as parallel members, construct or conjunct

relationships). Note that paronomasia is an interweaving

of phonetic sameness onto a semantic difference.

Syntactically, equivalences may be seen in the

tropes of matching and grammatical parallelism (i.e.,

syntactical and/or morphological parallelism). Variation

may be reflected in syntactical or morphological shifts,

which result in parallelism or non-parallelism rather than

in a repetitional match. This study will not scrutinize

phonological or semantical parallelism in any serious

manner; rather, it will focus on the syntactic component

which is presently being discussed in Hebrew poetics. A

crude form of semantics will be used, not in an attempt to

model the proverbs semantically, but to heighten the

syntactic equivalences and diversities.

This paper is calling for one who understands

modern semantic research to re-examine the problem of

semantic parallelism in a scientifically sophisticated

manner. To the knowledge of this writer, this has never

been done--for the necessary semantic models have been

developed only within the last decade and often have been

restricted to technically jargonized linguistic circles.

The rationale for cursorily presenting the semantic and

phonetic components of poetic equivalence has been to gain

deictically an intuitive sensitivity of these features

even though they will not be scientifically catalogued.

The beneficial character of such sensitivities has

resulted in one of the significant contributions of this

study, that is, the discovery of principles of composition

by which the proverbial sentences were compiled and linked

into the present canonical order. In short, contra most

scholars who view the proverbial sentence literature as

un-ordered atomistic sentences, this writer will suggest

that Jakobson's, and consequently O'Connor's, principle of

equivalences will reveal the principles by which the sage

shaped the collection of proverbial sentences.

This study will focus on modeling the syntactic

component of the sentences, using O'Connor's and Collins'

for comparative purposes. The employment of the powerful,

descriptive linguistic system of tagmemics will aid in

monitoring syntactic equivalences more closely. The next

chapter will explore various linguistic models and explain

the tagmemic approach adopted in this study. Tagmemics is

perhaps the most sophisticated and descriptively

meticulous linguistic system in existence.

CHAPTER VII

A LINGUISTIC APPROACH

Aspects of Language Theory

Hebrew poetry is an aesthetically heightened form

of language which syntagmatically maps various types of

equivalences--whether phonologic, syntactic, lexical,

semantic, or pragmatic--onto the poetic line. Since

language itself is the instrument which poets use to

create the kalogentic effect of poetry, it seems apparent

that there must be an acute sensitivity to forms of

language if one is going to be able to participate in the

poetic moment. Language may be said to be a complex,

cultural system which the mind employs to mediate the

universe of meaning into a linearized stream of signs

(spoken, written, or merely thought).1 Thus, the study of

language should involve studies of culture, anthropology,

psychology, the past and present situation of the

____________________

¹Wallace L. Chafe, Meaning and the Structure of

Language (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1970),

pp. 5, 15. Cf. Walter A. Cook, Case Grammar: Development

of the Matrix Model (1900-78) (Washington DC: Georgetown

University Press, 1979), p. 124; Leech, Semantics, pp. 178,

191; Bruce L. Liles, An Introduction to Linguistics

(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1975), p. 36;

John Beekman, John Callow and Michael Kopesec, The Semantic

Structure of Written Communication (Dallas: The Summer

Institute of Linguistics, 1981), p. 6; and S. I. Hayakawa,

Language in Thought and Action, (New York: Harcourt, Brace

& World, Inc., 1939), pp. 26-27.

individual and/or community utilizing this system, as well

as attempting to monitor scientifically the actual sign

string itself. While the functions of language are almost

as numerous and unique as the utterances themselves,¹

linguists have isolated six major functional rubrics of

language: phatic, expressive, performative/directive,

cognitive, informative, and aesthetic.² These imbricating

functions will also have an effect on how the meaning is

to be understood. Leech has observed that language is not

only an instrument of communication, "but it is far more

than this--it is the means by which we interpret our

environment, by which we classify or 'conceptualize' our

experiences, by which we are able to impose structure on

reality."³

The structuralists have correctly conceived of the

sign as:

____________________

¹Ian Robinson, in his usual caustic manner, argues

for the multiplicity of linguistic functions, in The New

Grammarians' Funeral: A Critque of Noam Chomsky's

Linguistics (London: Cambridge University Press, 1975), p.

161.

²Leech, Semantics, pp. 47-49. Cf. G. B. Caird, The

Langage and Imagery of the Bible (Philadelphia: The

Westminster Press, 1980), pp. 7-8; Josef Vachek, The

Linguistic School of Prague: An Introduction to its Theory

and Practice (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,

1966), p. 96; and Bruce Liles, An Introduction to

Linguistics (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1975),

pp. 4-8.

³Leech, Semantics, p. 28.

Signifier (sound, image)

SIGN = --------- Signification (relationship)

Signified (concept)¹

The connection between the sign and meaning cannot be

mechanically fossilized or mathematically prescribed on

the basis of the signifier alone, in that speaker/writer

and audience situation/relationship may often change the

intent of that which is signified.² For example, though

one speaks within the context of a graduation from a

rigorous academic program as "death by degrees," the same

signifiers take on different meaning when placed in a

biology class' discussion of a frog's reaction to slowly

boiled water. Therefore, there can be no one-to-one

locking of meaning and signifier via descriptive

linguistic formulae alone; rather, various types/aspects

of meaning will accrue, depending on the type of

instrument being used in formulating the meaning.³ While

the above would suggest that one form/signifier may have

multiple meanings (e.g., my car, my brother, my foot, my

book, my village, my train, my word), so, too, one meaning

____________________

¹Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General

Linguistics, trans. Wade Baskin (New York: Philosophical

Library, 1959), pp. 65-78.

²Arthur Gibson, Biblical Semantic Logic: A

Preliminary Analysis, p. 91.

³The old debate on the "meaning of meaning" or the

multitude of meanings of "meaning" may be seen in the

classic work by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards, The Meaning

of Meaning (London: Kegan Paul, 1923).

may be expressed by multiple forms/signifiers ("Is this

place taken?" "Is there anyone sitting here?" "Are you

saving this seat for someone?" "May I sit here?").¹

Poythress has provided a helpful matrix of the

types of meanings which may occur. One may examine the

history of a communication (source, synchronic, and

transmission analysis) from three perspectives (speaker,

discourse, and audience analysis), each giving a different

aspect or type of meaning.² Recent pragmalinguistics has

provided a model for lingistic meaning which is helping

cut the Gordian knot of the structuralists, who have

myopically fixated on an exclusive text-analytic

approach. This chart isolates, in a somewhat helpful way,

the various aspects of meaning.

Personal Meaning

Situational Meaning

(Contextual) Social Meaning

Meaning aspects

an utterance

Textual Meaning

Co-textual Meaning

Lexical Meaning³

____________________

¹Katharine Barnwell, Introduction to Semantics and

Translation, p. 11.

²Vern S. Poythress, "Analysing a Biblical Text:

Some Important Linguistic Distinctions," SJT, 32

(1979):133.

³Jorgen Bang and Jorgen Door, "Language, Theory,

and Conditions for Production," in Pragmalinguistics:

Theory and Practice, ed. Jacob L. Mey (The Hague: Mouton

Publishers, 1979), p. 47.

Authorial intent is seen to be a complex

phenomenon involving situational (contextual) as well as

co-textual (a text's relationship to the rest of the text)

meaning and cannot be locked into an exacting linguistic

analysis of exoteric textual data alone. Because intent

involves happenings of the mind, a psychological and

sociological starting place may render certain advantages

to a textual analysis.¹ It should be clear that meaning

is more involute than the semiotic system which represents

it. Furthermore, in written texts, many of the

metalinguistic signals (stress, pitch, juncture, and

gestures [hands, face, eyes, etc.])² are not

present--thereby compounding the difficulty of

approximating authorial intent. These complexities should

provide a philosophical raison d'etre for the first part

of this study, which attempted, in a rather discursive

manner, to give account of the sociological and ideational

settings, as well as, the explicit literary forms,

____________________

¹Victor H. Yngve, "The Dilemma of Contemporary

Linguistics," in The First LACUS Forum 1974, ed. Adam and

Valerie Makkai (Columbia, SC: Hornbeam Press, Inc.,

1975), pp. 1, 10. In this same volume M. A. K. Halliday

presents a very comprehensive "Schematic representation of

language as social semiotic" in a "simple" chart ("Language

as Social Semiotic: Towards a General Sociolinguistic

Theory," p. 41). Cf. also Michael E. Bennett,

"Sociolinguistics and Stratificational Theory: A

Discussion and an Example," Rice University Studies 66

(Spring 1980):185-205; and Eugene Nida, Exploring Semantic

Structures, p. 138.

²F. R. Palmer, Semantics (London: Cambridge

University Press, 1981), p. 39.

employed by wisdom.

As one component reflecting the author's

intention, the proverbial language (rather than meaning)

will be the object of this study. Authorial intent, then,

will be revealed at the intersection of the various levels

of meanings--which must be derived from sociolinguistic,

psycholinguistic, pragmalinguistic, textual linguistic,

and meta-linguistic data. This complex must include the

intra-personal and interpersonal situations of the writer,

his text, and his audience. Thus, the focus of this study

will be on one small component of the text-meaning-network

(phonetic, morphemic, syntactic, lexic, semantic, and

pragmatic)--that is, an analysis of syntactic bi-colonic

relationships. It is necessary, however, to see the

forest before examining one particular tree in order to

allow for a more realistic appreciation of the individual

tree and a cognition of what unique contribution that tree

makes to the forest.

From the textual point of view, which will be

adopted in the remainder of this study, a language unit is

a "form-meaning composite." Consequently, if one is going

to approximate the meaning of the text, one must observe

the form as carefully as possible--for it is the form

which mediates meaning.¹ It is at this juncture that

____________________

¹Kenneth L. Pike and Evelyn G. Pike, Grammatical

Analysis (Arlington, TX: The Summer Institute of

linguistics will provide an exacting methodological tool,

since it provides for the meticulous and scientific

description of syntactic form.

Introduction to Linguistics

There is presently a plethora of linguistic models

and each model highlights a different set of features.

The central, underlying theme of all such analytic systems

is summed up by Kent, when he observes that linguistics

allows one to establish his research "not upon the

shifting sands of superficial resemblance and sporadic

analogies, but upon the firm rock of scientific method."¹

Linguistics calls for a study of language which is

empirical, exacting, objective, deictic, and, possibly,

generative.² Structural linguistics is empirical in that

it has sought to describe existing texts in meticulous

detail, breaking language down into smaller and smaller

form units. It then carefully monitors shifts in the form

and meaning of each unit. Its quasi-mathematical,

____________________

Linguistics, 1982), p. 4. Cooper is not wrong when he

observes that in literature form is meaningful; that is,

"In literature the meaning exists in and through the form,"

(Cooper, "Biblical Poetics: A Linguistic Approach," pp.

58, 78).

¹Roland G. Kent, "Linguistic Science and the

Orientalist," JAOS 55 (1935):137.

²Robinson, The New Grammarians' Funeral, p. 2.

However, Robinson objects to the usual approaches to

objectivity as "linguistic atomism."

meta-linguistic formalization has been an impediment to

many as it attempts to describe unambiguously the various

features of the text. This leaves the neophyte stranded

in an impenetrable labyrinth of abbreviations and

mathematical formulae.¹ Recently there seems to be a

substantial movement coalescing logic and linguistics.²

This formalization of language is an attempt to move

language away from subjective, intuitive, and

impressionistic insights to a more objective foundation.

The fact remains, however, as Sapir well expresses, that

"all grammars 'leak.'" It is impossible to force language

____________________

¹Ju. D. Apresjan, Principles and Methods of

Contemporary Structural Linguistics, trans. Dina Crockett

(The Hague: Mouton, 1973), pp. 99; and Kenneth Pike, "On

Describing Languages," in The Scope of American

Linguistics, ed. Robert Austerlitz (Lisse: The Peter De

Ridder Press, 1975), p. 33. Hudson notes that in the

attempt to formalize language, linguists are not able to

cope with the 'messiness' of language, which human beings

so readily accommodate (R. A. Hudson, English Complex

Sentences: An Introduction to Systematic Grammar

[Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1971], p. 5).

²James McCawley, What Every Linguist Should Know

About Logic (Chicago: The Chicago University Press, 1981).

Also recent works in Montague grammar have baffled this

writer, such as: David R. Dowty, Word Meaning and Montague

Grammar: The Semantics of Verbs and Times in Generative

Semantics and in Montague's PTQ (Dordrecht: D. Reidel

Publishing Co., 1979); and Barbara Partee, "Montague

Grammar and Transformational Grammar," Lingusitc Inquiry

6.2 (Spring 1975):203-300. Also vid. R. E. Longacre, An

Anatomy of Speech Notions, pp. 98-163; and D. Lee Ballard,

R. J. Conrad, and R. E. Longacre "The Deep and Surface

Grammar of Interclausal Relations," in Advances in

Tagmemics, ed. Ruth M. Brend (Amsterdam: North-Holland

Publishing Co., 1974), pp. 307-56.

into tidy little boxes.¹ Thus, this writer agrees with

Freeman that impressionistic approaches should not be

eschewed by linguists, but should be respected as another

method of human inquiry which may provide the bucket for

catching the leaks of formal grammatical analysis.² The

deictic function of linguistics is its ability to point

out what factors of language are significant and which are

only marginal. Finally, an adequate linguistic theory

should have generative capacities, meaning that "it

correctly predicts which sentences are (and are not)

syntactically, semantically and phonologically

well-formed."³ In short, not only must it be formally

accurate but it also must have explanatory power.

In order to accomplish these purposes, linguistics

uses a divide-and-conquer methodology. Generally, texts

____________________

¹Jeanne H. Herndon, A Survey of Modern Grammars

(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976), p. 119.

²Donald Freeman, ed., Linguistics and Literary

Style (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1970),

p. 81. In the reverse direction, this writer also rejects

the viewing of linguists as mere technicians.

³Andrew Radford, Transformational Syntax: A

Student's Guide to Chomsky's Extended Standard Theory

(London: Cambridge University Press, 1981), p. 25. Also

note Radford's chapter on linguistic goals (pp. 1-31).

Functionally, a grammar must be able to disambiguate

similar sentences and to account for dissimilar sentences

which are "synonymous." Liles cites the example of the

following "synonymous" sentences: "She gave the cake to

the bachelor" and "She gave the bachelor the cake" (An

Introduction to Linguistics, p. 169). Cf. also Herndon, A

Survey of Modern Grammars, p. 121.

are analyzed in separate, rather autonomous language

categories: phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicology,

semantics (reference), and pragmatics.¹ Several reasons

may be given for the separation of syntax and semantics.²

The classes of analysis of the two are quite distinct.

Semantics, deals with referential meaning, while syntactic

categories describe grammatical units (nouns, verbs,

adverbs, etc.) and relationships (subject, object, etc.).³

Louw is correct when he states that a semantic theory must

always be presented with a syntactic backdrop (e.g.,

____________________

¹Leech, Semantics, p. 13; or Radford,

Transformational Syntax, p. 12. Some keep "lexis" as

distinct from semantics, such as: Hudson, English Complex

Sentences, p. 11 and Lockwood, Introduction to

Stratificational Linguistics, p. 26 (has an interesting

diagram on this subject). Still others of a more empirical

nature replace what many call semantics with the term

"reference," such as: Linda K. Jones, Theme in Expository

Discourse p. 4; and Pike & Pike, Grammatical Analysis, pp.

321ff. Finally, those of the pragmalinguistic school have

helpfully added pragmatics, such as: Franz Guenther and

Christian Rohrer, "Introduction: Formal semantics, Logic

and Linguistics," in Studies in Formal Semantics:

Intensionality, Temporality, Negation, ed. Franz Guenthner

and Christian Rohrer (Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing

Co., 1978), p. 1; Carl E. Lindberg, "Is the Sentence a Unit

of Speech Production and Perception?" in Pragmalinguistics:

Theory and Practice, ed. Jacob Mey (The Hague: Mouton,

1979), p. 59; and Herman Parret, "Introduction," in

Possibilities and Limitations of Pragmatics, ed. Herman

Parret (Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V., 1981), p. 2.

²Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures (The Hague:

Mouton, 1957), pp. 92-105.

³Irene Lawrence, Linguistics and Theology: The

Significance of Noam Chomsky for Theological Constructions

(Meutchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1980), p. 23; Barnwell,

Introduction to Semantics and Translation, p. 43; and

Leech, Semantics, pp. 181, 340.

"metal old several buckets rusty" comes to meaning with

the syntactic ordering--"several old rusty metal

buckets").¹ Also calling for a separation is the fact

that it is possible to have a sentence which is

syntactically well-formed sentence, but semantically

ill-formed: "The fast split-level house ate the chirping

four-wheel drive banana."²

Syntax does affect meaning (semantics). From the

hackneyed illustrations of "flying planes can be

dangerous" and "the very old men and women," one sees how

syntactic ambiguity results in an ambiguity in lexical

meaning, in the first, and a change in the referential

meaning in the second.³ It has been correctly suggested

that "flying planes can be dangerous" reflects two deep

structure meanings, which is the reason why this syntactic

surface structure is ambiguous. So, too, Nida's pattern

shows how syntax can change meaning: "Even Terry kissed

Karen," "Terry even kissed Karen," and "Terry kissed even

____________________

¹J. P. Louw, Semantics of New Testament Greek,

pp. 58, 67.

²Cf. Chafe, Meaning and the Structure of Language,

p. 68. Semantically, such a sentence may be well-formed if

one allows for some putative world of Lewis Carroll, C. S.

Lewis or J. R. R. Tolkien.

³Radford, Transformational Syntax, p. 55; Pike and

Pike, Grammatical Analysis, pp. 304-11; and Noam Chomsky,

The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory (New York:

Plenum Press, 1975), pp. 77.

Karen."¹ Thus, semantics and syntactics are interactive

and are separated for the purpose of analysis; but,

ultimately, both types of analysis must be integrated.

Indeed, recent experiments with case grammar have sought

to monitor semantic relationships. One reason for

choosing to model the proverbs syntactically is that

syntactic categories are fewer, more manageable, and more

definable than semantic categories.²

Linguistic Models

While a tagmemic model will be employed in the

analysis of the proverbial corpus, it is important to

survey other linguistic models for the following reasons:

(1) salient features of other systems may be able to be

incorporated into the analysis of an eclectic tagmemic

approach; (2) it will highlight the sophistication and

unique beauty of the tagmemic model; and (3) the

introduction of other models may suggest directions which

could complement the approach taken in this study. The

survey will proceed somewhat historically from classical

diagrammatical analysis to structural (one of which is

tagmemics), transformational, relational

____________________

¹Eugene Nida, Componential Analysis of Meaning,

p. 62. Cf. Barnwell, Introduction to Semantics and

Translation, p. 43.

²Chapman, Linguistics and Literature: An

Introduction to Literary Stylistics, p. 61.

(stratificational, daughter dependency), formal, and

pragmatic approaches. The purpose will not be to

scrutinize the details of these systems, but to appreciate

the contribution each approach has had to a general theory

of language.

Traditional Grammar

The traditional approach sees language in terms of

series of grammatical categories called the "parts of

speech" (noun, verb, adverb, etc.). These categories were

developed by the Greeks (Plato, Aristotle, and canonized

by Dionysius Thrax of the Alexandrian school in his work

The Art of Grammar, ca. 125 B.C.). Later, Apollonius

Dyscolus (second century A.D.) and the Romans, who largely

reapplied Greek grammatical techniques to Latin, developed

the syntactical categories of the sentence (subject, verb,

object). The grammars of Donatus (ca. A.D. 400) and

Priscian (ca. A.D. 500), based on classical corpora

prescribed correct usage throughout the medieval period.¹

The various parts of speech are usually analyzed

morphologically via a parsing scheme--classifying the

parts according to gender, number, and case or person,

____________________

¹John Lyons, Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), pp. 4-15;

and Herndon, A Survey of Modern Grammars, pp. 10-14. For a

strong argument against prescriptivism, vid. H. A. Gleason,

Linguistics and English Grammar (New York: Holt, Rinehart

and Winston, Inc., 1965), pp. 8-14.

gender, number, stem (qal, piel, hiphil, etc.), tense, and

mood. Part of this system has been given graphic

representation via diagrammatical analysis, in which

sentence parts are separated and classified by the type of

vertical dividing line present or the slant of the line

upon which the word sits. ¹ This system has been helpful

in graphically portraying sentence relationships. It does

not well coordinate the parts of speech with function in

the sentence; nor are cohesive, morphological agreements

(e.g., gender of the subject and gender of the verb) well

explicated in the diagram itself. Several other problems

with this system are: (1) it lacks a specific means for

describing the exact types of relationships between words

(e.g., the diagrams of "his house," "red house," and "dog

house" are all the same); (2) because of the fixity of the

graphic method employed, the actual word order of the text

is often shuffled to "fit" the diagram, rather than vice

versa (This violates the natural word order which is often

____________________

¹This approach is reflected in the following works:

D. W. Emery and R. W. Pence, A Grammar of Present-Day

English (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1947); Homer

C. House and Susan E. Harman, Descriptive English Grammar

(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1931); Lee L.

Kantenwein, Diagrammatical Analysis (Warsaw, IN: Lee

Kantenwein, 1979); John D. Grassmick, Principles and

Practice of Greek Exegesis (Dallas: Dallas Theological

Seminary, 1974); and Donald W. Emery, Sentence Analysis

(New York: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston, 1961). Although

Gleason does not hold this approach presently, being a

stratificationalist, his book, Linguistics and English

Grammar, reflects a modified form of this approach.

significant for the theme, semantic, aesthetic, and

syntactic functions of the text.); (3) it ignores deep

structural differences (Thus, the diagrams of "Natanya hit

the ball" and "The ball was hit by Natanya" are different

and have no explicit means of relating these two

"synonymous" sentences. Nor does this model account for

the deep structure difference between "Dave hit balls" and

"Balls hit Dave."); (4) it observes only the grammar of

the sentence and ignores paragraph and discourse

relationships which are often determinative for sentential

meaning; (5) it provides no way of quantifying data (e.g.,

if 300 clauses are analyzed, this system provides no

formulaic method for comparing and contrasting the data);

(6) it does not treat idioms well; and (7) it gives a

false sense of security resulting from a mechanically

sterile treatment of the literary texts (Thus there is a

danger of going from the diagram to a structural sermonic

outline). The diagrammatical model, however, is helpful

in specifying some grammatical relationships and allows

the student to begin to consider and specify pictorially

intra-sentential relationships. Recent reactions against

this approach in the direction of an insipid discourse

analysis--which specifies clausal relations of

coordination and subordination merely via an indentational

system--seems to be two steps forward and one backward.¹

Structural Linguistics

In the early twentieth century, another linguistic

paradigm began to be developed: the structuralist model.

The goal of this school was not to prescribe correct

grammar, but to empirically discover the patterns of

symbols which men use to communicate. Ferdinand de

Saussure (1857-1913) is considered to be the initial spark

of diverse phenomena practiced under the banner of

structuralism.² Fundamentally, structuralism is a

strictly empirical description which observes five helpful

distinctions. First, Saussure has observed that language

is a mere convention with no necessary connection between

sign and significance. He would reject any statements

which attempt to tie types of signs to types of thought

(cf. Hebrew versus Greek types of thought).³

____________________

¹Walter Kaiser, Towards an Exegetical Theology:

Biblical Exegesis for Preaching and Teaching (Grand Rapids:

Baker Book House, 1981). Contrast with Gillian Brown &

Yule, Discourse Analysis (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press,

1983)

²Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in General

Linguistics, trans. W. Baskin (New York: McGraw-Hill,

1959). A helpful survey of structuralism is Ju. D.

Apresjan, Principles and Methods of Contemporary Structural

Linguistics, trans. Dina Crockett (The Hague: Mouton,

1973).

³Eugene Nida, "The Implications of Contemporary

Linguistics for Biblical Scholarship," p. 83; cf. Barr, The

Semantics of Biblical Languages, p. 35; Anthony C.

Thiselton, "Semantics and New Testament Interpretation," in

Structuralists restrict their analyses to empirical signs

and sign patterns, without trying to trace them into the

labyrinth of the mind or meaning. Thus, it is largely a

descriptional endeavor.

Second, he distinguishes between langue (language)

and parole (speaking). Langue is the system of signs and

conventions which a culture uses in order to speak.

Parole, on the other hand, is the specific sign system

used in the actual speech act of an individual. This

distinction is similar to Chomsky's competence/

performance, although Chomsky's competence emphasizes more

specific generative rules, while Saussures' langue treats

more sociological aspects.¹ Structuralism concentrates on

describing the features of parole (language as it is

actually used).²

Third, the distinction between diachronic and

synchronic has been of immense help both to linguistics

and biblical studies. Structuralists correctly suggest

____________________

New Testament Interpretation: Essays on Principles and

Methods, ed. I. H. Marshall (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans

Publishing Co., 1977), pp. 87-88; and Liles, An

Introduction to Linguistics, p. 167.

¹Enkvist, Linguistic Stylistics, pp. 42-43. Cf.

Thiselton, "Semantics and New Testament Interpretation,"

pp. 88-89; and Palmer, Semantics, p. 7.

²This can be seen in Charles Fries' classic work:

The Structure of English (New York: The Ronald Press Co.,

1958), based on 250,000 words of spoken language from

recorded telephone conversations. Cf. Herndon, A Survey of

Modern Grammars, p. 22.

that language must be studied synchronically (language-

state from one time period), establishing first what the

langugage-state is at one particular time, before one can

ask how the language evolved through time (diachronic).

This is a demurring of an historical approach which

attempts to understand a language solely through

etymologies. Saussure suggests that synchronics is a more

sure foundation than a hypothetical and overwhelmingly

complex diachronic/etymological approach.¹ Poythress

correctly notes that in Hebrew, for example, because of

incomplete synchronic evidence, one may be forced to

depend more heavily on diachronic data.² From a stylistic

point of view, both Chapman and Enkvist argue for a

panchronic view-point which is synthesized from both

synchronic and diachronic studies.³ This study in

Proverbs will be a synchronic analysis.

____________________

¹Barr has obviously picked up on this point in his

critque of etymological approaches (The Semantics of

Biblical Language, p. 109). Thiselton has an interesting

discussion on Barr's dependence on Saussure in "Semantics

and New Testament Interpretation." Thiselton illustrates

the problem of using etymology to establish meaning (pp.

80-81): one does not mean "God be with you" when he says

"Good-bye"; nor does he mean "housewife" when he calls a

young lady a "hussy." When he complements someone by

saying they are "cute," he does not mean they are

"bow-legged." "Nice" does not mean "ignorant."

²Vern Poythress, "Analysing a Biblical Text: Some

Important Linguistic Distinctions," SJT 32 (1979):118.

³Enkvist, Linguistic Stylistics, p. 66 and Chapman,

Linguistics and Literature: An Introduction to Literary

Stylistics, p. 25.

Fourth, a distinction is made between syntagmatic

and paradigmatic. Paradigmatic relationships are units

which are mutually substitutable in a given slot or

context. Hence they are more vertical, concentrating on

the possible choices and selectional options. Syntagmatic

relationships are more horizontal between contiguous units

in the sentence or string. In short, the difference is

between chain (syntagmatic) and choice (paradigmatic).¹

[teacher who delights in ancient history]

[boy]

The [man] went to Wrigley Field.

[family]

[whole class]

The relationships between "teacher who delights in ancient

history," "man," "boy," "family," and "whole class" are

paradigmatic (mutually substitutable), while the

relationships between the contiguous constituents of the

sentence, "The man went to Wrigley Field," are syntagmatic

(combinatory relationships). Since this study will be of

a syntactic nature the paradigmatic choices will be stated

in terms of grammatical categories and poetic parallelism

will help show which constituents are mutually

substitutable. Because of the tagmemic notation,

____________________

¹E. K. Brown and J. E. Miller, Syntax: A

Linguistic Introduction to Sentence Structure (London:

Hutchinson & Co., 1980), p. 253. Cf. also Silva, Biblical

Words and their Meanings, pp. 119-20; Nida, Componential

Analysis of Meaning, p. 152; Palmer, Semantics, pp. 67-68;

Lyons, Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics, pp. 74-78;

and Leech, Semantics, p. 12.

questions such as, "What types of grammatical units fill

the subject slot?" and "What types of constituents fill

modifier slots?" will be able to be given concrete

answers. Syntactic relations naturally will reveal

syntagmatic relations, which will be made specific in the

cohesion and case boxes of the tagmeme.

Fifth, the analytic units of structuralism are the

empirical constituents or units which are formed by the

repeated breaking down of larger units into smaller parts.

Thus it is hierarchical in nature--moving from the

smallest atomic parts which signal meaning (i.e., the

morpheme), to the word, phrase, clause, sentence,

paragraph, section, and, finally, to the discourse.¹

These various levels may be related to one another in a

normal descending relationship (e.g., a phrase will be

composed of words [NP = his mother]), or one may find

recursive patterns (a clause may be composed of a word and

another clause), level-skipping (a word may act on a

paragraph level linking two paragraphs together), or

backlooping (a word and a clause may form a phrase).²

Hudson correctly observes that structuralists describe

basically two types of relationships: part-whole (which

____________________

¹Pike and Pike, Grammatical Analysis, p. 3. Each

aspect of language (syntax, reference, and phonology) has

its own hierarchy.

²Longacre, Anatomy of Speech Notions, p. 267. Cf.

also Pike and Pike, Grammatical Analysis, p. 128.

have received by far the most attention in tagmemics and

transformational grammar), and dependency relations

between parts (relational and dependency grammars).¹

These constituent type grammars may be contrasted to

functional grammars, such as case grammar.² Tagmemics has

recently found it helpful to embed case grammar into one

of its boxes, thereby gaining benefits from both

hierarchical-constituent and functional approaches. The

cohesion box of tagmemics will reflect dependency and

relational grammar sensitivities.

Linguistic structuralism has its origins in

Saussure's distinctions and was adopted and particularized

by the father of American linguistics, Leonard

Bloomfield.³ Bloomfield's influence may be seen in the

works of A. A. Hill, W. N. Francis, N. C. Stageberg, C. C.

Fries, and K. Pike.⁴ There is a very diversified

____________________

¹Richard Hudson, Arguments for a

Non-transformational Grammar (Chicago: The University of

Chicago Press, 1976), pp. 197-99.

²Brown and Miller, Syntax, p. 383.

³Leonard Bloomfield, Language (New York: Henry

Holt, 1933).

⁴W. Nelson Francis, The Structure of American

English (New York: The Ronald Press Co., 1958); Charles C.

Fries, The Structure of English (New York: Harcourt, Brace

and Co., 1952); Archibald A. Hill, An Introduction to

Linguistic Structures (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.,

Inc., 1958); and Norman C. Stageberg, An Introductory

English Grammar (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston,

Inc., 1965). Poythress has an interesting chart showing

how structural linguistics has developed, in "Structuralism

tumescent growth in biblical structuralism. While many of

the distinctions made are equivalent to Saussure's,

biblical structuralism should be separated from the types

of things structural linguists are doing. Biblical

structuralism usually focuses on the discourse level,

showing how larger units are structured--with attention

given to lower constituents only as they contribute to the

macro-structure which the analysis is proposing.¹

Structural linguistics is much more scientific; it begins

with stable, lower level units and methodically builds one

level at a time, classifying and fastidiously describing

relationships before it moves on to the next level.

Several caveats have been given against a

structural linguistic approach to literary texts. Because

____________________

and Biblical Studies," p. 228. Cf. also John White,

"Stratificational Grammar: A New Theory of Language,"

College Composition and Communication 20 (1969):192 who

notes that the Bloomfieldian tradition emphasizes

expressions while the Hjelmslevian tradition concetrates on

system--which is where he puts stratificational grammar.

¹Jean Calloud, Structural Analysis of Narrative,

trans. Daniel Patte (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976);

S. Bar-Efrat, "Some Observations on the Analysis of

Structure in Biblical Narrative," VT 30 (1980):154-73;

Robert Culley, "Structural Analysis: Is it Done with

Mirrors?" Int 28.2 (1974):165-81; Daniel Patte, Structural

Exegesis: From Theory to Practice (Philadelphia: Fortress

Press, 1978); Daniel Patte, What is Structural Exegesis?

(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976); Robert Polzin,

Biblical Structuralism (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,

1977); Robert Scholes, Structuralism in Literature: An

Introduction (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974); and

especially the interesting journal Semeia is devoted to

this topic.

of its emphasis on segmentation and classification,

Robinson labels linguistic structuralism as "atomism"

which tries by its fissionary processes to objectify

language, but which succeeds merely in pulverizing and

vapourizing literature to the point where it is no longer

literature but isolated linguistic fragments.¹ At its

inception structural linguistics may have been

fragmentational; however, the present emphasis on

discourse analysis has agglutinatively remedied this

problem by demonstrating how the atoms are related

hierarchically to molecular discourse structures. One

problem initially faced by structural linguistics was that

it virtually ignored deep structure and just described

surface structure relationships.² This has been partially

rectified via the inclusion of case grammar into

structuralist models. Chafe has correctly objected to

early structuralists as having an exaggerated empirical

base which was more interested in little rules of grammar

than in meaning. Meaning was, in effect, chased out of

language.³ Indeed, there seems to have been an adversion

____________________

¹Robinson, The New Grammarians' Funeral, p. 2.

Also from a different perspective is Arild Utaker,

"Semantics and the Relation between Language and

Non-Language," in Pragmalinguistics: Theory and Practice,

ed. Jacob Mey (The Hague: Mouton, 1979).

²Enkvist, Linguistic Stylistics, p. 79.

³Chafe, Meaning and the Structure of Language, pp.

6-7. Robinson acridly quips, against all linguistics, "and

to semantic considerations in nascent structural

linguistics, but now, having treated syntax, many are

turning to semantic bases. Present attempts to objectify

the semantic component hold great promise. One final

objection may be seen in the neglect by structural

linguistics of the speech situation and what utterances

actually do to audiences.¹ This area is presently being

studied under the heading of pragmalinguistics, which

scrutinizes both linguistic and non-linguistic contextual

and situational factors. Because such features are often

mentioned on the discourse level, recent studies on

discourse analysis are beginning to examine these

phenomena from a text-structural point of view.

Thus the distinctions of structural

linguistics--langue (language system)/parole (speech),

diachronic/synchronic, paradigmatic/syntagmatic,

sign/significance, and hierarchical relationships--have

been beneficial. This paper will apply a structuralist

model called "tagmemics" as it monitors the syntactical

features of the poetry of the proverbial text. It is

readily acknowledged that other approaches will reveal

other features which this study, because of its

____________________

isn't it a mark of the plight of linguistics that

'linguists' find things like 'a pretty little girls'

school' much more interesting than Macbeth" (The New

Grammarians' Funeral, p. xii).

¹Robinson, The New Grammarians' Funeral, p.

47.

methodology, will often knowingly overlook.

Transformational Grammar

Noam Chomsky, a student of Zellig Harris, began to

react against the strict empiricism of the structuralists'

model, moving in the direction of a rationalistic or

mentalistic, syntactically based exemplar.¹ Seeing the

weakness of a mere empirical, discovery procedure

approach, he desired to trace language back into the mind

to the decision procedures by which the sentence is

generated. Chomsky realized that pure descriptivism could

not account for the infinite creativity of the mind's use

of language, which could, in a moment, generate a sentence

which had never been spoken before--leaving a strict

empirical approach muddled in an infinitude of messy

details.² His approach, which revolutionized the

linguistic world, was to isolate a few, simple, syntactic

____________________

¹Leech, Semantics, pp. 32-33. It is

interesting that Philip Pettit has attempted to show the dependence
of Chomsky on Saussure (The Concept of Structuralism: A

Critical Analysis [Berkeley: University of California

Press, 1977], pp. 1-28). Lockwood, Introduction to

Stratificational Linguistics, p. 263. Some easy beginner

texts which introduce the concepts of TG (transformational

grammar) are: Herndon, A Survey of Modern Grammars; Brown

and Miller, Syntax: A Linguistic Introduction to Sentence

Structure; and Liles, An Introductory Transformational

Grammar (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1971).

Radford's work (Transformational Syntax [1981]) is more

advanced and up to date.

²Noam Chomsky, Cartesian Linguisitics: A

Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought (New York:
Harper & Row, Publishing, 1966), pp. 3-30.

rules which could generate all possible sentences. This

is why it is called "generative grammar" rather than a

"descriptive grammar."¹ His system, like the

structuralist's, still focused on the syntactic component

of language as foundational.² Others have more recently

opted for a semantic base and consequently called it

"generative-semantics."³ Chomsky's system attempts to

explain: syntactically "synonymous" sentences which have

different meanings ("John is easy to please"; "John is

eager to please"); sentences which are syntactically

ambiguous ("Visiting relatives can be tiresome," or

"Flying planes can be dangerous"); and sentences which are

syntactically different yet "synonymous" ("Brent painted

the picture"; or "The picture was painted by Brent").⁴

Two sets of distinctions are important in

transformational grammar. First, a distinction is made

____________________

¹John Lyons, Noam Chomsky (New York: Viking Press,

1970), p. 9; Herndon, A Survey of Modern Grammars, pp.

118-20; Liles, An Introductory Transformational Grammar

p. 133; and Radford, Transformational Syntax, pp. 19-20.

²Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures (The

Hague: Mouton, 1957), pp. 11-17; also, later, his Studies on

Semantics in Generative Grammar (The Hague: Mouton, 1972),

pp. 11-14.

³Chafe, Meaning and the Structure of Language; and

Ray S. Jackendoff, Semantic Interpertation in Generative

Grammar (Cambridge, MS: The MIT Press, 1972). Also vid.

the works of George Lakoff and James McCawley.

⁴Herndon, A Survey of Modern Grammars, p. 121; and

Liles, An Introduction to Linguistics, p. 133.

between competence (fluent native speaker's knowledge of

his language) and performance (that which he actually

speaks).¹ Transformationalists argue that those linguists

who have analyzed a corpus are merely studying

performance, rather than speaker competence, which should

be the object of language study.² Chomsky then attempts

to describe competence through a series of syntactic rules

by which the mind generates sentences. Second, the

distinction between deep and surface structure, with

transformations mediating between these two levels, has

been a major contribution of transformational grammar.

"Deep structure refers to the basic syntactic pattern in

which a meaning is expressed, while surface structure

refers to the particular form in which a meaning is

expressed in a text."³ This was another clear move away

from empiricism. Thus, two sentences, such as "Joy was

hit by the ball" and "The ball hit Joy," were now able to

be compared for the deep grammar similarity, even though

their surface level is syntactically discordant. The deep

grammar is described by a series of phrase structure rules

which are the same for both of these sentences. Next a

____________________

¹Noam Chomsky, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax

(Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1965), p. 4; cf. also

Radford, Transformational Syntax, p. 2.

²Liles, An Introductory Transformational Grammar,

p. 79.

³Louw, Semantics of New Testament Greek, p.

73.

series of transformational rules maps the common deep

structure onto the different surface structures (one

active, one passive). A series of phonological rules

takes the results of the transformations and projects them

into exact speech sounds. Therefore, there are three

levels of rules to which a fourth must be added: deep

phrase structure rules, transformations, lexical rules

(which plug in the appropriate words choices), and

phonological rules.¹

An example may prove beneficial at this point.

One type of sentence may have the deep phrase structure

generating rules:

S --- NP + VP (Sentence consists of a NP and VP)²

NP--- N (Noun Phrase consists of a Noun)

VP--- V + NP (Verb Phrase consists of a V + NP)

NP--- Art. + N (NP consists of an article + N)

These phrase structure rules would generate any of the

following sentences and many more (any of the type N + V +

Art. + N):

Dawn cut the flowers.

Dogs ate the fish.

Children threw the ball.

Firemen extinguished the blaze.

If a passive transformation is applied to the

____________________

¹Liles, An Introduction to Linguistics, pp. 72,

168, has helpful charts of this process. Cf. also Herndon,

A Survey of Modern Grammars, p. 125; and Radford,

Transformational Syntax, pp. 15-16.

²The arrow means "consists of" or "has the constituents of."

phrase structure, one arrives at a different surface

structure, but one which is derived from the same deep

phrase structure. The passive transformation does the

following to the initial phrase structure: N₁ + V + Art.

+ N₂ === Art. + N₂ + Aux. + V + by + N₁(where aux. =

verbal auxiliary). Thus, this transformation accounts for

all surface structures which are "synonymous" with the

original sentences in a deep structure sense, but very

different in the surface structure. This transformation

results in:

Dawn cut the flowers ===> The flowers were cut by

Dawn.

Dogs ate the fish ===> The fish were eaten by dogs.

Children threw the ball ===> The ball was thrown by

children.

Firemen extinguished the blaze ===> The blaze was

extinguished by firemen.

Other transformations explicitly explain the relationship

between statements and questions ("He is tall" and "Is he

tall?"); indirect object transformations ("Kathy gave him

a shot" becomes "Kathy gave a shot to him"); adverbial

movement transformations ("Yesterday I saw Rik" becomes "I

saw Rik yesterday"); compounding, deletion and pro forms

("Skip was eager and Skip was industrious" becomes "Skip

was eager and industrious" or "Skip was eager and he was

industrious"); as well as relative constructions ("He is

building a boat" and "The boat is large" become "The boat

that he is building is large").¹ It is clear, because of

our native competence (fluency) in English, that these

sentences are related and many of them would be considered

"synonymous" in normal speech. The exegetical

ramifications are astounding, but will not be pursued in

this study other than to say that these examples

demonstrate that one must be extremely careful about

making eisogetical remarks on the basis of surface grammar

variations with deep structure "synonymity." It is

possible that the writer was not attempting to make any

crucial point by his choice of a passive rather than an

active mode. Furthermore, the transformational idea holds

rich possibilities for Hebrew syntactic parallelism. This

writer has observed bi-cola which are syntactically

non-matching, according to O'Connor's system, but which,

with a simple transformation, match perfectly (viz. Prov

10:1).²

____________________

¹Herndon, A Survey of Modern Grammars, pp. 207-43;

and Liles, An Introductory Transformational Grammar, pp.

43-101.

²It is interesting that William Mouser's recent

book on Proverbs proposes a similar idea--only somewhat

non-scientifically specified--using semantic

transformations to allow for a better fit between the

bi-cola (Walking in Wisdom: Studying in the Proverbs of

Solomon [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1983], pp.

35-52). One must be extremely cautious, however, of this

approach, as it may force the proverbs to fit equivalence

patterns without seeing the variety and differences in

meaning intended. Thus this methodology, while having

Several objections have been raised to

transformational grammar.¹ Robinson is correct when he

critiques TG for treating only sentences, which are only a

single level of language.² He further objects that

language is more than a series of rules and that such a

rule-oriented approach chases meaning out of language.³

Chafe accuses Chomsky of "syntacticism."⁴ How does one

handle sentences which are ungrammatical, but are spoken

nevertheless? Is not TG a return to prescriptivism? How

does TG handle the metaphors, irony, and perlocutionary

acts (the effect on the hearer) of language?⁵ It is

ironic that Robinson correctly accuses the "rationalistic"

approach of Chomsky as empiricism revisited.⁶ Though

____________________

possibilities, needs further development along

scientifically semantic lines.

¹Robinson's book, The New Grammarians' Funeral, is

perhaps the most acrid, written from an intuitive/

impressionistic approach. More linguistically satisfying

is R. A. Hudson, Arguments for a Non-transformational

Grammar (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1976).

²Robinson, The New Grammarians' Funeral, pp. 36,

45.

³Ibid., pp. 21, 87.

⁴Chafe, Meaning and the Structure of Language, p.

60.

⁵Robinson, The New Grammarians' Funeral, pp.

10, 40, 47.

⁶Ibid., p. 104. It seems Chomsky desires to

project empirical evidence back into the mind via his

rules. How can one validate or falsify such mentalistic

suggestions?

"Sincerity admires Rebekah" may be semantically ill-formed

by the "rules"--because "admires" needs an animate human

subject--yet, in poetry, such a sentence may be

well-formed.¹ The problem is not with grammar per se, but

with attempting to reduce language to mere grammar.²

While the idea of transformations is very helpful in

relating sentences, problems arise if one views

transformations as producing equivalent or exactly

synonymous sentences. Such an approach would deny the

passive a reason for existence, portray repetitions as

jejune redundancies, and tend to de-emphasize the

importance of surface structure selectional options.³

Hence, transformations may result in a leveling of the

meaning of the text via a syntactic reductionism which

manifests an "X is really Y syndrome."⁴ It should be

noted that tagmemics clearly distinguishes surface

____________________

¹Freeman, Linguistics and Literary Style, pp.

182-83.

²Robinson, The New Grammarians' Funeral, p.

60.

³Ibid., pp. 119, 125; M. K. Brame, Essays Toward

Realistic Syntax (Seattle: Noit Amrofer, 1979), p. 14;

Daniel Gulstad, "Are Transformations Really Necessary?" in

Papers from the 1977 Mid-America Linguistics Conference,

ed. Donald Lance and Daniel Gulstad (Columbia, MO:

University of Missouri, 1978), p. 203; and Rolv Blakar,

"Language as a Means of Social Power: Theoretical-

Empirical Explorations of Language and Language Use as

Embedded in a Social Matrix," in Pragmalinguistics: Theory

and Practice, ed. Jacob Mey (The Hague: Mouton, 1979), p.

152.

⁴Chafe, Meaning and Structure of Language, p.

86.

structures, while at the same time--through an embedded

case grammar--accounts for deep structure regularities.

Robinson champions Occam's razor. He misses the point,

however, that Chomsky's categories do have value if left

on a grammatical level.¹ Thus, TG must remain a grammar

rather than a total theory of language. Its formulae will

bear some correspondence to the filler box of the tagmemic

formulae. Tagmemics remedies many of the above problems

and will, therefore, be adopted in this study, although

some will obviously disparage the use of a non-main-stream

grammar. However, the advantages of tagmemics out-weigh

this criticism and the similarity of tagmemics to TG makes

it easily learned by those familiar with TG.

Other Recent Grammars

For several reasons, it is desirable to survey, in

a very brief fashion other approaches to linguistics:

(1) to suggest other directions which this study may have

taken; (2) to allow for a comparison with the tagmemic

system adopted here; (3) to help sensitize the reader to

aspects of language which tagmemics has ignored; and (4)

in the spirit of eclecticism, to suggest factors which may

be beneficially incorporated into a tagmemic analysis.

Two grammars (stratificational and daughter-dependency)

will be mentioned. Lastly, and with great promise, the

____________________

¹Robinson, A New Grammarians' Funeral, pp.

x, 165.

recent developments in pragmalinguistics will be broached.

Stratificational Grammar

Stratificational linguistics was developed in the

late sixties by Sydney Lamb¹ and H. A. Gleason.² A

work by David Lockwood provides a helpful introduction to this

theory.³ Walter Bodine, at a recent colloquium, has

alluded to some work which is presently taking place at

Dallas Seminary applying this theory to Hebrew.⁴ Its

diagrams specify relationships, treating units only as

input or output items. Like tagmemics, stratificational

linguistics allows for relationships on the various

levels, developing a "tactic" system for each level

(phonotactics, morphotactics [syntax], lexotactics,

semotactics).⁵ Once the diagram is entered it is totally

____________________

¹Sydney Lamb, Outline of Stratificational

Grammar (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1966).

²Henry A. Gleason, "The Organization of Language:

A Stratificational View," Monograph Series on Languages and

Linguistics, no. 17, ed. C. I. J. M. Stuart 17 (Washington,

DC: University Institute of Languages and Linguistics,

1964).

³David G. Lockwood, Introduction to

Stratificational Linguisitics (New York: Harcourt, Brace,

Jovanovich, Inc., 1972); and a bibliograhy by Ilah Fleming,

"Stratificational Theory: An Annotated Bibliograhy,"

Journal of English Linguistics 3 (1969):37-65.

⁴Walter Bodine, "Linguistics, Semitics, and

Biblical Hebrew," in Society of Biblical Literature 1982

Seminar Papers 21 (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1982):31-37.

⁵Lockwood, Introduction to Stratificational

Linguistics, p. 26.

relational, as opposed to a more constituent oriented

approach such as tagmemics or TG. Stratificational

linguistics handles the following three types of

relationships: (1) conjunction/disjunction; (2) ordered/

unordered; and (3) downward/upward. It uses a series of

"and" and "or" gates which are similar to systems

engineering models. The "and" gate calls for both items

to be present and the "or" gate requires that a selection

be made, with one item being chosen. Thus, for example

the sentence "Perry/Elaine/Dave sees Donna" would be

diagrammed as follows (the convex triangular shapes are

"and gates" and the sideways parenthesis is an "or gate"):

"Perry/Elaine/Dave sees Donna" [OUTPUT]

Perry Dave see s Donna [INPUT]

Elaine

Notice that the input is words and the output is a

sentence.¹ One can see that this system is also, like

tagmemics, hierarchical in nature, showing relationships

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 35.

from the morpheme up to discourse level. While

stratificationalists have noted the similarities with

tagmemics,¹ they have ignored at least two fundamental

differences which are: (1) the fact that constituents or

units are crucial to the theoretical underpinnings of

tagmemics;² and (2) tagmemics attempts not only to note

the relationships between units, but also--and very

important for this study--to specify the exact nature of

what those relationships are.³ Thus, the stress on

relationships is very beneficial, but the need for

constituents at each level and the exact specification of

relationship types (via case grammar) will make it

desirable to pursue a tagmemic approach.

Relational Grammars

Another more recent set of approaches has been

through relational, dependency and daughter-dependency

grammars. These models develop the European dependency-

____________________

¹Ibid., pp. 255-57.

²Cf. Pike's comments in "On Describing

Languages," in The Scope of American Linguistics, ed. Robert
Austerlitz (Lisse: The Peter De Ridder Press, 1975), pp. 13, 24; and

his discussions with S. Lamb in Report of the Twenty-Second

Annual Round Table Meeting on Linguistics and Language

Studies, ed. Richard J. O'Brien (Washington, DC:

Georgetown University Press, 1971), p. 158.

³This writer is also aware of attempts to embed

case grammar into this system. Lockwood, Introduction to

Stratificational Linguistics, p. 142.

type grammars of Heringer (1970), Vater (1975)¹ and Werner

(1975).² Like stratificational and tagmemic grammars,

dependency grammars separate semantic, syntactic and

phonological levels. Like tagmemics, they are also

constituent-oriented, as opposed to stratificational

grammar.³ While they do diagram constituents

heirarchically (i.e., Nouns and Verbs combining to form

higher level clauses), they eliminate the NP and VP levels

and go right to the V and N constituents.⁴ Dependency

grammar also does away with the TG concept of deep

structure and transformations.⁵ The diversity of this

system may be seen in the fact that it monitors

mother-daughter relations (i.e., the relation of higher

level nodes [mothers] to lower level units [daughters]) as

well as sister relations between units on the same level

(cf. relational grammars). Dependency grammar employs

four categories, which are: (1) feature-based rules

(specifying one item as before another [article must

____________________

¹Heinz Vater, "Toward a Generative Dependency

Grammar," Lingua 36 (1975):121-45; and Laurie Bauer, "Some

Thoughts on Dependency Grammar," Linguistics 17

(1979):301-15.

²Richard A. Hudson, Arguments for a

Non-transformational Grammar, p. 200.

³Ibid., p. 11.

⁴Ibid., p. 60.

⁵Ibid., pp. 1, 14, 131.

precede the noun, for example] or which features come with

a certain item); (2) function-based rules (which order the

three functions, viz., subject, topic, relator);

(3) peripherality-based rules (order the units according

to their peripheral nature); and (4) dependency-based

rules (which attempt to describe the relationship between

sisters).1 An illustration of this approach may help.

From the following diagram one will be able to see that

this system stresses horizontal relationships among

sisters.

+sentence

+interrogative

etc.

+verb SUBJECT +verb +sentence

+finite +nominal +S-comp -interrog.

etc. etc. etc. etc.

TOPIC +article SUBJECT +finite

+wh-phrase +noun +nominal +transitiv

etc. etc. etc. etc.

+article +article

+noun +noun

etc. etc.

what do you think she did²

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 114.

²Hudson, Arguments for a Non-Transformational

Grammar, p. 119.

One will immediately notice the difference from

traditional types of grammars, in that this specifies, in

a matrix underneath the functional unit, the features of

that unit. Thus, in tagmemic terms, one is given the slot

and then the filler. This is in line with what tagmemics

does, although this writer does consider a feature list

more sophisticated and descriptively accurate than a mere

listing of the grammatical class (N, NP, Adj., etc.) as

given in the filler slot in tagmemics. Perlmutter is

correct when he notes that relational grammars add another

dimension to the linear order and dominance type

approaches of most grammars, instead it focuses on

inter-unital relations on the same level (sister rather

than daughter relationships).¹ Tagmemics initially

divides the sentence in a manner comparable to the way

daughter-dependency (viz., VSO) rather than as

transformational grammar (viz., VP + NP, where VP is

composed of a V and an O).² On a very pragmatic level,

tagmemics specifies four features about each constituent

(slot, filler, role/case, cohesion). These features are

usually listed diagonally above (slot) and below (role)

____________________

¹David Perlmutter, Studies in Relational Grammar 1

(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983), p. ix.

²R. A. Hudson, English Complex Sentences: An

Introduction to Systematic Grammar (Amsterdam:

North-Holland Publishing Co., 1971), pp. 21-22.

the tree diagram lines and at the node (filler class [N,

V, Adj etc.]). Hudson's dependency grammar lists all

features columnically at the node. A columnic node list

allows for the inclusion of other features (viz.,

parsings) which are not normally specified in the tagmemic

above/below branch-line display technique. Relational

grammar is helpful because of its focus on sister

relations. These relations will be monitored in the

cohesion box of the tagmeme.

Pragmalinguistics

A recent linguistic "school" called pragmatics or

pragmalinguistics has added support to the procedure taken

in this dissertation--that non-grammatical information

(historical situation and setting, as well as genre and

ideational patterns) is important to the total meaning

package of a text. Pragmatics seems to be based on the

works of Austin,1 and Searle,2 although neither of these

men have employed the term.3 While this field of study is

____________________

¹J. L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words (Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 1962).

²J. R. Searle, Speech Acts: An Essay in the

Philosophy of Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press, 1969); and "A Classification of Illocutionary Acts,"

Language in Society 5:1 (1976):1-23.

³For a very extensive bibliography of this field

vid., Jer Verschueren, Pragmatics: An Annotated

Bibliography (Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V., 1978); or a

work edited by Herman Parret, Marina Sbisa, and Jef

Verschueren, Possibilities and Limitations of Pragmatics:

rather anomalous and undefinable at present,¹ it may be

seen as an attempt to describe the functions and uses to

which speech acts (rather than sentences) are put--

influencing another's intentions, goals, actions, or even

beliefs. Thus pragmatics addresses the broader

communication process as it relates to the function of

language in specific speech acts.² That is, how is

language used? In pragmatics it is not enough only to

describe what type of rhetorical device is used but one

must also note how this device actually functions in the

communication process between the speaker and the

hearer.³

This approach is contrasted with a strictly

structuralistic-text-limited methodology which inseparably

____________________

Proceedings of the Conference on Pragmatics Urbino, July

8-14, 1979 (Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V., 1981), pp.

799-831; as well as the journals Pragmatics Microfiche,

Journal of Pragmatics, and Pragmatics and Beyond.

¹Parret, "Introduction," in Possibilities and

Limitations of Pragmatics, pp. 7-8.

²Hugo Verdaasdonk, "Concepts of Acceptance and the

Basis of a Theory of Texts," in Pragmatics of Language and

Literature, ed. Teun A. van Dijk (Amsterdam: North-Holland

Publishing Co., 1976), p. 184; Jacob Mey, "Introduction,"

in Pragmalinguistics: Theory and Practice, p. 10; Franz

Guenther and Christian Rohrer, "Introduction: Formal

Semantics, Logic and Linguistics," in Studies in Formal

Semantics: Intensionality, Temporality, Negation, ed.

Franz Guenther and Christian Rohrer (Amsterdam:

North-Holland Publishing Co., 1978), p. 1.

³Verdaasdonk, "Concepts of Acceptance and the Basis

of a Theory of Texts," p. 196.

locks text and form to meaning.¹ Pragmatics tries to

isolate scientifically how speaker/hearer situation,

intention, as well as text and contexts influence what the

speech act means or is designed to accomplish.

Pragmatics, then, attempts to isolate the differences

between sentences which are phonetically equivalent but

used in diverse ways. For example, if one says "Take a

seat, here," note how differently it is understood

depending on whether it is a cordial invitation, a strict

order, a question, or a piece of reflective advice.²

Pragmatics distinguishes between the following three parts

of a speech act: (1) locution (the simple utterance

itself in terms of syntactic and semantic well-formedness

and content); (2) illocution (what the speech act is

intended to do); and (3) perlocutionary effect (what

effect it actually does have on the hearer).3 Thus, one

____________________

¹Francois Latraverse and Suzanne Leblanc, "On the

delimitation of semantics and the characterization of

meaning: Some remarks," Possibilities and Limitations of

Pragmatics, p. 401.

²Geoffrey Leech, "Pragmatics and converstational

rhetoric," in Possibilities and Limitations of Pragmatics,

pp. 418-19. Cf. also "You are going to leave" as a

statement, question and command (Paul Gochet, "How to

combine speech act theory with formal semantics: A new

account of Searle's concept of proposition," in

Possibilities and Limitations of Pragmatics, p. 252.

³Samuel R. Levin, "Concerning What Kind of Speech

Act a Poem Is," in Pragmatics of Language and Literature,

p. 144; Franz Hundsnurscher, "On Insisting," in Possibilities

and Limitations of Pragmatics, p. 344; and Arild Utaker,

"Semantics and the Relation between Language and

may utter the locution "Look out," with the illocutionary

intent to "warn" (desiring that the individual duck), but

have the actual perlocutionary effect of paralyzingly

alarming the hearer. Pragmatics isolates and examines

each of these aspects of speech. It seems to this writer

that such studies will hold rich rewards for biblical

interpreters, although, because of the recentness of this

field, it has not officially entered the biblical studies

arena.

One final contribution which pragmatics makes is

in the area of context. Pragmatics desires to examine and

formalize utterances in terms of co-text (linguistic

environments of or in the text itself) and context

(non-linguistic situational features (speaker, audience,

spatio-temporal location, atmosphere, etc.).1 Contexts,

therefore, are not static, but are dynamic and meaning-

creative.2 Thus, Olson is correct when he complains

about

____________________

Non-language," in Pragmalinguistics: Theory and Practice,

p. 115.

¹Marcelo Dascal, "Contextualism," in Possibilities

and Limitations of Pragmatics, p. 154; and Jorgen Chr. Bang

and Jorgen Door, "Language, Theory, and Conditions for

Production," in Pragmalinguistics: Theory and Practice,

pp. 46-47, where it is noted that context or situation may

be unique to the person while other aspects are more

socially determined and predictable. Thus the speech

situation is composed of all socio-psychological factors

which determine and help to interpret the speech utterance

(cf. Teun A. Van Dijk, "Pragmatics and Poetics," in

Pragmatics of Language and Literature, p. 29).

²Mey, "Introduction," in Pragmalinguistics:

the very vague, unspecified statements concerning context

in language studies, which pay lip service to the

importance of context, but which, in fact, have not

explicated specifically how that importance makes itself

felt in actual utterances.¹

The initial chapters of this study were an attempt

to weave an historical, situational and ideational

tapestry for wisdom against which individual proverbs and

collections of proverbs may be understood. Although this

is merely the inchoation of such a study, which needs to

be made proverb specific, at least some broad

sociological, psychological, and notional parameters have

been broached as a background to a scrutiny of one very

restricted aspect of the text itself--syntactic

parallelism.

It must be observed that the schools of Prague²

____________________

Theory and Practice, p. 12.

¹Svend Erik Olsen, "Psychopathology, Interaction,

and Pragmatic Linguistics," in Pragmalinguistics: Theory

and Practice, p. 247.

²The Prague school can easily be accessed in works

such as Josef Vachek's book, The Linguistic School of

Prague (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966); and

a work which he compiled, A Prague School Reader in

Linguistics (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966);

as well as the works of Roman Jakobson which are heavily

used in the poetics aspect of this study. On the more

literary output of this group, vid. Paul L. Garvin, ed., A

Prague School Reader on Esthetics, Literary Structure, and

Style, (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press,

1964).

and Copenhagen¹ have not been treated, other than to say

that the Prague group has made its impact on this study

through the theoretical poetics of Jakobson, whose

sensitivities are reflected by O'Connor. The algebraic

calculus of Copenhagen's Hjelmslev is indirectly reflected

in Pike's tagmemic syntactic calculus.²

The Role of Case Grammar

Before describing the tagmemic model which will be

employed in this study, it is important to examine one

other linguistic approach which has been beneficial--case

grammar. A form of case grammar will be embedded into the

role box in the tagmemic model, so, in fact, to study case

is to study part of the tagmemic model.

Case grammar was initially proposed in an article

by Charles Fillmore (1968).³ While Fillmore concentrated

more on nominal case relationships, Chafe (1970)

independently began with the verb, then specified

____________________

¹L. Hjelmslev and H. J. Uldall, "Outline of

Glossematics: A Study in the Methodology of the Humanities

with Special Reference to Linguistics," Travaux du cercle

linguistique de Copenhague 10 (1957).

²For a helpful chart mapping out the relations

between some of these groups, vid. Vern S. Poythress,

"Structuralism and Biblical Studies," JETS 21.3 (1978):

228.

³Charles J. Fillmore, "The Case for Case," in

Universals in Linguistic Theory, ed. Emmon Bach and Robert

Harms (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1968),

pp. 1-88.

relations to that central verb.¹ Fillmore, as a

contribution to TG, described relationships between

semantic-oriented deep structures and the grammatical

realizations on the syntactic surface structure. This

fruitful approach has been pursued in separate monographs

and has found its way into most present transformational

generative systems.² Case grammar provides one nexus

____________________

¹Chafe, Meaning and the Structure of

Language pp. 95-104.

²Walter A. Cook, Case Grammar: Development of the

Matrix Model (1970-78) (Washington, DC: Georgetown

University Press, 1979) presents one of the most lucid

explications of this approach to date. John M. Anderson,

On Case Grammar: Prolegomena to a Theory of Grammatical

Relations (London: Croom Helm, 1977) and also his The

Grammar of Case: Towards a Localistic Theory (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1971). John Platt applied case

grammar to tagmemic analysis in Grammatical Form and

Grammatical Meaning: A Tagmemic View of Fillmore's Deep

Structure Case Concepts, North-Holland Linguistic Series,

vol. 5, ed. S. C. Dik and J. G. Kooij (Amsterdam:

North-Holland Publishing Co., 1971). Cf. also Longacre, An

Anatomy of Speech Notions, pp. 38-97; and Pike and Pike,

Grammatical Analysis, pp. 40-53 (It should be noted that

Pike prefers to designate this as "role" rather than

"case," since he sees these types of relations on all

levels rather than strictly on the sentence level as TG

does [p. xx]). Cook is right when he observes that case

grammar provides tagmemics with a means of monitoring and

separating deep and surface structures (Cook, Case Grammar,

p. 33). For an application of case grammar to TG, vid.

Liles, An Introduction to Linguistics, pp. 146-70. More

recent, with a European flavor, is a work edited by Werner

Abraham, Valence, Semantic Case, and Grammatical Relations,

Studies in Language Companion Series, vol. 1 (Amsterdam:

John Benjamins B.V., 1978). Werner Abraham, "Valence and

Case: Remarks on Their Contribution to the Identification

of Grammatical Relations," in Valence, Semantic Case, and

Grammatical Relations, p. 695, mentions that Fillmore has

now given up this approach as a consequence of a work by P.

Finke, Theoretische Probleme der Kasusgrammtik (Kronberg:

Scriptor, 1974).

between semantics and syntax. But the connection is very

diversified so one should not expect a one-to-one mapping;

rather, case grammar reveals, in elements of syntactic

sameness, semantic diversity.

Instead of examining functions, such as subject

and object, semantic roles provide a better means of

specifying deep structure. Nida has noted that these

roles are of three basic types: (1) participants (agents,

recipients, et al.); (2) qualifications (ways in which

events, entities and abstracts are qualified and

quantified); and (3) relationships (the way in which

constituents are related to entities of space, time, and

logical order).¹ Traditionally, the subject has been

described as the one who performs the action, which is a

bit strained in the following sentence: "The pungent

proverb was queerly quoted in Annette's anagram."² The

following illustrations demonstrate the semantic

incongruity of syntactically equivalent units and, by

example, elucidate the types of deep relationships which

case grammar treats.³ Examine the diverse relations of

____________________

¹Nida, Exploring Semantic Structures, p.

16.

²Liles, An Introduction to Linguistics, p.

140.

³For statements on the lack of congruence between

syntactic and case functions, vid. Palmer, Semantics, p.

147; Abraham, "Valence and Case: Remarks on Their

Contribution to the Identification of Grammatical

Relations," pp. 710, 714.

the subject to the rest of the sentence in these examples:

Dick received a headache from reading the paper.

(Dick = Subject = Experiencer)

Weston received a halibut from the incoming net.

(Weston = Subject = Goal)

Don went to a Cubs game.

(Don = Subject = actor)

Chicago is cold, wet and windy.

(Chicago = Subject = item)

The computer destroyed the data.

(Computer = subject = agent/instrument)

The March snows are melting.

(Snows = subject = patient)¹

Also note the differences in how the prepositional phrase

functions in the following sentences:²

I ate salmon with my spoon. (instrument)

I ate salmon with my pie. (accompaniment/patient)

I ate salmon with my wife. (accompaniment/agent)

I ate salmon with a stomach ache. (accompaniment/

manner or circumstance)

The explicit relations between a grammatical category

(subject, object, prepositional phrase, etc.) and semantic

categories should not be strange to biblical scholars, as

many of the intermediate grammars contain such

associations.³ Some linguists have attempted to

____________________

¹For similar examples, vid. Brown and Miller,

Syntax, p. 338; Cook, Case Grammar, p. 140; or Barnwell,

Introduction to Semantics and Translation, pp. 167-76

(which provides a series of explanations and easy problems

in a pedagogical manner which may be used to teach this

method to beginning students via scriptural examples).

²Barnwell, Introduction to Semantics and

Translation, p. 173.

³Ronald J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax: An Outline

(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1967); or H. E.

Dana and J. R. Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the Greek New

Testament (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1927).

determine, through frequency, what are to be considered

normal syntactic, case mappings. Cook, for example, has

observed the following hierarchy the subject slot prefers

first an agent, second an instrument, and third an

object.¹ One of the significant features of case grammar

is its ability to describe semantic relations which are

language universals. This makes translation and

bi-lingual work more definable in terms of common deep

categories, even though the surface grammatical forms may

be very diverse. Pike suggests that language is a

composite of relations of form and meaning and that both

of these should be monitored simultaneously.²

Numerous lists of case roles have been suggested.

An interesting comparison of these is presented by

Longacre.³ The following is a list of roles defined and

____________________

¹Cook, Case Grammar, p. 6.

²Kenneth Pike, "On Describing Languages," in The

Scope of American Linguistics, ed. Robert Austerlitz

(Lisse: The Peter De Ridder Press, 1975), pp. 21, 24.

³Longacre gives extended definitions and examples

of the following cases: experiencer, patient, agent,

range, measure, instrument, locative, source, goal, path,

time, manner, cause (An Anatomy of Speech Notions, pp.

22-37). He also provides a chart which compares the

results of Fillmore, Platt, Chafe, Cook, and himself (p.

25). Cf. Chafe, Meaning and the Structure of Language,

pp. 144-66; Cook, Case Grammar, p. 18; Barnwell,

Introduction to Semantics and Translation, p. 168; and

Liles, An Introduction to Linguistics, pp. 147-61. Beekman

provides a helpful chart giving definitions and examples

(John Beekman et al., The Semantic Structure of Written

Communication, p. 56).

exampled which will be employed in this study.

Agent: the instigator (if animate) or doer (animate

or inanimate) of an act

She introduced the speaker. [Actor]

The water ran down the wadi.

Experiencer: animate being which undergoes or is

affected by the event

He was cold.

John hit Bill.

Patient: that which is affected by the event

(inanimate)

The antifreeze froze.¹

Causer: that which instigates the event

He made me happy.

Item: that which is named or talked about

The banana smelled rotten.

Instrument: the force or object used in the

carrying out of the action

She corrected the exam with a pencil.

Source: the origin

The plane flew from Chicago.

Goal: the desired or achieved end point

The plane flew to New York.

Location: spatial orientation of an object or event

The paper is in the top drawer.

Time: the temporal designation of the object or

event

The plane left at five o'clock yesterday.

Quantifier: tells how many of a thing

He eats twice a day.

Qualifier: tells the quality of the thing

The foul ball went fair.

____________________

¹Beekman and others combine Experiencer and

Patient into one class, "Affectant," which may be a

helpful way of looking at this role (The Semantic

Structure of Written Communication, p. 56).

Manner: how something is done

The book was read carefully.

Accompanier: that which is attendant to the event or

thing

He came with Tony.

Beneficiary: thing which is advantaged (or

disadvantaged) by an event

Mary bought Tom a convertible.

Tom won the tickets.

Specificity: designating a unique class or unit

Any of the three people could have

done it.

The attempt has been to allow for as many divisions as

possible at this stage; then, if there is need, several of

these categories may be collapsed. Pike, for instance,

includes location, beneficiary, goal, and source into a

single scope role. From some obvious examples, it is easy

to see that sometimes there may be dual or co-referential

roles in a sentence.¹ In "Ron felt the elephant's nose,"

Ron is the actor as well as the experiencer. Thus, there

may be some variation and overlap of semantic

interpretation at this point. The inclusion of role has

been very beneficial to grammatical studies although it

must be acknowledged that it is not as exacting as normal

non-semantically oriented syntactical analysis. This

approach affords the analyst a glimpse at the deep

structure; hence, one may be able, via this technique, to

____________________

¹Nida, Exploring Semantic Structures, p. 40; Chafe,

Meaning and Structure of Language, p. 151; Cook, Case

Grammar, pp. 93, 136; and Liles, An Introduction to

Linguistics, p. 166.

discover syntactic-semantic crosses or "interweavings,"

which may have been overlooked by a bifurcated syntactic

and/or semantic approach.

Specifying the role of the verb was the

contribution of Wallace Chafe. Chafe divided the verbal

deep structure into state, process, action/process, and

action. A state is when a thing is said to be in a

certain condition or state (e.g., "the towel is wet" or

"the dissertation is dry"). Process verbs answer the

question "what is happening?" (e.g., "the plot thickened"

or "the ice cream melted"). Action verbs answer the

question "what did X do?" (e.g., "Rebekah played" or "the

faucet sang"). Action/process verbs answer both questions

(e.g., "Natanya ate the ice cream"; what did she do? and

what happened to the ice cream?).¹ Chafe has also

developed terminology describing shifts from state to

process (inchoative); process to action/process

(causative); and action/process to action (deprocessive);

as well as from action back down to state.² An example of

inchoation would be the shift from the state "the path is

wide" to the process "the path widened." Also included in

the role box is whether the verb is transitive,

____________________

¹Chafe, Meaning and the Structure of Language, pp.

95-104. Chafe's ambient case is being included under

state.

²Ibid., p. 132; cf. Cook, Case Grammar, pp.

68, 204.

intransitive, or equative and whether it is active,

passive, or reflexive.¹ Other linguists who have

developed case relations have adopted Chafe's

categories.²

Cook develops case frames for each type of verb; that is,

he lists which cases naturally go with each verb.³ This

matching of verb type with concurrent cases is similar to

the European valence theory proposed by Tesniere and

others.⁴ These theories stress the verb as determinative

of the accompanying cases whether overt or covert. Pike

cautions against an absolute verbal determinism through an

example which demonstrates how nouns influence verbal

content ("worse than raining cats is hailing taxis").⁵

The tree diagram on the following page should help to

illustrate how role/case will be used in the analysis.

Case grammar has been incorporated into the third box of

the tagmeme thereby allowing this system

____________________

¹This writer is collapsing Pike's categories of

bi-transitive, transitive, bi-intransitive, intransitive,

bi-equative, and equative into just those without the bi-

prefix which distinguishes between those which have scope

and those which do not (Grammatical Analysis, pp. 42-44.).

²Cook, Case Grammar, pp. 41, 56, 126, 203; and

Longacre, An Anatomy of Speech Notions, p. 39.

³Cook, Case Grammar, pp. 126, 203.

⁴H. Frosch, "On Valence-Binding Grammars," in

Valence, Semantic Case, and Grammatical Relations, p. 157;

Cook, Case Grammar, p. 112; and Liles, An Introduction to

Linguistics, p. 157.

⁵Pike, "On Describing Languages," p. 15.

to provide formulae which will account for both surface

and deep grammatical formations. The rationale for

including deep structure features which are quasi-semantic

in nature is that this deep grammar will aid in separating

parallel lines which may match on the surface but actually

are diverse in terms of their deep structures. Similarly

some bi-cola which are diverse on the surface syntactical

level may prove to be "deep matches." Case grammar will

help discover such phenomena.¹

Tagmemic Grammar

Tagmemic grammar is a sophisticated method of

monitoring grammatical relationships on all levels from

the morpheme up to the discourse. It was designed by

Kenneth Pike and has been successful in analyzing over 600

languages, many of which had been unknown.² It allows one

to specify both emic (language specific particulars) and

____________________

¹Cf. Greenstein, "How does Parallelism Mean?" p.

41-70. His analysis of Prov 11:4 shows that it looks like

a match, when actually the deep structure is quite

contrastive. This may also be viewed as a poetic technique

mapping syntactically equivalent units which by deep

grammar are actually dissimilar. This again demonstrates

the sophistication of the poetic mode of expression.

²Pike and Pike, Grammatical Analysis, p. xiii.

Pike's most recent book proffers a four-box tagmeme which

will be employed in this study mutatis mutandi. Earlier he

designed a two-box system (slot/filler), which is much more

easily understood. For pedagogical reasons, it may be

helpful to start with Walter A. Cook's book, Introduction

to Tagmemic Analysis (Washington, DC: Georgetown

Universtiy Press, 1969), which illustrates an easy form of

the two-box model.

CHAPTER IX

LITERARY COHESION IN PROVERBS 10?

Hugger-mugger Advocates

One of the most common comments concerning the

corpus of Proverbs 10-15 has been that these proverbs are

perceived to be a chaotic confusion thrown together

without any conceptual cohesion. The following remarks

are representative of those who reject any architectonic

structure in Proverbs 10-15. Oesterley writes in his

commentary on Proverbs, "but generally speaking the

proverbs are thrown together in a very haphazard fashion

in this collection."¹ R. Gordon explains that Proverbs is

difficult to read because "there is little continuity or

progression."² Even von Rad expresses his annoyance

____________________

¹W. O. E. Oesterly, The Book of Proverbs, p. 125

(cf. also pp. 73, 77). Other writers who have expressed

similar sentiments are: W. C. Kaiser, Toward an Exegetical

Theology: Biblical Exegesis for Preaching and Teaching, p.

93; Keil and Delitzsch, Proverbs, p. 208; Whybray, The

Intellectual Tradition, p. 67; W. S. LaSor, D. A. Hubbard,

and F. W. Bush, Old Testament Survey (Grand Rapids: Wm. B.

Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1982), p. 552; R. K. Harrison,

Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B.

Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1969), p. 1017; B. H. Kelly, "The

Book of Proverbs," Int 2 (1948):347; and J. L. McKenzie,

"The Wisdom of the Hebrews," in The Two-Edged Sword

(London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1959), p. 217.

²R. Gordon, "Motivation in Proverbs," Biblical

at the "lack of order."¹ McKane maintains that the

sentences are independent and atomistic and labels all

vincula between the proverbs as "secondary" and nugatory

for interpretation.²

Some interpreters have allowed for small

proverbial clusters, having detected some common theme,

catch word, or letter, but they quickly go on to minimize

the importance of such a canonical collectional process.

So Rylaarsdam comments, "Even when two or more successive

proverbs deal more or less with the same subject (for

example 10:4-5) the connection seems incidental rather

than organic. There is no logical continuity of

thought."³

____________________

Theology 25 (1975):49. Paterson (The Wisdom of Israel, p.

63) and Craigie ("Biblical Wisdom in the Modern World: I.

Proverbs," Crux 15 [December 1979]:7) make similar comments

in terms of the alienation of Proverbs to modern man

because of its lack of topical/logical order. This writer

will maintain that the ordering of Proverbs, when properly

understood, will, on the contrary, be very palatable to

modern man. Furthermore, modern man's expanding tolerance

for farrago (e.g., television commercials) should allow him

to appreciate better these proverbs than his predecessors.

The rebirth of wisdom studies reflects modern man's concern

for the ordering of his universe. Thompson, to the

contrary, makes the following unfortunate statement: "As

for our canonical proverbs in particular, they fail to

reach us, it would seem, for still a third reason: they

are jumbled together willy-nilly into collections" (The

Form and Function of Proverbs, p. 15).

¹von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, p. 113.

²McKane, Proverbs, pp. 10, 413; cf. Chisholm,

"Literary Genres and Structures in Proverbs," p. 26.

³Rylaarsdam, The Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, The Song

of Solomon, The Layman's Bible Commentary, ed. B. N. Kelly

(Richmond VA: John Knox Press, 1964), p. 48. G. Fohrer,

Thus, many emphasize the atomistic character of the

sentences. Each sentence is indeed a self-contained unit.

However, one should not ignore collectional features which

may give an indication of editorial tendenz, suggesting

purposes for the collection as well as possibly giving

some hints at ancient instructional patterns. This

chapter will ask if there are any collectional (Sammlung)

architectonic principles and, if so, what significance

they have?

Theoretical Basis of Cohesion

The procedure for establishing the concinnity of

these proverbial sentences will commence first from a

theoretical basis. It will be argued, on the basis of

linguistic cohesional principles, thematic

considerations, psychological phenomena, and comparative

proverbial architectonic practices, that collectional

principles should be expected. Second, the study will

____________________

Introduction to the Old Testament, trans. D. E. Green

(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1965), p. 320; Childs,

Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture, pp. 79, 555

(Childs says, "There is no significant ordering of the

individual proverbs into larger groups," p. 555); Otto

Eissfeldt, The Old Testament: An Introduction (New York:

Harper and Row, Publishers, 1965), p. 473. Kovacs,

("Sociological-Structural Constraints," pp. 289-90) rejects

collectional ideas proposed by Skladny (Die altesten

Spruchsammlungen in Israel, pp. 7-10). Crenshaw comments

that there is no principle of arrangement. Although he is

well aware of proverbial connections, he does not view

these as significant (Old Testament Wisdom, p. 73). Cf.

also Ranston, The Old Testament Wisdom Books and Their

Teaching, p. 32.

turn to an examination of the collectional principles

observed by various scholars.¹ Third, the text of

Proverbs 10 will be read in light of these suggested

principles. This will enhance another level of

appreciation by focusing on collocational patterns and

collectional principles. Finally, some explanations will

be proffered which present a possible rationale for such

ordering procedures.

Four theoretical bases provide a pou sto for the

suspicion that a "helter-skelter" ordering of sentences is

rather unlikely. First, principles of literary cohesion

suggest that good literature must be bound together

____________________

¹This writer has independently observed all of the

following collectional principles through an extended

exposure to the Hebrew text itself. This research took

place largely in 1981. Two very interesting works have

subsequently appeared which have corroborated that

linguistic research, though they are not in as much detail:

Roland E. Murphy, Wisdom Literature: Job, Proverbs, Ruth,

Canticles, Ecclesiastes, and Esther (Grand Rapids: Wm. B.

Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1981) and Stephen Brown,

"Structured Parallelism in the Composition and Formation of

Canonical Books: A Rhetorical Critical Analysis of

Proverbs 10:1-22:16" (paper presented at the Thirty-Fourth

Annual National Meeting of the Evangelical Theological

Society, 1982). Brown largely explicates Skehan's

macro-structure proposal. The linguistic features observed

by this writer went beyond either of these works, as will

be demonstrated. To this writer's great joy and dismay a

little-known work in Swedish from 1928 was discovered which

provided the most comprehensive and exhilarating scrutiny

of collectional features anywhere. Thus, there will be a

synthesis of the devices which this writer had "discovered"

with the superb work of Gustav Bostrom, Paronomasi I Den

Aldre Hebreiska Maschallitteraturen: Med Sarskild Hansyn

till Proverbia (Lund: Gleerup, 1928). It is a shame that

this most excellent work has never been translated so that

more scholars could interact with its thesis.

properly in order for it to communicate as literature.

"Cohesion" has been defined as "the lexical and

grammatical means which the poet draws from standard

language to unify the poem."¹ This definition may be

broadened to include all literary features which provide a

piece with its unity. Such features should include the

semantic, syntactic, phonologic, pragmatic (situational),

and rhetorical aspects of language. The writer selects

out of an equivalent paradigmatic class, features which

when ordered syntagmatically will bind the poem,

collection, or essay together. An examination of cohesion

monitors the choices made which repeat, presuppose,

correspond, or supplement one another. Cohesion, through

a network of relations provides the text with its unity.²

Various units may be used to make these connections:

conjunctions (showing sequence, subordination,

coordination, contrast, etc.); pronominal linking between

a noun and pronoun; repetitional features (lexical,

syntactical, phonological or situational); "synonymous" or

co-referential words; or deictic pointers (e.g., this,

____________________

¹Geoffrey Leech, "'This Bread I Break'--Language

and Interpretation," in Linguistics and Literary Style, ed.

D. C. Freeman (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.,

1970), p. 119. Cf. also in the same collection of articles

M. A. K. Halliday, "Descriptive Linguistics in Literary

Studies," pp. 57-72.

²Leech, "'This Bread I Break'--Language and

Interpretation," p. 120.

that, there, etc.).¹ Logical or thematic relationships

also provide cohesion. Sentence clusters may be

contrastive, temporally successive or contemporaneous, be

logically related (premise, argument, conclusion), have a

general to more specific connection, or have many other

types of relationships which bind the piece together.² If

Proverbs 10-15 does not manifest such sententially

cohesive principles it would indeed be a curious piece of

literature.

The second theoretical feature which suggests that

some sort of collectional order is involved is the notion

of theme. All literature manifests theme of one sort or

another since a selection is made in terms of which items

get included and which are deleted. Certain aspects are

made prominent by various foregrounding techniques while

others are unostentatiously assimilated into the backdrop.

The techniques employed to gain prominence may vary from a

dramatic increase in volume (in speech), to a different

print style (in journals), to a simple repetition.³ Thus,

____________________

¹Chapman, Linguistics and Literature, p. 105.

²Vid. K. Pike (Grammatical Analysis, pp. 238-39)

for many other types of relationships. Fillmore also

develops "coherence principles" in "The Future of

Semantics," in The Scope of American Linguistics, ed.

R. Austerlitz (Lisse: The Peter De Ridder Press, 1975), p.

152.

³Linda K. Jones, Theme in English Expository

Discourse, pp. 2-4.

all literature develops elements of prominence which

reflects the very nature of man's perception of his world.

This also points to the probability of some sort of order.

Along with the idea of theme, which makes certain

items more prominent than others, is the universal

psychological phenomenon which demands a hierarchy of

relationships. Psychological experiments have shown that

human beings can mentally hold seven units without

reference to some higher form of organization.1 Inherent

to man's mind is the quest for order. Indeed, without it

the mind cannot function. It seems, therefore, rather

peculiar for texts which were probably developed for

pedagogical purposes that there would be a violation of

this psychological universal which would render its

didactic intent inoperative. Even the onomastic lists are

structured. Theoretically this suggests that it would be

psychologically and pedagogically absurd to think that

there would be no structure in a proverbial collection so

closely linked to a school setting.

Finally, architectonic structural studies indicate

that one should not dismiss the idea of some ordering

principles. Examples of architectonic structures have

been the result of recent study under the rubrics of

rhetorical criticism, semiotics, and structuralism. It

____________________

¹Jones, Theme in English Expository Discourse, p.

13.

will be argued that one should expect ordering principles

in Proverbs 10 in that: (1) macro-structures are

ubiquitous in the canonical text; (2) the parallel ancient

Near Eastern wisdom materials also exhibit patterning

procedures; (3) there are clear examples in the text of

Proverbs, outside of Proverbs 10-15 which demonstrate

cohesive unity above the single proverb level; and (4)

attempts to structure the whole book of Proverbs show that

such structuring was within the rhetorical ability of the

ancient sages.

Recent studies employing the techniques of

semiotics, structuralism and rhetorical criticism have

been extremely profitable in regaining a sense of textual

unity. This should be contrasted with the more atomistic

and text-reconstructive techniques of earlier critical

scholars who emaciated the texts on the basis of

prescriptive evolutionary schemes. Presently many are

seeing large scale discourse patterning throughout the

canonical materials. Larger units have been discovered in

Genesis.¹ Shea has structured the Song of Solomon.² Alden

has demonstrated the unity of a host of Psalms via various

____________________

¹J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis

(Amsterdam: Van Gorcum/Assen, 1975); cf. also Dale S.

DeWitt ("The Generations of Genesis," EvQ 48 [December

1976]:196-211) who structures the whole book around the

repeated "toledoth" cycles.

²William H. Shea, "The Chiastic Structure of the

Song of Songs," ZAW 92 (1980):378-96.

chiastic devices which often serve to unite the whole

poem.¹ Others have worked with the various levels of

Jonah.² Numerous other biblical texts have also

benefitted from these approaches. A good representation

of this type of work is presented in the journal Semeia.

Such studies have demonstrated the presence of discourse

and paragraph cohesion throughout the text of the Old

Testament. It would again seem rather peculiar if such

features were not present in Proverbs 10-15 on the

principle of literary uniformitarianism.

The ancient Near Eastern proverb collections and

instructional texts suggest that ordering principles

should be expected. While Alster notes that some of the

Sumerian collections appear to be unordered, he, as well

as others, has observed the presence of catch words which

____________________

¹Robert L. Alden, "Chiastic Psalms: A Study in the

Mechanics of Semitic Poetry in Psalms 1-50," JETS 17

(Winter 1974):11-28; "Chiastic Psalms (II): A Study in the

Mechanics of Semitic Poetry in Psalms 51-100," JETS 19

(Summer 1976):191-200; and "Chiastic Psalms (III): A Study

in the Mechanics of Semitic Poetry in Psalms 101-150," JETS

21 (September 1978):199-210.

²James S. Ackerman, "Satire and Symbolism in the

Song of Jonah," Traditions in Transformation, ed. Baruch

Halpern and J. D. Levenson (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns,

1981), pp. 213-46. Cf. also Jonathan Magonet, Form and

Meaning: Studies on Literary Techniques in the Book of

Jonah, (Sheffield: The Almond Press, 1983), pp. 23, 57;

and B. S. Childs, "The Canonical Shape of the Book of

Jonah," Biblical and Near Eastern Studies, ed. G. A. Tuttle

(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1978), p.

125.

often link proverb to proverb.¹ Frequently these catch

words are in the initial position, although Gordon points

out that they may occur elsewhere in the proverb as well.²

The importance of the initial position is corroborated by

the fact that sometimes it is solely the initial sign

which provides the cohesive point between the proverbs.³

Both Alster and Kramer point out certain Sumerian texts

which are arranged on the basis of theme or logical

connections.⁴ While both of these Sumerologists

acknowledge the presence of proverbial collections in

which there seems to be a haphazard ordering, Alster has

verified that the actual ordering of the proverbs "is not

incidental, for they often represent sequences which

recur in large collections of proverbs."⁵ Alster has

____________________

¹Alster, Studies in Sumerian Proverbs, p. 14. Cf.

also Kramer, "Sumerian Literature, A General Survey," ed.

G. E. Wright (New York: Doubleday Co., Inc., 1961), pp.

256-58; Khanjian, "Wisdom in Ugarit," p. 44; Gordon,

Sumerian Proverbs, pp. 28-30, 154, 157-60; and Waltke, "The

Book of Proverbs and Ancient Wisdom Literature," p. 226.

²Gordon, Sumerian Proverbs, p. 154. Cf. Lambert,

Babylonian Wisdom Literature, p. 223.

³Alster, Studies in Sumerian Proverbs, p. 26; cf.

Kramer, "Sumerian Literature, A General Survey," p. 258.

⁴Alster, Studies in Sumerian Proverbs, p. 14; and

Kramer, "Sumerian Wisdom Literature: A Preliminary

Survey," p. 29.

⁵Alster, Studies in Sumerian Proverbs, p. 14.

Lambert notes that at Nippur some of the Old Babylonian

proverbial texts contain proverbs "not in the same order."

(Babylonian Wisdom Literature, p. 223). He later adds,

"What is more significant is that whole groups of proverbs

solicited juxtaposed paradoxical proverbs to demonstrate

the presence of supra-sentential patterning. He uses

mutually dependent proverbs to contradict the normal

statements made about the independent and atomistic

character of proverbial units. He makes the following

statement in reference to Sumerian proverbs:

no element in any Sumerian poem can be interpreted

with certainty if deprived of relational context.

This is due to the multi-level nature of the poetic

expressions. . . . Here it is hardly necessary to

stress that the Sumerian proverb collections should

not be read as single unrelated sayings, but, on the

contrary, the manner in which the individual sayings

are grouped together is a highly important matter with

regard to all aspects of the interpretation.¹

Alster hopes that through structural techniques

collectional procedures will be able to be discovered.²

To summarize, several principles of organization have been

observed: (1) repeated initial signs; (2) repeated catch

words, often in the initial position, but found elsewhere

in the proverb as well; (3) thematic or logical

connections; and (4) proverbial pairs, some of which may

appear paradoxical (cf. Prov 26:4, 5).

While the proverbial collectional techniques of

the Egyptian materials have not been discussed at length

____________________

in the same sequence are carried over from the unilinguals

to the late bilinguals" (p. 223).

¹Ibid., p. 201; cf. also pp. 202, 206.

²Alster, "Paradoxical Proverbs and Satire in

Sumerian Literature," p. 209.

in the literature, Gemser notes that the Papyrus Insinger

and Amen-em-opet manifest definite compositional

techniques. His work on 'Onchsheshonqy has led him to the

conclusion that there is no discernible arrangement. It

is interesting to note that the earlier Egyptian texts

manifest much more topical coherence than does the late

text of 'Onchsheshonqy. With this qualification, Gemser

proceeds to discuss some ordering techniques even in

'Onchsheshonqy. He discerns that "Several times sayings

beginning with the same initial words or expression are

coupled together, without further connection as far as

concerns the material contents."¹ He also observes that

proverbs with catch words and even common structures

("better . . . than" type proverbs), have been grouped

together. Also found in 'Onchsheshonqy are some thematic

links.² It is no mere coincidence that these same

cohesive techniques were employed both in Egypt and Sumer.

Kitchen, in a structural analysis of the

macro-structure forms of the wisdom texts from Egypt and

Mesopotamia, examines the "main text" sections which are

equivalent to Proverbs 10-24. He notes that there are

____________________

¹Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy and

Biblical Wisdom Literature," p. 113. Cf. also Kitchen,

"Proverbs and Wisdom Books of the Ancient Near East: The

Factual History of a Literary Form," p. 92.

²Gemser, "The Instructions of 'Onchsheshonqy and

Biblical Wisdom Literature," p. 114.

three types: (1) undifferentiated texts which move freely

from one subject to another without any special order

(Hardjedef, Shube-awilim and Proverbs 10-24); (2) two/

three sectioned texts which are often organized on

thematic principles (Merikare, Kheti son of Duauf, Lemuel

[he also recognizes that Ani provides a counter example]);

and (3) multi-segmented texts which have both unordered

(Suruppak) and, in the later period, thematically ordered

patterns (Amenemope, Insinger).¹

Kuusi, working toward the collection and

classification of modern proverbs, has surveyed 182

international proverb collections from the Far East,

Africa, Arabia, all areas of Europe, as well as ancient

collections. He has classified them as to how they were

organized and hopes to provide suggested guidelines for

the development of a standardized, international

type-system for proverbial classification. He has

observed the following methods of proverbial collection

and organization: (1) alphabetical (several types of

alphabetical collections have been observed: [a] first

word; [b] first nuclear word; [c] main word; [d] an

important word; and [e] thematic headword outside the

proverb itself); (2) chronological; (3) ethnic or

____________________

¹Kitchen, "Proverbs and Wisdom Books of the Ancient

Near East: The Factual History of a Literary Form," pp.

86-87.

geographical; (4) by metaphor used; (5) origins; (6) by

structure; (7) thematic; and (8) unsystematic (on which he

offers no comments).¹ Thus, while both ancient Near

Eastern patterns and international collectional procedures

allow for unordered collections, yet ordered collections

are more the norm. The question remains, Is it possible

to detect principles which may explain how these

"unordered" proverbs were put together? Principles need

to be found which will both explain the appearance of

disunity and yet prompt the discovery of any possible

schemes which the sages may have employed.

Order in Proverbs outside of Proverbs 10-15

Having shown that a totally unstructured

collection of proverbs is rather unlikely on the bases of

principles of literary cohesion, thematic consideration,

psychological universals, and structurally (although the

presence of "unordered" collections in the ancient Near

East and modern collections cautions against any

dogmatism), another line of oblique argumentation may be

gained from the canonical shape of the book of Proverbs

itself. The macro-structure of the book is easily arrived

at. The various titles provide convenient and

satisfactory textual markers. Kitchen contributes the most

____________________

¹Matti Kuusi, "Towards an International Type-System

of Proverbs," Proverbium 19 (1972):698-71.

comprehensive and impressive analysis of the canonical

shape of proverbs. After analyzing the form of various

Egyptian and Mesopotamian texts from all periods, he

divides Proverbs into four compositions: (1) Proverbs

1-24 (Title/Preamble, 1:1-6; Prologue, 1:7-9:18;

Sub-title, 10:1; Main Text, 10:2-24:34); (2) Proverbs

25:1-29:27 (Title, 25:1; Main Text, 25:2-29:27);

(3) Proverbs 30:1-33 (Title, 30:1; Main Text 30:2-33); and

(4) Proverbs 31:1-31 (Title 31:1; Main Text 31:2-31).

These four collections reflect the two common proverbial

structures present in the ancient world. Proverbs 1-24

manifests one type and the other three collections reflect

the other.¹ Kitchen then compares the form and content of

each section of Proverbs with their counterparts in the

ancient sources. He proffers that the prologue in

chapters 1-9, by its great length, reflects a first

millennium form, while its content--repeated calls of the

"son" to attention and non-autobiographical character--

fits a second or third millennium prologue. Thus, he

concludes that a Solomonic date at the entrance of the

first millennium B.C. may reflect an intermediate

____________________

¹Kitchen, "Proverbs and Wisdom Books of the Ancient

Near East: The Factual History of a Literary Form," p. 70.

This article is fundamental reading if one is going to

understand Proverbs. Kitchen acknowledges that the text

may be taken as five compositions: a long one (1-24); a

shorter one (25-29); and three brief compositions ("Words

of Agur," "Words of Lemuel," and "The Good Wife") (p. 70).

stage between the well attested content of the second

millennium B.C. and the long form of the first millennium

prologues.¹ Kitchen's brilliant discussion relates to the

ordering of chapters 10-15 in that it demonstrates that

those who shaped the book of Proverbs were very conscious

of and skillful with larger literary structures. Thus, if

they expended great care in employing macro-structures

involving twenty-four chapters, should one not expect that

they were just as meticulous in the structuring of smaller

units?

More standard is Skladny's division based simply

on the titles supplied by the text: (1) 1-9;

(2) 10-22:16; (3) 22:17-24:22; (4) 24:23-34; (5) 25-29;

(6) 30:1-14; (7) 30:15-33; (8) 31:1-9; and (9) 31:10-31.²

Crenshaw suggests that there is an overarching topical

connection in some of these sections. Proverbs 10-15 is

about the righteous and the wicked; 16:1-22:16 is about

Yahweh and the king; 25-27 treats nature and agricultural

topics; and 28-29 has reference to kings or potential

rulers.³ All would agree that Proverbs 31 is about the

ideal wife. Others point out such structural distinctions

____________________

¹Ibid., pp. 84-85.

²Skladny, Die altesten Spruchsammlungen in Israel,

p. 5. Cf. Bullock, An Introduction to the Old Testament

Poetic Books, p. 161; Murphy, Wisdom Literature: Job,

Proverbs, Ruth, Canticles, Ecclesiastes, Esther, p. 49.

³Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom, p. 76.

between the various sections as: Proverbs 10-22,

proverbial sayings; 22-24, admonitions; and 25-27,

comparative proverbs.¹ Thus the macro-structures of the

book of Proverbs would indicate that there was a concerted

effort on the part of the scribe(s) to structure the

multi-chapter units of the book.

Attention will now be turned to intermediate-sized

structures, that is, those which are from approximately

ten to thirty verses in length. Again the purpose is to

show the craftsmanship of the author(s)/collector(s) in

arranging not only the multi-chapter macro-structures

which compose the book, but also the multi-verse units

which make up the larger structures.

No one would deny that Proverbs 31:10-31 is highly

structured. Not only does the poem maintain a fine

thematic cohesion around the topic of the ideal wife, but

the acrostic present in the initial letter of each verse

clearly demonstrates the wise man's conscious effort to

structure this topic within a literary framework. Thus

the sages of Israel, like those elsewhere in the ancient

Near East, were very sensitive to the placement of single

letters as well as words. Moreover, the cohesion does not

stop with the acrostic or with the common theme.

Lichtenstein has shown that, through catch-word

____________________

¹Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom, p. 147 and Gladson,

"Retributive Paradoxes in Proverbs 10-29," p. 154.

repetitions, the whole poem is shaped into a stunningly

symmetrical chiastic structure.¹

The structure of various chapters in the prologue

(Prov 1-9) has been frequently noted.² Lang, for

instance, has seen ten instructional units (weisheitliche

Lehrrede as opposed to wisdom speeches [Weisheitrede]) in

Proverbs 1-7. All of these are triggered by the address

of the teacher to his "son" (1:8-19; 2:1-22; 3:1-12;

3:21-35; 4:1-9; 4:10-19; 4:20-27; 5:1-23; 6:20-35; and

7:1-27).³ These show a clear cognizance of intermediate

level structuring. Particularly noticeable when one

begins reading Proverbs are the four verses which begin

with , which introduce the purpose of Proverbs (1:2-6).

Trible, in a delightful article, has demonstrated the

chiastic structuring of Proverbs 1:20-33.⁴ She notes that

while Kayatz identifies this section as a wisdom-sermon

(Weisheitspredigt), Kayatz's analysis is based largely on

shifts in content and the introductory particles. Trible

____________________

¹Murray H. Lichtenstein, "Chiasm and Symmetry in

Proverbs 31," CBQ 44 (1982):202-11.

²Kayatz, Studien zu Proverbien 1-9, passim; cf.

Williamson, "The Form of Proverbs 1-9." passim.

³B. Lang, Die weisheitliche Lehrrede: eine

Untersuchung von Spruche 1-7 (Stuttgart: KBW Verlag,

1972), pp. 29, 32-33. Cf. also Murphy, Wisdom Literature:

Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Canticles, Ecclesiastes, Esther, p.

51.

⁴Phyllis Trible, "Wisdom Builds a Poem: the

Architecture of Proverbs 1:20-33," JBL 94 (1975):509-18.

observes word, phrase and motif repetitions as indicative

of structure. She presents the following tightly-knit

structure:

A Introduction: an appeal for listeners (vs. 20-21)

B Address to the untutored, scoffers, and fools

(v. 22)

C Declaration of disclosure (v. 23)

D Reason for the announcement (vs.

24-25)

E Announcement of derisive

judgment (vs. 26-27)

D' Result of the Announcement, with

interruption (vs. 28-30)

C' Declaration of retribution (v. 31)

B' Address about the untutored and fools (v. 32)

A' Conclusion: an appeal for a hearer (v. 33).1

Chisholm notices the bifid structuring in 2:5-8, 9-11 and

2:12-15, 16-19 based on repeated words.² Numerous writers

have commented on the structural features in Proverbs 8.³

Bryce sees the patterning of the two sections of

Proverbs 25 (2-5 introduce the two major subjects [king,

wicked]; 6-15 has as its chief subject the king [cf.

25:6, 15]; and 16-26 is about the wicked [note the echo in

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 511.

²Chisholm, "Literary Genres and Structures in

Proverbs," p. 9.

³J. N. Aletti, "Proverbs 8,22-31. Etude de

structure," Biblica 57 (1976):25-37; M. J. Dahood,

"Proverbs 8:22-31; translation and commentary," CBQ 30

(October 1968):512-20; M. Gilbert, "Le discours de la

Sagesse en Proverbes 8. Structure et coherence," in La

Sagesse de l'Ancient Testament, pp. 202-18; Skehan,

"Structures in Poems on Wisdom: Proverbs 8 and Sirach 24,"

CBQ 41 (July 1979):365-79; and Gale Yee, "An Analysis of

Proverbs 8:22-31 According to Style and Structure," ZAW 94

(1982):58-67.

25:16a and 25:27a]). He develops a chiastic structure at

the beginning, middle and end of his "book."¹

Glory (vs. 2) Honey (vs. 27a)

Honey (vs. 16) Glory (vs. 27b)

Important for this study is Bryce's insight into how the

"book" is bound together. He says, "Each verse is linked

to its partner within the unit by similar subject-matter,

by pronominal references, by rhyme or assonance, or even

by means of the use of similar words or the same roots

employed with different meanings."² Others have observed

that the collection of YHWH proverbs in Proverbs 16:1-9 is

juxtaposed with a string of proverbs about the king (Prov

16:10-15).³

The function of this discussion is to demonstrate

that, there was not only an intentional effort to

structure large sections of Proverbs, but also the

chapters themselves were considered as units to be

arranged and crafted by the sages.

There is no need to demonstrate the strength of

cohesion within the bi-cola of the proverbial sentence

itself, as that is recognized by all. The syntax,

____________________

¹Glendon E. Bryce, "Another Wisdom-'Book' in

Proverbs," JBL 91 (June 1972):151-52.

²Ibid., p. 151.

³Gladson, "Retributive Paradoxes in Proverbs

10-29," pp. 228-29. Cf. also Kovacs, "Sociological-

Structural Constraints," pp. 538-39 for outlining of

Proverbs 15:28-22:16.

semantics, and phonetics of the saying yield a strong bond

welding each proverb into a balanced and complete unit.

The compact stability of the saying as a base bi-colonic

kernel provides a firm footing for the collectional growth

of larger structures.

Thus if the sages were skilled at crafting

proverbial bi-cola and also gave great consideration to

intermediate units, and if one can even demonstrate their

sensitivity at a macro-structure level, then it would

indeed be curious if such phenomena are not present in

Proverbs 10-15. To suggest that Proverbs 10-15 is thrown

together flies in the face of the rest of the book which

is so carefully constructed. It seems most reasonable

that, based on the analogy of the rest of the sages' work,

haphazardness is out of the question. Hence, an effort

should be made to scrutinize the text to see if there are

cohesive principles.

Three writers have made contributions in this

direction: Skehan, Brown, and Bostrom. Skehan's work--

because it never proceeded beyond the stage of a

suggestion--is usually incredulously mentioned as

fantastic.¹ Skehan's basic proposal was that the title in

10:1 is a clue to understanding the structure of Proverbs

10:1-22:16. If Solomon's name is taken as a number, it

____________________

¹Crenshaw, "Wisdom," p. 229.

equals 375 ( שׂ = 300, plus ל = 30, plus ו= 40, plus

מ= 5), which is precisely the number of proverbs in this

section.¹ He notes, similarly, that the section

designated by Hezekiah's name (Prov 25:1), depending on

the spelling, can yield the number 140, which is exactly

the number of proverbs in this collection (chapters

25-29). Finally, and even more incredible, is his summing

up of the numbers of the names in Proverbs 1:1 to yield

930. It is indeed spectacular that one observes 932

proverbs in the whole book. Skehan uses this to argue for

a single author/collector for the whole book of Proverbs.

He then uses a temple measurement to suggest that there

are 15 columns of 25 lines which compose the section of

Proverbs 10:1-22:16.² He gives little literary support

for establishing the accuracy of these twenty-five verse

columns, other than citing duplicate proverbs (14:31 and

17:5; 15:8 and 21:27; 15:13-14 and 18:14-15; 15:22 and

11:14; 15:33 and 18:12; 10:1 and 15:20; 10:2 and 11:4).³

____________________

¹Patrick Skehan, "A Single Editor for the Whole

Book of Proverbs," in Studies in Israelite Poetry and

Wisdom, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series,

ed. Joseph Fitzmyer et al. (1971), p. 25. Cf. also his

"Wisdom's House," in Studies in Israelite Poetry and

Wisdom, p 43.

²Skehan, "Wisdom's House," p. 36. The fifteen

columns are: Prov 10:1-25; 10:26-11:18; 11:19-12:12;

12:13-13:9; 13:10-14:9; 14:10-14:34; 14:35-15:24;

15:25-16:16; 16:17-17:8; 17:9-18:5; 18:6-19:6; 19:7-20:2;

20:3-27; 20:28-21:22; 21:23-22:16.

³Skehan, "A Single Editor for the Whole Book of

Skehan concludes that his theory "suggests a plausible

explanation for well over half of them [duplicates], in

that the doublets were not the fruit of leisurely

reflection and oral transmission, but were produced ad

hoc, to round out this particular written work."¹ From a

literary perspective, the validity of this theory must be

demonstrated. That is, do his twenty-five verse units

actually materialize in the text?

Brown has recently attempted to supply the

proof which Skehan's proposal has begged for. Brown

divides the 375 proverbs of Proverbs 10:1-22:16 into

fifteen columns of twenty-five verses each. He then

suggests that there are common words which occur in

similar places between the columns.² He observes, for

example, that five columns end with a contrast between the

righteous and the wicked. However, with the frequency of

this antithesis in this section of Proverbs, one wonders

whether this is significant, since a lottery selection of

end verses would produce a comparable percentage of end

____________________

Proverbs," pp. 18-19.

¹Ibid., p. 19.

²Stephen Brown, "Structured Parallelism in the

Composition and Formation of Canonical Books: A Rhetorical

Critical Analysis of Proverbs 10:1-22:16," A Paper

presented to the Thirty-Fourth Annual National Meeting of

the Evangelical Theological Society, 1982, pp. 8f. His

model was made more specific in a chart which was presented

at that conference.

verses with this antithesis. Brown further states,

"Remarkably, key words or phrases stand at exactly or

nearly the same level in various columns, most notably the

phrase 'the fear of the Lord' in line 17 of cols. VI, VII,

and XII and in line 18 of cols. V and VII."¹ While five

times it clusters in the same columnic location, he does

not mention that three times it does not. Similarly, he

very selectively tries to group the abomination sayings,

which are even more diverse than the "fear of YHWH"

statements. Rather than attempting to establish

chimerical semantic relationships between columns, Brown's

efforts would have been better spent proving the

literary-linguistic existence and unity of the columns

themselves.

Since this study will examine the cohesiveness of

Proverbs 10, a brief look at how Brown has handled this

section will provide a needed contrast to the methodology

adopted in this study. Brown's analysis of chapter 10

begins by noting the bifid structure (A'B'A"B") of

Proverbs 10:1-11//10:12-25. He properly perceives the

first unit as verses 1-5 marked by an inclusio formed by

the word בֵּן. The repetition of two whole stichs clearly

marks off verses 6-11 (B') as the next unit (cf. 6b and

11b; 8b and 10b). A" (10:12-21) provides a chiasm with

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 5.

the importance of knowledge (10:14, 17) and the two

intermediate verses (10:15-16) about economic matters. He

again perceptively sees an inclusio effect at the

beginning (10:12-13) and end (10:18-21) of section A"

(hatred 10:12, 18; transgressions 10:12, 19; lacking

understanding 10:13, 21; lips 13, 18-21).¹ These

observations seem legitimate, but most will be unimpressed

due to the selectiveness of his observations. He suggests

that repeated words are how the author is structuring his

work. This study will substantiate that there may be

other factors which Brown's very spasmodic analysis of

word repetitions has failed to discover.

One of the faux pas of structuralism as practiced

by biblical scholars has been the procrustean fascination

with word repetition as a structuring technique. While

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 9. He presented the following structure

during the lecture.

Proverbs 10:1-11 // 10:12-25

1-5 A' Wealth and Poverty

Ending: make rich (4)

Frame: wise "son" (1,5)

6-11 B' The righteous/the Wicked

Beginning: Blessings (6)

Ending: a babbling fool (8, 10)

Frame: mouth of wicked conceals (6, 11)

12-21 A" The Wealthy/the Poor

Frame: hatred (12,18)

transgressions (12, 19)

lacking understanding (13, 21)

lips (13, 18-21)

22-25 B" Righteousness/Wickedness

Beginning: Blessing (22)

Ending: make rich (22)

repetitions were viewed with a negative bias by past

critics, it seems that there has been a recent fixation on

this trope as a fail-safe method for determining

structure. One cannot deny the importance of repetition

in structure; however, it is only one technique among

many. Furthermore, repetition may have other purposes,

besides merely marking structural divisions, which such

"structural" approaches may willingly ignore (e.g.,

emphasis).

Brown next draws the whole column together on the

basis of the placement of the verb "makes rich" (10:4b,

22a). Similarly, B' (10:6-11) and B" (10:22-25) are

united via the repetition of the word "blessing" (10:6,

22). However, there is an inconsistency even in Brown's

observance of repeated words. Those words which support

his proposed structure he mentions, but others, which

would argue against his alleged structure, he conveniently

fails to report. Specifically, "mouth of the wicked"

(10:6, 11 (cf. 31); "life" (10:11; 17); the conceptual

repetition of the sluggard motif (10:4, 5; and 26);

"destruction" (10:15, 29); the juxtaposition of the divine

name and the verb "to add" (10:22, 27); and the verb "to

cover" (10:11, 12) are just a few that he has left

unaccounted.

The critical problem is one of methodology. It is

wiser to begin with the sentential kernels and work from

those stable units up to larger units. One should attempt

to discover how the sage connected proverb with proverb,

along with asking the harder question of how the sections

were formulated. Meticulous analysis at each level with

the various tropes and cohesional devices must be

performed as each strata is built up. One may jump in at

the top (discourse) and work down, but such analysis needs

to be heuristically checked by a bottoms-up approach.

Brown's analysis fails at several points. He

fixates on a "word-repetition equals structural-marker"

approach. Then he fails to note repetitions which do not

fit his prefabricated structures. Perhaps the onus of

improper methodology should be shared with many who are

jumping on the biblical structuralism band-wagon and who

often simplistically employ this word repetition technique

as a singular tool for discovering structure. Its

simplicity is attractive but may prove mis-leading to the

novice at semiotic analysis. It appears that a

linguistically sophisticated structuralism which examines

all cohesive features--one of which is indeed word

repetition--is the best way to establish structure.

Another problem involves the semantic designations

of his sections. In attempting to get a bifid structure,

Brown correctly perceives 10:1-5 to be about "Wealth and

Poverty," but one wonders if such a title is appropriate

for 10:12-21. Indeed, one should note that there are two

verses (10:15, 16) which do address the topic of wealth.

However, there are six verses (10:13, 14, 18-21) whose

message is clearly the control of one's speech. Likewise,

it is a bit queer that 10:22-25 is labeled Righteousness/

Wickedness when in two of the four verses these very

common words are not found (10:22,23; contrast 10:2, 3).

Finally, Brown does not seem to be aware of other

ancient Near Eastern scribal attempts to pattern

proverbial collections. Such techniques, as suggested

above, will be conspicuously present in the text of

Proverbs and extremely helpful in determining whether or

not Proverbs 10-15 is ordered.

Thus, in conclusion of the discussion of the

Skehan-Brown model of fifteen columns of twenty-five verse

units each, it seems that the theory has not been

generated via the building up of stable units into larger

units, but has been injected onto the text ob extra. This

refutation of Brown's support for Skehan's theory is

intuitively obvious to any one who has studied the text.

It is also clear that Skehan's theory explaining why there

are 375 proverbs on the basis of Solomon's name is still

in need of proof. Perhaps the comments here have been

overly censorious in that Skehan and Brown have done much

to support the idea that Proverbs 10-15 was structured.

Brown's method of proof, however, has left the theory open

for criticism. This study, while accepting their major

premise that order exists, will define the structural

units by a more linguistically-satisfying methodology.

Ordering Principles

It should be clear from the above discussion that

methodology is determinative regarding what types of

structures will be perceived. An attempt will be made

here to list the types of ordering principles which have

been observed in both canonical and non-canonical

proverbial texts. Having enumerated the principles which

have been verified elsewhere, they will then be applied to

the text of Proverbs 10 to discover if they have been

employed. As one reads the text, he should also feel free

to observe other connections which may surface. If new

connections come to light, they, too, must be formalized

and systematically scrutinized in light of the text. Such

a methodology allows one to read creatively and

deictically as one hunts for known patterns and suspects

that new ones may appear.

Concerning repetitional items, several levels were

employed by the wise men. Van Parunak, recently

developing the concept of cohesion in terms of

transitional techniques, writes that the similarity which

binds a section together may be a result of phonological,

morphological, lexical, syntactical, logical or rhetorical

similarities.¹

First, phonologically, proverbs may be linked via

a common alphabetic letter (Prov 11:9-12b; 20:7-9,

24-26).² While the common letter is most easily

recognized when it is initial, it may also be found in an

anadiplotic sense at the end of one line and the beginning

of the next (cf. Prov 10:17-18). The repetition may link

bi-colon to bi-colon (Prov 10:25-26) or it may join a

single stich to its pair (Prov 11:10a, 10b). Sometimes

the repetition may be within the stich (Prov 11:15a, where

the high frequency of ר's bonds the stich together as a

phonetic unit). Sometimes it may be the similar phonetic

sound, rather than an equivalent alphabetic symbol, which

is the repeated and cohesive feature (cf. 10:18 and the

repetition of sibilants ס, שׂ, שׁ). Methodologically, it

may be asked how one knows when the repetition of a letter

____________________

¹H. Van Dyke Parunak, "Transitional Techniques in

the Bible," JBL 102 (1983):528. Cf. M. A. K. Halliday and

Ruqaiya Hasan, Cohesion in English (London: Longman,

1976).

²Crenshaw, "Prolegomena," p. 14. Crenshaw has a

very helpful list of seven structuring principles which he

has observed. He writes, "Various means of linking several

proverbs occur: a common letter (Pr. 11:9-12b; 20:7-9;

24-26); the same introductory word (Pr. 15:13-14, 16-17);

the same idea (Pr. 16); the use of an acrostic (Pr.

31:10-31); paradoxical unity (Pr. 26:4-5); and numbers (Pr.

30:24-28). Thematic units characterize later proverbs (Pr.

1-9) and Sirach . . . ." Our study will merely develop the

potential of this statement in terms of Proverbs 10-15.

is significant or insignificant (note in the preceding

eight words the ten-fold repetition of the letter "i"; yet

one should not be tempted to treat this text as reflecting

a tacit tendency toward alliteration). Bostrom, in his

superb attempt to expose the cohesiveness of Proverbs

10-15, notes many letter repetitions which provide the

individual proverbs and the proverb clusters with their

cohesion.¹ Margalit, as cited above, provides some

parameters which, although these may still seem somewhat

speculative, will at least provide some minimum

requirements.² Features of alliteration (consonance and

assonance) and rhyme should be examined since they may

serve to bind together single proverbs as well as

proverbial clusters. While the phonetic repetition itself

is objective, whether it is significant or not will be a

subjective evaluation which may be stated only in terms of

____________________

¹Bostrom, Paronomasi I Den Aldre Hebreiska

Mashcallitteraturen, pp. 118ff. Bostrom's work has

manifested great insight but in some cases he may have

overstated his point.

²Margalit, "Introduction to Ugaritic Prosody," pp.

310-13. "To be significant, a letter should occur: (a) at

least three times per seven verse-unit verse; and/or (b)

twice in a single word or once in each of two adjacent

words (especially at the beginning); and/or (c) as repeated

sequence of two or more adjacent letters, not necessarily

in the same order, and not necessarily in the scope of a

single word" (p. 311). This writer will use this as a

minimum guideline and feels that the positioning of letters

should be more accounted for (initial, medial, and final).

varying degrees of probability.¹

The second repetitional feature is the repetition

of lexical units. While Brown has correctly noticed that

such repetitions may provide cues for determining larger

structures, they may also be a means of binding a stich,

bi-colon, proverbial pair or string together. As noted

above, classical rhetoric has provided some terminology

for describing such repetitions: (1) anaphora (units with

the same start; e.g., Prov 10:2, 3; 11:5, 6); (2) epiphora

(units with the same final words; e.g., 11:10a, 11a);

(3) ploke (the first starts the same as the second ends);

and (4) anadiplosis (the first ends the same as the second

begins).² It has been observed that in both Egypt and

Mesopotamia the sages frequently used a catch-word

principle by which they bound proverbial pairs and strings

together (e.g., Prov 26:20, 21). Numerous writers have

noted this phenomenon in Proverbs (Murphy being the most

thorough and easily accessed).³ This feature is

particularly striking when the word is in the same

____________________

¹E. D. Hirsch, Validity in Interpretation (New

Haven: Yale University Press, 1967), pp. 13-22. Hirsch

has a nice discussion on conscious and unconscious

authorial intent and the relationship of these to verbal

meaning.

²O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 144.

³Murphy, Wisdom Literature: Job, Proverbs,

Ruth,

Canticles, Ecclesiastes, Esther, pp. 68-73. Murphy's

analysis of cohesive features is the most complete in the

English language.

syntactic position or when it is a low frequency word

(e.g., Prov 10:14, 15 [מְחִתָּה (ruin)]; 10:32; 11:1 [רָצוֹן

(delight)]). If the analysis were to be complete, one

should monitor not only the fact that the repetition

exists, but also how it functions. Numerous variations

may be seen in the way the scribe creatively used

repetition to bind. Quite frequently he repeated an

item--thereby binding the proverb together--yet linked it

to its opposite (e.g., Prov 10:5 בֵּן מַשְׂכִיל (wise son); בֵּן

מֵבִישׁ (shameful son); 10:11 פִי צַדּיק [mouth of the

righteous]; פִי רְשָׁעִים [mouth of the wicked]).

Another feature to be included in the catch-word

or word repetition category is the repetition of larger

units (phrases, clauses, stichs and even whole proverbs).

Often the repetitions are with variation (e.g., 10:2a;

11:4a) or they may be exact repetitions (10:6b, 11b; and

10:8b, 10b).

One should not ignore variational techniques which

accompany the repetition. Often the repeated lexical root

will be found in a different syntactical position (note

בְּרָכָה [blessing] in Prov 10:6, 7). Variation may be

accomplished by morphological shifts in person, gender or

number (e.g., יְכַסֶּה / תְּכַסֶּה [conceal], Prov 10:11, 12).

The use of word pairs should be mentioned at this

point, as they provide a close parallel to exact

repetition. The sage often used word pairs to bind his

proverb together (e.g., שִׂנְאָה [hatred]/ אַהֲבָה [love], Prov

10:12). Frequently the paired word is in construct with a

word which turns the pair into an antithesis (e.g., כַף־

רְמִיָּה [lazy palm]/ יַד חָרוּצִים [diligent hand], Prov 10:4).

A third area of repetition is on a syntactic

level--whether in terms of deep or surface structure.

Proverbs 10:1b has been shown to echo syntactically 10:1a

via a nominalizing transformation which accounts for the

surface structure differences. Proverbs 10:5 can be shown

to be a perfect isomorphic syntactical match. So, too,

one may detect syntactic parallels between proverbs (e.g.,

Prov 10:31a, 32a; and 10:6, 7 with some variation).

Variations may include changes in person, gender, number

(Prov 10:2, 3, רֶשַׁע [wicked, singular] and רְשָׁעִים [wicked,

plural]). Most frequently in narrative there is the

continuity of pronominal markers which indicate unity (cf.

Prov 10:22).

A final area of repetition is topical--where one

proverb is thematically cohesive with its neighbor. While

it has been noted above that many writers recognize the

topical chaos of Proverbs 10-15, there are points of

topical coherence. Proverbs 10:2 and 3, for example, both

talk about wealth. Proverbs 10:18-21 comment on the

proper/improper use of speech.

Generally three types of proverbial clustering

have been observed. Though the proverbs are often atomic

and singular kernels, they are frequently found in paired

relationships. Proverbs 26:4, 5 is notorious because it

presents a paradoxical pair. Proverbs 10:2, 3 and 10:15,

16 (cf. also Prov 11:5, 6) are clear examples of

proverbial pairs about wealth. The second type shall be

designated as a proverbial string, which is a group of

three or more proverbs linked by any of the above

cohesional devices. A string may cohere on the basis of

topic (Prov 10:18-21) or by one of the above repetitional

features (Prov 11:9-11). Finally, several broken or

detached string elements have been noticed which may

provide a "hinging" effect between the string and its

context (Prov 11:9-11, 14; and Prov 10:23, 25-26).¹

Thus, repetitional features may take the form of

sounds/letters, lexical units, phrases, clauses, or whole

proverbs. Particularly frequent are catch-words. In

addition to topical similarities, syntactical repetitions

and cohesions may also bind the text. To each of these

elements of equivalence (semantic, syntactic, phonetic)

there may be variations either from within the category

itself (repetition of a sibilant by the use of various

letters ס, שׂ, שׁ) or from another category (repetition of a

lexical root which is fitted to another syntactical or

morphological class).

____________________

¹Van Parunak, "Transitional Techniques in the

Bible," pp. 540-46.

Sequential features may also provide unity for a

passage. The acrostic is a classic example of this on a

phonological level. The numerical proverbs are

sequentially bound by a numerical phenomenon (Prov

30:18-19). There may be a logical progression as a case

is argued or an event narrated, although such will not

occur explicitly in the corpus.

Hence, many elements of sequence and equivalence

will be monitored to determine if indeed this proverbial

collection was crafted according to principles or whether

it is merely a haphazard agglomeration of atomic proverbs

with no molecular inter-proverbial bonds. Still remaining

is to examine the text of Proverbs 10 itself, which will

provide the specimen for this experiment.

Cohesional Features in Proverbs 10

In order to facilitate a lucid discussion, there

will be a verse-by-verse monitoring of both intra- and

inter-proverbial cohesions. Concluding the discussion

will be the structural diagrams synthesizing these

cohesive factors. Because of the clarity of the diagrams,

it may be of benefit to refer to the diagrams as the

verses are discussed. One may wish to consult Bostrom

concerning letter/sound repetitions1 and Murphy for catch-

____________________

¹Bostrom, Paronomasi I den Aldre Hebreiska

Mashcalliteraturen, pp. 118ff.

words and logical links.1 Since the tagmemic analysis has

carefully exposed the intra-proverbial syntax, these

features will not be mentioned at this point.

Proverbs 10:1 בֵּן חָכָם יְשַׂמַּח־אַב

A wise son brings joy to his father,

וּבֵן כְּסִיל תּוּגַת אִמּוֹ

but a foolish son grief to his mother.

Proverbs 10:1 is bound together syntactically and

via the familial terms (the repeated use of בֵּן [son]) and

the pairing of אַב (father) and אִמּוֹ (his mother). Each

stich seems to manifest an inclusio effect, by being

framed with familial terms (בֵּן, אַָב; and בֵּן, אִמּוֹ) thereby

foregrounding--by juxtaposition--the close nexus between

חָכָם and יְשַׂמַּח, and כְּסִיל; and תּוּגַת. It is possible that this

inclusio effect is further ameliorated by the repeated

consonants in 10:1a-- ב, ח, מ, מ, ח, ב. While this may

not be significant it does fit Margalit's standards

for alliteration. The repetitions of the letters

and the chiastic ordering have been previously noted by

____________________

¹Murphy, Wisdom Literature: Job, Proverbs, Ruth,

Canticles, Ecclesiastes, Esther, pp. 68-73. The following

analysis reflects insights gained from the present writer's

extended exposure to linguistics, not from the work of

Bostrom (a copy of which was obtained only after the

analysis had been completed), or Murphy (whose work was

published after the following analysis was completed).

This writer does view their works as somewhat mutually

exclusive since Bostrom focuses on sound patterns and

Murphy on semantics. They are confirmatory to the general

thesis proposed here, i.e., that there is evidence of

collectional construction.

Bostrom.¹ The repetition of the word בֵּן (son) in the

second stich results in the second stich's beginning with

a as well. While such sound/letter patterns may be of

no significance, they should be monitored since sometimes

they are clearly intentional. Intentionality most likely

was not involved in 10:1, however.

Proverbs 10:2 לֹא־יוֹעִילוּ אוֹצְרוֹת רֶשַׁע

Ill-gotten treasures are of no value,

וּצְדָקָה תַּצִיל מִמַּוֶת

but righteousness delivers from death.

Bostrom suggests that Proverbs 10:2 (cf. 11:4)

exhibits assonance.² Note the four-fold repetition of the

וֹ ("o" sound) in the first stich. Also between the first

and second stichs is the יל sequence with a in the

immediate vicinity. The thrice-repeated fits the

alliteration standards, although it seems rather weak.

The semantical play on אוֹצְרוֹת (riches) being of no

יוֹעִילוּ (value) focuses on the two terms רֶשַׁע / צְדָקָה which

are drawn together both positionally and semantically for

contrast. Deliverance from death provides the benefits

that wealth, whether good or evil, could never attain.

Thus, the pragmatic value of צְדָקָה is unique. Again one

sees how well-crafted the sayings are.

____________________

¹Bostrom, Paronomasi I den Aldre Hebreiska

Mashcalliteraturen, p. 120.

²Ibid., p. 120.

Proverbs 10:3 לֹא־יַרְעִיב יְהוָה נֶפֶש צַדִיק

The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry

וְהַוַת רְשָׁעִים יֶהְדֹף

But he thwarts the craving of the wicked.

Proverbs 10:3 obviously forms a pair with 10:2.

The introductory לֹאo followed by a Hiphil imperfect

unquestionably syntactically binds the two verses

together. The similarity does not stop there, however.

There is also a common thematic element, in that both

address the issue of the relationship of the

wicked/righteous to material possessions. This pair

provides an example of complex chiasm, as the initial

negations plus the imperfect verb would render the verbal

structure AB/AB, contrasting the wealth of the wicked,

whose wealth is valueless, with the righteous/

righteousness who receive material blessings from Yahweh

(לֹא־יוֹעִילוּ, תַּצִיל // לֹא־יַרְעִיב, יֶהְדֹף). In the person being

discussed, however, an AB/BA pattern (רֶשַׁע, צדָקָה;// צַדִּיקa,

רְשָׁעִים). Thus the repetition of righteous/righteousness

and wicked semantically binds these two sayings. They are

both concerned with a similar topic and similar character

qualities. Notice that the semantic elements of

equivalence (righteous/wicked) are varied morphologically

(רֶשַׁע, רְשָׁעִים, and צדָקָה;, צַדִּיקa). Bostrom notices the

repetition of the letter and particularly the sequence

יה in the divine name יְהוָה and in the verb of the second

stich, which YHWH does (יֶהְדֹף). Another linking feature is

the presence of the divine name in the first stich and the

pronominal reference back to it in the second. This

morphologically binds the proverbial bi-colon together

through one actor (יְהוָה), whose actions vary based on the

character of the individuals involved. A chiastic effect

is also contained in Proverbs 10:3 via the juxtaposing of

the characters (נֶפֶש צַדִיק / הַוַת רְשָׁעִים) with the imperfect

verbs framing the proverb (לֹא־יַרְעִיב, יֶהְדֹף). So there is

an AB/BA structure in the sequence: imperfect verb

describing God's actions/person involved//person

involved/imperfect verb describing God's actions. One

also wonders whether there is a play between נֶפֶש ("soul"

or "passion") and הַוַת (desire). Therefore, the inner

coherence, as well as, in this case, the bond with the

neighboring proverb, demonstrates the intricate

craftsmanship manifested in this saying and its pair

(10:2).

Proverbs 10:4 רָאשׁ עֹשֶׁה כַף־רְמִיָּה

Lazy hands make a man poor,

וְיַד חָרוּצִים תַעֲשִׁיר

but diligent hands bring wealth.

This verse continues the theme of material

possessions and suggests how wealth is properly accrued.

Bostrom well notes the alliteration with the "r" sounds,

as ר is repeated four times in the proverb.¹ The proverb

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 121.

begins and ends with r. It may be significant that both

verbs have an Wf sequence (עֹשֶׁה / תַּעֲשִׁיר). There is a

conspicuous chiastic structure with the inner elements

contrasting the character and the outer elements the

resultant economic status (poor/lax hand//diligent

hand/gets wealth). The middle terms are bound in that

and יַד are a standard word pair and are used here in a

synonymous manner. The contrast comes in the constructed

elements (רְמִיָּה / חָרוּצִים, cf. 10:1). Thus, the proverb itself

is a tightly-knit unit. Perhaps Bostrom is right when he

suggests that there is a word play in the sound-echoing

effect of חָרוּצִים with the word for gold (חָרוּץ).¹

Proverbs 10:5 אֹגֶר בּקָיִץ בֵּן מַשְׂכִּיל

He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son,

נִרְדָּם בַּקָצִיל בֵּן מֵבִישׁ

but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.

Proverbs 10:5 continues the theme of the acquiring

of wealth through diligence, thus indicating that 10:4 and

5 are also a proverbial pair. Again, as in 10:2, 3, there

is a bi-proverbial chiasm AB/BA (lax hands/diligent

hands//working wise son/otiose shameful son).

Syntactically, 10:5 is a total isomorphism and manifests a

strong syntactic cohesion within the proverb itself. The

word play between קַיִץ (summer) and קָצִיר (harvest) is an

obvious sonant-semantic play which further binds the

stichs together (cf. Prov 26:1; Amos 8:1-2). The

____________________

¹Ibid.

five-fold repetition of is significant, especially when

it occurs four times in the word initial position. The

word repetitions of the preposition בְּ (in) and בֵּן (son)

engender the feeling of sameness. Bostrom makes a

contribution at this point by noticing that the order of

the sounds ר, בק, בן, and מ-שׁ in both stichs demonstrates

the genius of the sage who provides such a sonantally,

semantically, and syntactically perfect match.¹ The Qal

active participle עֹשֶׂה (make) in 10:4a may assonantally tie

to the Qal active participle אֹגֵר (gathers) which begins

10:5a.

One may at this juncture reflectively suggest that

Proverbs 10:2-5 forms a quatrain centering on the theme of

various character relationships to material benefits. The

thematic tie is very strong. The unit sub-divides into

two closely connected proverbial pairs, 10:2-3 and 10:4-5.

Brown is correct in observing that 10:1 links itself with

this tightly-knit quatrain, via the bi-fold repetition of

the term בֵּן (son) in 10:1a, b and 10:5a, b.² בֵּן envelops

this section in an inclusio fashion, although 10:1 itself

seems to be held somewhat apart and may play a titular

role for the whole section.

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 121.

²Brown, "Structured Parallelism in the Composition

and Formation of Canonical Books," p. 8.

Proverbs 10:6 בְּרָכוֹת לְרֹאשׁ צַדִּיק

Blessings crown the head of the righteous,

וּפִי רְשָׁעִים יְכַסֶה חָמָס

but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked.

The boundaries of Proverbs 10:6 are signaled by

the contrast at the extremes between בְּרָכוֹת (blessings) and

חָמָס (violence). As in Proverbs 10:5, there is a

juxtaposing of the middle terms--in this case, where the

blessings and violence will fall (blessings/head of

righteous//mouth of wicked/violence). The only possible

alliterative feature is the final which ends 10:6b

concluding the comment on the mouth of the wicked with a

hiss (cf. 10:18). There is a thematic shift at this

point, for the explicit mention of economic or material

substance is not present as it has been in the preceding

four proverbs. This thematic shift is also corroborated

by an inter-linear lack of literary ligaments between 10:6

and 10:5. Rather, 10:6 will be clearly shown to bond

itself to 10:7. Hence, a new multi-verse unit has

begun. The two stichs contain the common element of each

having a body part joined with a character quality (רֹאשׁA

צַדִּיק [head of the righteous], פִי רְשָׁעִים [mouth of the

wicked]). There is a morphological variation between the

"righteous" (singular) and the "wicked" (plural). The

duplication of the whole of 10:6b in 10:11b should provide

a structural clue to this unit. The three-fold repetition

of ר, although it may fit the possible parameters for

alliteration, does not seem to be significant at this

point. However, it may provide a link with 10:7.

Proverbs 10:7 זֶכֶר צַדִּיק לִבְרָכָה

The memory of the righteous will be a blessing,

וְשֵם רְשָׁעִים יִרְקָב

but the name of the wicked will rot.

It is clear that 10:6 and 10:7 are bound by the

catch-word בְּרָכָה (blessing). The syntactic structures of

the two verses are not altogether different. The common

use of the preposition ל in the first stich of each and

the repetition of the word רְשַעִים (wicked) in the second

stich provide further lexical cohesion. Thus, here again

is a lexicaly bound proverbial pair. This pair does not

manifest a chiastic structure as the previous two pairs

did; rather it has the normal bifid AB/AB form.

Thematically they appear more sequentially related than

repetitive. Proverbs 10:6 speaks of blessings/violence on

the heads/mouths of the righteous/wicked, whereas 10:7

talks about the enduring impact (blessings/rot) of the

righteous/wicked. Proverbs 10:7 is a unit in itself. The

four-fold repetition of ר is significant--which

observation is enhanced by noticing a certain phonetic

echoing. The juxtaposing of several palatals (כ, ק) with

the liquid ר seems to be more than coincidental and gives

the proverb a sonant ring. Thus, one should notice the

following sequence כר, רכ, רק. Bostrom observes a less

likely echoing in the מ- שׁ, sequence in רְשָׁעִים (wicked) and

(name) in 10:7b.

Proverbs 10:8 חֲכַם־לֵב יִקַח מִצוֹת

The wise in heart accept commands,

וְאֱוִיל שְׂפָתַיִם יִלַּבֵט

but a chattering fool comes to ruin.

Proverbs 10:8 begins another pair; therefore it is

not closely linked to the preceding pair. The lifestyle

of the wise is contrasted to the perishing expressions of

the wicked. The contrast between לֵב (heart) and שְׂפָתַיִם

(lips) is not odd in Proverbs (cf. 10:20, 21). Bostrom

notices that the letter sequence לב appears twice in this

proverb (לֵב [heart], / יִלַּבֵט [be ruined]; cf. Hos. 4:11, 14

for a similar parallel).¹ It is interesting, although

probably not significant by itself, that 10:7's

(for blessing) also contains a לב sound sequence. The

proverb is also semantically bound by the normal pair חֲכַם

(wise) and אֱוִיל (foolish). The movement from an active

wise action to a passive destruction of the fool provides

an interesting sequence.

Proverbs 10:9 הוֹלֵךְ בְּתֹם יִלֶך בֶּטַח

The man of integrity walks securely,

וּמְעַקֵּשׁ דְרָכָיו יִוָּדֶעַ

but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.

One cannot miss the strong alliterative features

of the first stich of this proverb (Prov 10:9). There

seems to be a formal pattern here. The double verb

____________________

¹ Bostrom, Paronomasi I den Aldre Hebreiska

Mashcalliteraturen, p. 122.

repetition in the first stich, with heavy alliteration, is

also observed in Proverbs 11:2. The lexical repetition of

הָלַך (to walk) in the first stich is accompanied by

morphological variations. The first verb-form is a Qal

participial while the second is an imperfect. Both verbs

are followed by the letter ב. It is interesting to note,

however, that the first ב is a preposition while the

second, although rendering the same sound, is part of an

adverb. The intrigue with this sequence rises further

when one observes that, semantically, both of the

following ב -words play an adverbial-type function in

relation to their accompanying verbs. It is no

coincidence that the ב's are then both followed by an

equivalent dental sound, although it is represented with

two different alphabetic symbols (בְּתֹם [in integrity],

בֶּטַח [securely]). The resulting sequence is undeniable

( לך, בת / לך, בט). One final sound binder is added in terms

of the closeness of the palatal ך on the end of each verb

and the guttural ח which completes the first stich. This

palatal repetition is picked up in the second stich

(מְעַקֵּשׁ, [oppressing]; דְּרָכָיו, [his ways]). Thus, the

proverb is sound-bound even though its stichs are quite

diverse syntactically. The semantically paralleled units

within the first stich is very tight with the lexical

repetition. "The one walking in integrity" forms a

parallel for "the oppressor". The presence of דְּרָכָיו (his

ways) in the second stich makes a clear connection with

the repetition of הָלַך (walk) in the first (cf. Ps. 1:1),

although the relationship is more syntagmatic than as

equivalent parallel semantic units. Thus, this proverb is

tightly-knit via sound and semantic considerations. With

its calling for reflection on sound, it is interesting to

note that the לב sequence which occurred twice in 10:8

also occurs twice in detached form, in verse 9. Bostrom

notices the even more suspicious מ - ת sequence in

(lips, 10:8) and בַּתֹם (integrity, 10:9).¹ This provides a

link between the two verses, although this is rather

chimerical. The other clear nexus establishing the

proverb pair of 10:8, 9 is the sequence (AB/AB) from the

actions of the wise man/man of integrity to the passive

forms used to describe the ruin of the oppressor/finding

out about the way of the fool. The final common feature

is the Niphal verbs which syntactically link these two

proverbs into the second pair in this section (10:6-12).

Proverbs 10:10 קֹרֵץ עַיִן עִתֵּן עַצֶבֶת

He who winks maliciously causes grief,

וְאֱוִיל שְׂפָתַיִם יִלָּבֵט

and a chattering fool comes to ruin.

Proverbs 10:10 begins a new proverb pair. It is

linked to Proverbs 10:9 by the fact that it, too, begins

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 122.

with a Qal participle and thereby manifests the same

vocalic וֹ- ֵ vowel pattern. Like both Proverbs 10:8 and 9,

the second stich contains a passive to describe the sad

consequence of having foolish lips. Structurally

important is the repetition of the whole second stich

(10:10b) from Proverbs 10:8b. This link to the previous

pair is strong via heavy repetition. The second stich may

echo the pattern which tied the two preceding verses

together (יִלָּבֵט). This proverb, however, is cast

differently from all that precedes it. In all of the

proverbs examined so far in this chapter, there has been a

clear antithesis between the first and second stichs. In

Proverbs 10:10 both stichs, in a rather negative fashion,

discuss the ills of the misuse of a body part (a winking

eye, foolish lips). Bostrom perceives a sonant chiasm

occurring in the צ, ע, י, נ / י, נ, ע, צ of the first

stich.¹ This pattern is interesting, although whether it

is intentional is highly questionable.

Proverbs 10:11 מְקוֹר חַיִּים פִי צַדִּיק

The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life,

וּפִי רְשׁעִים יְכַסֶּה חָמָס

but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked.

Proverbs 10:11 and 10:10 are clearly sound-linked

in their opening words (קֹרֵץ [winking]; מְקוֹר [spring]).

Both proverbs tell of the results of the use/misuse of

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 123.

body parts. This proverb (10:11) has several internal

cohesional forces. There is a return to a chiastic

juxtaposing of the mouth with the antonymic pair צַדִּיק /

רְשׁעִים [righteous/wicked]. Again the morphological

variation of number is found, in that wicked is plural and

righteous is singular. The same logical sequence is

discovered here as that manifested in the 10:6, 7 pair,

which gives a nominal clause-describing the state in which

the righteous are found--contrasted to an active verbal

clause--describing what happens to the wicked. The total

repetition of Proverbs 10:6b in the second stich (10:11b)

is clearly a structural binder. Thus these whole stich

repetitions pull the two preceding pairs together, along

with this pair, into a six-verse, three-proverbial-pair

unit chiastically set off by the repetition of whole

stichs (AB/BA; 10:6b, 10:8b/10:10b, 10:11b). While

the four-fold repetition of in this proverb fits the

standards for alliteration, it probably is not

significant. Bostrom observes the מ - ח sequence in חַיִּים

(life) and חָמָס (violence).¹ This, too, does not seem to

be very outstanding. Thus 10:10 and 11 seem to round out

the sub-section more with obvious, sectional, cohesive

forces than with internal or proverbial pair cohesions.

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 123.

Proverbs 10:12 שִׂנְאָה תְּעֹרֵר מְדָנִים

Hatred stirs up dissension,

וְעַל כָּל־פְשָׁעִים תְּכַסֶה אַהֲבָה

but love covers over all wrongs.

The catch-words יְכַסֶּה / תְּכַסֶה, with morphological

variation as a result of the gender of the subject,

provide a clear link between Proverbs 10:12 and 10:11 (cf.

also 10:6). Bostrom interestingly observes the

commonality in sound between פִי רְשׁעִים and פְשָׁעִים, the

latter being a collapsed form of the former.¹ This does

add a sound-bound effect between the two proverbs. The

end of 10:11 and the beginning of 10:12 exhibit a

tail-to-head anadiplotic sound effect with the sibilant

sounds שׁ, ס in יְכַסֶּה (hide), חָמָס (violence), and שִׂנְאָה

(hatred). Thematically, however, 10:12 stands alone. In

the proverb itself, the usual chiastic effect is obtained

with contrasting שִׂנְאָה (hatred) and אַהֲבָה (love) at the

extremes with the inner elements מְדָנִים (dissension) and

עַל כָּל־פְשָׁעִים (over all wrongs). Thus, there is a clear

ABC/CBA mirror chiasm, which also is reflected in the

syntactic order (SVO/OVS).

This brings to a close the first section (Prov

10:1-12), which includes two sub-sections (10:2-5 and

10:6-11). Proverbs 10:2-5 contains two proverbial pairs

on the theme of material possessions. Proverbs 10:6-11 is

composed of three proverbial pairs which are clearly

____________________

¹Ibid.

structured together by the chiastic repetition of whole

stichs (10:6b in 11b, and 10:8b in 10b). The singular

proverbs in 10:1 and 12 frame the section, which is

composed of five clearly marked pairs (10:2-3; 4-5; 6-7;

8-9; 10-11). Thus Brown's collectional units¹ are

partially correct to this point but only now has adequate

rationale been provided to support that hypothesis.

Because of the similarities with the latter part of the

next section, it is difficult to decide whether 10:12 goes

with what comes before or with what follows. It may be

that the verse itself is a transitional hinge unit between

the two sections.

Proverbs 10:13 בְּשִׂפְתֵי נָבוֹן תִמָצֵא חָכְמָה

Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning,

וְשֵׁבֶט לְגֵו חֲסַר־לֵב

but a rod is for the back of him who lacks judgment.

Proverbs 10:13 carries a four-fold repetition of

ב. It both opens and closes with this letter. As has

been shown above, initial letters are often significant.

Bostrom also points out the positional commonality of in

both חָכְמָה (wisdom) and חֲסַר־לֵב (lacks-sense). To these may

be added the juxtaposition of sibilant שׁ, labial ב, and

dental ת, in the initial word of the first stich (בְּשִׂפְתֵי

[in the lips of]) and in the initial word of the second

stich (שֵׁבֶט [rod]). While neither of these fit Margalit's

____________________

¹Brown, "Structured Parallelism in the Composition

and Formation of Canonical Books," p. 8.

pattern for alliteration, it seems possible that there may

be a sound echo effect. Thus, the sound features help

explain how this rather semantically diverse proverb was

constructed. It should be noted, however, that there is a

semantically antithetical contrast of the discerning

(נָבוֹן) with the one lacking sense (חֲסַר־לֵב). One could

suppose that the proverb was developed out of the

juxtaposing of the questions: Where may one find wisdom?

(Answer: on the lips of the understanding) and Where may

one find the rod? (Answer: on the back of the one lacking

sense). Proverbs 10:13 and 10:14 commence the second

section with a proverbial pair linked in a bifid AB/AB

manner.

Proverbs 10:14 חֲכָמִים יִצַפְּנוּ־דָעַת

Wise men store up knowledge,

וּפִי־אֱוִיל מְחִתָה קְרֹבָה

but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.

It is clear that Proverbs 10:13 is linked to 10:14

through the repetition of the catch-words חָכְמָה (wisdom)

and חֲכָמִים (wise men). As in 10:2 and 3, there is a

linking of abstract qualities (righteousness [10:2];

wisdom [10:13]) with those who have attained those

qualities (righteous [10:3]; wise men [10:14]). The

proverb itself exhibits the contrast between the חֲכָמִים

(wise-men) and the פִי־אֱוִיל (mouth of fools). Also

semantically involved is the contrast between the wise,

who hide their wisdom, and the fools, who openly speak

their folly to their own ruin. The first stich discloses

the activity of the wise while the second forecasts the

results of the fools' actions. It is also interesting

that even though the catch-words are so pronounced, there

is no real sound-binding. The similar topic of the speech

of the wise/understanding binds the pair (10:13, 14)

together. Proverbs 10:14 seems to act as a hinge between

10:13 (via the catch-words חָכְמָה [wisdom] and חֲכָמִים [wise

men]) and 10:15 (via the repetition of the word מְחִתָה

[ruin]). One wonders whether the presence of חָכְמָה

(wisdom)/ חֲכָמִים (wise men) at this point provides a

structural marker indicating a new section, since חָכָם

was also present in the initial proverb of the preceding

section (10:1-12, cf. 10:23; 11:2 although 10:31 provides

counter-evidence).

Proverbs 10:15 הוֹן עָשִׁיר קִרְיַת עֻזּוֹ

The wealth of the rich is their fortified city,

מְחִתַּת דַלִּים רֵישָׁם

but poverty is the ruin of the poor.

Proverbs 10:15 (cf. Prov 18:11) begins another

clear proverb pair which is united around the theme of

wealth. The catch-word מְחִתַּת (ruin) provides an easy link

with the preceding proverb (10:14b). Bostrom correctly

observes the sound echo in the repetition of קר in 10:14b

(קְרֹבָה [near]) and 10:15a (קִרְיַת [city]). The disparate

themes of 10:13-14 and 10:15-16 separate them into two

pairs rather than allowing for a quatrain structure. Also

interesting is the possible connection between sections as

עָשִׁיר (wealth) and רָאשׁ (poverty) occur both here and in

Proverbs 10:4. The singular suffix used in describing the

wealthy and the plural used for the poor reflect a

syntactic equivalence (pronominal suffix) and variation

(3ms, 3mp) at the end of each stich. Bostrom sees an

inverted sound echo in the letters רשׁ in עָשִׁיר (rich) and

רָאשׁ (their poverty).¹

Proverbs 10:16 פְּעֻלַּת צַדִּיק לְחַיִּים

The wages of the righteous bring them life

תְּבוּאַת רָשָׁע לְחַטָּאת

but the income of the wicked brings them punishment.

As one would expect from a pair on wealth, the

contrast between the righteous and the wicked is

highlighted in terms of the use and ultimate goal to which

each puts the wealth. This proverb is not only bound by

the usual contrast between the righteous and the wicked,

but contains a strong assonance between the initial words

פְּעֻלַּת (earnings) and תְּבוּאַת (income). The sound play

between the two stichs is furthered by the repetition of

the לח sequence in לְחַיִּים (for life) and לְחַטָּאת (for

punishment).² The four-fold repetition of , with three

of them in final position, provides an end alliteration

____________________

¹Bostrom, Paronomasi I den Aldre Hebreiska

Mashcalliteraturen, p. 124.

²Ibid., p. 124. Again these were found

independently and corroborated by a subsequent reading of

Bostrom.

which again causes the proverb to cohere. The semantic

features serve as a strong link between the two stichs.

The clear semantically "synonymous" relationship between

the two fronted words, פְעֻלַת (earnings) and תְּבוּאַת (wages),

is reversed by the character of the one who possesses it

( צַדִּיק [righteous]/ רָשָׁע [wicked]). Thus, the focus is

lifted off of the common element of wealth and turned

instead to the character of the one possessing it. It is

the character which determines which of the diverse

results will accrue.

Proverbs 10:17 אֹרַח לְחַיִּים שׁוֹמֶר מוּסָר

He who heeds discipline shows the way to life,

וְטוֹזֵב תוֹכַחַת מַתְעֶה

but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.

As Proverbs 10:15 was linked to the preceding pair

via a catch word, so Proverbs 10:16 is linked to the next

verse by an explicit repetition of לְחַיִּים (for life).

Proverbs 10:17 seems to provide a thematic hinge between

two well-bound proverbs on wealth, back to the theme of

proper speech. It stands by itself, having no pair, and

marks the middle point of this section (10:13-21). It

links the two former pairs (10:13-14; 15-16) with the two

latter pairs (10:18-19; 20-21). While one may count the

four 's present for a possible alliteration, because of

positional variations, it seems that only the 's in

initial positions in the final words of each stich are of

any probable significance (vid., מוּסָר [discipline]; מַתְעֶה

[errors]). The labial מ connects this proverb with the

next (10:18) in an anadiplotic fashion. An assonantic

effect is gained by the two Qal participles ( שׁוֹמֵר [keep];

עוֹזֵב [forsake]). So too, although less likely, is the וֹ -

sequence in אֹרַח (path) and תוֹכַחַת (reproof). The unity of

this proverb is further felt by the chiastic drawing

together of שׁוֹמֵר מוּסָר (keeper of discipline) and עוֹזֵת תוֹכַחַת

(forsaker of reproof). The outer elements tell the

outcomes of such patterns of life.

Proverbs 10:18 מְכַסֶּה שִׂנְאָה שִׂפְתֶי־שֶׁקֶר

He who conceals his hatred has lying lips,

וּמוֹצִא דִבָה הוּא כְסִיל

and whoever spreads slander is a fool.

It was Proverbs 10:18 which, for this writer,

originally triggered the discovery of the importance of

sound patterns as proverbial cohesional elements.

Proverbs 10:18 reopens the proverbs on speech (cf. 10:13,

14). Thematically, it is clearly linked to the following,

rather than the former, proverb. It is, however, sound-

bound to the previous proverb through the labial מ. This

proverb may exhibit what Akhmanova has coined a

"phonestheme," by which she means "a recurrent combination

of sound which is similar to the morpheme in the sense

that a certain content or meaning is more or less clearly

associated with it."¹ Sibilants predominate, being

____________________

¹Olga Akhmanova, Linguostylistics: Theory

and

Method (The Hague: Mouton, 1976), p. 23. (E.g.,

repeated six times through various letters ( ס, שׂ, שׁ, צ).

The palatal-sibilant sequence is also repeated in the

initial and final words of this proverb ( מְכַסֶה

[concealing]; כְּסִיל [fool]; cf. שָׁקֶר). Thus one can clearly

sense the hissing of the slurring slanderer slyly

spreading his secrets. Semantically there is an

interesting contrast in that the two stichs do not display

the normal antithetical character since they both present

negative types of speech habits. While the antithesis is

normally gained by the contrast of character (e.g., צַדִּיק

[righteous]/ רָשָׁע [wicked]), here the contrast is of two

diverse actions. One is a deceptive concealing, while the

other is an improper disclosing of that which should have

been kept concealed. The initial verb contrast in both

stichs is followed by an element of evil ( שִׂנְאָה [hatred];

דִבָּה [slander]), which in turn is followed by a character

evaluation ( שִׂפְתֵי־שָׁקֶר [false-lips]; כְסִיל [fool]). Thus,

this proverb is very tightly constructed phonetically and

semantically.

Proverbs 10:19 בְּרֹב דְבָרִים לֹא יֶחְדַל־פָשַע

When words are many, sin is not absent

וְחֹשֶׁךְ שְׂפָתָיו מַשְׂכִּיל

but he who holds his tongue is wise.

Proverbs 10:19 presents an interesting turn in its

relationship with 10:18. There is a chiastic effect based

____________________

"sl"-words: slither, slip, slimy, slide, slosh, sluggish,

etc.)

on the quantity of expression. In Proverbs 10:18-19 the

following semantic AB/BA pattern is observed: hidden

hatred/spread slander//many words/few words. Thus, to

hold one's tongue is wise unless it is merely to cover

hatred--in which case it may be a means of deception.

There is a two-fold sound link between the pair: (1) דִבָּה

(slander) and דְּבָרִים (words) both have the דב sequence; and

(2) the palatal-sibilant sequence כס or שׂכ not only

connects these two proverbs ( כְּסִיל [fool]; מַשְׂכִיל [wise])

but also initiates 10:20 ( כֶסֶף [silver]). The trailing

ִיל further strengthens the nexus between כְּסִיל (fool) and

מַשְׂכִיל (wise) as does their final position in their

respective stichs.¹ חֹשֵׁךְ (withhold) in the second stich

also exhibits this שֹׂךְ (sibilant-palatal) sequence, which

is repeated five times in this pair. Another sound echo

which Boström has pointed to is the labial-sibilant

sequence פש in פָשַׁע (transgression) and שְׂפָתָיו (lips).

It is appropriate at this point to reflect on

Brown's suggested sectional framing, which he sees in the

likeness between Proverbs 10:12 and 10:18, 19. The

repetition of שִׂאְנָה and also the root כָּסָה (conceal) in

10:12 and 18 suggests that such common end framing may

indeed be the case. This is strengthened by the

repetition of פָשַׁע / פְשָׁעִים (transgression) in Proverbs 10:12

____________________

¹ Ibid., p. 125.

and 10:19. An enveloping effect is furthered by the

repetition of one who lacks sense ( חֲסַר־לֵב) in Proverbs

10:13 and 10:21. These two verses also contain a common

reference to שִׂפְתֵי (lips).¹ This study will confirm that

the second section is composed of 10:13-21, as these

repetitions suggest. The change of topic also

corroborates this decision. The links between the end of

the first section (10:1-12) and the end of the second

(10:13-21) verify not that 10:12 should go with the

following section but that both sections close with common

terms.

Proverbs 10:20 כֶּסֶף נִבְחָר לְשׁוֹן צַדִּיק

The tongue of the righteous is choice silver,

לֶב רְשָׁעִים כִּמְעָט

but the heart of the wicked is of little value.

Proverbs 10:20 is a tightly-woven, chiastic

proverb which contrasts the value of the tongue of the

righteous and the worthlessness of the heart of the

wicked. The initial כֶּסֶף (silver) plays on two sounds

which have been developed in the preceding proverb pair.

The כֶּסֶף (silver) also forms an outer boundary with

כִּמְעָט (like chaff) which has a common initial letter which

draws them together for the semantic contrast in value.

The repetition of the ל in the לְשׁוֹן (tongue) and לֵב

(heart) likewise draws these two units together. The

____________________

¹Brown, "Structured Parallelism in the

Composition

and Formation of Canonical Books," p. 9.

contrast is made specific by the normal antithetical pair

צָדִּיק / רְשָׁעִים (righteous/ wicked). Also quite normal is the

morphological variation of the singular righteous and the

plural wicked. The בר sequence is seen both in נִבְחָר

(choice) and לֵב רְשָׁעִים (heart of the wicked). This sequence

provides another phonetic echo of the previous proverb

which proffered this pattern. The contrast is

semantically heightened by the placing of value on that

which is usually not considered so (the tongue), while the

heart, which is usually judged to be of great worth, is

likened to chaff. The reversal places the emphasis on the

contrasting character as being the determining factor.

Proverbs 10:21 שִׂפְתֵי צַדִּיק יִרְעוּ רַבִּים

The lips of the righteous nourish many,

וֶאֱוִילִים בַּחֲסַר־לֵב יַמוּתוּ

but fools die for lack of judgment.

The final proverb in this section (10:13-21) pairs

well with its mate. The theme of the inherent value of

the righteous speech is made specific by the observation

that righteous lips feed many. The repetition of צַדִּיק

(righteous) and לֶב (heart) provides the catch-words which

link the two proverbs into a pair. Bostrom notes the

sound echo in נִבְחַר (choice, 10:21) and חֲסַר־לֵב (lack of

sense, 10:22).¹ It is hard to prove such a connection,

which may be strengthened by noting that a follows in both

____________________

¹Bostrom, Paronomasi I den Aldre Hebreiska

Maschalliteraturen, p. 125.

cases. The thrice repeated ר, because of its placement,

is probably insignificant. The play on words comes by the

fact that lips are said to feed, rather than as one would

expect, that they should be fed. This calls attention to

the fructiferous nature of being righteous. The

connection of folly and death is only natural (contrast

10:2).

Proverbs 10:21 ends this section and the thematic

shift between 10:21 and 22 is reinforced by the lack of a

catch-word or of a sound correspondence. The framing, as

mentioned above, turns one back to 10:12 and 13 at this

point. The first section (10:1-12) is a twelve-verse

cohesional unit composed of two sub-sections one with two

pairs and one with three pairs, with a single head verse

(10:1) and tail verse (10:12). The second section

(10:13-21) is composed of nine verses: two initial pairs

(10:13-14, 15-16), a single, central proverb (10:17), and

two final pairs (10:18-19, 20-21) which round out the

section with inclusio type links of word repetitions

between the beginning verse (10:13) and the final pair

(10:20-21). The end has features parallel with the end of

the first section (10:12, 10:18). The break between 10:21

and 22 is as pronounced as that between 10:12 and 13.

Proverbs 10:22בִּרְכַּת יְהוָה הִיא תַעֲשִׁיר

The blessing of the LORD brings wealth,

וְלֹא־יוֹסִף עֶצֶב עִמָּה

and he adds no trouble to it.

The last sectional unit in this chapter is a well-

structured, twelve-verse string (10:22-11:1). The

difference in theme and the lack of lexical or phonetic

links with the preceding verse clearly call for a division

between 10:21 and 22. The initial word, בִּרְכַּה (blessings),

was also the initial word in the 10:6-11 sub-section.

While Brown uses this word to support his bifid structure

(A [10:1-5 wealth and poverty]; B [10:6-11 the righteous/

the wicked]; A [10:12-21 the wealthy/the poor]; and B

[10:22-25 righteousness/wickedness], one can note several

irregularities.¹ First, though he labels 10:12-21 as

thematically focused on the wealthy/the poor, it is clear,

however, that 10:22--which he puts in a righteousness/

wickedness unit--is really about wealth. The tie back

from 10:22 to 10:6-11 through the initially repeated

(blessings) is not as dramatic when one observes that the

topically significant word תַעֲשִׁיר (make rich) links this

proverb (10:22) with 10:4. If one takes 10:1-12 as

the larger unit this problem is resolved. Thus, 10:22

____________________

¹Brown, "Structured Parallelism in the

Composition

and Formation of Canonical Books," p. 9. This bifid

structure is presented more lucidly in the chart which was

received at the lecture.

may reflect back to 10:4 or 10:6 due to repetitions,

although one wonders if these repetitions are structurally

significant.

The presence of a third feminine singular pronoun

הִיא (she), which sets off the final verb, links 10:22 (cf.

10:18b) with a similar syntactic structure in 10:24. This

proverb also makes a good structural divider because of

its uniqueness not only in its use of the divine name but

also because of its non-antithetical character. The

"synthetic" parallelism of the saying isolates it as a

singular proverb marking a structural shift (cf. 10:1,

12). The proverb is pronominally bound in that Yahweh is

the explicit subject in the first stich and pronominally

affixed as the subject of the verb in the second. The

four-fold reiterated may not be of great significance as

a sound link. One wonders whether the לֹא + verb structure

might also tie 10:22 back to the wealth proverbs which

used this pattern in 10:2 and 3 (although cf. 10:19).

There is a hint of a contrast in the things which Yahweh

adds--that is, he gives wealth and pain. The second is

reversed by the negative.

Proverbs 10:23 כִּשְׂחוֹק לִכְסִיל עֲשׂוֹת זִמָּה

A fool finds pleasure in evil conduct,

וְחָכְמָה לְאִישׁ תְּבוּנָה

but a man of understanding delights in wisdom.

Proverbs 10:23 is detached from similar כ initial

proverbs in this section (10:25, 26). This detachment

phenomenon occurs elsewhere as well (cf. 11:9-11, 14).

The proverb is bound together by its elliptical character,

which demands that the כִשְׂחוֹק (as laughter) and עֲשׂוֹת (to

do) play double-duty roles by being implicitly present in

the second stich. The normal contrast between the כְּסִיל

(fool) and אִישׁ תְּבוּנָה (man of understanding) also binds the

proverb together. The repeated preposition ל + person

type ( כְּסִיל [for a fool], אִישׁ תִּבוּנָה [for a man of

understanding]) also cements the two stichs together. A

sound echo is clearly heard in the palatal-sibilant

sequence כשׂ / כס in כּשְׂחוֹק (as laughter) and לִכְסִיל (for a

fool). The final word תִּבוּנָה (understanding) provides the

sound link with the next proverb.¹

Proverbs 10:24 מְגוֹרַת רָשָׁע הִיא תְבוֹאֶנּוּ

What the wicked dreads will overtake him;

וְתַאֲוַת צַדִּיקִים יִתֵּן

what the righteous desire will be granted.

Proverbs 10:24 really does not share a common

theme with 10:23. They may be loosely sequentially

linked--that is, 10:23 tells what the various characters

love to do while 10:24 tells the results. The contrasting

character types are different, however. As noted above,

while 10:24 is sound linked to 10:23 through תְבוֹאֶנּוּ (comes

on him), there are also clear syntactic ties to 10:22

through the pronoun + verb sequence ( הִיא תְבוֹאֶנּוּ [it comes

____________________

¹Bostrom has also noted this connection

(Paronomasi

I den Aldre Hebreiska Maschalliteraturen, p. 125).

on him]). Perhaps a proverbial triad is being employed

here (10:22-24). The five-fold repetition of seems to

serve as a sound binder in giving the proverb its ring.

The normal contrast between the wicked and the righteous

is present, with the righteous being pluralized in

morphological variation. The final ֵ/ ֶ + ֶן may provide

an end rhyme for each stich to draw these two semantically

parallel words together via their sounds ( תְבוֹאֶנּוּ [comes on

him] and יִתֵּן [give]).

Proverbs 10:25 כַּעֲבוֹר סוּפָה וְאֵין רָשָׁע

When the storm has swept by the wicked are gone,

וְצַדִּיק יְסוֹד עוֹלָם

but the righteous stand firm forever.

With verse 25 another clear proverb pair begins,

which is linked not only by the initial כ, but also by the

dual nature of the first stich, which has a stich-medial וְ

(which is very rare in these proverbs). The initial כ

link should also be tied back to the detached 10:23 (cf.

11:9-11, 14). While some who consider only the thematic

level may categorize these two proverbs as diverse, the

sound and syntactic links undeniably weld these two

proverbs into a pair. One must understand and appreciate

the compositional techniques of the ancient sages based on

their own standards, rather than forcing a restrictive

theme-only approach upon their collections. Brown is at

fault here as he calls for a major division between 10:25

and 26 because of Skehan's mechanical suggestion that all

of the 375 proverbs of this section fall into 25 unit

groups.¹ The strong connection between these two verses

shows the artificiality of Skehan's suggestion. He comes

to the text with a preconceived framework, rather than

allowing the framework to arise naturally from a careful

scrutiny of the text itself. Thus, this pair provides a

glaring counter-example.

One final indicator that a division should not

come between 10:25 and the following proverbs is the

manifest thematic link with Proverbs 10:29-30 concerning

the transientness of the wicked and the enduring quality

of the righteous. It is not accidental that the word עוֹלָם

is repeated (10:25, 30). This thematic link causes 10:25

to point in the direction of what follows rather than to

what goes before it, where there is no thematic link.

Further thematic connections may be seen in comparing

10:27 to 22 and 10:28 to 24.

Proverbs 10:25 has the normal contrast between the

righteous and the wicked. Boström tries to draw the words

סוּפָה (storm) and יסוֹד (stand) together on the basis of the

similarity between סוּ and סוֹ. The continuation of the

paired רָשָׁע (wicked) and צַדִּיקִים (righteous) in 10:24 and 25

____________________

¹Brown, "Structured Parallelism in the

Composition

and Formation of Canonical Books," pp. 4, 9. Cf. Skehan,

"Wisdom's House," p. 36.

connects these two proverbs besides giving a cohesiveness

to 10:25 itself. The contrasting imagery of the wicked as

a storm passing by and the righteous as timelessly

steadfast again draws the proverb together as a unit.

Proverbs 10:26 כַּחֹמֶץ לַשִּׁנִַּים וְכֶעָשָׁן לָעֵינָיִם

As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,

כֵּן חֶעָצֵל לְשׂלְחָיו

so is a sluggard to those who send him.

Proverbs 10:26, while being thematically diverse

from the preceding proverb, is bound simply on the grounds

of the initial כ and medial ו in the first stich. The

initial כ should not be under-emphasized in that it is

clearly being played on within verse 26 ( כַּחוֹמֶץ [as

vinegar]; כֶטָשָׁן [as smoke]; and כֵּן [so]) as well as linking

verse 26 to verse 25. Bostrom observes the שׁנ sequence in

לַשִּנַיִּם (to the teeth) and כֶטָשָׁן (as smoke).¹ He also

observes the assonance between לָעֵינָיִם (for the eyes) and

(so), where both 's are followed by נ's. The lack of

antithesis and the recurrent use of simile parallels many

proverbs found in Proverbs 25-27 and may have been placed

here as a result of the כ initial similarity with 10:25.

It is interesting that the sluggard motif is not found

elsewhere in this section, but it does cause one to

reflect on the pair in 10:4 and 5.

____________________

¹Bostrom, Paronomasi I den Aldre Hebreiska

Maschalliteraturen, p. 126.

Proverbs 10:27 יִרְאַת יְהוָה תּוֹסִיף יָמִים

The fear of the LORD adds length to life,

וּשְׁנוֹת רְשָעִים תִּיקְצֹרְנָה

but the years of the wicked are cut short.

Proverbs 10:27 begins another pair. It obviously

echoes the initial verse in this section (10:22) both in

the presence of the divine name and in the use of תוֹסִיף

(adds) as the major verb. It is suggested that this pair

(10:27, 28) marks the middle of this section. The section

begins with a YHWH-proverb (10:22); the divine name and

the verb יָסַף (to add) are centrally reiterated in 10:27;

then in 11:1, it will be suggested, the section closes as

it began--with a lone proverb containing the divine name.

Thus, this group has five proverb pairs (10:23-24, 25-26,

27-28; 29-30, 31-32) which are bounded by singular

proverbs (10:22 and 11:1) containing divine responses (cf.

10:1-12).

Bostrom sees the initial י's in the first stich as

sound echoes. He reads the sequence as a sound link

between 10:26 and 27 ( לַשִּׁנַיִם [to the teeth]; כֶטָשָׁן [as

smoke]; שְׁנוֹת [years]).¹ The parallel between יָמִים (days)

and שְׁנוֹת (years) is accented in that it is the long years

of the wicked which are cut short. The fear of the Lord

(a quality) being contrasted with the wicked (persons,

plural) is not too unusual (cf. 10:2). Structurally it is

____________________

¹Ibid.

interesting that יָמִים (days) and שְׁנוֹת (years) are

juxtaposed between the stichs in a front flip chiastic

ordering.¹

Proverbs 10:28 תּוֹחֶלֶת צַדִּיקִים שִׁמְחַה

The prospect of the righteous is joy,

וְתִקְוַת רְשָׁעִים תֹּאבֵד

but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.

Proverbs 10:28 is connected to the preceding

proverb by two patterns: (1) the repetition of the

catch-word רְשָׁעִים (wicked); and (2) the תק sequence in the

terms juxtaposed to רְשָׁעִים; ( תִּקְצֹרְנָה [cut off]; תִקְוַת

[expectations]).² Thematically, a discussion on the hopes

and desires of contrasting groups (righteous, wicked) ties

back to 10:24, which is a further confirmation that the

sectional division should not come at 10:25. The

five-fold repetition of is significant both in terms of

the number of times it occurs and its position in the

initial words of both stichs (תּוֹחֶלֶת [hopes]; תִקְוַת

[expectations]). Thus again there is a correlation of

sound and sense bringing paralleled words together. The

order of the proverb is the normal ABC/ABC type with the

usual contrast between the righteous and the wicked--both

of which are plural and constructed with a word for

"expectation." Thus the pair (10:27 and 28) is

____________________

¹O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 393.

²Bostrom, Paronomasi I den Aldre Hebreiska

Maschalliteraturen, p. 126.

sound-bound and thematically reflective, with both

pointing back to former proverbs (10:27 to 10:22 and 10:28

to 10:24) although they are thematically diverse.

Proverbs 10:29 מָעוֹז לַתֹּם דֶּרֶךְ יוהוָה

The way of the LORD is a refuge for the righteous,

וּמְחִתָּה לְפֹעֲלֵי אָוֶן

but it is the ruin of those who do evil.

The lack of thematic linking is made up for in the

next proverbial pair (10:29, 30) in which both verses

elaborate on the stability/transientness of the good/evil.

This theme is picked up from 10:25, which, as pointed out

above, shows that the sectional division between 10:25 and

10:29-30 is ill-placed. The three-fold repetition of מ is

significantly located as the initial letter of both

stichs. The use of the divine name ties 10:29 to the

preceding pair (10:27, 28). The word מְחִתָּה (destruction)

was repeated in both 10:14 and 15, although a structural

link between those verses and 10:29 does not seem

probable.

This proverb is very well-knit around the central

point דֶּרֶך יְהוָה (way of Yahweh), which is gapped in the

second stich. The ל marks the contrasting characters

which are being commented on ( תֹם [man of integrity]; פֹּעֲלֵי

אָוֶן [workers of iniquity]), with the initial words of the

stich telling the state of those individuals in terms of

the way of Yahweh.

Proverbs 10:30 צַדִּיק לְעוֹלָם בַּל־יִמּוֹט

The righteous will never be uprooted,

וּרְשָׁעִים לֹא יִשְׁכְּנוּ־אָרֶץ

but the wicked will not remain in the land.

Proverbs 10:30 is thematically paired to 10:29.

Its explicit use of the word עוֹלָם (forever) solidifies the

connection with verse 25.¹ The four-fold repetition of ל

within the proverb may be significant. The fact that it

begins and ends with a צ is probably insignificant. The

use of the preposition ל before עוֹלָם (forever) may help

draw together the pair, which may be sound-bound via the

seven-fold repetition of ל, which is often in word initial

positions. The explicit contrast between the righteous

(singular) and the wicked (plural) is obvious. The use of

a double reversal technique, whereby the righteous are בַּל־

(not moved) and the wicked will לֹא יִשְׁכְּנוּ (not dwell),

is also of interest. Thus 10:29 and 30 are closely bound

by theme and by sound.

Proverbs 10:31 פִּי־צַדִּיק יָנוּב חָכְמָה

The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom,

וּלְשׁוֹן תַּהְפֻצוֹת תִּכָּרֵת

but a perverse tongue will be cut out.

Proverbs 10:31 and 32 provide perhaps the most

____________________

¹The fact that Brown, who normally uses such word

repetitions to establish structure, ignores this word and

theme connection only again underscores his poor

methodological base ("Structured Parallelism in the of

Composition and Formation of Canonical Books," p. 9.

interesting pair yet discussed. Thematically there is a

return to the speech motif (cf. 10:18-21). Proverbs 10:31

is a simple antithesis, with the "synonymous" pair פִּי

(mouth)/ לְשׁוֹן (tongue) being reversed by the usual

construction with opposites ( צַדִּיק [righteous]/ תַּהְפֻצוֹת

[perverse]). The verbs do not provide clear antitheses,

but contrast more in terms of endurance than opposition of

action. There is no detectable sound play which has been

so common in and between the other proverbs. It is only

with the addition of verse 32 that the interactive beauty

of each proverb is truly appreciated.

Proverbs 10:32 שִׂפְתֵי צַדִּיק יֵדְעוּן רָצוֹן

The lips of the righteous know what is fitting,

וּפִי רְשָׁעִים תַּהְפֻכוֹת

but the mouth of the wicked only what is perverse.

Proverbs 10:32 has the common צַדִּיק (righteous)/

רְשָׁעִים (wicked) contrast. The plural use of wicked and

singular righteous are quite ordinary, as seen above (cf.

10:3, 7, 11, 30, etc.). Likewise the pairing of שִׂפְתֵי

(lips) and (mouth) to the antithetical quality traits

is also standard (cf. 10:11, 21). The final ון's on שִׂפְתֵי

(know) and רָצוֹן (pleasing) may provide a sound link. By

themselves, both proverbs are quite jejune, until one

begins to discover the inter-proverbial relationships. A

chiastic AB/BA effect is triggered by the mouth parts ( פִי

[mouth]/ לְשׁוֹן [tongue]// שִׂפְתֵי [lips]/ פִי [mouth]). The sound

binding of the ון supports this chiasm in לְשׁוֹן (tongue),

יֵדְעוּן (know) and רָצוֹן (pleasing)--all of which are in the

end position. An AB/AB structure results from the

repetition of דַדִּיק (righteous) in the first stich of each

proverb. This structure is corroborated by the repetition

of the rare word תַּהְפֻכוֹת (perverse) in both second stichs,

which repetition makes it extremely unlikely that mere

chance is involved. Thus, this may be termed a complex

chiasm, having both chiastic (AB/BA) features and normal

bifid (AB/AB) patterns. This is the best example of an

intentional pairing of proverbs in chapter 10. The

syntactical ordering of the first stichs of each verse is

identical and provides another link. Note how the

recognition of this pairing feature enhanced the

appreciation for these proverbs which are otherwise very

normal. Such aesthetic enhancement is another argument

for the need to observe collectional, cohesional features.

This completes the discussion of the cohesional

features in chapter 10. The incompleteness of the

discussion is obvious. How does the section which began

in 10:22 end? Is 10:32 a fitting end or may a better

closing be found? When one looks to Proverbs 11:1 as a

possible closing several things are immediately apparent.

Proverbs 11:1 מֹאזְנֵי מִרְמָה תּוֹעֲבַת יְהוָה

The LORD abhors dishonest scales,

וְאֶבֶן שְׁלֵמָה רְצוֹנוֹ

but accurate weights are his delight.

The first and most obvious is the connection with

10:32 in the repetition of the word רָצוֹן (pleasing). It

should be observed that here and 10:32 are the only places

this word has occurred. Such cultic terminology is not

overly abundant in Proverbs (14 times). The proverb is

well constructed, balancing מֹאזְנֵי (weights) and אֶבֶן

(stone) in construct with antithetical nouns ( מִרְמָה

[deceitful], שְלֵמָה [complete, fair]) which are then

respectively coordinated with divine rejection ( תּוֹעֲבַת

[abomination]) and acceptance ( רְצוֹנוֹ [pleasing]). The

pronominal suffix link back to the first stich's reference

to Yahweh further syntactically ties the two stichs

together. Having observed the frequency of the pairing

phenomenon, one naturally looks to the next proverb (11:2)

to pair with 11:1. The next proverb is obviously not to

be paired with 11:1. One reflects that the section began

with a singular proverb, so it is not odd that it should

end thus (cf. 10:1-12). Upon looking back to 10:22, one

notes another connection: the presence of the divine

name. Thus, if 11:1 is included in this section, the

divine name occurs in the first, middle, and last parts of

this section (cf. also 10:29). Therefore, this writer is

suggesting that 11:1 be read as the closing for the

section 10:22-11:1, which is composed of an initial,

single, YHWH-proverb, five proverbial pairs, and closed by

a single YHWH-proverb. While it may be just coincidental,

the consonantal similarity between שְׁלֹמֹה (10:1) and שְׁלֵמָה

(11:1) nicely frames these thirty-three proverbs.

Conclusion on Cohesion

The above analysis of Proverbs 10:1-11:1 has

focused strictly on cohesional features present on the

intra- and inter-proverbial levels. An attempt has been

made to look at such features on three levels: phonetic,

syntactic, and semantic. While syntax played a large part

in binding the proverbial bi-colon together (vid. tagmemic

analysis), phonetics and semantics were found to be very

active both on the bi-colonic level and on the

inter-proverb level.

The phonetic analysis was probably the most

foreign and most questionable as there have not been

adequate studies to quantify this type of data. It was

clear, however, that sound/sense repetitions were

practiced both in the ancient Near East and in the text of

Proverbs (Prov 10:5, 18; 11:9-11; 31:10ff). In many cases

it was not possible to tell whether there was an

intentional playing with sound or whether the sound

patterns were a mere product of chance, determined more by

the words selected than by a conscious effort to choose

particular sounds. Whether originally intented or not,

many times the similar sound patterns provided the proverb

with its ring (vid. Prov 10:9; 11:2). Phonological

features mostly operated within the bi-colon, but at

points served to bind pairs (10:25, 26) and possibly

strings together (11:9-11), although that was not

prominent in chapter 10 (vid. a weak form in 10:23,

25-26).

Very prominent was the catch-word principle. This

pattern frequently was found in the ancient Near Eastern

sources and clearly was used to link proverb to proverb.

Though with high frequency words such as righteous,

wicked, wise/wisdom, or fool/folly one may suggest that

the juxtaposing of two proverbs containing these words may

be merely accidental, with very low frequency words in

neighboring proverbs the argument supporting catch words

as an intentional, collectional consideration is clinched

(10:14, 15; 10:31, 32). Similar positional location also

verifies that catch word repetitions were indeed one

important factor which the collector used in compiling his

proverbs (10:2, 3). Repeated proverbial stichs--which

some have used as an argument to support the idea that the

collector merely is grabbing for proverbs rather than

skillfully crafting his poem--have been shown to be

helpful structural features which bind a section together

(10:6b, 11b, and 10:8b, 10b)

Finally, thematic links, contrary to the belief of

many, provided cohesional factors for the obvious binding

of pairs (10:2-3; 10:15-16; 10:29-30; 10:31-32). Thematic

strings were also found (10:2-5 on wealth; 10:18-21 on

speech). Thematic considerations are not felt to be as

restrictive in these proverbs as in narrative. In fact,

other cohesive factors may take precedence, thereby

allowing for rapid fluctuations in theme which may, if one

is unaware of the other factors involved, give the reader

the feeling of disarray. Thus, because the ancient sages

viewed the proverbs as "language" as well as "message,"

they creatively activated all levels to provide their

collections with cohesion, rather than restricting

themselves to mere commonality of theme. It has been the

myopic dullness on the readers' part which has led many to

conclude that this section of Proverbs is incoherent and

haphazard. It is desired that this discussion, knowingly

subjective and conjectural at points, will be of benefit

in presenting a new manner of reading the text. As this

study presents merely the initial frame-work and a brief

inchoation of such an approach, it is hoped that others

may take up the task and read the other chapters of this

section (Prov 10:1-22:16) with this new set of glasses.

While one may feel that it is a mere viewing of faces in

the clouds--or as "Poor Alice! She was all alone in

Wonderland where nothing was just what it seemed"--yet it

has opened up new vistas of proverbial appreciation in a

section which has borne the brunt of readers who, because

they have not perceived the patterns, have proclaimed this

portion of Proverbs to be a potluck of proverbial

profundity void of literary profluence.

It has been demonstrated that Proverbs 10:1-11:1

is a multifariously cohesive literary unit composed of

three major sections (10:1-12; 10:13-21; and 10:22-11:1).

The first section was divided into an initial, singular

proverb (10:1), followed by two pairs on the topic of

wealth (10:2-5), which were followed by three pairs

(10:6-7; 10:8-9; and 10:10-11) structured by chiastic

whole-stich repetitions in 10:6b, 11b and 10:8b, 10b. The

section concluded as it began--with a singular proverbial

hinge (10:12). The second section (10:13-21) began with a

pair about proper speech (10:13-14) linked to a pair on

wealth (10:15-16), which was followed by a singular

proverb (10:17) marking the middle of the section. This

section concluded with a two pair string (10:18-19 and

10:20-21) that returned to the speech motif. The section

is perfectly balanced--that is, two pairs, a middle, and

two pairs. The final section (10:22-11:1) began with a

singular Yhwh-proverb (10:22) which was followed by a

loose pair (10:23-24) and a initial pair (10:25-26).

The middle of this section was marked by a Yhwh-proverb

(10:27) which is parallel to 10:22. While 10:23-24 and

10:27-28 are two rather questionable pairs in this

section, the next two are unquestionable pairs about the

stability of the righteous/instability of the wicked

(10:29-30) and proper/improper speech (10:31-32). The

section finished with a single Yhwh-proverb (11:1, cf.

10:22, 27), which is linked by a clear catch word to the

preceding pair. So the final section is also perfectly

balanced, with an opening proverb, five pairs, and a

closing proverb. The middle is marked by the divine name

and verb used. There follow two types of charts which

attempt to graphically simplify the rather desultory data

presented in this discussion.

It is proper to wonder why the collector so

crafted these proverbs. Thompson has analyzed six reasons

why the proverbs fail to reach our culture. The third

reason he gives is:

They are jumbled together willy-nilly into collections.

Granted that much of the Bible lacks the kind of

organization we might like to impose upon it, the

phenomenon of a plethora of distichs, many having

little or nothing in common with what precedes or what

follows, is peculiar to this book, particularly to

chapters 10-29.¹

It has been shown, however, that the problem is not from a

doggerel text, but from the prosaicness of the modern

reader. Perhaps the blame can be placed on the

translational process which cannot well transfer poetic

and cohesional features.

Several possible reasons may be offered to provide

a rationale for the present order. First, the creative

genius of the scribes led them to activate all levels of

____________________

¹Thompson, The Form and Function, p. 15.

language rather than being banally restricted to mere

thematic links. They often used literary devices common

to other proverbial collections. Second, it is clear that

the proverbial bi-cola are bonded together, which aids in

memory by poetically triggering both hemispheres of the

brain. This memorability fits well the pedagogical

setting of the book. So, too, the collections exhibit

small memory triggers which provide the student help in

mastering larger groups of these sayings. Third, it is

possible that the sage, in the quick shifts in topic, is

presenting the student with a picture of reality. He

calls the student to observe the apparent fragmented

character of the empirical world, which the student must

carefully piece together in harmony with what he knows

about the character of the One who has ordered it. Thus,

the fear of Yahweh not only lies at the entrance of the

path of wisdom but hedges it from beginning to end.

Simple cues in the student's situation should call forth

these proverbs in his memory, thereby directing him to the

God-fearing path of the righteous/wise. Williams well

elaborates on this point, when he writes, "aphoristic

thought does not proceed systematically, but empirically.

It directs itself to the fragments of experience as they

occur, so that the mind is compelled to make its own

connections among phenomena."¹ This study suggests that,

____________________

¹Williams, For Those Who Ponder Proverbs, pp. 70,

82.

rather than being distant to modern culture, Proverbs is

actually quite at home in the cosmopolitan complex of

diverse phenomena characterized by deranged commercials

and deviating portrayals of reality which change by the

turning of a dial. The apparent Pandemonium and lack of

significance in perceived reality is the cry of

post-modern man who staggers for meaning and yearns for

coherence/congruence. Proverbs calls such wanderers to

its pages and reveals the empirical cosmic unity via the

cohesive slices of life capsulized in its sayings. Thus,

its use of language reflects its Weltanschauung.

CHAPTER X

A LINGUISTIC SYNTHESIS OF THE

SYNTAX OF PROVERBIAL POETRY

Introduction

The linguistic approach taken in the corpus above

has generated a mass of syntactic trivia which now must be

sorted for recurrent paradigms and non-recurrent or

irregular patterns. Syntactic elements of equivalence and

variation will be assessed as one of the fundamental

building blocks of poetic structure. The analysis of this

data base will allow for conclusions concerning

preferences and conventions which the sages observed as

they formulated their messages into the proverbial form.

It may be that such "hard data" will allow one to specify

a bit more precisely the rationale for drawing conclusions

concerning authorship,¹ genre,² chronology (e.g. pre- or

____________________

¹Collins, Line-Forms In Hebrew Poetry, p. 199.

One must be extremely careful to avoid using such datum as

a sole criterion for authorship determination since content

and genre may also play important roles in the shaping of

syntactic features of the poetic line.

²Collins' analysis of over 1900 lines of prophetic

poetry has provided a benchmark against which other genres

may now be measured in terms of similarities and

differences. It will be shown that Collins' assumption

that his prophetic corpus provided a representative sample

of poetry was incorrect. A more discerning approach was

taken by O'Connor who took samples from the various genres

and periods of Hebrew poetry, thereby providing a broader

and more satisfying "representative sample" of Hebrew

post-exilic), and content.¹ Because of the work done by

Collins on the structure of the prophetic bi-colon and by

O'Connor on the line itself (from a more representative

sample--1200 lines), a comparison of the results obtained

from Proverbs and these corpora will provide interesting

similarities and contrasts.

Three sets of analysis will be performed in this

study. First, there will be a comparison, via charts and

discussions, of Collins' results in the prophets and the

structural patterns found in Proverbs 10-15. Although the

magnitude of Collins' prophetic corpus (1900 lines) dwarfs

the proverbial analysis, the convergence of the results in

Proverbs will be able to support a comparison, although

certainly no claims of conclusiveness will be made because

only 88 of the 184 verses analyzed allowed for a direct

collation with Collins' line types.² A second comparison

____________________

poetry (contra Barr's review of Hebrew Verse Structure JJS,

84 (Spring 1983), p. 118).

¹Ibid., pp. 66, 150. Collins attempts to tie

syntactic line-type with a semantic set. This would

suggest another alternative to explain variations rather

than postulating that sectional variations are as

indicative of changes of authorship. He fails to develop

the influence of content as grounds for stylistic variation

in the different sections of Isaiah, for example.

²This should reflect on the lack of

comprehensiveness of Collins' approach, particularly in his

sparse treatment of nominal clauses. Of the 184 verses

treated in Proverbs, 80 were nominal in character (cf. 88

of his A, B, C, D type). Thus, if nominal clauses are

included 168 verses allow for assimilation with Collins'

work.

will be made with O'Connor's line constraint system, which

was able to handle all lines in the corpus. Finally, an

analysis of matching, isomorphisms, and homomorphisms as

well as specific examples of the creative use of syntax

and syntactical transformations by the sages will

demonstrate the value of the tagmemic approach taken

above. It is obvious that all of the interesting

syntactic features cannot be elaborated on within this

paper. Thus, one further goal of this study is to suggest

other directions which could be pursued from the data base

provided in the corpus.

A Comparison of Collins' Prophetic Corpus

with the Proverbial Corpus

The discussion of Collins' work will focus on

several charts which summarize his findings and which

provide a convenient point of analogy with the results

compiled from the proverbial corpus.¹ These charts are

descriptive in nature--compiled in an attempt to discover

poetic patterns of equivalence and variation. Since they

provide mere distributions of line types, they should

not be understood in a prescriptive manner as determinative

____________________

¹Appendix 1 has the compilation of the Collins

line types found in Proverbs 10-15 along with the frequency and

locations of each type. This list could be used to

discover if there are syntactic-semantic sets in Proverbs

similiar to those found by Collins in the prophets.

of proverbial or prophetic syntactical features. Thus,

all conclusions are tentative and given in terms of

probabilities--thus reflecting the limited size and

varied character of the data bases themselves. This

should not minify the value of the results, for it is

important in any appreciation of literature to recognize

what patterns are "normal" and which are "supra-normal."

The following analysis will provide a scientifically-

specified basis for the determination of archetypical

patterns, thereby removing it from the realm of vague

intuition.¹

A Line Type Comparison

Chart 10.1 provides an overview of the results of

Collins' line types (1943 lines) in his prophetic corpus

with what was found after examining 184 lines of

proverbial poetry.² The chart is divided into three

sections. The top gives the broad results which Collins

____________________

¹Pedagogically this data may help those students

who have dull intuitional perceptions to be guided

deictically to significant features they should look for

and which are not as consequential. This type of analysis

then provides an analytic foundation for a better

intuitional reading of the text.

²Cf. Collins, Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry, p. 195.

One should recall: Line I = contiguous line, Line II =

where the two cola match syntactically, Line III = gapped

matching, Line IV = two different syntactic configurations

in the two cola [A = SV; B = SVM; C = SVO; D = SVOM]. Thus

Collins' system specifies both single and bi-colonic syntax

into an easily accessible format.

CHART 10.1

Comparison with Collins' "General Statistical Survey" [Collins, p. 195]

Line - Type I II III IV Totals

A B C D A B C D A B C D

Collins Totals 7 193 47 253 89 151 124 121 20 201 85 165 487 1943

Collins % 0.4 9.9 2.4 13 4.6 7.8 6.4 6.2 1 10.3 4.4 8.5 25.1 100%

Collins Totals 500 485 471 487 1943

Collins % 25.7% 25% 24.2% 25.1% 100%

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prov 10-15 Totals 0 1 0 1 5 4 23 0 0 7 8 1 38 88

% 0 1.1 0 1.1 5 4.6 26.2 0 0 8.1 9.2 1.1 43.2 100%

Prov Line-Types

without nom. 2 31 16 38 87

% 2.3% 35.6% 18.4% 43.7% 100%

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prov 10-15 Totals

for nom. type 3 29 5 43 % 80

% 3.8% 36.2% 6.2% 53.8 100%

Line-Type totals

for Prov 10-15

including nom. 5 60 21 81 168

% 3% 35.9% 12.6% 48.5% 100%

found according to Line-Type [I,II,III,IV] and then

divided into Basic Sentence type [A,B,C,D]. He found a

very stable distribution over the Line-Types in that there

were 500 (25.7%) type I, 485 (25%) type II, 471 (24.2%)

type III, and 487 (25.1%) type IV. A significant

difference is observed when these results are juxtaposed

to Proverbs 10-15 (type I, 2 [2.3%]; type II, 31 [35.6%];

type III, 16 [18.4%]; and type IV, 38 [43.7%]). It is

interesting that when the nominal (nom.) Basic Sentence

type is added, doubling the size of the sample, the

results are similar (type I, 3 [3.8%]; type II, 29

[36.2%]; type III, 5 [6.2%]; and type IV, 43 [53.8%]).

The bottom line of the chart provides a sum of the total

of the nominal plus Collins' basic sentence types--

revealing that there is a substantial contrast between the

prophets and what was found in Proverbs (Line type I:

prophets [25.7%]//proverbs [3%]; Line type II: prophets

[25%]//proverbs [35.9%]; Line type III: prophets [24.2%]

//proverbs [12.6%]; and Line type IV: prophets [25.1%]//

proverbs [48.5%]).

Note that Proverbs' line type distribution is very

uneven, with line types II and IV dominating and line type

I being virtually ignored. Proverbs 10-15 seems to prefer

syntactic repetitions (matching), as demonstrated by the

frequent use of line type II. The fact that Proverbs

avoids line types I and III may show that it favors each

colon's being a separate, independent and complete unit,

rather than, as in the prophets, frequently employing

syntactic contiguity between the cola, as in line type I,

or in a relation of gapping between the lines, as in line

type III. The prevalence of line type IV would confirm

that the sages favored two separate, independent, and

complete syntactical units in their proverbial cola, as

opposed to the prophets, who allowed for more continuity

and syntagmatic relationships between the cola. What has

just been suggested by the data is that the difference

between the prophets and the proverbial-using sages can be

to some extent syntactically specified.

Basic Sentence Frequency Comparison

Another difference is seen in the basic sentences

employed [A = SV; B = SVM; C = SVO; D = SVOP; nom. =

SPsc]. Note that in all of Collins' line types, D is used

rather frequently (Line type I, 253 [13%]; Line type II,

121 [6.2%] and Line type III, 165 [8.5%]). This is not

true in Proverbs 10-15, where in Line type II it was not

found at all and in Line type III it was found only once

(1.1%). Thus, what is being suggested is that the basic

sentence type D (SVOM) was avoided by the proverbial sage

although the prophets utilized it frequently. It may be

that the lengthiness of D was not well-suited to

proverbial tastes. Line weight, however, will be able to

be determined better via O'Connor's line constraint

matrix. It is also significant that A is not heavily used

either in the prophets or in proverbs. Two types of basic

sentences seem to dominate in Proverbs--C (SVO; Line type

II, 23 [26.5%]; Line type III, 8 [9.2%] and as will be

shown later in Line type IV) and nominal (SPsc) types (80

examples--almost as many as A, B, C, and D combined).

Thus, the nominal clause is characteristic of Proverbs

10-15 with C dominant, but trailing somewhat behind. The

prophets, on the other hand, do not seem to be so

dominated by nominal clauses, as Collins gives but scant

treatment of these types.¹

A Comparison of Syntactically

Matching Lines

The next three charts will allow for the scrutiny

of patterns of lines which syntactically match (Line Type

II).² Comparisons will be for basic sentences of types A,

B, and C, with no matches of D found in the proverbial

corpus. In type II A (chart 10.2) four arrangements are

possible (1,1 = SV/SV; 2,1 = VS/SV; 1,2 = SV/VS and 2,2 =

VS/VS). Collins found SV/VS rare and repeated patterns

____________________

¹Collins, Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry, pp.

215-18.

²Cf. O'Connor's discussion in Hebrew Verse

Structure, pp. 391-400. He states that "somewhat over a

third of the lines" of his corpus manifested this trope.

This is about 8% over Collins' findings (25%) and more in

line with Proverbs' 36%.

CHART 10.2

Line Type II A Collins and Proverbs

[Collins, pp. 94, 195]

1,1 (SV/SV) 2,1 (VS/SV)

Collins 22 Collins 20

% 24.7% % 22.5%

Prov 4 Prov 0

100%

1,2 (SV/VS) 2,2 (VS/VS)

Collins 3 Collins 44

% 3.4% % 49.4%

Prov 0 Prov 0

CHART 10.4

Occurrences of Type II C: i) [Collins, p. 210]

A Comparison of Collins and Proverbs results

C. = Collins, P. = Prov

1,1 2,1 3,1 4,1 5,1 6,1

SVO/SVO SOV/SVO VSO/SVO VOS/SVO OSV/SVO OVS/SVO

C. 9 - 33.3% 1 - 3.7% 5 - 18.5% 0 0 0

P. 14 - 60% 0 1 - 4.3% 2 - 8.7% 0 0

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,2

SVO/SOV SOV/SOV VSO/SOV VOS/SOV OSV/SOV OVS/SOV

C. 2 - 7.4% 2 - 7.4% 2 - 7.4% 0 0 0

P. 0 0 0 0 0 0

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,3

SVO/VSO SOV/VSO VSO/VSO VOS/VSO OSV/VSO OVS/VSO

C. 0 0 3 - 11.1% 0 0 0

P. 0 0 0 0 0 0

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,4

SVO/VOS SOV/VOS VSO/VOS VOS/VOS OSV/VOS OVS/VOS

C. 0 0 0 0 0 0

P. 0 0 0 2 - 8.6% 0 0

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,5

SVO/OSV SOV/OSV VSO/OSV VOS/OSV OSV/OSV OVS/OSV

C. 0 0 1 - 3.7% 0 1 - 3.7% 0

P. 0 0 0 0 0 0

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,6

SVO/OVS SOV/OVS VSO/OVS VOS/OVS OSV/OVS OVS/OVS

C. 0 0 1 - 3.7% 0 0 0

P. 3 - 13% 0 0 0 0 1- 4.3%

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total Collins 27 (note Collins has 83 II C ii) types whereas Proverbs has none)

CHART 10.3

Occurrences of Type II B: i) [Collins, p. 209]

A Comparison of Collins and Proverbs

C. = Collins, P. = Proverbs

1,1 2,1 3,1 4,1 5,1 6,1

SVM/SVM SMV/SVM VSM/SVM VMS/SVM MSV/SVM MVS/SVM

C. 10 - 12.3% 1 - 1.2% 7 - 8.6% 3 - 3.7% 1 - 1.2% 1- 1.2%

P. 1 - 25% 0 1 - 25% 0 0 0

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,2

SVM/SMV SMV/SMV VSM/SMV VMS/SMV MSV/SMV MVS/SMV

C. 2 - 2.5% 7 - 9.8% 10 - 12.3% 8 - 9.9% 0 5- 6.2%

P. 0 0 0 0 0 0

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,3

SVM/VSM SMV/VSM VSM/VSM VMS/VSM MSV/VSM MVS/VSM

C. 0 0 7 - 8.6% 1 - 1.2% 0 1- 1.2%

P. 0 0 0 0 0 0

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,4

SVM/VMS SMV/VMS VSM/VMS VMS/VMS MSV/VMS MVS/VMS

C. 0 2 - 2.5% 1 - 1.2% 3 - 3.7% 0 0

P. 0 1 - 25% 0 0 0 0

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,5

SVM/MSV SMV/MSV VSM/MSV VMS/MSV MSV/MSV MVS/MSV

C. 1 - 1.2% 0 1 - 1.2% 0 0 1- 1.2%

P. 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 25%

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1,6

SVM/MVS SMV/MVS VSM/MVS VMS/MVS MSV/MVS MVS/MVS

C. 0 1 - 1.2% 0 4 - 4.9% 0 3- 3.7%

P. 0 0 0 0 0 0

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total Collins 81 (note Collins has 70 II B ii types, whereas Proverbs has none)

SV/SV (24.7%) and VS/VS (49.4%) predominate. Notice the

clear prophetic preference for V initial forms. In

proverbs, only four examples of II A were found--all of

which were of the 1,1 (SV/SV) type. Proverbs does not

favor the V initial, but fronts the S element, although

this will have to be substantiated later since four

examples do not provide a sufficient sample. Proverbs

does corroborate Collins' idea that poets favored the

repeated patterns, i.e. the SV elements in the same order

(SV/SV).

With II B types (SVM/SVM; chart 10.3), Collins

makes the following observations:

Lastly, from these line-forms three tendencies have

emerged which can be tentatively proposed as norms for

Hebrew line construction: a) initial V in the first

hemistich, b) initial NP¹ in the second hemistich,

c) direct repetition of pattern. Where any two of

these tendencies coincide we get "strong" line-forms,

. . . Lines in which none of these tendencies appear

are unusual and have to be considered as stylistic

deviations.¹

One may observe the repetitional pattern in the forms

which appear on the diagonal line of Collins' analysis

(top left to bottom right). He boxes off areas where

these three features do not occur; hence the boxed areas

are lower frequency and are considered stylistic variances

____________________

¹Collins, Line-Forms in Hebrew Poetry, p. 105. Cf.

also p. 212 for similar conclusions.

which may be significant.¹ Proverbs 10-15 provides only

four examples of II B line types, two of which fall in

Collins' alleged low frequency, stylistically significant

boxes. Four of the eight hemistichs contain an S initial

while only one has a V initial sequence. This points

again to the prophets' V initial and proverbial S initial

syntactical difference. Other conclusions should not be

forced from only four examples.

Chart 10.4 examines II C (VS0/VS0) type lines.

Collins makes the following observations on this chart:

(1) verb initial position is favored; (2) repetition of

pattern (diagonal line) is frequent; (3) the S is often

initial in the second hemistich; and (4) if, after a verb,

two nouns are found in a row the first should be taken as

the subject and the second as the object.² There is a

marked preference in Proverbs for the form SVO/SVO (60%)

as compared to the prophets (33.3%). The prophets use

more variety in their ordering of elements. It is

interesting that four (13%) out of the 23 examples were

found to violate Collins' principle that in V + N + N

sequences the first noun is the S and the second the O.

Thus column 4 (4,1 VOS/SVO and 4,4 VOS/VOS) provides

another contrast. The low frequency stylistic box finds

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 213.

²Ibid., pp. 112, 213.

three examples in Proverbs (1,6 SVO/OVS) while in the

prophets this order was not found. Clearly this form is

stylistic as it is a perfect chiasm. Both Proverbs and

the prophets favor a repetitional ordering, as may be seen

in SVO/SVO (1,1) and OVS/OVS (6,6) on the diagonal line.

The strength of the SV0/SV0 (60%) and the fact that 73% of

the lines have SVO as a member suggest that the SVO is

rather normative for Proverbs, while the prophets employed

a wider and more frequent variation of orderings. The

stricter ordering in Proverbs 10-15 may reflect genre

constraints which are not as stringent in the prophetic

literature. The prophets are much freer in the type of

genre and style they can employ in the communication of

their message. Hence more syntactic variational patterns

are acceptable. Thus what is being proffered is that

genre should be looked at from a syntactic base in tandem

with the semantic and structural approaches of Crenshaw

and others as discussed above. One final observation, as

in II B, the strong S initial position is found in

Proverbs while the prophets favor a V initial. One

wonders if the prophets are closer to narrative, which

clearly favors a V initial, while the sages are more

poetically free from narrative constraints so they prefer

an S first line as normative.

CHART 10.5

Collins' Summary of Statistics for Type IV [Collins p. 163]

i) ii) iii) iv) Totals

A/B 20 - 20 - 40

A/C 9 2 12 - 23

A/D - - 6 - 6

(29) (2) (38) (0) (69)

% 5.8% 0.4% 7.6% 0% 13.8%

B/A 28 3 4 10 45

B/C 24 36 25 2 87

B/D 5 26 16 1 48

(57) (65) (45) (13) (180)

% 11.4% 13.0% 9% 2.6% 36%

C/A 6 2 1 8 17

C/B 21 20 11 8 60

C/D 3 15 14 2 34

(30) (37) (26) (18) (111)

% 6% 7.4% 5.2% 3.6% 22.2%

D/A 1 2 3 7 13

D/B 1 31 5 19 56

D/C 3 56 3 10 72

(5) (89) (11) (36) (141)

% 1% 17.8% 2.2% 7.1% 28.1%

Totals 121 193 120 67 501

% 24.2% 38.5% 23.9% 13.4% 100%

Total Number of A's = 144 (14.4%); B's = 336 (33.5%);

C's = 293 (29.3%); D's = 229 (22.8%)

CHART 10.6

Summary of Statistics for Type IV in Proverbs

i) ii) iii) iv) Totals

----------------------------------------------------------------------

A/B 2 0 0 0 2

A/C 2 0 0 0 2

A/D 0 0 1 0 1

Total (4) (0) (1) (0) 5

% 10.6% 0% 2.6% 13.2%

A/nom. 1 0 0 0 1

Totals (5) 0 1 0 (6)

Total % 6.2% 0% 1.2% 0% 7.4%

----------------------------------------------------------------------

B/A 6 0 0 0 6

B/C 4 1 0 0 5

B/D 0 0 0 0 0

Total (10) (1) (0) (0) (11)

% 26.3% 2.6% 0% 0% 28.9%

B/nom. 7 0 0 1 8

Totals (17) (1) (0) (1) (19)

Total % 21% 1.2% 0% 1.2% 23.4%

------------------------------------------------------------------------

C/A 10 0 0 0 10

C/B 3 0 2 0 5

C/D 1 0 0 0 1

Total (14) (0) (2) (0) (16)

% 36.8% 0% 5.3% 0% 42.1%

C/nom. 13 0 2 0 15

Totals (27) (0) (4) (0) (31)

Total % 33.3% 0% 5% 0% 38.3%

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

D/A 0 0 0 0 0

D/B 1 0 0 0 1

D/C 2 0 1 2 5

Total (3) (0) (1) (2) (6)

% 7.9% 0% 2.6% 5.3% 15.8%

D/nom. 0 1 0 0 1

Totals (3) (1) (1) (2) (7)

Total % 3.7% 1.2% 1.2% 2.5% 8.6%

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Totals 31 1 4 2 38

% 81.6% 2.6% 10.5% 5.3% 100%

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Totals

+ nom. 64 2 10 5 81

% 79% 2.5% 12.3% 6.2% 100%

CHART 10.6

Summary of Statistics for Type IV in Proverbs 10-15

nom./A 6 0 0 1 7

nom./B 1 0 1 0 2

nom./C 5 0 2 1 8

nom./D 0 0 1 0 1

Total (12) (0) (4) (2) (18)

% 14.8% 0% 4.9% 2.5% 22.2%

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total number of A's = 21 (27.7%); B's = 19 (25%);

C's = 28 (36.8%); D's = 8 (10.5%)

Total + nom. number of A's = 29 (17.9%); B's = 29 (17.9%);

C's = 51 (31.5%); D's=10 (6.2%)

nom.'s = 43 (26.5%)

A Comparison of Syntactically Mixed Bi-Cola

The next charts provide data for an analysis

of line type IV which is a bi-colonic mix of basic

sentences (e.g. A/B, C/D etc.). Proverbs had 48.5% of its

bi-colon with this line type (prophets had 25.1%).

Collins' Summary shows that there is distribution of A/X =

13.8%; B/X = 36%; C/X = 22.2%; and D/X = 28.1%. Note that

the A sentences are lowest not only explicitly in the A/X

type but also in the X/A rows as well. Thus A is

distributed in 14% of the lines of type IV overall which

in the prophets is significantly lower that the other

three, (B, C, D). B (33%) is predominant with C (26%) as

a close runner-up, as seen in the percentages at the

bottom of the chart. D is found in 23% of the bi-colonic

mixes and D/X accounts for 28% of this line type.

These results may now be compared and contrasted

with a similar summary from the text of Proverbs 10-15.

The Proverbs 10-15 chart, however, will contain two sets

of mixed line type data: (1) without reckoning the

nominal sentence types, to facilitate a direct comparison

with Collins' figures; and (2) including nom./X and X/nom.

types. The tendencies observed in the first will be

augmented by including the results of the second, thereby

confirming the results of the first by further

corroborating them by doubling the number of examples.

The frequent use of basic sentence B (18%) is

found in Proverbs 10-15, yet its predominance clearly

gives way to type C (31.5%). It is interesting that the

nominal sentences occur rather frequently as well (26.5%).

Thus, there is a B (SVM) to C (SVO) shift from the

prophets to the Proverbs 10-15. This shift is found not

only in the mixing line type IV but is remarkably apparent

also in chart 10.1 in the matching line type II and,

somewhat less strikingly, in the gapping line type III.

Secondly, there is again--as in line types II and III--an

aversion for the use of D (SVOM) sentences (6.2%) in line

type IV. This confirms suspicions aroused elsewhere.

Therefore, the predominance of C (SVO) and nom. (SPsc)

basic sentences and the lack of D (SVOM) provide clear

points of syntactic differentiation between Proverbs 10-15

and the prophet materials. The shift from the prophets'

B/X (36%) and C/X (22.2%) to the proverbial B/X (23.4%)

and C/X (42.1%) shows this also.

Another more subtle difference is the distribution

of whether or not there is an explicit subject or not.

Collins uses the following system: i) [subject in both

cola], ii) [subject in neither colon], iii) [subject in

the first colon only], and iv) [subject in the second

colon only]. In the prophets, one can notice the patterns

in A/X types which emphasize i) and iii); B/X which

emphasize i), ii) and iii); C/X which is distributed

across all four; and D/X which emphasizes ii) and iv). In

Proverbs A/X is almost solely concentrated in i) with one

mention of iii). Likewise B (SVM) and C (SVO) are

characterized by i). D (SVOM), which is the longest form,

manifests itself in a more distributed way. One should

not forget, however, that D is rather rare in Proverbs

10-15. Thus, Proverbs 10-15 shows a marked tendency to

include a subject in both cola whereas the prophets allow

for greater freedom and frequency in the use of

non-explicit subjects. This again provides another

specific distinguishing feature between the prophets and

the Proverbs 10-15. Note again the emphasis of the

subject element in Proverbs not only in terms of position,

as seen above, but also in terms of its explicit presence.

This may be a result of the antithetical character of the

proverbs, which frequently contrast subject elements;

whereas in the prophets there may be some contiguity and

identity between the subject of the first colon and the

second. Here again there is a correlation between

syntactic form and meaning--between message and linguistic

construction. The presence of explicit subjects also adds

to the independence of each stich. The totals at the

bottom of both charts (10.5 and 10.6) reveal ii) (38.5%)

as the leading one in the prophets with i) (24.2%) and

iii) (23.9%) as following but still significant. In

Proverbs 10-15, however, i) (79%) clearly stands alone

with its next runner-up being iii) (12.3%), and ii) and

iv) only being rarely used. The prophets use ii) (38.5%)

as a major mode while Proverbs 10-15 rarely uses it

(2.5%). Proverbs 10-15 has a much more restrictive

pattern while the prophets allow for more variation in the

distribution percentages.

One final observation should be made on the

distribution of D/X types, which show substantially higher

usages of iv) (subject in the second colon only). Since

Proverbs 10-15 normally desires to have a subject but does

not normally favor basic sentence D (SVOM), when D is used

it frequently has the subject deleted, showing that there

may be an effort to reduce the number of syntactic

elements to a proverbially acceptable level by deleting

the subject. This may indicate that there are syntactic

line constraints toward a lower standard number of

constituents than the D sentence usually allows for. This

is especially true when, as it will be shown, the subject

is a two member noun phrase dominated which would

necessarily push the syntactic unit count of D type stichs

to five which is exceedingly rare in Proverbs 10-15. This

may corroborate O'Connor's suggestion that syntactical

constraints are determinative for Hebrew verse structure.

CHART 10.7

Ordering of Subject, Verb and Object

Comparison of Collins, O'Connor and Proverbs

[Collins, p. 204; O'Connor, p. 335]

1 2 3 4 5 6

SVO SOV VSO VOS OSV OVS

I C:i) 19 0 7 11 1 9

IIC:i) 26 9 15 0 3 1

IIIC:i) 23 1 24 5 0 3

IV A/C:i) 4 0 0 0 1 0

B/C:i) 3 1 2 1 2 1

C/A:i) 3 0 3 0 0 0

C/B:i) 4 3 5 3 1 2

C/D:i) 1 0 0 0 0 1

D/C:i) 1 0 0 0 0 0

C/A:iii) 0 0 0 0 0 0

C/B:iii) 4 1 2 1 0 0

C/D:iii) 4 2 4 0 0 0

B/C:iv) 0 0 0 0 0 0

D/C:iv) 4 0 0 0 0 1

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Collins 96 17 63 21 8 18 =223

% 43% 7.6% 28.3% 9.4% 3.6% 8.1%

O'Connor 21 1 9 2 1 6 = 40

% 53% 2% 23% 5% 2% 15%

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Proverbs Ordering of Subject, Verb and Object

1 2 3 4 5 6

SVO SOV VSO VOS OSV OVS

I C:i) 0 0 0 0 0 0

IIC:i) 34 0 1 6 0 5

IIIC:i) 6 0 1 0 0 1

IVA/C:i) 1 0 0 1 0 0

B/C:i) 4 0 0 0 0 0

nom/C:i) 4 0 0 0 0 1

C/A:i) 7 0 1 1 0 1

C/B:i) 3 0 0 0 0 0

C/D:i) 1 0 0 1 0 0

C/nom.i) 11 0 1 0 0 1

D/C:i) 1 0 0 1 0 0

C/A:iii) 0 0 0 0 0 0

C/B:iii) 1 0 1 0 0 0

C/D:iii) 0 0 0 0 0 0

C/nom:iii) 2 0 0 0 0 0

B/C:iv) 0 0 0 0 0 0

D/C:iv) 1 0 0 0 0 0

nom/C:iv) 1 0 0 0 0 0

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

77 0 5 10 0 9 =101

76% 0% 5% 10% 0% 9%

CHART 10.8

Ordering of Subject, Verb and Modifier

Comparison of Collins, O'Connor and Proverbs

[Collins p. 203; O'Connor p. 335]

1 2 3 4 5 6

SVM SMV VSM VMS MSV MVS

I B:i) 24 10 22 18 8 30

IB:i)var 7 2 11 5 4 6

IIB:i) 36 43 36 26 4 19

IIIB:i) 32 23 35 30 2 35

IV A/B:i)10 3 1 3 0 3

B/A:i) 4 2 13 6 0 3

B/C:i) 2 2 9 8 0 3

B/D:i) 1 2 0 2 0 0

C/B:i) 5 6 5 1 0 4

D/B:i) 0 0 1 0 0 0

B/A:iii) 1 0 3 0 0 0

B/C:iii) 7 3 7 7 0 1

B/D:iii) 6 4 5 0 0 1

C/B:iv) 3 1 1 1 0 2

D/B:iv) 5 6 5 1 2 0

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Collins 143 107 154 108 20 107 =639

% 22.4% 16.8% 24% 16.9% 3.1% 16.8%

O'Connor 16 22 27 23 5 16 =109

% 15% 20% 25% 21% 4% 15%

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Proverbs SVM Type

1 2 3 4 5 6

SVM SMV VSM VMS MSV MVS

IB:i) 0 0 0 0 0 0

IIB:i) 3 1 2 1 0 1

IIIB:i) 3 3 1 0 0 1

IIIB:iii) 0 0 1 0 0 2

IVA/B:i) 1 0 0 0 1 0

B/A:i) 3 0 1 0 0 2

B/C:i) 2 1 0 0 0 1

B/D:i) 0 0 0 0 0 0

B/nom:i) 1 0 1 0 0 6

C/B:i) 0 1 1 0 0 1

D/B:i) 0 0 0 0 1 0

nom/B:i) 0 0 0 1 0 0

B/A:iii) 0 0 0 0 0 0

B/C:iii) 0 0 0 0 0 0

B/D:iii) 0 0 0 0 0 0

C/B:iv) 0 0 0 0 0 0

D/B:iv) 0 0 0 0 0 0

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

13 6 7 2 2 14 = 44

29.5% 13.6% 15.9% 4.6% 4.6% 31.8%

CHART 10.9

Ordering of Subject and Verb

Comparison of Collins, O'Connor and Proverbs

[Collins, p. 202; O'Connor, p. 327]

Collins Proverbs

1 2 1 2

SV VS SV VS

IA:i) 6 2 0 0

IIA:i) 67 111 10 0

IIIA:i) 3 17 0 0

IVA/B:i) 12 8 1 1

A/C:i) 5 4 2 0

A/D:i) 0 0 1 0

A/nom:i) - - 0 1

B/A:i) 18 10 6 0

C/A:i) 2 4 10 0

D/A:i) 0 1 0 0

nom/A:i) - - 5 0

A/B:iii) 8 12 0 0

A/C:iii) 6 6 0 0

A/D:iii) 4 2 1 0

B/A:iv) 3 7 0 0

C/A:iv) 2 6 0 0

D/A:iv) 4 3 0 0

nom/A:iv) - - 1 0

----- ----- ----- -----

140 193 37 2

42% 58% 95% 5%

=333 =39

O'Connor 18 37 = 55(total)

% 33% 67%

A Comparison of the Ordering

of Syntactic Elements

The final series of charts will monitor the

location, rather than the presence, of the subject and

verbal elements. Because O'Connor gives easily accessible

tables from which, a tri-lateral comparison of the corpora

of Collins, O'Connor, and Proverbs 10-15 may be made,

strengthening the results of each in that these three will

provide a more extensive and representative data base.

Chart 10.7 gives the number of occurrences of the

single colon C (SVO) type. Collins is attempting to make

statements as to which ordering is preferred (SVO, OVS,

VSO, etc.). Several features are of interest. First is

the sustained dominance of the SVO order in all three

(Collins 43%; O'Connor 53%; Proverbs 76%), with a

substantial increase in the percentage in Proverbs. Where

basic sentence C is contained in Proverbs, the normal

ordering is SVO. In both Collins' and O'Connor's corpora

the VSO ordering is seated firmly in second place (Collins

28.3%; O'Connor 23%), with a substantial decrease in VOS

types (Collins 9.4%; O'Connor 5%). Proverbs, on the other

hand, has twice as many VOS (10%) as VSO (5%) and both are

rather infrequent compared to the SVO order. There seems

to be an avoidance of the VSO form in Proverbs 10-15 as

compared to the prophets and other poetry. The OVS type

is rather well represented (9%) when compared with VSO and

VOS types and the clear hegemony of SVO in Proverbs 10-15.

In summary, Proverbs 10-15 normally manifests an SVO

ordering with three variations in decreasing use--VOS,

OVS, and VSO. All three analyses confirm the sparsity of

SOV and OSV orders.

Chart 10.8 treats all B (SVM) sentence types.

While all three studies show a much broader distribution

of ordering patterns for this basic sentence than for C

(SVO), there are some interesting patterns. First, both

Collins and O'Connor found VSM to be the chief order by a

slight margin. In Proverbs, the VSM (15.9%) ordering lags

significantly behind not only the SVM (29.5%) order, but

also, more remarkably, behind MVS (31.8%). There is a

significantly higher use of MVS in Proverbs than in the

corpora of Collins (16.8%) and O'Connor (15%), which

closely agree. It is interesting that SVM and MVS, the

two dominant forms in Proverbs, are chiastic orderings

although one would have to check the text to see whether

chiastic considerations could be proposed as a reason for

the odd frequency of the MVS order in Proverbs 10-15. The

MSV order is rare in all corpora. There is a salient

decrease in Proverbs' use of VMS (4.6%) as compared to

Collins (16.9%) and O'Connor (21%). This would confirm

the suspicion of the proverbial bent against V initial

patterns.

Chart 10.9 concludes the ordering of sentence

units of the A (VS). It is of import that both Collins

(58% to 42%) and O'Connor (67% to 33%) favor VS ordering

over SV. While both are substantially represented, the VS

ordering comes out as the primal form by a healthy margin.

Narrative discussions would also even more strongly favor

a VS ordering.¹

Proverbs 10-15 provides quite a contrast. 95% are

SV and only 5% are VS. Again there seems to be a striking

syntactic contrast between Proverbs and the other poetic

corpora favoring an S initial orientation. Hypotheses for

this marked S fronting as opposed to the normal V initial

which predominates narrative as well as many of the poetic

sections should be generated. One suggestion may be that

the S focus reflects the sages' concentration on analyzing

various characters (wicked, foolish, wise, righteous) and

things (tongue, heart, wealth) and/or that the sages are

simply following conventionally fixed proverbial patterns

which were normally S initial. The S initial emphasis

would show that the sages were freer from the normal

patterns of colloquial speech (VSO) but the rather narrow

distributions of orderings would suggest that this

"freedom" is exercised within the bounds of other

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 205.

constraints, which actually restrict the patterns to an

even more homogeneous use of line types. Since much more

work needs to be done on these differences let it suffice

merely to observe the differences and leave the rationale

behind them as a matter for further study.

Conclusions

What are the conclusions, then, that can be

drawn from the above discussion? Perhaps most

consequential is the notion that there is a quantifiable

nexus between genre and syntax. It has been shown that,

while the prophets manifest an even distribution between

the four line types (I, II, III, IV), Proverbs 10-15 uses

II and IV heavily while ignoring I. The prophets use D

(SVOM) sentences evenly with the other types of basic

sentences (A, B, C), while Proverbs 10-15 seems to have an

aversion for the longer D form. C (SV0) and especially

nom. (SPsc) dominate Proverbs. Both the prophets and

Proverbs favor repetition of pattern (SV/SV; SVO/SVO;

etc.). While the prophets in A, B sentences favor a V

initial, Proverbs very heavily manifests an S initial.

The emphasis on S initial orderings can be seen in the C

type as well, where SVO is the standard form (76%).

Similarly, while the prophets have the highest percentage

of ii) type lines, with non-explicit subjects in both

lines, Proverbs has i) as its major form, which demands

that an explicit subject be included in both stichs. Thus

Proverbs shows, at least in these two regards, an S

dominance. This may be accounted for as more necessary

because of the antithetical character of Proverbs 10-15,

or because of genre constraints, or philosophically

because of its pedagogical focus of attention on subjects,

or other reasons which may be hypothesized. Proverbs has

a bias for two complete, separate, and independent types

of syntactic relationships between the cola, whereas the

prophets seem to manifest more bi-colonic, syntactic

interaction and dependence. The ordering of syntactic

elements in Proverbs seems to be more constrained into

bunches than in the prophets which frequently allow for

diverse order variations. In line type IV the B/X of the

prophets gives way to the C/X, nom./X, and X/nom. patterns

of Proverbs. There is a general B (prophets) to C

(Proverbs 10-15) shift also present in the overall

picture.

These are some differences that have been

supported with varying degrees of certainty based on the

data of Proverbs 10-15. Because of the probablistic

nature of the data, these conclusions should not be taken

as absolutes, but as suggested tendencies. The magnitude

of the conclusions reached shows the fructiferous nature

of the methodology employed and also the need to check

these suggestions via a further examination of

antithetical proverbial material--perhaps from Proverbs

16-21 or 25-29. This writer suspects that the results of

Proverbs 1-9 would be substantially different and more in

line with the prophetic tradition. The above suggestions

may also be helpful in pointing the way to the addition of

a syntactic component in the structural definition of a

Hebrew proverb. Since this is merely a nascent launching

of these ideas in embryonic form, if it does nothing more

than to call for further studies which ask these same

kinds of questions, it will have accomplished its purpose.

If indeed genre is a function of syntax, as well as of

semantic structure, then much more work needs to be done

on all alleged genre to discover and explicate these

syntactic constraints of equivalence and variation both

within and between genres.

A Comparison with O'Connor's Results

O'Connor's Hebrew Verse Structure analyzes 1225

lines of poetic text from a cross-section of Hebrew poetry

(e.g., Exod 15; Num 23-24; Deut 33; Zeph; Pss 78, 106, 107

et al.). He has attempted to obtain a "representative"

sample of Hebrew poetry, in contrast to Collins, who dealt

strictly with a prophetic corpus. While Collins' work

simply proffers a scheme which provides a method for

packaging Hebrew poetry, O'Connor's work offers much more

in terms of a general literary theory of poetics, a sound

linguistic framework, and keen insights into and analysis

of various approaches to Hebrew poetic theory. O'Connor

concentrates his acute poetic sensitivities on the

rudimentary problem of Hebrew poetry--the determination of

the constraints which determine the line itself. One

misreads O'Connor if he thinks that O'Connor is proposing

his constraints as his method of reading poetry. Rather,

he is focusing his efforts in the attempt to isolate and

describe lineal constraints. His constraint matrix

handles all lines found in Proverbs 10-15, although there

are some differences in terms of the frequency with which

those constraints manifest themselves in Proverbs 10-15.

Clause predicators 0 1 2 3

Constituents 1 2 3 4

Units 2 3 4 5¹

A tabulation grouping all line types from Proverbs 10-15

may be seen in Chart 10.10, which also contains a

comparison of percentages generated from O'Connor's more

comprehensive corpus. Several differences occur which

this writer attributes to differences in genre. Again it

will be proffered that genre is a function of syntax or

vice versa.

From Chart 10.10 several differences are manifest

____________________

¹O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 138.

CHART 10.10

O'Connor's Analysis Organized by Line Weight

[O'Connor, pp. 317-18]

15:11b S 013 Total = 1 O'Connor #2

0.3% (65 cases; 5.3%)

11:2b PscS 022

10:26b SPsc 022 Total = 4 O'Connor #4

13:10b PPsc 022 1% (13 cases; 1%)

14:9b PPsc 022

10:6a SPsc 023

10:7a SPsc 023

10:15b PscS 023

10:16a SPsc 023 Total = 40 O'Connor #5

10:16b SPsc 023 10.9% (21 cases; 1.7%)

10:20b SPsc 023

10:25b SPsc 023

10:28a SPsc 023

10:29b PscP 023

11:1b SPsc 023

11:14b PscP 023

11:19a SPsc 023

11:20b PscS 023

11:23a SPsc 023

11:23b SPsc 023

11:26b PscP 023

12:5a SPsc 023

12:5b SPsc 023

12:9b Dim Comp 023

12:10b SPsc 023

12:18b SPsc 023

12:20b PPsc 023

12:22b SPsc 023

13:15b SPsc 023

13:17b SPsc 023

13:24b PscS 023

14:4a PPsc 023

14:8b SPsc 023

14:12b SPsc 023

14:20b SPsc 023

14:24a SPsc 023

14:24b SPsc 023

14:30b PscS 023

14:34b PscS 023

15:6b PPsc 023

15:7b SPsc 023

15:8b SPsc 023

15:19b SPsc 023

15:26b PscS 023

15:33b PscS 023

10:1b SPsc 024

10:11a PscS 024

10:13b SPsc 024

10:14b SPsc 024

10:15a SPsc 024

10:20a PscS 024 Total = 40 O'Connor #6

11:1a SPsc 024 10.9% (5 cases; 0.4%)

11:20a PscS 024

11:22a Psc 024

11:30a SPsc 024

12:20a PscP 024

12:22a PscS 024

12:4a SPsc 024

13:8a PscS 024

13:12b PscS 024

13:14a SPsc 024

13:23a PscP 024

13:24a SPsc 024

14:3a PPsc 024

14:30a PscS 024

14:26a SPsc 024

14:27a SPsc 024

14:28a SPsc 024

14:28b SPsc 024

14:29a SPsc 024

14:4b PscP 024

15:3a SP 024

15:4a SPsc 024

15:6a PPsc 024

15:8a SPsc 024

15:9a PscS 024

15:13b PPsc 024

15:15a SPsc 024

15:15b SPsc 024

15:16a PscSP 024

15:16b SA 024

15:19a SPsc 024

15:26a PscS 024

15:33a SPsc 024

15:17b SA 024

12:4b PscS 033

13:23b VPscP 033

14:13b PSPsc 033 Total = 7 O'Connor #8

14:16b SPsc 033 1.9% (1 case; 0.1%)

15:11a SPsc 033

15:29a PscSP 033

15:23b SPPsc 033

10:29a PscPS 034

11:29b PscSP 034

12:13a PPscS 034

12:15a SPscP 034 Total = 8 O'Connor #9

14:22b PscS 034 2.2% (1 case; 0.1%)

15:21a SPscP 034

15:23a PscPP 034

15:24a SPscP 034

15:17a PscS 035 Total = 1 O'Connor #10

0.3% (0 cases)

12:9a Aug Comp 044 Total = 2 O'Connor #11

15:4b SPsc 044 0.5% (0 cases)

11:31b S 122 Total = 2 O'Connor #13

15:12b PV 122 0.5% (245 cases; 20%)

10:2a VS 123

10:3b OV 123

10:4b SV 123

10:7b SV 123

10:8b SV 123

10:10b SV 123 Total = 58 O'Connor #14

10:24b SV 123 15.8% (229 cases; 19%)

10:27b SV 123

10:28b SV 123

10:31b SV 123

10:32b SV 123

11:3a SVO 123

11:3b SVO 123

11:6a SVO 123

11:6b PV 123

11:7b SV 123

11:11b PV 123

11:12b SV 123

11:15b SPsc 123

11:17b VOS 123

11:30b SPsc 123

11:25a SV 123

12:2b OV 123

12:3b SV 123

12:6b SVO 123

12:7b SV 123

12:12b SV 123

12:17b SO 123

12:19b PS 123

12:24a SV 123

12:25b SVO 123

12:26b SVO 123

12:28a PPsc 123

12:28b PPsc 123

13:4b SV 123

13:2b SO 123

13:9a SV 123

13:9b SV 123

13:14b P 123

13:25b SV 123

14:3b SVO 123

14:5a SV 123

14:7a VP 123

14:7b VO 123

14:11a SV 123

14:11b SV 123

14:14b PS 123

14:17b SV 123

14:19b SP 123

14:22a VS 123

14:23b PO 123

14:27b P 123

14:33b PV 123

15:22b PV 123

15:24b VP 123

15:25b VO 123

15:29b OV 123

15:31b PV 123

13:1a SO 124 Total = 3 O'Connor #15

11:22b S 124 0.8% (31 cases; 2.5%)

14:35a SO 124

10:2b SVP 133

10:12a SVO 133

10:12b OVS 133

10:14a SVO 133

10:22b VOP 133

10:30a SPV 133

10:30b SVO 133

11:4b SVP 133

11:5b PVS 133 Total = 52 O'Connor #17

11:8a SPV 133 14.1% (275 cases; 22%)

11:8b VSP 133

11:9b PSV 133

11:14a PVS 133

11:16b SVO 133

11:21b SV 133

11:25b SV 133

11:28b PSV 133

11:31a SPV 133

12:3a VSP 133

12:13b VPS 133

12:16b VOS 133

12:21b SVO 133

12:24b SVO 133

12:26a VOS 133

12:27a VSO 133

13:1b SVO 133

13:6b SVO 133

13:8b SVO 133

13:10a PVO 133

13:11a SV 133

13:11b SV 133

13:16b SVO 133

13:21a OVS 133

13:21b OVS 133

14:26b PVO 133

14:32a PVS 133

14:32b VPS 133

14:1b SPVO 133

14:6b SPV 133

14:9a SVO 133

14:10b OVS 133

14:13a PVS 133

14:15b SVO 133

14:18a VSO 133

14:18b SVO 133

14:19a VSP 133

14:20a PVS 133

14:25b VOS 133

14:34a SVO 133

14:35b SVO 133

15:3b VO 133

15:22a VSP 133

10:1a SVO 134

10:3a VSO 134

10:4a OVS 134

10:6b OVS 134

10:8a SVO 134

10:11b SVO 134

10:13a PVS 134

10:19a PVS 134

10:21a SVO 134

10:21b SPV 134

10:22a SV 134

10:24a SVO 134 Total = 77 O'Connor #18

10:27a SVO 134 20.9% (79 cases; 6.5%)

10:31a SVO 134

10:32a SVO 134

11:10a PVS 134

11:11a PVS 134

11:4a VSP 134

11:5a SVO 134

11:12a VOS 134

11:16a SVO 134

11:17a VOS 134

11:18a SVO 134

11:21a AVS 134

12:18a VSP 134

12:19a SVP 134

12:6a SVO 134

12:8a PVS 134

12:8b SVO 134

12:10a VSO 134

12:12a VSO 134

12:23a SVO 134

12:23b SVO 134

12:25a SPVO 134

12:27b OVS 134

13:22a SVO 134

13:22b VPS 134

13:25a SVP 134

13:17a SVP 134

13:19a SVP 134

13:19b SVP 134

13:5a OVS 134

13:6a SVO 134

13:12a SVO 134

13:15a SVO 134

13:16a SVP 134

14:1a SVO 134

14:5b VOS 134

14:8a SVO 134

14:10a SVO 134

14:12a VPscP 134

14:15a SVO 134

14:17a SVO 134

14:23a PVO 134

14:25a VOS 134

14:29b SVO 134

14:33a PVS 134

15:1a SVO 134

15:1b SVO 134

15:2a SVO 134

15:2b SVO 134

15:5a SVO 134

15:7a SVO 134

15:13a SVO 134

15:14a SVO 134

15:14b SVO 134

15:18a SVO 134

15:18b SVO 134

15:20a SVO 134

15:20b SVO 134

15:21b SVO 134

15:25a OVS 134

15:28a SVP 134

15:28b SVO 134

15:30a SVO 134

15:30b SVO 134

15:31a S 134

11:7a PVS 135

12:14a PVO 135 Total = 5 O'Connor #19

12:14b SVO 135 1.4% (10 cases; 0.8%)

12:21a VOS 135

13:2a PVO 135

11:9a PSVO 144

12:2a SVOP 144 Total = 4 O'Connor #20

12:16a SPVO 144 1.1% (20 cases; 1.6%)

13:4a VPscS 144

10:17b SV 223

10:19b SPsc 223

10:23b Psc 223

11:19b SPsc 223 Total = 15 O'Connor #23

11:27b OVO 223 4.1% (2 cases; 0.2%)

11:10b PPsc 223

12:1b SPsc 223

13:18b SV 223

13:20b SV 223

14:21b SPsc 223

14:31b PscS 223

15:5b SV 223

15:9b OV 223

15:10b SV 223

15:27b SV 223

10:18a SPsc 224

11:18b SO 224

12:1a SPsc 224 Total = 5 O'Connor #24

12:11b SPsc 224 1.4% (0 cases)

15:10a PscP 224

10:9b SV 233

11:24b SP 233

12:7a VO + PscS 233 Total = 9 O'Connor #26

12:15b SPsc 233 2.4% (92 cases; 7.5%)

13:5b SVV 233

13:7b ExstCl + ExstCl 233

13:20a SV 233

14:2b SVO 233

14:21a SPsc 233

10:5a SPsc 234

10:5b SPsc 234

10:10a SVO 234

10:17a PscS 234

10:18b SPsc 234 Total = 20 O'Connor #27

10:25a PP + PscS 234 5.4% (19 cases; 1.6%)

11:15a AV + VO 234

11:24a PscS + VO 234

11:29a SVO 234

11:26a OVS 234

11:27a SVO 234

11:13a SVO 234

11:13b SVO 234

12:11a SVO 234

13:3a SVO 234

13:3b SPscP 234

13:13b SV 234

13:18a PscS 234

14:31a SVO 234

14:14a PVS 234

10:9a SVA 244

10:23a SPsc 244

10:26a SPsc + SPsc 244

11:28a SV 244 Total = 12 O'Connor #29

11:2a VS + VS 244 3.3% (17 cases; 1.4%)

12:17a SVO 244

13:7a ExstCl + ExstCl 244

13:13a SVP 244

14:2a SVO 244

14:6a VSO + Psc 244

14:16a SVVP 244

15:12a VSO 244

15:32a SPsc 324

15:32b SPsc 324 Total = 3 O'Connor #XX

15:27a PscS 324 0.8% (0 cases)

between O'Connor's corpus and Proverbs 10-15. ¹ First,

O'Connor's three major line types 122, 123, and 133

(122=245 cases [20%]; 123=229 cases [18.7%]; and 133=275

cases [22.4%]) vary significantly from those of Proverbs

10-15 (122=2 cases [0.5%]; 123=58 [15.8%]; 133=52 cases

[14.1%]). Thus, though 122 is very frequent in O'Connor's

corpus it is nearly non-existent in Proverbs 10-15. The

explanation of this will be forthcoming. Two other

contrasts were found: (1) line configuration 134 was

present in abundance in Proverbs 10-15 (77 cases [20.9%])

but was rather infrequent in O'Connor's corpus (79 cases

[6.5%]); and (2) nominal line types 023 and 024 were found

well represented in Proverbs 10-15 (023=40 cases [10.9%];

024=40 cases [10.9%]) as compared to O'Connor's 023=21

cases [1.7%] and 024=5 cases [0.4%]. This confirms the

contrastive comparison with Collins, which noted that

Proverbs 10-15 uses nominal type basic sentences (SPsc)

with greater frequency than are normally used in the

prophets (Collins) or in poetry in general (O'Connor).

The comparison with O'Connor corroborates the results

from Collins--that genre may be differentiated on the

basis of syntax and that one of the components of that

difference is a proverbial bias in the direction of

nominal sentence types. This bent is further highlighted

____________________

¹One should compare the results of Chart 10.10 with

O'Connor's results presented on pages 317-20 of his work.

when it is noted that O'Connor includes phrasal lines

under the 0 clause predicator symbol. Phrasal lines were

almost non-existent in Proverbs 10-15 (only in 11:22a and

12:9).

The unusual frequency of the 134 type (20.9% in

Prov 10-15; 6.5% in O'Connor's corpus) may be accounted

for by the high prominence of the SVO and SVM types of

sentences. However, since these types (SVO and SVM) are

frequent in both Proverbs and O'Connor, one must look

beyond that for an explanation of the manifold use of the

134 configuration. Even a brief perusal of the proverbial

text indicates the preponderance of the following

characteristic two unit nominal constituent (NP):

N₁ + N₂ where

N₁ = Parts (tongue, lips, hands, head, heart, etc.)

Position (son, man, woman, name, memory, etc.)

Possession (wealth, poverty, house, etc.)

Passions (desire, avarice, hopes, etc.)

N₂ = Quality (righteous, wicked, wise, foolish, etc.)

Is this any different from what is normative in

other poetry? O'Connor's invaluable tome again provides a

convenient benchmark.¹ From his study of the uses of

nouns and noun phrase distributions, he has discovered

that in three constituent lines (133, 134, 135), out of

____________________

¹Ibid., p. 336.

633 nouns and noun phrases, 550 [87%] are simple, one unit

nominals, while only 83 [13%] were two units. While an

exhaustive compilation of the data from the Proverbs

corpus has not been carried out, a pilot study in Proverbs

10:1-11:1 has verified this writer's intuitions. There

are about 52 [50%] single-unit nouns and about 52 [50%]

two-unit noun phrases in Proverbs 10-15. It was also

observed that if the initial element is a nominal, it is

most likely a two-member noun phrase (24 to 11), while if

the third member is a noun, then it is most likely to be

singular (21 to 1). Thus, two items may be suggested as

further specifying the syntactic description of

antithetical proverbs: (1) a substantially higher

frequency of two-unit NP's; and (2) the distribution of

the NP's favors a two-unit first and a single-unit third.

This theory must, of course, be checked by an analysis of

the whole corpus, but the strength of the evidence found

in chapter 10 and intuitions based on a sustained exposure

to chapters 11-15 would suggest that this result is

accurate. A two-unit initial NP and a single-unit final N

result in a 134 configuration thereby explaining the

significantly higher number of 134 types (20.9% over

O'Connor's 6.5%) in Proverbs. The dominance of two-unit

NP's also helps to explain the lack of 122 types, which

are by this NP construction pushed to 123.

A final observation will be made with regard to

O'Connor's line constraints as they relate to bi-colonic

patterns. It has been perceived that the second line of

the bi-colon in Proverbs 10-15 is quite habitually shorter

than that of the first. Due to the autonomous character

of each colon, one cannot suggest that the second line

assumes the first and hence may, for instance,

pronominally delete the subject or gap the verb, as both

of these features are utilized rather infrequently here.

A strategy was designed to check this hypothesis.

Appendix III arranges the bi-cola by initial line

configurations and Appendix IV arranges the bi-cola in

order of the second line configuration. These charts

allow for a determination of whether the longer line types

occur with great variety in the first or second place

colon, indiscriminately, or whether certain line

configurations occur more frequently in initial or second

colon position. What was suspected was that syntactic

line weights of four units would tend to be found more

frequently in the initial colon while lighter lineal

weights (3 units) would be more suited for the second

colon.

The following is a summary of the results drawn

from Appendices III and IV. The 4 unit colon occurred as

follows: (1) the 024 configuration was found 30 times

initially, while only 10 times finally; and, of those, 8

were when it was matched with a 4 or 5 unit initial colon;

(2) the 134 configuration occurred 59 times in initial

position but only 18 times as the second colon, with 15 of

these 18 in a bi-colon which had a 4 or 5 unit initial

clause; and (3) the 234 configuration was found 15 times

in initial position and 5 times as the second colon, all

or which were matched with 4 or 5 unit first cola. Two

results are apparent from this analysis: (1) 4 unit

syntactic line types tend to be found in the the first

colon (76%, 104/137; it occurs in second position 24%,

33/137); (2) if the 4 unit line is placed in the second

colon, 85% (28/33) of the time it is following a 4 or 5

unit initial line. In other words, there are only 6

examples out of 137 which manifest a situation where the 4

unit follows a smaller weighted first line (Prov 10:6, 14;

11:27; 12:27; 14:4, 5).

Is this phenomenon reciprocated by a predominance

of three unit elements in the second colon? It was found

that 023 came first 9 times, while it came second 31

times. Seven of the 9 times it came first, it was matched

with a 3 unit line in the second. Similarly, 133 was

found initially 20 times and finally 32 times. When 133

was found initially, twice it preceded the rare 022 type

line, still maintaining the principle of the first line as

being the same or larger than the second line. All but

once the initial 133 was matched with a 3 or 2 unit second

line. The 123 line type was found initially 11 times and

finally 47 times. Again, when in initial position, all

but twice it preceded a line of matching 3 unit portions.

The results of the 3 unit lines reveal that 73% (110/150)

of the time it was found in a second colon position and

only 27% (40/150) in initial position and of those 40

times in initial position, all but 6 times it preceded a

matching 3 or 2 unit second colon. What is being

suggested is that the second colon unit count is usually

less than or equal to the number of units of the first

colon in all but about 4% of the cases. Hence, 4 unit

lines tend toward initial line bi-colonic distributions

(76%) while 3 unit lines tend to second line positions

(73%). This seems to manifest another syntactic

constraint on the bi-colon and, since its results cannot

be easily compared with O'Connor's work, it will be left

for others to show whether such a phenomenon is antithetic

proverb specific or a universal in Hebrew poetry.

A comparison with O'Connor's results has forwarded

several other syntactically specified genre

characteristics for antithetic proverbs. Two of these are

the abundance of the 134 line configuration and the heavy

use of 2 unit NP's. These two-unit NP's usually appear in

initial positions, while single unit nominals are used in

third position. The large number of 023 and 024 types as

compared to O'Connor's results confirms a similar contrast

with Collins' prophetic corpus-both showing that Proverbs

10-15 employs a substantially higher number of nominal

basic sentence types (SPsc). Finally, it has been

demonstrated that the second line tends to have fewer

syntactic units than the first, but may also, less

frequently, match the number of units in the first. Only

rarely is the first line shorter (4%). This should not be

attributed to gapping or pronominal referencing--as is

common elsewhere in Hebrew poetry--since Proverbs is

marked by two independent and complete cola with only rare

dependence between lines (gapping is used more frequently

than pronominal cross referencing, however). Here, again,

what a comparison with O'Connor's work has allowed for is

the generation of a syntactic description for genre

specification.

A Survey of Bi-colonic Syntactic

Isomorphisms and Homomorphisms

Introductory Statistics

The results of Collins and, more particularly,

O'Connor have suggested that parallelistic poetic features

are not simply functions of the semantic component, but

that parallelism activates all aspects of language. Their

studies necessarily dealt with line length

correspondences--whether in terms of the trope of matching

(Collins' line type II) or in specifying the syntactic

constraints which determine a line (O'Connor). This study

CHART 10.11

Total Isomorphisms in Proverbs 10-15

Isomorphisms

Types Independent Embedded Mixed Horizontal Total

ch 10 18 20 0 4 42

ch 11 28 10 1 2 41

ch 12 25 11 0 0 36

ch 13 17 7 0 0 24

ch 14 24 17 0 0 41

ch 15 31 11 0 0 42

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Totals 143 76 1 6 226

Distribution of Isomorphisms per verse

Iso/verse 0 1 2 3 4 5

ch 10 10 9 8 1 1 2

ch 11 9 9 7 6 0 0

ch 12 8 6 9 4 0 0

ch 13 12 6 4 2 1 0

ch 14 11 11 7 4 1 0

ch 15 14 5 7 5 2 0

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Totals 64 46 42 22 5 2

Perfect Isomorphic verses: Proverbs 10:5, 16; 11:3; 12:5;

13:9, 21; 14:18;

15:2, 14

CHART 10.12

Total Homomorphisms in Proverbs 10-15

Homomorphisms

Types Independent Embedded Mixed Horizontal Total

ch 10 23 9 3 0 35

ch 11 30 15 1 0 46

ch 12 29 8 0 0 37

ch 13 24 8 0 0 32

ch 14 22 12 1 0 35

ch 15 17 14 0 2 33

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Totals 145 66 5 2 218

Distribution of Homomorphisms per verse

Homo/verse 0 1 2 3 4 5

ch 10 9 13 8 2 0 0

ch 11 4 15 8 6 0 0

ch 12 5 12 10 0 0 1

ch 13 8 8 4 4 1 0

ch 14 12 10 9 2 0 0

ch 15 10 15 2 4 0 0

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

totals 48 73 41 18 1 1

Perfect Iso/Homo verses: Proverbs 10:15, 29; 11:1, 9, 11,

13, 20, 27; 12:6, 19,

21, 22; 13:7, 11, 20;

14:15, 19, 28; 15:1, 8,

18, 20, 30

Almost perfect Iso/Homo verses: Proverbs 11:16-18, 23;

12:1, 27, 28;

13:6; 14:24, 25;

15:25, 32

There were only 23 (12.5%) verses with neither Isomorphism

or homomorphisms (ch 10 = 5; ch 11 = 2; ch 12 = 2; ch 13 =

3; ch 14 = 6; ch 15 = 5).

will demonstrate that syntactical and morphological

correspondences proliferate, rather than becoming more

sparse as one dips below the line level to the syntactical

units themselves.¹ This study consequently corroborates

studies which have clarioned the syntactic component of

parallelism and extends it by showing the near ubiquitous

character of syntactic matching on the sub-lineal level.

Tagmemics has provided the tool for monitoring this

phenomenon. The grouping of isomorphic and homomorphic

elements between lines provides a means of quantifying the

syntactic poetic data. The following two charts (10.11

and 10.12) reveal that all but 23 (12.5%) verses contain

either an isomorphism or homomorphism. Not only are they

found in 87.5% of the verses examined, but they occur

repeatedly in many of those verses. This is considerably

higher than the 33% of lines which exhibit lineal

matching. The chart also reveals the frequency of

iso/homomorphic matches in single verses.

Isomorphic Syntactic Equivalences

It is interesting that the number of isomorphic

matches (226) actually exceeds the number of homomorphic

(218), although the homomorphisms are distributed more

widely. The horizontal isomorphisms reveal that syntactic

____________________

¹Adele Berlin's "Grammatical Aspects of Biblical

Parallelism" and Edward Greenstein's "How Does Parallelism

Mean?" confirm the results of this approach.

units of equivalence are not only present between lines

but also may exist within the line itself (e.g., Prov

10:26; 11:2; 15:4; 15:27; cf also 10:9). Several examples

of the isomorphic phenomenon will demonstrate how the

poets used syntactic units of equivalence. The writer

will use these examples not only to prove the importance

and frequency of sub-lineal syntactic parallels, but also

to provide a taste for how proverbial poetry may be

syntactically read as poetry. Such readings are not meant

to be exhaustive; rather they are suggestive of a

possible, often neglected, approach.

Several verses (9) manifest a perfect isomorphic

character of all syntactic units. This is much tighter

than simple matching (SVO/SVO), as often the units of such

lineal matches will vary syntactically. Totally

isomorphic verses focus on the perfection of syntactic

equivalences. There is a feeling of symmetrical syntactic

sameness in these verses. Proverbs 10:5 uses the total

isomorphism to contrastively categorized--that is, the one

who gathers crops in the summer (as wise) as contrasted,

with the one who sleeps when he should be harvesting (as

foolish).¹

____________________

¹One should reflect on the discussion of this verse

in its literary context on page 655 of chapter IX on

"Literary Cohesion in Proverbs 10."

This proverb obviously encourages performing the

appropriate act at the appropriate time as a matter of

wisdom, in addition to providing a general commendation of

diligence. Such models taken from agriculture, demurring

laziness, are frequent in wisdom literature thoroughout

the ancient Near East.¹ Both subjects are filled by an

intransitive clause composed of a participle followed by a

temporally modifying prepositional phrase ( אֹגֵר בַּקַיִץ [he

who gathers crops in summer], נִרְדָם בַּקָצִיר [he who sleeps

during harvest]). Both subject complements are noun

phrases describing the character of the son via

participles (בֵּן מַשְׂכִּיל [wise son]; בֵּן מֵבִישׁ [disgraceful

____________________

¹Examples may also be seen from other proverbial

expressions from other cultures. Consider Benjamin

Franklin's sayings: "Laziness travels so slowly that

poverty soon overtakes him" or "Diligence is the mother of

gook luck" (Bartlett J. Whiting, Early American Proverbs

and Proverbial Phrases [Cambridge, MS: Harvard University

Press, 1977], pp. 255, 109).

son]). The sonant-semantic playing on the words קַיִץ and

קָצִיר again draws the two stichs into a delightful

semantic-syntactic-phonetic unity. The semantic

repetition of the preposition ב [during] and the noun בֵּן

[son] adds a duo of semantically equivalent units.

Similarly the sound repetitions of the letters, ב, קצ, בן,

and the long hireq and sibilant following the mem initial

final participle in מֵבִישׁ and מַשְׂכִיל all add to the

feeling of equivalence. These elements of symmetrical

sameness lure the reader's attention to the two points

which turn the proverb into a contrastive antithesis:

(1) אֹגֵר / נִרְדָּם [gathers/sleeps]; and (2) מַשְׂכִּיל/ מֵבִישׁ

[wise/shameful]. The point is the classification of

activity/inactivity as a product of character (wise/

shameful), thereby exhorting to the former. Notice that

the initial and final elements of the colon are what

provide the contrast, while the inner units provide

repetitional sameness. Not only do the syntactic,

semantic, and phonetic levels combine symmetries to

highlight the contrast, but even morphological parallels

exist, as both lines begin with intransitive clause

subjects and both feature antithetical participles and end

the lines with long hireq participles which contrast

qualities. This is no mere coincidence. For example, it

is normal, when describing the quality of an item, to use

nominal vocabulary such as כְּסִיל [foolish 10:1b],

[righteous 10:6a], or רְשָׁעִים [wicked 10:6b, cf. 10:7, 8, 11

et al.]. The sage here matches the two noun phrases by

binding contrastive participles, rather than the normal

nominals, to characterize the actions of the repeated

[son]. While the overall syntax is repetitive, variation

is found as the writer opts for Qal and Hiphil participles

in the first colon but switches to Hiphil and Niphal

participles in the second. It is of further interest that

the second Hiphil participle מֵבִישׁ [shameful], the long

hireq matching the long hireq in the corresponding line

yielding the impression of sound equivalence. Thus, this

proverb highlights elements of sameness from the

syntactic, semantic, and phonetic hierarchies.

Another less complex isomorphic proverb is

Proverbs 14:18. While there are bi-colonic matches in the

syntactic elements employed VSO/SVO, the sub-lineal

syntactical equivalences go much deeper.

Both subjects ( פְתָאִים/ עֲרוּמִים) are nominals which experience

rather than perform the action of the verb. Normally,

transitive verbs take an agent rather than an experiencer

as a subject (cf. 10:8a, 12, 14a, 27a, 31a, 32). There is

also a front flip chiasm--initiating the proverb with the

positive verb נָחֲלוּ [inherit], then introducing the subject

second--ironically raising curiosity as to what it is that

the פְּתָאִים [simple], who normally would not be considered

as likely candidates for inheritance, should inherit. The

final object אִוֶּלֶת [folly] answers. The second subject,

who will experience the action of the verb, is

fronted--contrasting with the פְּתָאִים [simple] of the first.

The transitive verb follows, moving from inheritance to

crowning (appropriate to the royal court). Both verbal

elements of inheriting and crowning suggest a wealthy

conclusion; however, the writer crowns the עֲרוּמִים

[prudent] with a crown of דָעַת [knowledge]--the very

quality which separates him from the simple. Both objects

are simple nouns which act as patients. Thus the surface

structure and deep structure are syntactically isomorphic.

The elements of sameness do not stop with the semantic

contrasts between the two sets of nominals and synonymy of

the two verbs. Morphologically the nominals are

equivalent--both subjects being masculine plurals and both

objects being feminine singular. The variation in the

ordering of the verb elements is complemented by the

morphological variation--the first verb being a Qal

perfect, while the second is a Hiphil imperfect. Perhaps

it is coincidental, but the final letters on each of the

corresponding syntactic units are exactly the same

phonetically, thus adding to the feeling of equivalence

binding this proverb together.

One may respond that such isomorphic behavior is

just a function of the juxtaposing of two SVO sentences.

Several factors cause one to reject such a riposte.

First, to have single nominal subjects and objects in both

lines is rare, since a two-membered noun phrase subject is

the norm in Proverbs 10-15 (vid. 10:1a, 8, 21a, 24; 11:3

et al.) and double-membered objects are not lacking (10:3,

6b), although the single nominal object does indeed

predominate. Thus, there seems to be a syntactic

tailoring of this proverb so that the syntactic units

match precisely. Secondly, there are numerous cases of

SVO matches which do not exhibit a perfectly isomorphic

character (11:16; 12:6, 13:6). It must be admitted,

however, that there is a greater propensity toward

isomorphism among matching lines than among non-matching

lines (11:3, 15:2, 14); but that rather proves than

disproves the case that syntax provides the fundamental

units of equivalence which are expertly and artistically

woven into the proverbial poetic tapestry. The sage may

often vary his surface syntax, even in the midst of a

matching bi-colon (10:12; 11:16; 13:6); or he may desire

to match the surface syntax while creating deep structure

differences (11:13; 15:18); or he may vary both (12:6, 21;

15:20), yet maintain the overall SVO match. Thus, the

complete, artistic balance and symmetry of a totally

isomorphic bi-colon should not be taken insensitively.¹

While the above total isomorphisms have

necessarily been taken from matching lines, in order to

stress the importance of the sub-lineal syntactic units

themselves, the syntactic equivalence in non-matching

lines should be elicited. Proverbs 10:11 is obviously not

a match (PscS/SVO), yet the two subject tagmemes are both

similarly constructed noun phrases with common deep

____________________

¹Some may have noticed the purposeful avoidance of

the designation syntactic and/or morphological "repetition"

in favor of the terms "equivalence" and "symmetry"

(contrast Berlin, "Grammatical Aspects of Biblical

Parallelism," p. 21) due to the fact that "repetition"

often carries connotations of boredom and unartistic

dullness.

structures manifesting an item body part ( פִיi [mouth])

followed by a standard quality statement of that item (

[righteous]; רְשָעִים [wicked]). The morphological variation

from the singular righteous to the plural wicked should

not be overlooked. While the subject is clearly a

syntactic-semantic match, the rest of the bi-colonic units

do not match. The equivalent subject tagmemes in 10:11

reveal that sub-lineal syntactic units were used by the

sage as he constructed his saying, even though the

bi-colon itself does not match (cf. also 10:17). Cases of

horizontal isomorphisms (10:26; 11:2; 11:30) and

correspondence of tagmemes in embedded and independent

units (10:1, 6, 25; 11:6; 14:6) reveal the creative use of

syntactically equivalent units below the line level. In

Proverbs 10:26, for example, the symmetrical pattern of a

prepositional phrase, initiated with a and followed by

an item which has the ability to adversely effect the body

part listed in the second prepositional phrase initiated

by an ל. This shows that units of syntactic equivalence

are being used even horizontally within a single line.

The bi-colon concludes as the metaphor is realized by a

initial line with a ל initiated preposition in second

place. Indeed the relationships are complex, but the dual

repetition of the acrid and tearful reactions of the body

clearly illustrates the grimacings of the one sending a

sluggard. This is quite at home in realizing the Sitz im

Leben of these proverbs for royal courtiers.

Homomorphic Syntactic Equivalences

and Variations

The same point, that sub-lineal syntactic units

are used as elements of bi-colonic equivalence furthering

the parallelistic features which also occur within the

semantic and phonetic hierarchies, may be corroborated

from a brief discussion of homomorphic correspondences.

Homomorphisms differ from isomorphisms in that while

isomorphisms demand a totally equivalent tagmeme,

specifying a surface as well as a deep structure

equivalence, homomorphisms allow for variations in a

multitude of directions. The surface grammar may remain

exactly equivalent while the deep structure evinces

significant variation or the surface grammar may vary, yet

the deep structures still equivalent. Several examples

will be worked in order to demonstrate this phenomena

starting with bi-cola which are composed totally of

isomorphisms and homomorphisms. More bi-colonically

dissimilar examples will be used in support of the

contention that the monitoring of sub-lineal syntactic

units is important and that the six box tagmeme, as

suggested in this study, provides an adequate tool for

such monitoring.

Proverbs 10:15 provides an interesting total

iso/homomorphic verse. It is composed of matching nominal

sentences (SPsc/PscS) in chiastic order.

In both cases, the independent units (S, Psc, Psc, S) are

all isomorphic. The subjects, for example, are both noun

phrases, providing the item being discussed. The two

subject complements are also both noun phrases classifying

the subjects. Both initial noun phrases are horizontally

referenced later in the line by a pronominal suffix

(10:15a 3ms, 15b 3mp). This pronominal back-referencing

is interesting in that, in the first line, it is

referenced from the subject, while in the second it is

from the subject complement (as indicated by the dotted

lines). The homomorphism appears in the noun phrase

fillers. In the first colon הוֹן עָשִׁיר (wealth of the rich)

provides a normal, two-member noun phrase--the first being

the item of discussion (הוֹן [wealth]) and the second

specifying the possessor of the item (עָשִׁיר [rich]). This

is mapped onto the second line subject noun phrase with

certain variations. The subject noun phrase of the second

colon likewise has a common deep structure with the first

colon subject, in that it is composed of an item ( רֵישׁ

[poor]) followed by a specification of the possesor of

that poverty. The surface manifestation of the specified

possessor, however, is a pronominal suffix rather than a

matching noun. So there is a surface variation between

the nominal possessor in the first colon and the

pronominally suffixed possessor in the second. Thus there

are an elements of similarity and points of variation. It

is interesting that the variational pronominal suffix

closes the second line with a pronominal suffix which is

how the first line closes. Consequently, there is a

cross-over beyond the mappings provided for by the

tagmemes. That is, each line begins with a double nominal

noun phrase and finishes with a noun and attached

pronominal suffix. This structure is not chiastic,

although the syntax is. This provides an example of what

may be labelled complex chiasm--by which is meant that

there is an obvious chiasm of syntactic elements

(SPsc/PscS), but there is a non-chiastic ordering of

double nominal elements and closing noun with pronominal

suffix. A final point of interest in the second colon

subject tagmeme is the semantic unit to which the

pronominal suffix refers back--that is, דַּלִים [poor]. It

is interesting because it is that semantic element to

which the pronominal suffix is syntactically matched in

the first line ( עָשִׁיר [rich]). Thus, there is a syntactic

and semantic interweaving. The subject complements (קִרְיַת

עֻזּוֹ [his fortified city]; מְחִתַּת דּלִּים [ruin of the poor])

also provide another homomorphism, which varies both on

the surface and deep structure levels. Both begin with a

noun which is then modified in the first case by an

explication of the quality of the item, while the second

tells of the character of the one who possesses the item.

The semantic correspondence between קִרְיַת (town) in the

first and מְחִתַּת (destruction) in the second is obvious.

The qualifier in the first colon completes the colon with

the noun plus pronominal suffix עֻזּוֹ [his fortified] which

provides the non-chiastic correspondence with the end of

the second line. Hence, there is a complicated but

beautifully varied balance through the experiencing of

both chiastic and non-chiastic syntactic features. One

should not miss noticing the splitting of semantically

corresponding elements of the initial noun phrase ( הוֹן

עָשִׁיר [wealth of the rich]) in the second line, with דַּלִים

(poor) being found in the subject complement and רֵישׁ

(poverty) occurring in the matching syntactic subject.

The metaphorical symbol of strength and security

עוֻזּוֹ (fortified city) then is collapsed into the single

catastrophic noun מְחִתַּת (ruin), thereby obtaining the

024/023 reduction of the second line to three units.

Finally, one should not ignore the morphological variation

manifested both in the pronominal suffixes and in the

number of the nouns referring to the persons under

discussion. The rich are singular while the poor are put

in the plural. From this discussion of two homomorphisms,

it should be apparent that homomorphisms provide great

interest as they evince both elements of equivalence and

variation.

Proverbs 11:1 will not be discussed in detail,

other than to say that it provides a simple example of

homomorphic variation within a total isomorphic match.

The noun phrase elements of the two subject complements

form a homomorphism. תּוֹעֲוַת יְהוָה (abomination of YHWH;

11:1a) corresponds to רְצוֹנוֹ (his delight). Clearly this

manifests a Chomskian pronominalization transformational

procedure which is used to collapse the second line units

from four to three (024/023). Here there is a surface

structure variation monitored in the slot and filler boxes

of the tagmeme and a deep structure equivalence as seen in

the case box. Other interesting examples of total

iso/homomorphisms which will not be discussed are Proverbs

11:9 and 13 (11:13 also contains phonetic features).

Proverbs 11:18 provides an example of a bi-colon

which is not totally iso/homomorphic, yet demonstrates a

sub-lineal homomorphism. It is immediately noticed that

there is a heavy, double nominal noun phrase in the

objects of both lines. This is quite rare, since it is

usually the subject which contains the double membered

noun phrase in SVO cola. In order to reduce the elements

to the favored equivalent four (134/224), the subject in

the first line is a singular nominal רָשָׁע [wicked] which

acts as the agent. More commonly רָשָׁע [wicked] is used to

qualify an item; but here it stands alone. The noun

phrase object in the first colon פּעֻלַת־שָׁקֶר (false wages) is

a standard item followed by a qualifier (שָׁקֶר [false]).

This noun phrase tells the product of the wicked's

efforts: false wages. The second line contains a doubled

noun phrase subject which is an embedded transitive

clause. The normal semantic antithesis is gained from the

contrast between רָשָׁע / צְדָקָה (wicked/righteousness). The

surface syntactic construction of the subject is

different, although both participate as the agents in the

deep structure. With a doubled membered noun phrase as

the subject and an important noun phrase object, the

heaviness of the second colon is lightened to match the

syntactic units of the first line by the gapping of the

verb. The use of זֹרֵעַ (sows) with the abstract צְדָקָה

(righteousness) metaphorically presents fruitfulness as a

result of proper character rather than of economic

scheming. The rationale behind the double membered noun

phrase objects may be accounted for not only by the

isomorphism which draws them together as syntactically

equivalent units, but also by the phonetic-syntactic-

semantic crossover. The obvious semantic contrast is

between פְּעֻלַּת (wages) and שֶׂכֶר (reward), and שָׁקֶר (false) and

אֶמֶת (true). The syntax follows this same ordering by its

strong, isomorphic equivalence. This is all quite normal

until one notices the phonetic play going on between שָׁקֶר

(false) and שֶׁכֶר (reward). This adds an element of delight

and further binding of the objects together. The play

requires an unusual, two-unit noun phrase object in both

lines in order for the play to work. The phonetic

parallel crosses semantic and syntactic equivalences to

bind the doubled units together. This example

demonstrates, once again, that if one is going to

appreciate the sages' poetic artistry, he must be

sensitized to parallelistic features from all three

hierarchies (syntax, semantics, and phonetics). To fixate

on one element in the appreciation of parallelism is to

emaciate the richness of poetic craftsmanship and settle

into banal prosaicness.

One further example will demonstrate the ability

of the tagmeme to deictically monitor both surface and

deep structure relationships. Proverbs 10:8 provides an

example of a non-matching line type IV bi-colon (SVO/SV).

While the overall, colonic syntactic structures are

different, the sub-lineal units do manifest a clear design

in the direction of syntactic equivalence and symmetry.

The noun phrase subjects, for example, are an isomorphism

where the qualities precede, rather than follow (which is

much more frequent), the items they qualify. The subject

noun phrases are contrasted by the qualities of each,

while the items referenced are rather normal corresponding

body part pairs ( לֵב [heart], שְׂפָתַיִם [lips]). The

morphological variation (singular to dual) is a result of

the noun items chosen. Thus, semantically and

syntactically the subject noun phrases are bound together.

There is, however, a deep structure difference between the

two subjects as a result of the verb form used the first

( יִקַח [accept]) being an active Qal, while the second (יִלָּבֵט

[ruin]) is a passive Niphal. As a result of these verbal

shifts, the isomorphic noun phrases perform two very

different deep structure roles in the bi-colon. The

subject of the first line, חֲכַם־לֵב [the wise in heart],

becomes the actor doing the action described in the verb

and object (accepting commands). In the second colon the

subject ( אֶוִיל שְׁפָתַים [a chattering fool]) is not described

as doing the action of the verb, but as the recipient/

experiencer of the action described by the passive verb

( יִלָּבֵט [comes to ruin]). There is, then, a surface

correspondence between the two subjects, which draws them

together for a deep structure contrast (Agent/Experiencer).

Finally, the tendency to move from a four- unit initial

line down to a three unit second line is accomplished by a

collapsing technique which uses the passive verb and,

consequentially, allows the object noun to be dropped.

So, the two verbs also manifest a surface correspondence;

but in the third box it is seen that there is a deep

structure movement from the active to the passive and from

a transitive to an intransitive clause.

This concludes a very incomplete discussion of

isomorphic and homomorphic features. What has been

proffered is: (1) that observing of bi-colonic syntactic

matching (Line type II) should be complemented by the

scrutiny of sub-lineal elements of syntactic and even

morphological equivalence and variation; (2) that the six

box tagmeme provides an adequate tool for monitoring such

sub-lineal, syntactic and morphological equivalences and

variations, and also points one to surface and deep

structure equivalences and contrasts--moving the analysis

one step toward a scientific, semantic analysis of deep

meaning relationships; and (3) that the writer has

attempted to manifest his method of how one should

syntactically read poetry, based on the data reflected in

the corpus. The major goal of this study is to sensitize

readers to the syntactic equivalences and variations of

syntactic parallelism which are artistically crafted by

the sages and also to provide specific methodology as to

how such features may be scientifically isolated and

monitored. The goal is not the understanding of the

tagmeme per se but of the text--using the tagmeme as a

tool allowing the reader to pry open the door to an

appreciation of the poetic text. Hopefully, this allows

us to move one step closer to the recreation of the actual

thought processes of the inspired sages and, having moved

into their shoes, to better understand their sayings. The

above results and analyses were gleaned from the corpus,

almost at random. This should suggest how much potential

resides in such linguistic descriptions; they should not

be viewed simply as compilations of data which are mere

mountains of syntactic minutia. Perhaps, had space and

time allowed, it would have been of interest to provide a

syntactic commentary verse-by-verse in order to show

further how to read Hebrew poetry. But this will be left

for the reader to reconstruct from the above isolated

examples in conjunction with the discussions on the

literary cohesion of Proverbs 10. One final suggestion

for future study would be the integration of a

linguistically satisfying semantic approach to be embedded

in, and complementary to, the syntactic methodology

developed in this study. Though the quagmires of semantic

description make such analysis extremely tenuous, it is

hoped, nevertheless, that attempts (even facile ones) will

be made in that direction. Such semantic analyses will

provide for further, more accurate mappings between the

syntactic surface structures and the semantic deep

structures, which are well beyond the capacities of the

case grammar employed here. Semantic analyses may also

prove to be more palatable and relevant to those who

merely desire theological conclusions--to those who view

the recreation of the poetic moment as an irrelevant and

fruitless endeavor in the proclamation of divine truth.

An Examination of the Patterns of

Proverbial Noun Phrases

Noun Phrase Frequencies

One of the syntactic characteristics of Proverbs

10-15 seems to be the prominence of the two-member noun

phrase form. This becomes apparent either from a

sensitized familiarity with the syntactic texture of

Proverbs or from a contrastive comparison with the results

of O'Connor's non-proverbial poetic corpus. O'Connor

found that out of 633 nominal formations 550 (87%) were

single noun units and only 83 (13%) were two unit noun

phrases.¹ The nominal phrase structure conspectus for

nominal sentences is considerably higher (out of 154, 82

are single nouns [53%]; 62 are two-member NP's [40%], and

10 are three-element NP's [7%]).² In "normal" Hebrew

poetry one immediately perceives that there is a majority

of the single-unit nominals over the two-unit noun phrase.

In Proverbs, on the contrary, the two-unit NP dominates

(approximately 333 [59%] two-unit NP's; 233 [41%] single-

unit nominals).³ Moreover, one may discover that while

45% of the two-unit NP's fall in the subject slot, as do

43% of the single unit nominals, there is quite a contrast

____________________

¹O'Connor, Hebrew Verse Structure, p. 336.

²Ibid., p. 333.

³Appendix VI presents 329 NP's for analysis (96 are

in isomorphic settings, 73 in homorphisms, and 160 are lone

NP's).

in terms of the distribution in the object slot. Only 10%

(35) of the two-unit NP's fall in the object slot, while

31% (72) of the single unit nominals fall in the object

slot. Thus, the subjects tend toward either single or

double unit nominals (100 single, 150 doubles), while the

object shows a definite favoring of the shorter single-

unit. The 31% of the single unit nominals being found as

objects is further heightened when it is realized that

only 33% of the lines contain a sentence pattern which

allows for an object, while virtually all contain a

subject tagmeme (SVO=101, SVM=53, SV=39, SVOP=13,

Nom.=134). The distributions in the prepositional phrases

(39 [16.7%] single units, 69 [21%] two member NP's) and

subject complements (Psc: 45 [19%] single units, 52 [16%]

two member NP's) are fairly close proportionately. One

wonders whether the contrast between O'Connor's corpus

dominated by single nominal units and the clear margin of

majority in Proverbs 10-15 favoring the two-membered noun

phrase could be suggested as another grammatical feature

which may reflect genre differences?

Four Major Noun Phrase Tagmemes

There are four, two-member noun phrase tagmemes

which are conspicuously dominant in Proverbs 10-15. There

are 73 (22%) tagmemes of the following type:

Hd : N Mod : N[Adj]

-------- + --------------

It : Pos :

[Qual]:

Examples of this structure may be found in Proverbs 10:4,

16, 20, 24, 28, 32 et al. The tabulation of the verse

locations where such tagmemes may be found is in Appendix

VI, which gives a compilation of the two member NP's from

the corpus. It will be noticed immediately that this

tagmeme is found principally in the subject slot (58 times

[79%]) and only rarely as an object (9 times [12%]) or in

a prepositional phrase (5 times [7%]). It occurs

predominantly in isomorphic constructions (54 times

[75%]). This will provide a subject-dominating tagmeme,

the semantic fillers of which will be examined

subsequently. This tagmeme parallels the development of

two other tagmeme groups.

First, there is the

Hd : N Mod : N/Adj/Ptc

-------- + -----------------

It : Qual :

group, which occurs 69 times (21%) and is found 14 times

in isomorphic constructions, 12 times in homomorphisms and

23 times in non-homomorphic patterns (vid. 11:1, 18, 30;

12:19; 14:5, 27 et al.). Thus, while It + Pos[Qual] types

are characteristic of isomorphic constructions, It + Qual

is found predominantly in non-homomorphic mappings. The

grammatical slots which It + Qual take are largely

subjects (40 times [58%], 7 times as objects [10%], 6

times in prepositional phrases [9%], and 16 times as Psc's

[23%]).

The second variation of the It + Pos[Qual] type is

the It + Pos tagmeme:

Hd : N Mod : Ps/N/PN

------- + -------------

It : Pos :

While it is less frequent than the previous tagmemes (30

times [9%]) it is found mostly in non-homomorphic settings

(19 times) and rarely in isomorphic constructions (4

times; vid. 12:11, 15; 14:10, 12, 21, 24, 26 et al.).

Though the two previous tagmemes were Subject fillers,

this one tends toward objects (9 times), prepositional

phrases (8 times), and Psc's (5 times), although it occurs

in subjects as well (8 times).

The fourth major NP tagmeme is of the type:

Hd : N Mod : PS/PN/N

------- + ---------------

It : Sp :

It occurs 55 times, 35 of which are in non-homomorphic

constructions (vid. 11:9, 12, 19, 28, 29; 12:10, 16, 26).

It is used heavily to fill Psc slots (17 times) with the

subject slots (14 times), object slots (12 times), and

prepositional phrases (11 times) all closely behind. The

high percentage of the number of occurrences in the Psc

slot is multiplied when one adjusts for the greater

frequency of the subject slot. An interesting phenomenon

occurred with the non-homomorphic proper noun (PN) tagmeme

of this type. It was found only in first line

constructions, which may represent a tendency to put the

PN (usually the divine name) in the first line while

sometimes pronominally referencing back to it in the

second line (vid. 10:27a, 29a, 15:9a, 16a, 33a et al).

These, then, are the four major NP tagmemes. The

first, It + Pos(Qual), is characteristically used in

isomorphic constructions in the subject slot. The second,

It + Qual, is found largely in the subject slot and in

non-homomorphic mappings. The It + Pos is often

discovered in non-homomorphic mappings and is not as

subject-bound, more frequently filling object slot, Psc,

and prepositional phrase usages. The fourth, It + Sp, is

utilized strongly in Psc and object positions, although it

also occurs in the subject slot. When the specifier is a

proper noun (PN), this tagmeme is always in the first line

of the bi-colon.

Matching Noun Phrase Morphological Patterns

The morphological variations of the NP should not

be ignored. There are cases where, for example, there is

a perfect syntactical isomorphism manifesting a total

syntactic equivalence on the surface and deep levels yet

traces of variation are frequently found embedded in the

morphology. Thus, it may be suggested that morphology and

syntax are played off against one another, since

syntactical equivalence is not allowed to stifle

morphological variation. The shifts of gender are more a

product of the word choices themselves than of a poetic

use of gender shifts although that may be the case in rare

instances.¹

A more definite creative manipulating of

morphology may be seen in the sages' use of number

variations. The morphological number variations have been

examined in all two-member isomorphic noun phrases. It

was observed that out of 33 isomorphic mappings-only 11

times (33%) was there equivalence of number (7x plural; 4x

singular). What was more significant was that 22 times

there was what appears to be a purposeful variation in

number and that 18 of those were from first colon singular

to second colon plural with only 4 examples in the reverse

direction (vid. Appendix VI). Thus, in the NP

isomorphisms examined there seems to be a clear preference

for number variation--possibly to off-set the syntactical

repetition--and the order preferred is singular nouns in

the first colon and plural ones in the second. The

singular-to-plural movement almost always takes place on

the noun which modifies the item (i.e., the second noun in

the phrase) which tells of the character quality of the

possessor. It should also be noted that the evil

____________________

¹Berlin, "Grammatical Aspects of Parallelism," pp.

27-29.

characters are not exclusively the ones designated by the

plural (vid. 10:3, 4, 6; 14:8; 15:19). This proverbial

poetic propensity should be documented further, but is

substantial in the corpus of Proverbs 10-15.

Four Noun Phrase Examples

To facilitate an appreciation for the sage's use,

both in terms of equivalence and variation, of the two

membered noun phrase, four examples shall be observed from

the corpus. First, a two-membered isomorphism from the

subject slots of Proverbs 10:4 will be examined. כַף־רְמִיָּה

[lazy hand] and יַד חָרוּצִים [hand of the diligent] clearly

provide a match. They are two nouns in a construct

relationship--both composed of an item being described

(hand [ כף]; hand [ יַדa ]), followed by the one who possesses

the hand in terms of the character quality of the

possessor ( רְמִיָּה [lazy]; חָרוּצִים [diligent]). The

"synonymous" semantic parallel between כַף / יַד is well

established, being antithetically turned by the presence

of the antonymic contrast of the character of the

possessor רְמִיָּה / חָרוּצִים. Thus, the sage uses syntax as well

as semantics to draw these two noun phrases together for

contrast. Note, too, that both noun phrases fill subject

slots, both of which are causers (cf. 10:6 for the same

type of example, although the isomorphic noun phrases are

embedded in different non-syntactically parallel positions

[PP,O]). The syntactic equivalence, however, is varied

via the morphological shift from the singular רְמִיָּה

(sluggard) in the first colon to the plural חָרוּצִים

(diligent) in the second colon. Other similar examples

are abundant (vid. 10:8, 11, 17, 20, 24, 28 et al.).

Proverbs 10:16 provides a good example of a

perfect matching isomorphism where the subjects contain

the two membered isomorphic noun phrase ( פְּעֻלַּת צַדִּיק [wages

of the righteous]; תְּבֻאַת רָשָע [income of the wicked]) and

the subject complements contain a single noun in

prepositional phrases ( לְחַיִים [to life]; לְחַטָאת [to

punishment]). This illustrates not only the poetic

mapping of equivalent syntactic structures from the first

colon onto the second, but also the tendency, as noted

above, to have the subject filled by a two-membered noun

phrase while the object or subject complement is a lone

noun. Notice, too, that the isomorphic lone nouns also

exhibit morphological number variation beginning with a

plural and going to a singular (isomorphic lone noun

morphology has not been examined in this study).

Perhaps a more interesting example may be seen in

Proverbs 10:27. Here the first colon has a normal two-

membered noun phrase (item + specifier type), with the

specifier being a proper noun ( יְהוָה ), which (as was noted

above) is always in the first colon. The object noun is a

lone noun specifying the time ( יָמִים ) which the Lord adds.

Thus, the quality specified by the subject results in the

extension of days (object). The tendenz for a two-

membered subject is observed in the second colon ( שְנוֹת

רְשָׁעִים [years of the wicked]). There is, hence, a feeling

of surface grammar sameness as both subjects are filled by

two member noun phrases. The beauty of this proverb

unfolds when one uncovers the deep structure of the noun

phrase subject of the second line. One immediately sees

that the two noun phrase tagmemes are different. There is

a collapsing effect which combines the first colon

character-designating subject quality ( יִרְאַת יְהוָה [fear of

the LORD]) and the time-specifying object element ( יָמִים

[days]), the patient upon which the verb acts ( תוֹסִיף

[lenghtens]), collapses into the noun phrase subject of

the second clause which specifies character ( רְשָׁעִים

[wicked]) and the time frame ( שְנוֹת [years]) which are the

patients receiving the action of the verb.

10:27a S O

יִרְאַת וְהוָה יָמִים

שְׁנוֹת רְשָעִים

10:27b S

The deep structure as recorded in the third box indicates

that there is a deep structure link between the object of

the first colon (days, which are lengthened) and the

subject of the second (years). This example is important

because it demonstrates the benefits of the tagmemic

approach, which meticuously maps surface structure

similarities (S:NP), but does not neglect deep structure

relationships (O:Pat; S:Pat). Thus, the syntactic

interweaving between the surface and deep structure has

been described; but this would have been missed if a mere

surface grammatical analysis or a sole case deep grammar

approach would have been taken. There is a collapsing of

three O'Connorian units in the first colon to two in the

second--thereby generating the common 134/123 constituent

count. This analysis, then, allows the reader exactly to

account for how this syntactic reduction takes place.

While many exercises could be carried out on the

data of Appendix VI [Types of NP's], one that has proven

very profitable is to take one tagmemic kind of syntactic

noun phrase and to examine what kinds of semantic units

fill the respective tagmemes. As the It + Pos [Qual] was

the dominant noun phrase type, it provides a good starting

point for such studies. What was found fits well with

intuitive suspicions regarding this major proverbial noun

phrase type. The data could be classified from two

directions. Either the first item unit could be used to

classify or the second possessor (quality) unit could

provide the schema.

The first approach reveals that there are four

major divisions of items so referenced and a fifth

category of miscellaneous types. The first, and most

obvious, is when the items are body parts (20 out of 69).

It is rather common to find the following noun phrases in

Proverbs: the hand of the diligent ( יַד חָרוּצִים --10:4;

12:4); the heart of the righteous/wicked/fool ( לֵב רְשָׁעִים

--10:20; 15:28; 15:7); the tongue of the righteous/wise

( לְשׁוֹן צַדִּיק --10:20, 31; 12:18; 15:2); the lips of the

righteous/wise ( שִׁקתי צַדִּיק --10:21, 32; 15:7); and

especially common, the mouth of the wicked/

upright/righteous ( פִּי רְשָׁעִים --10:6, 11, 14, 31, 32; 11:11;

12:6; 15:2, 28). A second type, not as common as body

parts, is the characterization of mental phenomena: the

thoughts of the wicked/righteous (מַחְשְתוֹת צַדִיקִים --12:5;

15:26); the desires of the wicked/righteous ( חַוַּת רְשָׁעִים

--10:3, 24, 28; 11:23; 12:10; 13:4); and the words of the

wicked/pure ( דִבְרֵי רְשָׁעִים --12:6; 15:26). A third category

is the material possessions owned by the various

characters: the wages of the righteous/wicked ( פְּעֻלַּת צַדִּיק

--10:16; 15:6); the house/tent of the righteous/wicked/

upright ( בֵית צַדִּיקִים --12:7; 14:11, 19; 15:6, 25); or the

boundaries/gates of the widows/righteous ( שַׁעַרֵי צַדִּיק

--14:19; 15:25). The fourth category would be the way of

the righteous/wicked ( דֶרֶךְ שָׂעִים --12:26; 13:15; 15:9, 19).

The miscellaneous categories are again categorized as

being possessed by the righteous, wicked, upright, fools

and wisemen. The items possessed are prayers (15:8, 29);

sacrifices (15:8); root (12:3, 12); years (10:27); light

(13:9); crown (14:24); or sometimes even qualities

themselves such as the folly of the fool (14:8, 24) or the

righteousness of the man of integrity (11:5, cf. 14:8).

The words describing the characters possessing these items

represent the major word groups which occur with high

frequency in the wisdom tradition. Thus the righteous (22

times); the wicked (22 times); fools (4 times); wise (4

times); upright (6 times); diligent (3 times); and several

other with less frequency are used as the possessors of

the various items in the two-unit noun phrases. It seems

possible to take these items of discussion and the

character qualities and, in a manner akin to the earlier

discussions of wisdom literature in this study,

reconstruct the matters of concern to the sages

themselves.

Several conclusions may be drawn from the tagmemic

analysis of the noun phrases of Proverbs 10-15. The two-

unit noun phrase seems to favor a subject position, while

the single-unit noun is more common in the object slot.

The single-noun unit may be readily used in the subject

slot as well. There is an extensive use of the two

membered noun phrase in Proverbs 10-15, which is not

normative when compared to O'Connor's results from a more

standard Hebrew poetic corpus. Thus, one wonders whether

the predominance of the two-membered noun phrase rather

than the lone noun may be a syntactic means bearing on the

question of genre. The four major noun phrase tagmeme

types were: Hd : N Mod :N[Adj] Hd : N Mod :N/Adj/Ptc

------ + ------------, ------ + --------------,

It : Pos : It : Qual:

[Qual]

Hd: N Mod : Ps/N/PN Hd : N Mod : Ps/PN/N

----- + --------------------, and --------- + ------------- .

It: Pos : It : Sp :

The first is found largely a subject and rarely in object

or prepositional phrase slots. It also is frequent in

isomorphic constructions. The second is located most

often in non-homomorphic mappings in subject and subject

complement slots. The third occurs in non-homomorphic

settings in object, prepositional phrase, and subject

complement positions. The final noun phrase tagmeme group

occurs mostly in non-homomorphic settings in all slots,

but is especially common in subject complements. It was

also noticed that the proper name (PN) tagmeme type of the

fourth category was found only in first colon positions.

Morphology was only briefly touched where it was suggested

that in isomorphic syntactic mappings there was a favoring

of morphological variation and most common was the first

colon singular being mapped onto a second colon plural.

Finally, the major It + Pos [Qual] tagmeme group was

examined in terms of semantic fillers. It was found that

there was a loose correspondence between syntactic units

and semantic fillers. This major noun phrase tagmeme

exhibited an abundance of wisdom type vocabulary in rather

fixed patterns which could be rather easily observed.

Such studies on the other three major noun phrase types

would be of benefit both for contrastive purposes between

the noun phrase tagmemes and comparative purposes in

specifying more closely the syntactic-semantic features

characteristic of proverbial expression.

This partial discussion of the proverbial use of

noun phrases could be multiplied in discussions of verbal,

prepositional, and simple noun bi-colonic mappings. The

verbal syntactic-morphological variations should prove to

be of special interest. Such studies would undoubtedly

reveal much about the sage's craft and about equivalent

and variational techniques of Hebrew poetry. The data

base has been provided in the corpus. The discussions

here, however, are not directed to conclusions per se, but

to the proffering of an adequate methodology for

monitoring poetic bi-colonic syntax both on the lineal and

sub-lineal levels in terms of surface and deep grammar.

Select Grammatical Transformations

of Proverbial Poetry

As a result of observing O'Connor's syntactical

lineal constraints, a pattern of syntactic unit matching

or decrease in the second colon was discovered. This

section will attempt to trace how the number of units is

syntactically reduced or maintained through various

syntactical transformational techniques, which allow for

syntactical variation while retaining inter-lineal

semantic correspondences. The examination of isomorphisms

focused on poetic elements of syntactic equivalence. This

section will concentrate on variational techniques, which

assumes a Chomskyan understanding of grammatical

transformation and an O'Connorian method of counting

syntactic units. The observations do not reflect an

exhaustive analysis of the corpus but rather were

generated from a rather cursory reading of chapters 10 and

11. Hence, this section only represents an embryonic

beginning and is written more for the purpose of being

methodologically suggestive than of producing any

conclusive results.

O'Connor's constraint matrix, as monitored in

Proverbs 10-15, pointed to a marked tendency in the

direction of a second line reduction (e.g., 134/133 or

134/123) or a second line match (e.g., 134/134, 133/133 or

123/123) and only rarely a second line with more units

than the first (e.g., 123/134 or 133/134). In both the

contracted and expanded second lines there must have been

techniques of syntactical collapsing and/or expansion

which allowed for such shifts in the number of syntactic

units. It will be the goal of this section to examine a

few of these collapsing and expanding techniques and to

suggest the potential of such studies in terms of a

transformational approach to grammar.

Noun Phrase Reduction Transformations

The two-unit noun phrase is one of the fundamental

building blocks of the proverbial saying. Thus, in light

of the foregoing studies, it is appropriate to scrutinize

how this unit is syntactically varied in terms of

collapsing and expansion techniques. Proverbs 10:2

provides the first noun phrase collapsing technique. The

collapsing is needed in order to maintain the matching

number of units, which, if the noun phrase had not been

collapsed, would have resulted in an increase in the

number in the second line because of the addition of a

prepositional phrase in the second line. Therefore, it is

suggested that perhaps the noun phrase is collapsed in

order to accommodate the addition of the single-unit

prepositional phrase in the second line (123/133).

Here the noun phrase of 10:2a אוֹצַרוֹת רֶשַׁע (treasures of the

wicked) is collapsed to צְדָקָה (righteousness). This is

accomplished by dropping the item in 10:2a--thereby

lifting the diminutively-contrasting value of riches to

the character quality. The matching item, אוֹצְרוֹת

(treasures), from the first colon is absent in the second

colon. This causes the reader to focus on the character

quality rather than on the item possessed as that which is

most significant. The impotency of the riches (item) is

revealed when exposed by the item of the second line: מָוֶת

(death). Righteousness' ability against this greatest

foe, demonstrates its potency. The collapsing technique

observed here is the dropping of the item while retaining

the contrast in the corresponding character qualities,

thus allowing the sage to move from a two-unit noun phrase

to a single-unit nominal. The resultant formulaic

description of the transformation from Proverbs 10:2 is:

S:NP = Hd:N:It + Mod:N:Pos[Qual] ---> S:N: Ag[Qual].

A second noun phrase to a single nominal technique

is observed in the subject complements of Proverbs 10:18

(cf. also the subjects of 10:21 and 10:18).

There is a clear syntactic isomorphism in the subject

tagmemes, both of which contain embedded transitive

clauses. Note, too, that the two lines match--both being

nominal sentences (Collins' II nom.: i)1,1)--as does the

total number of units (224/234). What is germane to the

discussion of noun phrase collapsing is the movement in

the subject complement of the first line from a two-unit

noun phrase to the second line single nominal ( שִׂפְתֵי שֶקֶר

---> כְסִיל ). Here the body part plus character quality,

which is so common in Proverbs, is reduced to the simple

classifying character quality (Psc:NP = Hd:N:It +

Mod:N:Qual ---> Psc:N:Clas[Qual]). This is similar to the

reduction seen in Proverbs 10:2--that is, the item, which

is a body part (שִׂפְתֵי ), is dropped. The reduction here

seems to be required by the addition of the personal

pronoun in the second line.

A third similar noun phrase reduction may be seen

in the dropping of the metaphorical element between the

subject complement and the object of Proverbs 10:11.

Here the subject tagmemes are isomorphic noun phrases ( פִי

צַדִּיק [mouth of the righteous]; פִי רְשָעִים [mouth of the

wicked]) which even contain a repetition of the body part

(פִי [mouth]). Because of the addition of the verb in the

second line there seems to have been a need to reduce the

first colon subject complement ( חַיִּים מְקוֹר [fountain of

life]). This is accomplished by the dropping of the

metaphorical item ( מְקוֹר [fountain]; cf. also 11:21, 30)

for a simple חָמָס (violence) in the second colon ( חַיִּים

---> חָמָס; Psc:NP = Hd:N:It + Mod:N:Qual ---> O:N:Pat[Qual]).

Phonetic factors are also at work in this chiastic

proverb.

A fourth and final noun phrase to noun reduction

of this type is seen in the corresponding subjects of

Proverbs 11:16 (cf. also 11:17, 25).

This beautifully matching proverb manifests the 134/133

reduction. The repetition of the verb semantically draws

the two lines together for the contrast between the

subjects and objects of the bi-colon. The subject shift

from the singular to the plural is a common pattern, as

noted above. The reduction concludes the examples of this

type, where there is a deletion of the first element

(item) of the noun phrase, whereby the single nominal of

the second colon matches the quality, or second member, of

the noun phrase of the first colon ( אֵשֶׁת־חֵן [a kindhearted

woman]; עָרִיצִים [ruthless men]). Here the opaque

specification אֵשֶׁת (woman) is dropped, being implicit in

the expression of the gender of the noun עָרִיצִים (ruthless

men); S:NP = Hd:N:It + Mod:N:Qual ---> S:N[Adj]:Ag[Qual]).

Since quite regularly there are insignificant gender

shifts in even isomorphic noun phrase constructions, the

explicit inclusion of the gender in the noun אֵשֶׁת (woman)

indicates that the gender is not insignificant here.

Thus, more generic terms like "man" (11:17a; cf. 10:23 for

a use of this process to expand), "woman" (11:16a), "lover

of" (12:1a), and "soul" (11:25a) may all be reduced in a

similar manner.

In all of the above, the common element has been

the collapsing of a first line noun phrase via the

reduction of the first unit of the noun phrase, whether it

was an item (treasures, 10:2a), a body part (lips,

10:18a), a metaphorical element (fountain, 10:11), or a

more generic, opaque term (woman, 11:16). The resultant

case grammar formulation of the NP ---> N reduction is:

Item

Body part

Metaphorical element + [Quality] ---> [Quality]

Generic element

A second type of reduction may reduce the noun

phrase by keeping the item but deleting the quality. So

in Proverbs 10:20 the subject complement goes from

נִבְחָר (choice silver) to מְעָט (little). Thus, the second

member in this case was collapsed. Proverbs 11:7 uses

this same process in reverse to expand the subject of the

second colon. The תִּקְוָה (hopes) of the first colon is

expanded in the second colon ( תוֹחֶלֶת אוֹנִים [expected

power]) by the addition of an element in the second

position of the noun phrase--providing a goal in this

case. This expansion was needed in 11:7 to offset the

deletion of a three-member prepositional phrase in the

first colon. This NP ---> N process may be formulated

[Item] + [Quality] ---> [Item]. This obviously contrasts

with the previous group which had an [Item] + [Quality]

---> [Quality] structure.

A third type of noun phrase reduction was

mentioned above in the discussion of Proverbs 10:27 where

there was a collapsing of a noun phrase subject ( יִירְאַת יהוָה

fear of YHWH) and the object (יָמִים days) into the subject

of the second colon ( שְנוֹת רְשָׁעִים; years of the wicked),

thus facilitating the 134/123 syntactic pattern ( יִרְאַת יְהוָה

+ יָמִים ---> שְׁנוֹת רְשָעִים ). Because of the complexity of

this collapsing technique, it is less frequent than the

others. The following diagrams may be helpful to picture

this phenomenon (S:NP₁ + O:N₂ --- S:NP [N₁ + N₂]:

10:27a S:NP + O:N

יִרְאַת יַהוָה יָמִים

10:27b S:NP = N + N

רְשָעִים שְנוֹת

A fourth type is of the more normal sort, as it

simply accomplishes a reduction in the unit count via the

use of a pronominal suffix rather than by the use of two

full nouns to express the noun phrase. The enveloping

subjects of the chiastically structured Proverbs 10:15

provide an interesting example of this transformation.

Here the 024/023 pattern is acheived by the reduction of

the subject in the second colon. The two subjects being

compared are הוֹן עַשִׂיר (wealth of the rich) and רֵעשָׁם (their

poverty)( חוֹן עָשִׁיר ---> רֵעשָׁם ). Notice that the 3mp

pronominal suffix refers back to the poor. Hence there is

a perfect, referential contrast between the "wealth of the

rich" ( הוֹן עָשִׁיר) and the "poverty of the poor" ( רֵישׁ דַלִים )

although, in fact, there is a syntactic collapsing (S:NP =

Hd:N:It + Mod:N:Pos --- Hd:N:It + Mod:PS:Pos).

Thus, there are basically four types of NP --- N

reductions that have been found through a cursory reading

of Proverbs 10 and 11: (1) the initial item member of the

noun phrase is reduced--whether it be an item (10:2a,

ill-gotten treasures), a body part (10:18, lying lips), a

metaphorical term (10:11, fountain of life), or an opaque

term (11:16, kindhearted woman) (N:Item + N:Quality --->

N:Quality); (2) the second member of the noun phrase may

be reduced (10:20, choice silver; or in reverse, 11:7)

(N:Item + N:Quality ---> N:Item); (3) a combination two-

membered noun phrase subject and single noun object may be

collapsed into a single, two-membered noun phrase, thereby

reducing the nominal units by one (10:27 fear of Yhwh +

days)(S:NP₁ +O:N₂); and (4) a two-unit noun phrase may be

converted into a single unit noun phrase by the use of a

pronominal suffix (10:15, wealth of the rich)(N:Item +

N:Pos ---> N:Item + PS:Pos). These four techniques

illustrate syntactical transformations which the sages

utilized in the maintenance or reduction of the number of

units in elements of syntactic equivalence.

Verbal Collapsing Transformational

Techniques

Having briefly examined noun phrase

transformations a study of the collapsing techniques used

with verbal elements only follows naturally. The number

of elements in the second line may be reduced by a

verbally suffixed reference back to the explicit subject

of the first line. While this is undoubtedly more common

in the prophetic literature (which contains more of

Collins' iii) type bi-cola than of the explicit subject

dominated cola of Proverbs 10-15), the dropping of the

explicit subject is utilized in Proverbs and does

contribute to the collapsing of the number of grammatical

elements.

Proverbs 10:3 provides an example of this collapsing

pronominalizing transformation. The bi-colon has a

configuration of 134/123--the second line being reduced--

which is a direct result of the second line's subject

being pronominally prefixed, rather than explicitly

repeating יְהוָה (Yahweh) from the first line. This verse

is also peculiar in the use of matching two-unit noun

phrases as objects drawn together by the chiastic ordering

(cf. also 10:22). This transformation may be formulated

as: S + Verb ---> Verb(S affixed). The subject of the

second line may also be deleted by the inclusion of a line

with an empty subject, as in Proverbs 11:14b. The empty

subject is usually translated by "There is X." Thus in

Proverbs 11:14b there is no match for the subject of

11:14a ( עָם [people]). Rather, there is a statement about

the existence of deliverance under certain conditions,

which allows a unit count of the lines to correspond at

133/023. The following formula reflects this

transformation:

S + V ---> [0 (S)] + Existence Predication + Psc.

Another technique which can also be seen in the

example from Proverbs 10:3 above is the dropping of the

verbal negation in the second line (cf. also 10:2; 11:21).

While this does not affect the number of syntactic units

according to O'Connor's method of counting, it does give

the reader a sense of shortening in the second line.

More interesting is the lineal collapsing as a

result of a verbal shift from a transitive, first-line

verb to an intransitive, second-line verb. This allows

the second line to drop the object. Proverbs 10:27, which

was examined above, exhibits this phenomenon, as does

Proverbs 10:4 (cf. also 10:21, 24 and 11:12).

In Proverbs 10:4 the normal two-membered noun

phrase match is observed between the "lazy hands" of the

first line and the "diligent hands" of the second. The

rather transparent verb עֹשֶׂה (makes) requires an object

specifying the product of what is made רָאשׁ (poor). The

second line collapses the verb and object of the first

line ( רָאשׁ עוֹשֶׂה [makes poor]) into a single semantically

"equivalent" but syntactically reduced element תַּעֲשִׁיר

(makes rich). The shift from the Qal verb in the first

line to a Hiphil in the second also aids the

transformation. Thus, there is a deep structure semantic

equivalence contained in a beautifully hued syntactic

variation. The formula, S + V(trans) + O ---> S +

V(Intrans), reflects this type of transformation (cf.

10:21; 11:12).

Another object-dropping type of transformation may

occur when the active verb of the first line goes to a

second line passive verb. This can be seen in Proverbs

10:8 (cf. also 10:10, 31). Here the syntactic

configuration yields the common 134/123 line type, with

the units of the second line reduced. While this bi-colon

does not provide a syntactic match (SVO/SV), there is

clearly an isomorphic matching of the two-membered noun

phrase subjects ( חֲכַם־לֵב [wise heart]; אֱוִיל שְׂפָתַיִם [foolish

lips]). The deep structure of the subjects differs,

however, which is why the S:NP's are only homomorphically

linked. The first line tells the active processes

performed by the wise hearted (agent), while the second

tells what happens to those of foolish lips (experiencer).

Thus, there is a surface grammar equivalence and a deep

grammar variation. The verbal elements participate in

this variation. Indeed they homomorphically match, in

that they are both predicating verbal units. But the

shift from the active to the passive allows for the

dropping of the object in the second line, although the

subject actually receives the action of the verb in the

second line, as does the object in the first. This

formulation may be described as S + V(active) + O ---> S +

V(passive).

The abundance of nominal sentences (as shown from

the comparisons with the corpora of Collins and O'Connor)

also allows for certain grammatical transformations. This

can be done with great variety. Quite often the number of

syntactic units is maintained (cf. 10:1, 6, 11, 13, 28)

even though there is a grammatical shift, which the reader

would normally expect to decrease the number of syntactic

units (SVO ---> SPsc). Proverbs 10:1 contains a familial

example of this phenomenon:

While there is obviously no lineal matching (SVO/SPsc),

there are clearly inter-lineal syntactic parallels between

the isomorphic subjects. One should also observe the

semantic equivalences ( יְשַׂמַח [make happy]/ תּוּגַת

[grief]; and אַב [father]/ אִמּוֹ [his mother]). Notice, then,

that the verb is mapped semantically onto the head noun of

the subject complement noun phrase. Thus, though there is

a grammatical variation between the verb and noun, the

semantic force draws them together in the semantic deep

structure. So there may be an SVO ---> SPsc shift with V

---> Psc [N_V + N_O], where N_O reflects the semantic force

of the first line object and N_V the semantic force of the

first line verb. Because of the great variety of the

types of transformations which take place between the

SVO/SPsc, more study should specify exactly how this

parallel is achieved.

Another less syntactically involved technique of

collapsing the unit count is the two-fold repetition of a

pattern in the first line, which is followed by a single

pattern in the second line. Proverbs 10:26 provides a

clear example of this pattern, where the SPsc nominal

clause is repeated twice in the first line ("As vinegar is

to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes"), and is followed by

a single nominal clause ("so is a sluggard to those who

send him"). A punchiness is gained by a long,

repetitional, metaphorically varied first line, followed

by a short (022), non-metaphorical application. This may

be formulated as A + B ---> C (where A, B, and C represent

grammatically complete elements of similar character).

One final, and perhaps most obvious, method of

lineal collapsing should be briefly mentioned. Gapping,

while not as prominent as in other corpora, is used to

reduce the second line in Proverbs (cf. 10:9, 23, 29).

Proverbs 10:32 provides a rather standard example of verb

gapping.

There is a clear syntactic match between the lines of this

verse. The normal, two-unit noun phrase subject and

single, nominal object provide a very classic example of

proverbial patterns. The isomorphic character of the

subjects and objects also demonstrates the syntactic ties

between the lines. The verb in the first line is gapped

in the second resulting in the expected proverbial pattern

of shortening the second line (134/133). This verse

illustrates many of the tendencies which this study has

sought to highlight. The gapping techniques may be

formulated as A + B + C ---> A + [B (gapped)] + C where

any permutation of the units will be valid gapping as

well.

Having given a selective treatment of grammatical

constructions which tend toward a decrease in the number

of syntactic units in the line, a brief discussion of

expansion techniques provides a natural balance. As these

techniques are more intuitively obvious, examples will

merely be referred to--rather than giving the total

tagmemic formula for each, as was done in the section on

collapsing transformations.

The addition of a prepositional phrase in one line

of the bi-colon is rather common in Proverbs 10-15. It

may be the specification of a time element, as in Proverbs

10:30a, where it expands the first line to three units--

having no object because of the Niphal passive verb. The

addition of לְעוֹלָם (forever) obtains the 133/133

conspectus, rather than allowing the first line to have

the very rare two elements. The prepositional phrase may

specify the scope of the verb's operation, as in Proverbs

10:2b (cf. 11:7) where מִמָּוֶת (from death) expands the line

to three units. Notice in these cases that the

prepositional phrase finds no matching phrase in their

corresponding line. Thus, they have an additive rather

than a paralleling character. This type of expansion may

be formulated as A + B ---> A + B + PP, or as a

collapsing technique A + B + PP ---> A + B.

Similar to this is the addition of an adverb

modifying the verb which is present only in one line.

While in Proverbs 10:9a בֶטָה (securely) may have been a

result of phonetic processes, it also expands the first

colon, resulting in a 244/233 line pattern, which fits the

reduction of syntactic units in the second line (A + B +

Adv ---> A + B).

An emphatic pronoun may be added, usually in the

first line, thereby increasing the number of units without

varying the semantic units significantly (10:22a, 24a;

11:25b, 28a; A + B + PPron ---> A + B). The conjuncting

of nounal elements allows for an increase other than a N

---> NP process. The simple subject צַדִּיק (righteous) is

expanded in the second line, not by the reversal of the NP

collapsing techniques developed above, but by the

conjuncting of two semantically "synonymous" words in the

subject of the second line ( רָשָע וְחוֹעֶא, 11:31 [wicked and

sinner]. Notice also the gapping in this verse which

causes the count to be 133/122 (N ---> NP[N₁ conj N₁']).

It should be noted that any of the above

collapsing techniques may be reversed and utilized as

expansion techniques, thus providing numerous options for

syntactic variation.

In conclusion, what is being suggested here is

that grammatical transformational processes may account

for many of the surface and deep structure syntactic

variations between the lines. Sometimes these differences

do not significantly alter the deep structure (cf. 10:1);

but other times they add new elements (10:30). This

study has not sought to be exhaustive; rather it is

suggestive of how transformational grammar ideas may be

applied to Hebrew poetry. Transformational grammar may

provide help in reconciling bi-cola whose surface syntax

varies, but whose deep structures match. The compiling of

such techniques of variation should help the reader to

move away from the boredom of a repetitive parallelism

approach to a retrieval of the tremendous variety captured

in the creativity of the poetic moment. The following

formulae, then, are presented as a beginning of the

scientific formulation of such grammatical expressions of

creativity.

The following transformational formulae have been

generated from an examination of Proverbs 10 and 11

specifying some of this variety.

Nominal transformations:

NP ---> N

1) NP = Hd:N:It + Mod:N:Pos[Qual] --- N:X[Qual] (10:2)

NP = Hd:N:It + Mod:N:Qual --- N:X[Qual] (10:18)

where the Hd:N:It is a body part

NP = Hd:N:It + Mod:N:Qual --- N:X[Qual] (10:11)

where the Hd:N:It is a metaphorical element

NP = Hd:N:It + Mod:N:Qual --- N:X[Qual] (11:16)

where the Hd:N:It is an opaque noun (man, woman,

etc.)

Common structure: N₁ + N₂ ---> N₂'

where N₁ = Item and N₂ = Qual

Item

Body part N: N:

Metaphorical + [Quality] ---> [Quality]

element

Generic

(transparent)

2) N:Item + N: Quality --- N:Item (10:20)

3) NP₁[N₁ + N₁'] + N₂ --->N₁' + N₂' (10:27)

4) NP= Hd:N:It + Mod:N:Pos ---> Hd:N:It + Mod:PS:Pos (10:15)

Verb Transformations:

1) S + V ---> V(Suffixed)

2) S + V ---> [0(S)] + Existence predication + Psc

3) S + V(trans) + O ---> S + V(Intrans)

4) S + V(active) + O ---> S + V(passive)

5) SVO ---> SPsc

10:1 S + V + O ---> S + Psc[N_V + N_O]

6) A + B ---> C

7) A + B + C ---> A + (B gapped) + C [any permutation]

Expansion Techniques:

1) A + B ---> A' + B' + PP (10:30)

2) A + B ---> A'+ B' + Adv (10:9)

3) A + B ---> A' + B' + PPron (10:22)

4) N ---> NP[N₁conjN₁'] (11:31)

Thus the sages were master craftsmen of the poetic art

form, not boring their students by gross repetition and

sameness, but exploiting the infinite potential of

language to reflect the harmoniously diverse beauty which

the creator Himself had fabulously displayed in the verbal

crafting of His uni-verse.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

OVERVIEW

The results of this study are more methodological

than concrete answers to specific problems. The

dissertation has attempted to reflect a theory of language

and poetic literature which, by the objectification of

data, provides a basis for the contextual and literary

appreciation of the proverbial sentences as poetry.

Traditional exegetical attempts at understanding Hebrew

poetics almost always degenerate into simplistic

observations of the types of semantic parallelism. It

myopically ignores the infinite fecundity of the poetic

expressions through the use of reductionistic techniques

which obscure rather than elucidate the poetic meaning of

the text. The questions that are asked are in terms of

the message of the poetry rather than the manner in which

it communicates as poetry. The traditional method looks

at poetry as a collection of parallel word-meanings which

are lexically encysted rather than as a literary, artistic

expression which creatively activates all levels and forms

of meaning--whether rhetorical, phonetic, syntactic, or

semantic--into an aesthetically infatuating message which

scintillates not only the rationalistic mind that is

merely concerned about the propositions of divine truth,

but also, the emotions, in a manner not totally different

from the dynamic found in Beethoven's ninth symphony.

While this study examined only one aspect of Hebrew poetry

(syntactical parallelism), it is hoped that the

realization of the meticulous care and creative genius of

the sages, as they syntactically crafted their thoughts

into artistic poetic expression, will stimulate

linguistically satisfying studies of Hebrew poetry which

concentrate on the other aspects of linguistic expression

(phonetics, semantics, and stylistics). As the lone

analysis of each individual musical note of Handel's

Messiah is a ludicrous means of appreciating the message

of his music, so, too, the analysis of individual lexical

units (words) alone is a farcical way of understanding

poetry. How poetry is to be understood is perhaps the

most significant question raised by this dissertation.

The answer was sought in two directions: (1) the

pragmatic context of the proverbial poetry (the literary,

canonical, philosophical, historical, institutional

settings); and (2) the syntactic analysis of the text

itself.

The Comparative Literary Setting

The study began by providing an overview of the

literary setting of the proverbial poetry. It was shown

that proverbial expression was and is an international

phenomenon (1 Kgs 4:30f. [MT 5:10f.]; Obad 8; Ezek 28:2).

Wisdom texts were cited from as early as third millennium

Ebla and Sumer down to Ptolemaic Egypt. Even samples from

modern Swahili, Yemenite and English demonstrate that a

common proverb does not necessarily mean a common literary

origin. While the ethos of the Sumerian proverbs was

somewhat distant to the concerns in first millennium

Israelite proverbs, the use of antithetical parallelism

and the promulgation of many of these Sumerian proverbs

into Akkadian and even into Ugaritic evinced the uncanny

ability of proverbs to cross cultural and time barriers

mutatis mutandis. Thus, though one may not demand that a

common proverb proves a common origin, one also may not

unilaterally reject a common source as a possiblity for

the historical origin of a proverb. The Akkadian Counsels

of Wisdom and other early texts were used to show the

folly of McKane's suggestion that wisdom evolved from

empirical secular sayings to embellished sacred sentences

reflecting the Yahwehizing tendenz of later scribes. The

sebayit (instructions) in Egypt with their Mahnspruch

(admonitions) and Aussage (sayings) have provided close

parallels, in terms of both structure and ethos, to the

biblical proverbs. Amenemope provides examples of

proverbs which are close parallels to those found in

Proverbs. While literary dependence in either direction

may not be ruled out, a common culture and literary milieu

may be behind many of the similarities. Such parallels

demonstrate the inspired sages' participation in the

literary structures and ethos found through two millennia

in Sumer, Mesopotamia, Egypt as well as in premonarchical

and monarchical Palestine.

The Conceptual Setting of Wisdom

The second chapter addresses the theological/

philosophical framework of the wisdom literature. The

past neglect of wisdom literature by Old Testament

theologians is presently being turned around, as wisdom is

being viewed as a type of last horizon of biblical

theology. Tendencies have been to infuse a Mitte found

elsewhere in the canon onto wisdom with some rather

superficial and procrustean explanations as to how wisdom

is to be fitted into the theology of the rest of the

canon. The motifs of creation theology and the principles

of cosmic order (ma'at) have been helpful indigenous

starting points for understanding wisdom's world view.

Wisdom portrays God as creator and the individual (rather

than the community) as responsible for harmonizing his

behavior with the principles God has infused into the

creation itself. Wisdom was described as individually

cosmodynamic whereas the cult is more communally oriented

and cosmostatic. Thus, wisdom reflects a coordination

between the principles of creation and life's experiences.

The Creator guarantees that the universe is comprehensible

and that the moral and social orders reflect His

trademark, which is etched into the creation itself. The

individual is found in community. The community is

understood more in terms of a common creation than a

common redemption (or covenant).

Several have suggested that ma'at or the created

order is the major motif of wisdom. This order was

ordained and upheld by God and the king. The wise man

observed the various orders--whether societal, familial,

personal, or institutional--and brought his behavior into

line with the expectations and constraints of those

demesnes. The wise man considered carefully the

individual with whom he was dealing--God, the king, the

rich, the wise, or the poor and foolish--and adjusted his

behavior accordingly (Prov 23:1). The principles of moral

order are often reflected in the contrast between the

righteous and the wicked, which is a ubiquitous theme in

the wisdom literature.

References to salvation history are strangely

absent in Proverbs. Not one motive clause is made on the

basis of divine redemptive acts. Wisdom views history

synchronically rather than diachronically. It does not

formulate its statements in terms of the past

extraordinary acts of God. Wisdom focuses more on the

common, ever present paradigms of nature and society and

how an individual is to act in light of those universally

observable patterns. While some have used these endemic

features to suggest that a secular presupposition is at

the base of wisdom expressions, such suggestions were

rejected both on the basis of ancient Near Eastern

parallels and on the theistic content of the oldest

canonical wisdom sections (Prov 10:3). Arguments were

presented which exposed the errors of McKane's three-fold

evolutionary scheme, by which he suggests that the

proverbs were originally secular but that later scribes

added Yahwehistic elements and motivations to make the

sayings more theologically palatable. The secular

character of Proverbs may stem from its empirical (Prov

6:6), pragmatic (Prov 17:8), and rational (Prov 30:18f.)

approaches to reality, although it is clear that such

reflections are grounded in the fear of Yahweh as its

fundamental pou sto.

The Canonical Setting of Wisdom

The third chapter dealt briefly with the canonical

setting of wisdom. Wisdom, originally viewed as somewhat

anomalous in the Old Testament, now is being discovered

everywhere. Several criteria have been suggested as

indicative of the presence of wisdom: (1) vocabulary

(words such as: k^esil, 'arum, nabon, bina, hokmah, et

al.); (2) endemic motifs of wisdom (universalistic

outlook, practical rather than abstract, empirically

oriented, indifference to the cult, et al.); (3) forms

(numerical sayings, acrostics, admonitions, et al.); and

(4) explicit mentioning of wise men. These criteria were

then applied to various texts which recently have been

alleged to reflect wisdom influence, such as Genesis 1-3,

the Joseph narrative, certain statements common to the law

and Proverbs, the succession narrative, wisdom Psalms, and

various prophets which seem to reflect the outlook of

wisdom (esp. Isa, Mic, Amos, Hab, et al). Finally, this

chapter briefly treated the esa/dabar conflict between the

sages and the prophets. Crenshaw correctly concluded that

the level of authority is no different between the "Thus

saith the LORD" of the prophets or the "Listen, my sons,

to a father's instruction" of the sages. Prophetic

indictments against the sages (Jer 8:8; 18:18) do not

reflect an institutional tension any more than prophetic

denunciations of the misuses of the false prophets reflect

a disapproval of the prophetic institution. The

allegation that wisdom is prolific throughout the Old

Testament is better explained as being the result of a

common perception and heritage shared by all men. Hence,

when vocabulary and ideas characteristic to wisdom are

found elsewhere they reflect not a common institutional

origin, but a common perception of the shared universe.

This does not negate, however, the possibility of the

influence of wisdom elsewhere in the canon, since Moses,

many of the psalmists, and the prophets would have been

trained in the schools which would have been prominent

sources of such features.

The Historical Settings of Wisdom

Chapter four introduces the multiplex matrices

from which wisdom literature arose. Modern folklore

studies have demonstrated the hermeneutical value of both

the historical origin (milieu d'origine) and cultural

settings in which the proverb was used (milieu usager).

No one-to-one correspondence was proposed between form and

setting; rather, three broad cultural phenomena

(scribes/scribal schools, king/court, and family) were

involved in the genesis and promulgation of wisdom forms.

The scribes and scribal schools correspond well

with the didactic character of much of the wisdom

literature. The importance of viewing the scribes as the

grease which lubricated the gears of ancient civilization

was developed. So important was the scribe in Egypt that

even the Pharaoh had himself portrayed as a scribe.

Egyptian scribes were sometimes deified. They were not

mere copyists, but prominent government officials. The

vizier, for example, was second only to Pharaoh himself.

A whole genre in Egypt was given to the topic of praising

the scribal art and satirizing the other trades. The same

phenomena which caused the rise of the scribes in Egypt

were also at work in Mesopotamia (difficulty of the

writing script, governmental needs, and temple economy).

Some scribes in Mesopotamia had duties as magicians in

addition to their administrative posts. This connection

of wise men and magicians is frequently reflected in the

Old Testament (Gen 41:8). While the alphabet in Israel

allowed for the democratization of learning, foreign

contacts and a growing governmental bureaucracy

necessitated scribal skills. In the post-exilic period,

the scribes were engaged not only as copyists and

transmitters of tradition but also as its interpreters.

The fact that only the rich and politically powerful could

obtain an education is seen by many in the class-ethic

allegedly present in the book of Proverbs. Numerous

proverbs are addressed to young men apparently on their

way up the political ladder; hence, some proffer an urban

aristocracy as the original recipients of proverbial

instruction (Prov 17:26; 19:10). Themes fitting royal

courtiers would also support this contention (relation to

superiors [Prov 23:1], judicial proverbs [Prov 11:1],

currying the king's favor [Prov 14:35; 16:13], importance

of counsellors [Prov 11:18], and faithful messenger [Prov

10:26]). The universal presence of scribes in the ancient

world called for the existence of scribal schools where

scribes could be properly trained in court etiquette and

protocol. Schools were found as early as the tenth

dynasty in Egypt and 2500 B.C. in Mesopotamia. In both

cultures the teacher was addressed by the familial term

"father." In Mesopotamia, he had a disciplinarian

assistant called the "big brother" (no Orwellian overtones

intended). The existence of schools in Israel is

suggested from analogy and from various school texts which

indicate the early presence of such an institution even in

pre-Israelite Canaan. Several proverbs are also cited in

support of this theory (e.g., Prov 10:13), although the

first explicit mention of a school is found much later in

Ben Sirach (51:23). Thus, the scribes and scribal schools

provide one factor in the matrix of the origin and use of

proverbs.

Another source of wisdom literature was the king.

Proverbs repeatedly makes this connection (Prov 1:1; 10:1;

25:1) as does the historical material (1 Kgs 4:32). In

Egypt the king was closely identified with sia (wisdom),

which he received from the gods. The Pharaoh was often

said to have written instructions soliciting support for

the king. In Mesopotamia, though the king was not

identified as a god (as he was in Egypt), he was viewed as

being endued by the gods with the gift of wisdom.

Israelite literature also reflects the identification of

wisdom with the foreign kings (Ezek 28:1-2) and many

proverbs call its hearers to reflect on their relationship

to the demesne of the king (Prov 16, 25). Even the

Messiah king is said to have the gift of wisdom (Isa 9:6;

11:2) as, of course, was Solomon through the divine vision

at Gibeon (1 Kgs 3).

The final matrix from which wisdom arose was the

family. While it was demonstrated that the terms "father"

and "son" are often technical terms for official positions

(teacher, student), yet the parental pathos and historical

introductions both in Egypt ('Onchsheshonqy) and

Mesopotamia (Suruppak) explicitly connect the instructions

to a familial setting. Recent folklore studies also

provide examples of proverbial expressions within a

familial setting. Israel also used the terms "father"

(Gen 45:8), "son" ("sons of the prophets") and even mother

(2 Sam 20:19; cf. Judg 5:7) as technical terms, but the

familial setting of instruction must not be denied (Deut

6:6-7; Prov 6:20-23; Tob 4:5-21). This chapter finished

with a discussion of the evolution from a single line folk

saying to a double lined literary proverb. Such a

unilateral literary evolution was shown to be unsupported,

although text expansions and contractions were noted in

texts as they were copied over the centuries in

Mesopotamia (vid. Suruppak) and in Egypt ('Onchsheshonqy).

Thus, when one picks up the text of Proverbs, he should

be acutely sensitive to the context from which and in which the

wisdom literature functioned (the scribes/scribal schools, the

king/court and the Israelite homes). The major themes reflected

in the proverbial sentences will speak from and to these settings

in life and if one is going to understand the text, he must be

aware who is speaking and to whom it was written.

The Structural Setting of Wisdom

Having briefly surveyed the Sitz im Leben of wisdom,

the forms which these settings produced is a natural

follow-up. Meaning was seen not simply as a function of

lexical structures; rather, literary structures often

determine the message of the proverb more than the

specific words employed. The comparison of the common

message of the following three proverbs illustrates

the point:

He who is bitten by a snake fears even a rope.

A scalded cat fears even cold water.

Whoever is burned on hot squash blows on cold

yogurt.

Obviously the place to start is ”not• with a word study on

the word "bitten." The fifth chapter was developed in

four stages: (1) deep structure proverbial thought forms

were suggested; (2) the types of forms were cataloged;

(3) broad wisdom genres were discussed and illustrated;

and (4) proverbial forms were analyzed. At least four

functions of proverbs were suggested (philosophical,

entertainment, legal, and instructional) which were

accompanied by examples of Scott's seven deep structure

patterns (identity, non-identity, similarity, futile,

classification, value, consequences). Crenshaw's list of

biblical wisdom forms was discussed (proverb, riddle,

fable/allegory, hymn/prayer, dialogue, confession, lists,

and didactic narrative). Onomastica, which gave long

lists of items, were found extensively in Egyptian wisdom

literature and may be referenced to Solomon in 1 Kings

4:33, where it talks of his knowledge of birds, trees, and

other natural phenomena. Riddles were employed by the

wise men as well as by the folk. The riddle is composed

primarily of a clue element and a block which must be

overcome. Many proverbs may reflect original riddles,

which may have been transformed into proverbs (Prov. 10:13;

heavily used in Proverbs (Prov. 5:15), although the idea of

comparison of one realm to another is used extensively.

Hymns (Prov. 1:20-33; 8:22ff.) and imagined speeches (Prov.

5:12-14) are rather common in both ancient Near Eastern

wisdom literature and the Bible.

Two proverbial forms were examined--the Mahnwort

(admonition) and the Aussage (saying). The admonition was

treated in some detail, while the saying is the focus of

the syntactical analysis which follows. The admonition

(Prov. 3:3-4) is often composed of the following elements:

+ call to attention + condition + admonition + motivation

+ summary instruction. The admonition part may be

composed of imperatives (Prov. 4:23), jussives (Prov 1:23),

vetitives (negative of jussive/imperative; Prov. 3:11-12)

or prohibitions (negative of the imperfect; Prov. 20:19).

Sometimes the admonition was expressed in a single

positive command or a positive and negative or many other

combinations, including imperatival clusters (Prov. 3:5-6).

Motive clauses accompany the admonitions, thus driving the

request home with a reason. Motive clauses have been

treated extensively in the literature and are usually

cataloged sytactically (result clause [Prov. 24:19-20];

interogative [Prov. 5:15-18] et al.) or by semantic

structure (reasonable [Prov. 23:9]; dissuasive [Prov.

23:13-14], explanatory [Prov. 23:4-5] or promissory [Prov.

4:10]). Numerical sayings (Prov. 30:18-19) often treat

topics of nature, society, ethics or theology, are

usually built on a point of commonality, and sometimes

have a feeling of mystery or wonder as they develop the

numerical sequence. This form is found in both the wisdom

literature and the prophets and some have seen this

rhetorical device as present in the alleged wisdom

narrative in Genesis 1. More lexically defined are the

better-than sayings (Prov. 28:6, which has the structure

n + P > p + N), comparative sayings (Prov. 30:33), YHWH

sayings (Prov 16:7), abomination sayings (Prov. 11:1),

macarisms or blessed sayings (Prov. 20)7), "there is . . .

but . . ." sayings (Prov. 13:7), and paradoxical sayings

(Prov. 26:4-5). The acrostic is also a scheme utilized by

the sages, as is the use of rhetorical questions (Prov.

6:27-28). When one observes the repeated use of the these

forms, it is clear that the scribes were concerned not

only with the message of the proverb, but also with how

that message was formulated. If they were indeed as

concerned with literary constraints as with content, it

seems plausible that, if one is going to understand the

message of the art form, one must understand the means by

which it communicates and the constraints under which it

operates.

It should be apparent that one of the major

thrusts of this study is how the proverbs should be

understood as poetry. One may ask why God had his

spokesmen use poetry instead of normal prose narrative or

why did He not in a straightforward manner just state in

propositional form the truths He desired His people to

know? In short, does the Bible come to us in

propositional form or via the medium of poetry and if

through poetry, why and how?

Approaches to Hebrew Poetry

Chapter six surveys various approaches to Hebrew

poetics and concludes with the proposal of a method for

monitoring Hebrew poetry features combining the studies of

O'Connor and Collins. Poe was correct when he described

poetry as "the rhythmical creation of beauty." The

pregnant statement of R. Jakobson--that poetry is "the

principle of equivalence from the axis of selection [a

paradigmatic axis] into the axis of combination [a

syntagmatic axis]"--encourages one to experience those

rhythms activated from all the hierarchies of linguistic

expression. Recent studies on the brain have

physiologically accounted for the kalogenetic synaesthesia

of poetry because of its ability to unlock the right

hemisphere of the brain via its alluring rhythmical

patterns. Poetry has a heightened sense of the how,

whereas normal communication focuses mostly on the what.

Poetry draws its patterns of equivalence from at least

three hierarchies of language: phonetics (meter,

alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme), syntax

(morphology [shifts or repetition of gender, person,

number, tense, etc.] and grammatical relationships and

structures [nouns, noun phrases, verbs, prepositional

phrases, clauses, etc.], as well as syntactic ordering

shifts [SVO/OVS, etc.]), and semantics (word pairs,

merismus, catch words, parallel and repeated words, etc.).

Phonological analysis is often overlooked as

unimportant by many who consider the oral reading of a

text merely a pedantic exercise. The first aspect of

phonology that was discussed was the question of meter in

Hebrew poetry. Five reasons were given supporting the

presence of meter (it is a poetic universal, the

regularity of line shape, it was sung to music, formulaic

patterns, and the historical witness [Philo, Josephus,

Origen, Eusebius, Jerome et al.]). Various counting

methods were surveyed from the standard Ley-Budde-Sievers

stressed syllable count, to the alternating stress count,

the major word-stress count, and the strict syllable count

of Cross and Freedman. It was noted that the average line

of human poetry is 10 syllables, with Hebrew usually being

between 5-9. Non-metrical approaches were examined

(Young, Kugel, O'Connor) and a position of metrical

agnosticism opted for.

Other phonological features were examined and

exampled, such as alliteration (Prov. 11:7-12), assonance

(perhaps Prov. 10:9), and various types of paronomasia

which are quite frequent in Proverbs (pun [Prov. 3:3, 8;

10:25; 11:7 and perhaps 10:6b, 11b]; farrago [Prov. 10:2];

associative puns, often with diction twists [Prov. 10:21];

and assonantic word plays [Prov. 10:5, 11:13, 18]).

Onomatopoeia was the final phonological poetic scheme

scrutinized with its synthesis of sound and sense (Prov.

10:18).

Semantic equivalences have been the major

concentration of Hebrew poetics since the "rediscovery" of

semantic parallelism by Lowth and the later modifications

and popularization under Gray and Robinson. This approach

usually perceives Hebrew poetry as repetitive or as a

stereometric way of thinking, by which the thought in the

first line is repeated in the second line in different but

semantically paralleled words. The standard commentaries

on the Psalms or poetic books often contain simplistic

examples illustrating synonymous (Prov. 16:28), antithetic

(Prov 10:12), synthetic (Prov. 10:22), emblematic (Prov.

10:26) and other types of parallelism. Variations are

then usually stated in terms of gapping (Prov. 2:18) and

compensation techniques (Prov. 2:1). Various types of

chiasms, and inclusios and word pairing phenomena were

discussed. There is a usual classifying of major semantic

units in each line often in the form ABC/A'B'C' where A is

said to semantically match the A' term. This gives the

impression of a "this is that" (A=A') type of semantic

analysis. The problems with this approach are apparent to

anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of semantics. It

tends to blur word distinctions and gives one the

impression that the meaning of parallel words is the same

(semantic reductionism). The notions of synonym and

antonym are left virtually undefined and precise semantic

relationships unspecified. The method in general has led

to a very sloppy and superficial reading of poetry, as all

the other levels of parallelism which the poetic form

activates have been ignored. This study will emphasize

the syntactic aspects of the parallel lines, demonstrating

the fecundity of poetic syntax which points to the need

for a linguistically satisfying semantic and phonological

methodology to complement the syntactic method developed

in this study.

There has been a recent plethora of needed

dissertations and articles on the topic of syntactic

parallelism (Berlin, Collins [Manchester], Cooper [Yale],

Geller [Harvard]. Greenstein and O'Connor [Michigan]).

Grammatical paralleled terms are different parts of

speech or morphologically varied). Syntactical

parallelism is the syntactic parallel between the lines

(SVO/SVO = a match, SVO/OVS = a match with the order

varied). O'Connor's brilliant work, Hebrew Verse

Structure, is the best work available attacking the

fundamental problem of what are the constraints which

determine a poetic line. He concludes that the line is

syntactically constrained and uses a system of units

(single syntactical units, most often single words),

constituents (syntactic groups [noun phrases,

prepositional phrases, etc.]), and clause counts to monitor line

length. The following matrix as accounts for all lines of Hebrew

poetry:

Clause predicators 0 1 2 3

Constituents 1 2 3 4

Units 2 3 4 5

O'Connor examined a corpus of 1200 lines of Hebrew poetry. His

results may now be compared to the results of the 368 lines

examined from Proverbs 10-15.

Collins monitored the lines in a generative

manner. He noted that there were four basic sentence

types (A = SV; B = SVM; C = SVO; D = SVOM). He observed

four line types (bi-colon) which contained the four basic

sentence types (I = bi-colon contains only one basic

sentence [e.g., SV/O]; II = bi-colon contains two basic

sentences of the same type [ e.g., SVO/SVO, SV/SV]; III =

bi-colon contains two basic sentences of the same type but

bi-colon contains two different basic sentences [e.g.,

SVO/SV, SV/SVOM>). He then notes whether the subject is

present (i, ii, iii, iv) and gives numbers to the various

combination possibilities (SVO = 1; SOV = 2; VSO = 3;

etc.). The resultant model--used for modeling the

syntactic features was applied to the 184 verses of

Proverbs 10-15 and revealed certain clearly marked

differences from Collins' 1900 lines of prophetic corpus

and O'Connor's 1200 lines of normative Hebrew poetry.

These differences were collected in the final chapter of

this study. The benefit of Collins' and O'Connor's works

for this study is that they provide a benchmark to which

the proverbial corpus may be compared. It was O'Connor

who originally stimulated this writer's thinking on the

potentialities of poetic syntax, as well as personally

providing an example of how poetry should be read.

A Linguistic Approach

Present discussions of Hebrew poetics have yielded

two complementary methods of monitoring bi-colonic

syntactic relationships (Collins, O'Connor). The seventh

chapter examined various approaches to syntax, in search

of an adequate model which was philosophically/

linguistically satisfying, which could be utilized in

monitoring sub-lineal syntax, and which would also

facilitate bi-colonic comparison of these sub-lineal

units. After a brief discussion of the nature of the

relationship between linguistic symbol and that which the

symbol signifies, it was concluded that there is no

one-to-one correspondence between symbol and sense. This

should be taken into account when selecting a linguistic

model. The traditional method of diagramming sentences

was examined, pointing out strengths and weaknesses.

Recent attempts to move to a clause level and paragraph

analysis (coordination/subordination; W. Kaiser) seem to

this writer to be two steps forward and one step backward over

the traditional approach.

Structural linguistics (de Saussure) was examined

and its four-fold distinctions explained (langue/parole;

diachronic/synchronic; syntagmatic/paradigmatic,

hierarchical relationships). Structural grammars are the

most precising, empirically-based, constituent grammars in

existence and tagmemics lies in this tradition (de

Saussure, Bloomfield, K. Pike). With the coming of the

Chomskian rationalistic revolution, the lack of deep

structure considerations in the empirical structural model

caused its abandonment by many. Structuralism focuses

solely on text considerations and does not well account

for pragmatic/situational or intentional shifts, which are

crucial in determining meaning. This study has sought to

correct that error by including an overview of the various

historical and situational settings of wisdom. The

approach taken in the corpus is largely structural, but

also makes purposeful adjustments to correct the

deficiencies. In biblical studies, there has been a

recent, popularized form of structuralism which has opted

into the philosophical bases of linguistic structuralism

(de Saussure), but has not proven itself very meticulous

or thorough in its analysis of the text. It often jumps

in at the discourse level, rather than working up through

the morpheme, word, phrase, clause, sentence, and

paragraph, to the discourse (as is characteristic of

linguistic structuralists).

The Chomskian revolution moved linguistic

discussions away from the empiricism of structuralism to

the more rationalistic approach of transformational

grammar. Chomsky has tried carefully to specify

relationships between surface and deep grammar, thereby

moving syntactic linguistics one step closer to semantic

intentional considerations. His grammar is generative in

that he isolates a few rather simple laws which are able

to generate all possible sentence structures. It is

transformational in that it allows one to specify

syntactically relationships between sentence like "The

tree hit Rebekah" and "Rebekah was hit by the tree"

(passive transformation). While Chomsky is not without

critics (Robinson, Hudson), his fundamental insights are

vital and prove very beneficial as syntactic

transformations are frequently used in the paralleled

lines of Hebrew poetry. Often there is a shift in the

surface grammar of two parallel lines, although the deep

grammar is almost identical (Prov. 10:1, SVO/SPsc).

Tagmemics also has both generative and transformational

capacities, so it has not been antiquated by Chomsky's

discoveries.

The notion of deep grammar has given rise to more

funcitonal grammars, such as Fillmore's case grammar.

Case grammar specifies the role of a grammatical slot in

the sentence. The four surface subjects of the following

sentences each play a different role in the deep grammar

of the sentence.

Dick received a headache from reading the dusty tablet.

Weston received a halibut from the incoming net.

Don is refreshingly humorous.

Ted thanks them for reading his dry dissertation.

The subject in the first case (Dick) is the experiencer,

while in the second case (Weston) it is the goal or

recipient, in the third (Don) the subject is the

item/person of discussion, and in the fourth (Ted) the

subject is the actor. Case grammar provides a tool

for monitoring deep structure relationships and is included in

the third box of the tagmeme. Other grammars were

discussed (relational grammar, stratificational grammar,

pragmalinguistics) and their various contributions

accounted for within the model employed in this study.

The tagmemic approach of Kenneth Pike has proven

itself in the analysis of over 600 languages. It is also

flexible enough to accommodate most of the contributions

made by the various types of grammars. The tagmeme is

hierarchical in that it is designed to operate on all

levels of language--from the morpheme, word, phrase,

clause, sentence, and paragraph, to discourse levels. It

is empirically satisfying in that it specifies

relationships exactly and also accounts for the more

rationalistic functional approaches of case grammar. Its

cohesion box allows the monitoring of sister relationships (vid.

relational grammars) as well. The tagmeme

encourages an exact syntactic comparison of parallel

lines--from the word level, to the phrase, the clause and

even the line level. What exactly is a tagmeme? A six

box tagmeme was generated for the purpose of

this study.

Slot : Class

---------------------------

Role : Cohesion

---------------------------

Parsing : Heb. Word

It specifies grammatical relationships five ways. The

first box specifies grammatical slot (subject, verb,

object, Head, Modifier, etc). The second box names

the ”class of grammatical unit used to fill the slot (nouns,

verbs, prepositions, noun phrases, clauses, etc.). The

third box gives the deep structure role that the unit--

whether word, phrase, or clause--plays in the

communication process (experiencer, goal, actor, item, quality,

causer, etc.). The fourth box notes grammatical dependencies

(cohesions; sister and daughter relationships) perhaps between a

noun and a pronoun (Natanya shook her [3fs] head). The fifth box

was added on the word level to monitor morphological features, so

it gives the traditional parsing (msa = masculine, singular,

absolute, etc.). The sixth box was added on the word

level as convenience and just contains the Hebrew word

being treated, so that the reader does not lose track of

where he is in the maze of abbreviations. Thus the

tagmeme is a meticulous specification of grammatical form

and function. Examples of the illustrating this approach

may be found in the corpus of Proverbs 10-15 given above.

One may wonder if this study has moved away from

the aesthetic appreciation of poetic meaning for an

impenetrable labyrinth of gobbledygookish abbreviations

which syntactically atomize the text and leave the reader

with a feeling of frustration rather than the kalogenetic

synaesthia of poetry. The tagmeme, however, helps to

monitor how equivalences from the syntactic hierarchy are

actually used by the poet. It specifies exactly how he

paralleled his lines. Thus, its empirical exactness

allows one to move a step closer not only to thinking

the poet's thoughts after him, but as he thought them.

Having defined each line tagmemically, comparisons

between the lines were observed to see if the techniques

of syntactic parallelism could be isolated. Two

categories were designed to collect this data:

(1) isomorphic relationships (when the two lines manifest

exactly the same tagmeme); and (2) homomorphic

relationships (when the corresponding tagmemes are

similar but contain a point of variation). The monitoring of

isomorphic and homomorphic features generated

precise

grammatical transformations which the sages used in

constructing their messages. Thus the constraints under

which he operated as he wrote his poetry can now be

meticulously specified on the syntactic level. It is

obvious that such analysis should also be carried out on

the semantic and phonetic levels for a more satisfying

understanding of the poetic form (cf. Geller). This

writer is committed to the notion that a philosophically

proper understanding of language leads to an adequate

methodology, which should in turn lead to significant

results, particularly in poetry, which is so

methodological sophistry really worth it? Are the results

significant enough to warrant such tediousness?

The following results were generated from the

methodology presented above. It should be stated that the

analysis of the data base (tagmemic analysis of the

corpus of Proverbs 10-15) was not carried out in a

scientifically exhaustive manner, yet the results were

significant. The last two chapters (ch. 9 [Literary

Cohesion in Proverbs 10?] and ch. 10 [A Linguistic

Synthesis of the Syntax of Proverbial Poetry]) present

the discoveries as a result of the utilization of the

above methodology.

Literary Cohesion in Proverbs 10?

Chapter nine asks whether there is literary cohesion in

Proverbs 10. Most major commentators on

Proverbs (Toy, McKane, Whybray, Oesterley, Delitzsch, et

al.) have concluded that Proverbs 10-15 are haphazard

proverbs thrown together without any real literary

cohesion. From the linguistically sensitized framework

proposed in this paper, it was demonstrated that there is

indeed literary cohesion in Proverbs 10. Literary

arguments were generated suggesting that a totally

haphazard order is extremely unlikely due to principles of

literary uniformitarianism, selection procedures, and

psychological realities. The sages were demonstrated to

be capable of and aware of larger literary units in that

such structures are the rule in the rest of the book of

Proverbs (1:20-33, 8:22ff.; ch. 1-9; 16, 25 as well as the

well-known acrostic of 31:10-31). The collection

principles in other ancient Near Eastern proverb

collections were examined (Alster) and several features

noted (catch words, common initial signs, thematic

connections, and proverbial pairs). Modern proverbial

collections were also surveyed for general principles of

organization (Kuusi). Finally, the model of Skehan and

his follower, Brown, was examined. Skehan suggested that

the number of Solomon's name is equivalent to 375, that is

exactly the number of proverbs in Proverbs 10:1-22:16, and

that there were 15 columns of 25 proverbs each. The

potential of Skehan's suggestion was recently developed by

Brown. While Brown was able to locate correctly some

major structural divisions, his simplistic equation of

semantic repetition to structural markers was inadequate.

His method was totally based on semantic repetitions and

unfortunately he did not do a good job even at that, as he

seemed to skip repetitions which did not fit his theory.

Brown's hypothesis demonstrates once again the problem of

coming to the text with a preconceived structure in mind,

rather than allowing the structure to rise from the text.

Structures should be built up from smaller to larger units

(words, phrases, to discourse) rather than being forced down

(from discourse to words).

Several cohesional principles help assess how the

sage ordered the canonical text. Phonological repetitions

frequently played key roles in connecting proverbs

(11:9-12; 10:17-18, 25-26 et al.) and were also used to

bind stichs together (10:18; 11:15 et al.). Lexical

repetitions or catch words were numerous (10:2-3, 14-15;

11:5, 6 et al.). Repetition of whole phrases and clauses

were found as well (10:6, 11 et al.). Syntactic parallels

between proverbs also appeared (10:2-3, 31-32) as did some

topical cohesions (11:9-11). The cohesions took three forms:

(1) single proverb; (2) proverbial pair (10:2-3;

26:4-5); and (3) proverbial cluster (10:18-21; 11:9-11.

This is the first time that the literary unity and

structure of Proverbs 10:1-11:1 has been linguistically

demonstrated, although Bostrom's and Murphy's works have

made strides in that direction. Because this unity has

been almost universally denied or ignored, such techniques

hold much potential for the other chapters of proverbs

that have been labelled "helter skelter" and "thrown

together."

A Linguistic Synthesis of the

Syntax of Proverbial Poetry

The final chapter analyzed the mountain of

linguistic minutia compiled in the corpus in order to

discover significant syntactic patterns employed in

proverbial poetry. It began with a comparison with the

results of Collins' 1900 lines of prophetic poetry.

Several remarkable differences were discovered. First,

while Collins found an even distribution over the four

line types (I, II, III, IV), Proverbs manifested a

substantial shift in avoidance of I and III and favoring

II and IV. From this it may be deduced that proverbial

sayings tend to be composed of syntactically separate and

complete stichs. Secondly, there was a marked movement

away from basic sentence types D (SVOM) and A (SV) toward

an increased use of C (SVO) and nominal (SPsc) sentence

types. A discussion of the ordering patterns of each of

the basic sentence types followed (A, B, C, D). It was

observed that the prophets favored verb initial orderings,

repetition of pattern, S initial forms occurring in the

second line rather than the first, and an SO order when

following a verb. Proverbs, on the other hand, evinces a

strong tendency to put the subject first. Proverbs also

favors repetition of patterns, but frequently allows for

an SO order when following the verb. This is often due to

chiastic ordering constraints. Proverbs also had less

diversity in the ordering of its syntactic units, favoring

certain orders to the exclusion of others. In line type

IV two significant differences were observed from what

Collins found in the prophets: (1) Proverbs had a

substantial tendency to include explicitly the subject

element (i) whereas the prophets frequently allowed for it

to be dropped or affixed (ii, ii, iv); and (2) when there

was a subject deletion or affixation it was often found to

be a D (SVOM) sentence type, suggesting that some

O'Connorian syntactic constraints are at work. Such exact

syntactic differences provided the basis for the rather

sensational suggestion that one may be able to specify

explicitly genre differences on the basis of syntactical

patterns employed. The differences between the proverbial

and prophetic use of syntactical patterns as just observed

specify exact points of syntactic genre differentia.

Thus, not only the poetic line is syntactically

constrained, but genre may be also.

A comparison with the results of O'Connor's more

normative sample of Hebrew poetry (1225 lines) also

reveals several marked features of the proverbial sayings.

First, O'Connor found a large percentage (20%) of 122

configured lines (1 clause, 2 constituents, 2 units),

whereas these were found in Proverbs 10-15 only rarely

(0.5%). This is compatible with the marked increase in

Proverbs 10-15 of the 134 configuration (20%) over

O'Connor's corpus' 6.5%. These also may demonstrate

syntactic constraints which may be characteristic of the

proverbial sayings. This again evinces the principle that

genre may be a function of syntactical constraints.

Explanations for this--specifically how these

differences were achieved syntactically--led to a study of

noun phrase patterns. It was discovered that Proverbs in

the subject slot employed a two-membered noun phrase,

whereas O'Connor's corpus manifested a dominant single

nominal unit. This shift would push the 122 configuration

to 123 and the 133 configuration to 134, which is what was

observed. Note again the prominence of the subject

tagmeme, not only by its initial position (contra Collins'

prophetic corpus), but also in the number of units that

the subject contains (contra O'Connor's corpus). There

was also a substantial increase in nominal sentences (023, 024)

in Proverbs 10-15 (20%) as compared with O'Connor's corpus

(2.1%).

O'Connor's methodology also helped isolate another

feature of the proverbial corpus: the second line of the

bi-colon showed a marked tendency to be shorter than the

first. One might suggest that such a finding is rather

obvious in that the second line often gaps features

contained in the first, as noted in the comparison with

Collins. Proverbs 10-15 seems to avoid the extensive use

of gapping, favoring complete stichs instead. Thus, there

seems to be a purposeful tendency for the longer syntactic

units to be found in the first line, with the shorter

units in the second. Four-unit lines were found first 73%

of the time and often when found in the second line they

were matched with a 4 or 5 unit first line. Three unit

lines were found in the second stich 73% of the time and

often when they were found in the first line they were

matched with a 3 unit second line. What is being

fashioned here is the exact nature of syntactic

constraints under which the sages operated as they crafted

their sayings. By moving closer to how they formulated

their message, we move closer to an experience of the

original creative moment of these artistic expressions.

Having gained substantial results from a

comparison with the prophetic corpus of Collins and the

normative corpus of O'Connor, the study went on to dip

below the line level to observe sub-lineal syntactic

matches via the phenomena which have been labeled

isomorphic and homomorphic syntactic mappings between the

lines. While only about 33% of the lines exhibited

syntactic matching (O'Connor, Line type II [Collins]),

87.5% exhibited the sub-lineal syntactic features of

isomorphism and homomorphism. It was of interest that

there were more isomorphic relationships which demand both

surface and deep structure equivalence than there were

homomorphic parallels which allow for variation in surface

structure (slot and/or filler) or deep grammar

(role/case). Select examples were analyzed, illustrating

how the isomorphisms (Prov. 10:5, 8; 14:18) functioned.

Examples were provided of homomorphic cases, which varied

the deep structure while maintaining surface grammar

equivalence (10:8), and structures observing a common deep

grammar but with surface variations (10:15; 11:1, 18). The

cataloging of all isomorphisms and homomorphic variations into

patterns is a project for future study.

Because the great frequency of the two-membered

noun phrase was an endemic feature of proverbial poetry,

it was felt that it should be studied in more detail.

What was found was that the two-membered noun phrase was

rarely used in the object slot (10%), while the single

nominal unit occurred more frequently as an object (31%).

The subject was filled with either a single or

two-membered nominal. Typical noun phrase tagmemes were examined:

Hd : N Mod : N[Adj] Hd : N Mod : N/Adj/Ptc

(1) ----------- + --------------------, (2) ------------- + ----------------------

It : Pos : It : Qual : Qual:

Hd : N Mod : PS/N/PN Hd : N + Mod : PS/PN/N

(3) ----------- + -----------------------, (4) --------- ------------------------

It: Pos : It : Sp :

Examples of each were provided ([1] 10:4, 16, 20, 24; [2] 11:1,

18, 30; [3] 11:9, 12, 19, 28, 29; and [4] 12:11, 15). It was of

interest that the first, (1), was found 75% of the time in

subject slot positions and 75% in isomorphic mappings. The

second form, (2), was located most often in non-homomorphic

mappings in subject and subject complement slots. The third

occurs in non-homomorphic settings in object, prepositional

phrase, and subject complement positions. The fourth noun phrase

tagmeme group occurs mostly in non-homomorphic settings in all

slots, but is especially common in subject complements. It was

also observed that the proper name tagmeme was found exclusively

in first colon positions. Noun phrase morphological variation

was examined, which demonstrated that isomorphic mappings favored

number variation (66%). Secondly, it was discovered that the

number variation was normally from a first colon singular to a

second colon plural.

A final experiment was carried out on the (1) noun

phrase tagmeme. A cataloging of semantic fillers

characteristic of this tagmeme was attempted to see if

there was a semantic-syntactic correspondence. It was

found that for the case grammar formula It + Pos [Qual],

the following semantic patterns surfaced:

It = body parts (10:4; esp. mouth parts)

mental phenomena (12:5; e.g., thoughts)

material possessions (10:16; e.g., wages)

way (12:26)

Pos = qualities (major wisdom words; e.g., righteous,

wicked, wise, foolish, etc.)

One final study was done attempting to isolate

various types of syntactical transformations that occurred

in homomorphic structures. Four noun phrase

transforamtions were discovered: (1) N:Item + N:Quality

---> N: Quality (where the item term was often a body part

[10:18]; metaphorical term [10:11]; or transparent filler

term [11:16]); (2) N:Item + N:Quality ---> N:Item (10:20);

(3) S:NP + O:N ---> S:NP[N₁ + N₂] (10:27); and (4)

N:Item + N:Pos ---> N:Item + PS:Pos (10:15). Verbal

collapsing transformations were also observed: (1) S + V

---> V(S affixed) (10:3); (2) S + V(trans) + O ---> S

+ V(Intrans) (10:4, 21; 11:12); (3) S + V(active) ---> S +

V(passive) (10:8); and (4) SVO ---> SPsc where V ---> PSC

[N_v + N_o] (10:1). Other transformations observed are

reflected in the following formulae: (1) A + B ---> A'

+ B' + PP/Adv (10:2, 9; 11:7); (2) A + B + PPron ---> A' +

B` (10:22, 24; 11:25, 28); and (3) N ---> NP[N`₁conjN₂]

(11:31). The tagmemic approach facilitated not only the

identification of syntactic and morphological parallels between

sub-lineal units, but also encouraged the exact specification of

syntactic techniquest of transformation employed by the wise men

as they varied the syntactic line structures.

The primary goal of this study has been the

generation of a syntactic model which would be a

satisfactory tool for deictically revealing the intricate

and beautiful hues of poetic symmetries. The tagmemic

approach has proven itself to be such a tool--result of

which were merely sampled in this study. Presently, a

systematic analysis of the data base compiled on Proverbs

10-15 is needed. There is also a need for the generation

of a satisfactory way of linguistically monitoring the

semantic features of Hebrew poetry. Then there should be

a synthesis between the syntactic, semantic, and phonetic

features, to attain a wholistic appreciation for the

poetic genius of the sages who ordered divinely inspired

dyads to describe the order of the created cosmos.

Appendix 1

Collins' Line Types

Line Type II [Matching]

11:25 SV / SV II A: i)1,1

13:9 SV / SV II A: i)1,1

13:11 SV / SV II A: i)1,1 Total 5

13:20 SV / SV II A: i)1,1

14:11 SV / SV II A: i)1,1

13:19 SVP / SVP II B: i)1,1

11:8 SPV / VSP II B: i)2,3 Total 4

11:4 VSP / SVP II B: i)3,1

14:32 PVS / VPS II B: i)6,4

11:3 SVO / SVO II C: i)1,1

11:13 SVO / SVO II C: i)1,1

11:16 SVO / SVO II C: i)1,1

12:6 SVO / SVO II C: i)1,1

12:23 SVO / SVO II C: i)1,1

13:6 SVO / SVO II C: i)1,1

14:2 SVO / SVO II C: i)1,1

14:15 SVO / SVO II C: i)1,1

15:1 SVO / SVO II C: i)1,1

15:2 SVO / SVO II C: i)1,1

15:14 SVO / SVO II C: i)1,1 Total 23

15:18 SVO / SVO II C: i)1,1

15:20 SVO / SVO II C: i)1,1

15:30 SVO / SVO II C: i)1,1

10:12 SVO / OVS II C: i)1,6

12:27 VSO / OVS II C: i)1,6

14:10 SVO / OVS II C: i)1,6

14:18 VSO / SVO II C: i)3,1

12:21 VOS / SVO II C: i)4,1

12:26 VOS / SVO II C: i)4,1

11:17 VOS / VOS II C: i)4,4

14:25 VOS / VOS II C: i)4,4

13:21 OVS / OVS II C: i)6,6

10:5 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

10:16 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

10:18 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

11:1 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

11:19 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

11:23 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

11:30 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1 Total 29

12:1 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

12:5 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

14:21 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

14:24 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

14:28 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

15:4 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

15:8 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

Line Type II

Matching

15:15 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

15:19 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

15:32 SPsc / SPsc II nom.: i)1,1

10:15 SPsc / PscS II nom.: i)1,2

12:4 SPsc / PscS II nom.: i)1,2

13:24 SPsc / PscS II nom.: i)1,2

10:20 PscS / SPsc II nom.: i)2,1

11:20 PscS / PscS II nom.: i)2,2

12:22 PscS / SPsc II nom.: i)2,1

14:30 PscS / PscS II nom.: i)2,2

15:26 PscS / PscS II nom.: i)2,2

12:28 PPsc / PPsc II nom.: ii)2,2

14:4 PPsc / PscP II nom.: ii)2,1

15:6 PPsc / PPsc II nom.: ii)2,2

12:20 PscP / PPsc II nom.: ii)1,2

Line Types I, III, and ?

Contiguous, Gapping, and Non-Fitting Forms

15:31 S / PV I B: iii)2

15:3 SP / VO I D: iii)3 Total 5

14:27 SPsc / P I nom.: i)1

11:22 Psc / S I nom.: iv)2

13:14 SPsc / P I mod nom.: iii)1

12:19 SVP / PS III B: i)1,2

11:31 SPV / S III B: i)2,1

14:19 VSP / SP III B: i)3,1

14:14 PVS / PS III B: i)6,2 Total 7

15:22 VSP / PV III B: iii)3,2

11:11 PVS / PV III B: iii)6,2

14:33 PVS / PV III B: III)6,2

10:32 SVO / SV III C: i)1,1

11:18 SVO / SO III C: i)1,1

12:17 SVO / SO III C: i)1,1

13:1 SO / SVO III C: i)1,1

14:35 SO / SVO III C: i)1,1 Total 8

11:27 SVO / OVO III C: iii)1,2

10:3 VSO / OV III C: iii)3,2

15:25 OVS / VO III C: iii)6,1

14:23 PVO / PO III D: ii)5,2

12:15 SPscp / SPsc III nom.: i)1,1

15:11 SPsc / S III nom.: i)1,1 Total 5

10:23 SPsc / Psc III nom.: iii)1,1

15:33 SPsc / PscS III nom.: iii)1,2

10:29 PscPS / PscP III nom.: iii)4,1

Double Predication and other Variational Forms

10:25 PP + PscS / SPsc ?

10:26 SPsc + SPsc / SPsc ?

11:24 PscS + VO / SP ?

12:7 VO + PscS / SV ? Total 17

11:2 VS + VS / PscS ?

11:15 AV + VO / SPsc ?

13:7 ExstCl + ExstCl / ExstCl + ExstCl ?

14:6 VSO + Psc / SPV ?

12:9 Aug Comp / Dim Comp ?

13:4 VPscS / SV ?

13:5 OVS / SVV ?

14:16 SVVP / SPsc ?

13:23 PscP / VPscP ?

14:12 VPscP / SPsc ?

15:16 PscSP / SA ?

15:17 PscS / SA ?

15:23 PscPP / SPPsc ?

Line Type IV

Mixing

11:28 SV / PSV IV A/B: i)1,5

10:2 VS / SVP IV A/B: i)2,1

12:24 SV / SVO IV A/C: i)1,1 Total 6

14:5 SV / VOS IV A/C: i)1,4

10:22 SV / VOP IV A/D: iii)1,1

14:22 VS / PscS IV A/nom.: i)1,2

10:9 SVA / SV IV B/A: i)1,1

13:13 SVP / SV IV B/A: i)1,1

13:25 SVP / SV IV B/A: i)1,1

12:3 VSP / SV IV B/A: i)3,1

11:7 PVS / SV IV B/A: i)6,1

11:21 AVS / SV IV B/A: i)6,1

13:16 SVP / SVO IV B/C: i)1,1

15:28 SVP / SVO IV B/C: i)1,1

10:30 SPV / SVO IV B/C: i)2,1 Total 19

12:8 PVS / SVO IV B/C: i)6,1

14:7 VP / VO IV B/C: ii)1,1

13:17 SVP / SPsc IV B/nom.: i)1,1

10:13 PVS / SPsc IV B/nom.: i)6,1

10:19 PVS / SPsc IV B/nom.: i)6,1

11:14 PVS / PscP IV B/nom.: i)6,1

14:20 PVS / SPsc IV B/nom.: i)6,1

11:10 PVS / PPsc IV B/nom.: i)6,2

14:13 PVS / PSPsc IV B/nom.: i)6,5

12:18 VSP / SPsc IV B/nom.: i)3,1

10:8 SVO / SV IV C/A: i)1,1

10:10 SVO / SV IV C/A: i)1,1

10:24 SVO / SV IV C/A: i)1,1

10:27 SVO / SV IV C/A: i)1,1

10:31 SVO / SV IV C/A: i)1,1 Total 10

14:17 SVO / SV IV C/A: i)1,1

15:5 SVO / SV IV C/A: i)1,1

12:12 VSO / SV IV C/A: i)3,1

11:12 VOS / SV IV C/A: i)4,1

10:4 OVS / SV IV C/A: i)6,1

10:21 SVO / SPV IV C/B: i)1,2

13:22 SVO / VPS IV C/B: i)1,3 Total 5

11:5 SVO / PVS IV C/B: i)1,6

11:6 SVO / PV IV C/B: iii)1,2

15:12 VSO / PV IV C/B: iii)3,2

14:1 SVO / SPVO IV C/D: i)1,3

10:1 SVO / SPsc IV C/nom.: i)1,1

10:14 SVO / SPsc IV C/nom.: i)1,1

12:11 SVO / SPsc IV C/nom.: i)1,1

13:3 SVO / SPscP IV C/nom.: i)1,1

Line Type IV

Mixing

13:15 SVO / SPsc IV C/nom.: i)1,1

14:8 SVO / SPsc IV C/nom.: i)1,1

15:7 SVO / SPsc IV C/nom.: i)1,1

14:31 SVO / PscS IV C/nom.: i)1,2 Total 15

14:34 SVO / PscS IV C/nom.: i)1,2

13:12 SVO / PscS IV C/nom.: i)1,2

11:29 SVO / PscSP IV C/nom.: i)1,3

12:10 VSO / SPsc IV C/nom.: i)3,1

11:26 OVS / PscP IV C/nom.: i)5,1

14:9 SVO / PPsc IV C/nom.: iii)1,2

15:13 SVO / PPsc IV C/nom.: iii)1,2

11:9 PSVO / PSV IV D/B: i)13,5

12:25 SPVO / SVO IV D/C: i)3,1

12:16 SPVO / VOS IV D/C: i)3,4 Total 7

12:2 SVOP / OV IV D/C: iii)1,2

12:14 PVO / SVO IV D/C: iv)5,1

13:2 PVO / SO IV D/C: iv)5,1

13:10 PVO / PPsc IV D/nom.: ii)5,2

10:7 SPsc / SV IV nom./A: i)1,1

10:28 SPsc / SV IV nom./A: i)1,1

10:17 PscS / SV IV nom./A: i)2,1 Total 6

13:18 PscS / SV IV nom./A: i)2,1

15:27 PscS / SV IV nom./A: i)2,1

15:10 PscP / SV IV nom./A: iv)1,1

12:13 PPscS / VPS IV nom./B: i)6,4

15:24 SPscP / VP IV nom./B: iii)1,1

14:29 SPsc / SVO IV nom./C: i)1,1

15:21 SPscP / SVO IV nom./C: i)1,1

10:6 SPsc / OVS IV nom./C: i)1,6

10:11 PscS / SVO IV nom./C: i)2,1 Total 8

13:8 PscS / SVO IV nom./C: i)2,1

15:9 PscS / OV IV nom./C: iii)2,2

15:29 PscSP / OV IV nom./C: iii)3,2

14:3 PPsc / SVO IV nom./C: iv)2,1

14:26 SPsc / PVO IV nom./D: iii)1,5

Appendix II

An O'Connorian Analysis of the Lines of Proverbs 10-15

10:1a SVO 134

10:1b SPsc 024

10:2a VS 123

10:2b SVP 133

10:3a VSO 134

10:3b OV 123

10:4a OVS 134

10:4b SV 123

10:5a SPsc 234

10:5b SPsc 234

10:6a SPsc 023

10:6b OVS 134

10:7a SPsc 023

10:7b SV 123

10:8a SVO 134

10:8b SV 123

10:9a SVA 244

10:9b SV 233

10:10a SVO 234

10:10b SV 123

10:11a PscS 024

10:11b SVO 134

10:12a SVO 133

10:12b OVS 133

10:13a PVS 134

10:13b SPsc 024

10:14a SVO 133

10:14b SPsc 024

10:15a SPsc 024

10:15b PscS 023

10:16a SPsc 023

10:16b SPsc 023

10:17a PscS 234

10:17b SV 223

10:18a SPsc 224

10:18b SPsc 234

10:19a PVS 134

10:19b SPsc 223

10:20a PscS 024

10:20b SPsc 023

10:21a SVO 134

10:21b SPV 134

10:22a SV 134

10:22b VOP 133

10:23a SPsc 244

10:23b Psc 223

10:24a SVO 134

10:24b SV 123

O'Connor's Analysis

10:25a PP + PscS 234

10:25b SPsc 023

10:26a SPsc + SPsc 244

10:26b SPsc 022

10:27a SVO 134

10:27b SV 123

10:28a SPsc 023

10:28b SV 123

10:29a PscPS 034

10:29b PscP 023

10:30a SPV 133

10:30b SVO 133

10:31a SVO 134

10:31b SV 123

10:32a SVO 134

10:32b SV 123

O'Connor's Analysis

11:1a SPsc 024

11:1b SPsc 023

11:2a VS + VS 244

11:2b PscS 022

11:3a SVO 123

11:3b SVO 123

11:4a VSP 134

11:4b SVP 133

11:5a SVO 134

11:5b PVS 133

11:6a SVO 123

11:6b PV 123

11:7a PVS 135

11:7b SV 123

11:8a SPV 133

11:8b VSP 133

11:9a PSVO 144

11:9b PSV 133

11:10a PVS 134

11:10b PPsc 223

11:11a PVS 134

11:11b PV 123

11:12a VOS 134

11:12b SV 123

11:13a SVO 234

11:13b SVO 234

11:14a PVS 133

11:14b PscP 023

11:15a AV + VO 234

11:15b SPsc 123

11:16a SVO 134

11:16b SVO 133

11:17a VOS 134

11:17b VOS 123

11:18a SVO 134

11:18b SO 224

11:19a SPsc 023

11:19b SPsc 223

11:20a PscS 024

11:20b PscS 023

11:21a AVS 134

11:21b SV 133

11:22a Psc 024

11:22b S 124

11:23a SPsc 023

11:23b SPsc 023

11:24a PscS + VO 234

11:24b SP 233

11:25a SV 123

11:25b SV 133

O'Connor's Analysis

11:26a OVS 234

11:26b PscP 023

11:27a SVO 234

11:27b OVO 223

11:28a SV 244

11:28b PSV 133

11:29a SVO 234

11:29b PscSP 034

11:30a SPsc 024

11:30b SPsc 123

11:31a SPV 133

11:31b S 122

O'Connor's Analysis

12:1a SPsc 224

12:1b SPsc 223

12:2a SVOP 144

12:2b OV 123

12:3a VSP 133

12:3b SV 123

12:4a SPsc 024

12:4b PscS 033

12:5a SPsc 023

12:5b SPsc 023

12:6a SVO 134

12:6b SVO 123

12:7a VO + PscS 233

12:7b SV 123

12:8a PVS 134

12:8b SVO 134

12:9a Aug Comp 044

12:9b Dim Comp 023

12:10a VSO 134

12:10b SPsc 023

12:11a SVO 234

12:11b SPsc 224

12:12a VSO 134

12:12b SV 123

12:13a PPscS 034

12:13b VPS 133

12:14a PVO 135

12:14b SVO 135

12:15a SPscP 034

12:15b SPsc 233

12:16a SPVO 144

12:16b VOS 133

12:17a SVO 244

12:17b SO 123

12:18a VSP 134

12:18b SPsc 023

12:19a SVP 134

12:19b PS 123

12:20a PscP 024

12:20b PPsc 023

12:21a VOS 135

12:21b SVO 133

12:22a PscS 024

12:22b SPsc 023

12:23a SVO 134

12:23b SVO 134

12:24a SV 123

12:24b SVO 133

O'Connor's Analysis

12:25a SPVO 134

12:25b SVO 123

12:26a VOS 133

12:26b SVO 123

12:27a VSO 133

12:27b OVS 134

12:28a PPsc 123

12:28b PPsc 123

O'Connor's Analysis

13:1a SO 124

13:1b SVO 133

13:2a PVO 135

13:2b SO 123

13:3a SVO 234

13:3b SPscP 234

13:4a VPscS 144

13:4b SV 123

13:5a OVS 134

13:5b SVV 233

13:6a SVO 134

13:6b SVO 133

13:7a ExstCl + ExstCl 244

13:7b ExstCl + ExstCl 233

13:8a PscS 024

13:8b SVO 133

13:9a SV 123

13:9b SV 123

13:10a PVO 133

13:10b PPsc 022

13:11a SV 133

13:11b SV 133

13:12a SVO 134

13:12b PscS 024

13:13a SVP 244

13:13b SV 234

13:14a SPsc 024

13:14b P 123

13:15a SVO 134

13:15b SPsc 023

13:16a SVP 134

13:16b SVO 133

13:17a SVP 134

13:17b SPsc 023

13:18a PscS 234

13:18b SV 223

13:19a SVP 134

13:19b SVP 134

13:20a SV 233

13:20b SV 223

13:21a OVS 133

13:21b OVS 133

13:22a SVO 134

13:22b VPS 134

13:23a PscP 024

13:23b VPscP 033

13:24a SPsc 024

13:24b PscS 023

13:25a SVP 134

13:25b SV 123

O'Connor's Analysis

14:1a SVO 134

14:1b SPVO 133

14:2a SVO 244

14:2b SVO 233

14:3a PPsc 024

14:3b SVO 123

14:4a PPsc 023

14:4b PscP 024

14:5a SV 123

14:5b VOS 134

14:6a VSO + Psc 244

14:6b SPV 133

14:7a VP 123

14:7b VO 123

14:8a SVO 134

14:8b SPsc 023

14:9a SVO 133

14:9b PPsc 022

14:10a SVO 134

14:10b OVS 133

14:11a SV 123

14:11b SV 123

14:12a VPscP 134

14:12b SPsc 023

14:13a PVS 133

14:13b PSPsc 033

14:14a PVS 234

14:14b PS 123

14:15a SVO 134

14:15b SVO 133

14:16a SVVP 244

14:16b SPsc 033

14:17a SVO 134

14:17b SV 123

14:18a VSO 133

14:18b SVO 133

14:19a VSP 133

14:19b SP 123

14:20a PVS 133

14:20b SPsc 023

14:21a SPsc 233

14:21b SPsc 223

14:22a VS 123

14:22b PscS 034

14:23a PVO 134

14:23b PO 123

14:24a SPsc 023

14:24b SPsc 023

14:25a VOS 134

14:25b VOS 133

O'Connor's Analysis

14:26a SPsc 024

14:26b PVO 133

14:27a SPsc 024

14:27b P 123

14:28a SPsc 024

14:28b SPsc 024

14:29a SPsc 024

14:29b SVO 134

14:30a PscS 024

14:30b PscS 023

14:31a SVO 234

14:31b PscS 223

14:32a PVS 133

14:32b VPS 133

14:33a PVS 134

14:33b PV 123

14:34a SVO 133

14:34b PscS 023

14:35a SO 124

14:35b SVO 133

O'Connor's Analysis

15:1a SVO 134

15:1b SVO 134

15:2a SVO 134

15:2b SVO 134

15:3a SP 024

15:3b VO 133

15:4a SPsc 024

15:4b SPsc 044

15:5a SVO 134

15:5b SV 223

15:6a PPsc 024

15:6b PPsc 023

15:7a SVO 134

15:7b SPsc 023

15:8a SPsc 024

15:8b SPsc 023

15:9a PscS 024

15:9b OV 223

15:10a PscP 224

15:10b SV 223

15:11a SPsc 033

15:11b S 013

15:12a VSO 244

15:12b PV 122

15:13a SVO 134

15:13b PPsc 024

15:14a SVO 134

15:14b SVO 134

15:15a SPsc 024

15:15b SPsc 024

15:16a PscSP 024

15:16b SA 024

15:17a PscS 035

15:17b SA 024

15:18a SVO 134

15:18b SVO 134

15:19a SPsc 024

15:19b SPsc 023

15:20a SVO 134

15:20b SVO 134

15:21a SPscP 034

15:21b SVO 134

15:22a VSP 133

15:22b PV 123

15:23a PscPP 034

15:23b SPPsc 033

15:24a SPscP 034

15:24b VP 123

O'Connor's Analysis

15:25a OVS 134

15:25b VO 123

15:26a PscS 024

15:26b PscS 023

15:27a PscS 324

15:27b SV 223

15:28a SVP 134

15:28b SVO 134

15:29a PscSP 033

15:29b OV 123

15:30a SVO 134

15:30b SVO 134

15:31a S 134

15:31b PV 123

15:32a SPsc 324

15:32b SPsc 324

15:33a SPsc 024

15:33b PscS 023

Appendix III

Ordered by First Colon Configuration

10:16 023/023 SPsc/SPsc

11:23 023/023 SPsc/SPsc

12:5 023/023 SPsc/SPsc

14:24 023/023 SPsc/SPsc 023 = 9 [Goes last 31x]

14:4 023/024 PPsc/PscP

10:28 023/123 SPsc/SV

10:7 023/123 SPsc/SV

10:6 023/134 SPsc/OVS

11:19 023/223 SPsc/SPsc

10:20 024/023 PscS/SPsc

10:15 024/023 SPsc/PscS

11:1 024/023 SPsc/SPsc

11:20 024/023 PscS/PscS

12:20 024/023 PscP/PPsc

12:22 024/023 PscS/SPsc 024 = 30 [Goes last 10x

13:24 024/023 SPsc/PscS 8 of which

14:30 024/023 PscS/PscS are 4 or 5 in

15:6 024/023 PPsc/PPsc the first colon]

15:8 024/023 SPsc/Spsc

15:19 024/023 SPsc/SPsc

15:26 024/023 PscS/PscS

15:33 024/023 SPsc/PscS

15:15 024/024 SPsc/SPsc

15:16 024/024 PscSP/SA

14:28 024/024 SPsc/SPsc

13:23 024/033 PscP/VPscP

12:4 024/033 SPsc/PscS

15:4 024/044 SPsc/SPsc

11:30 024/123 SPsc/SPsc

13:14 024/123 SPsc/P

14:3 024/123 PPsc/SVO

11:22 024/124 Psc/S

14:27 024/123 SPsc/P

14:26 024/133 SPsc/PVO

13:8 024/133 PscS/SVO

15:3 024/133 SP/VO

10:11 024/134 PscS/SVO

14:29 024/134 SPsc/SVO

15:9 024/223 PscS/OV

15:11 033/013 SPsc/S 033 = 2 [goes last 5x]

15:29 033/123 PscSP/OV

10:29 034/023 PscPS/PscP

15:23 034/033 PscPP/SPPsc

15:24 034/123 SPscP/VP 034 = 6 [goes last 2x]

12:13 034/133 PPscS/VPS

15:21 034/134 SPscP/SVO

12:15 034/233 SPscP/SPsc

15:17 035/024 PscS/SA

12:9 044/023 Aug Comp/DimComp

14:22 123/034 VS/PscS

11:3 123/123 SVO/SVO

11:6 123/123 SVO/PV

12:28 123/123 PPsc/PPsc

13:9 123/123 SV/SV 123 = 11 [goes last 47x]

14:7 123/123 VP/VO

14:11 123/123 SV/SV

10:2 123/133 VS/SVP

11:25 123/133 SV/SV

12:24 123/133 SV/SVO

14:5 123/134 SV/VOS

13:1 124/133 SO/SVO

14:35 124/133 SO/SVO

13:10 133/022 PVO/PPsc

14:9 133/022 SVO/PPsc

14:20 133/023 PVS/SPsc

14:34 133/023 SVO/PscS 133 = 20 [goes last 32x]

11:14 133/023 PVS/PscP

10:14 133/024 SVO/SPsc

14:13 133/033 PVS/PSPsc

11:31 133/122 SPV/S

14:19 133/123 VSP/SP

15:22 133/123 VSP/VP

12:3 133/123 VSP/SV

12:26 133/123 VOS/SVO

13:11 133/133 SV/SV

13:21 133/133 OVS/OVS

10:12 133/133 SVO/OVS

10:30 133/133 SPV/SVO

11:8 133/133 SPV/VSP

14:18 133/133 VSO/SVO

14:32 133/133 PVS/VPS

12:27 133/134 VSO/OVS

12:10 134/023 VSO/SPsc

12:18 134/023 VSP/SPsc

13:15 134/023 SVO/SPsc

13:17 134/023 SVP/SPsc

14:8 134/023 SVO/SPsc

14:12 134/023 VPscP/SPsc

15:7 134/023 SVO/SPsc 134 = 59 [goes last 18x

10:13 134/024 PVS/SPsc 15 of which have

10:1 134/024 SVO/SPsc 4 or 5 units in

13:12 134/024 SVO/PscS the first line]

15:13 134/024 SVO/PPsc

14:17 134/123 SVO/SV

14:23 134/123 PVO/PO

14:33 134/123 PVS/PV

15:25 134/123 OVS/VO

15:31 134/123 S/PV

12:6 134/123 SVO/SVO

12:25 134/123 SPVO/SVO

12:19 134/123 SVP/PS

12:12 134/123 VSO/SV

10:3 134/123 VSO/OV

10:4 134/123 OVS/SV

10:8 134/123 SVO/SV

10:24 134/123 SVO/SV

10:27 134/123 SVO/SV

10:31 134/123 SVO/SV

10:32 134/123 SVO/SV

11:11 134/123 PVS/PV

11:12 134/123 VOS/SV

11:17 134/123 VOS/VOS

13:25 134/123 SVP/SV

14:1 134/133 SVO/SPVO

14:10 134/133 SVO/OVS

14:15 134/133 SVO/SVO

14:25 134/133 VOS/VOS

13:16 134/133 SVP/SVO

13:6 134/133 SVO/SVO

10:22 134/133 SV/VOP

11:4 134/133 VSP/SVP

11:5 134/133 SVO/PVS

11:16 134/133 SVO/SVO

11:21 134/133 AVS/SV

10:21 134/134 SVO/SPV

12:8 134/134 PVS/SVO

12:23 134/134 SVO/SVO

13:19 134/134 SVP/SVP

13:22 134/134 SVO/VPS

15:1 134/134 SVO/SVO

15:2 134/134 SVO/SVO

15:14 134/134 SVO/SVO

15:18 134/134 SVO/SVO

15:20 134/134 SVO/SVO

15:28 134/134 SVP/SVO

15:30 134/134 SVO/SVO

10:19 134/223 PVS/SPsc

11:10 134/223 PVS/PPsc

15:5 134/223 SVO/SV

11:18 134/224 SVO/SO

13:5 134/233 OVS/SVV

11:7 135/123 PVS/SV

13:2 135/123 PVO/SO 135 = 4 [goes last 1x

12:21 135/133 VOS/SVO where it matches

12:14 135/135 PVO/SVO with a 135]

12:2 144/123 SVOP/OV

13:4 144/123 VPscS/SV 144 = 4 [goes last 0x]

11:9 144/133 PSVO/PSV

12:16 144/133 SPVO/VOS

15:10 224/223 PscP/SV

12:1 224/223 SPsc/SPsc 224 = 3 [goes last 2x both

10:18 224/234 SPsc/SPsc times paired with

4 unit first colon]

12:7 233/123 VO+PscS/SV 233 = 3 [goes last 6x]

13:20 233/223 SV/SV

14:21 233/223 SPsc/SPsc

10:25 234/023 PP +PscS/SPsc

11:26 234/023 OVS/PscP

11:29 234/034 SVO/PscSP

14:14 234/123 PVS/PS

11:15 234/123 AV+VO/SPsc 234 = 15 [goes last 5x

10:10 234/123 SVO/SV all of which

10:17 234/223 PscS/SV follow 4 or 5

14:31 234/223 SVO/PscS unit first line]

11:27 234/223 SVO/OVO

13:18 234/223 PscS/SV

12:11 234/224 SVO/SPsc

11:24 234/233 PscS+VO/SP

13:3 234/234 SVO/SPscP

11:13 234/234 SVO/SVO

10:5 234/234 SPsc/SPsc

10:26 244/022 SPsc+SPsc/SPsc

11:2 244/022 VS+VS/PscS

14:16 244/033 SVVP/SPsc

15:12 244/122 VSO/PV 244 = 12 [never last]

12:17 244/123 SVO/SO

14:6 244/133 VSO+Psc/SPV

11:28 244/133 SV/PSV

10:23 244/223 SPsc/Psc

10:9 244/233 SVA/SV

13:7 244/233 Exst Cl (4x)

14:2 244/233 SVO/SVO

13:13 244/234 SVP/SV

15:27 324/223 PscS/SV 324 = 2 [goes last once

15:32 324/324 SPsc/SPsc when matched to

a 324]

Appendix IV

Ordered by Second Colon Configuration

15:11 033/013 SPsc/S

13:10 133/022 PVO/PPsc

14:9 133/022 SVO/PPsc 022 = 4

10:26 244/022 SPsc+SPsc/SPsc

11:2 244/022 VS+VS/PscS

10:16 023/023 SPsc/SPsc

11:23 023/023 SPsc/SPsc

12:5 023/023 SPsc/SPsc

14:24 023/023 SPsc/SPsc

10:20 024/023 PscS/SPsc

10:15 024/023 SPsc/PscS

11:1 024/023 SPsc/SPsc 023 = 31

11:20 024/023 PscS/PscS

12:20 024/023 PscP/PPsc

12:22 024/023 PscS/SPsc

13:24 024/023 SPsc/PscS

14:30 024/023 PscS/PscS

15:6 024/023 PPsc/PPsc

15:8 024/023 SPsc/Spsc

15:19 024/023 SPsc/SPsc

15:26 024/023 PscS/PscS

15:33 024/023 SPsc/PscS

10:29 034/023 PscPS/PscP

14:20 133/023 PVS/SPsc

14:34 133/023 SVO/PscS

11:14 133/023 PVS/PscP

12:10 134/023 VSO/SPsc

12:18 134/023 VSP/SPsc

13:15 134/023 SVO/SPsc

13:17 134/023 SVP/SPsc

14:8 134/023 SVO/SPsc

14:12 134/023 VPscP/SPsc

15:7 134/023 SVO/SPsc

10:25 234/023 PP +PscS/SPsc

11:26 234/023 OVS/PscP

12:9 044/023 Aug Comp/DimComp

14:4 023/024 PPsc/PscP

15:15 024/024 SPsc/SPsc

15:16 024/024 PscSP/SA

14:28 024/024 SPsc/SPsc 024 = 10

15:17 035/024 PscS/SA

10:14 133/024 SVO/SPsc

10:13 134/024 PVS/SPsc

10:1 134/024 SVO/SPsc

13:12 134/024 SVO/PscS

15:13 134/024 SVO/PPsc

13:23 024/033 PscP/VPscP

12:4 024/033 SPsc/PscS

15:23 034/033 PscPP/SPPsc 033 = 5

14:13 133/033 PVS/PSPsc

14:16 244/033 SVVP/SPsc

14:22 123/034 VS/PscS

11:29 234/034 SVO/PscSP

15:4 024/044 SPsc/SPsc

11:31 133/122 SPV/S

15:12 244/122 VSO/PV

10:28 023/123 SPsc/SV

10:7 023/123 SPsc/SV

11:30 024/123 SPsc/SPsc

13:14 024/123 SPsc/P

14:3 024/123 PPsc/SVO

14:27 024/123 SPsc/P 123 = 47

15:29 033/123 PscSP/OV

15:24 034/123 SPscP/VP

11:3 123/123 SVO/SVO

11:6 123/123 SVO/PV

12:28 123/123 PPsc/PPsc

13:9 123/123 SV/SV

14:7 123/123 VP/VO

14:11 123/123 SV/SV

14:19 133/123 VSP/SP

15:22 133/123 VSP/VP

12:3 133/123 VSP/SV

12:26 133/123 VOS/SVO

14:17 134/123 SVO/SV

14:23 134/123 PVO/PO

14:33 134/123 PVS/PV

15:25 134/123 OVS/VO

15:31 134/123 S/PV

12:6 134/123 SVO/SVO

12:25 134/123 SPVO/SVO

12:19 134/123 SVP/PS

12:12 134/123 VSO/SV

10:3 134/123 VSO/OV

10:4 134/123 OVS/SV

10:8 134/123 SVO/SV

10:24 134/123 SVO/SV

10:27 134/123 SVO/SV

10:31 134/123 SVO/SV

10:32 134/123 SVO/SV

11:11 134/123 PVS/PV

11:12 134/123 VOS/SV

11:17 134/123 VOS/VOS

13:25 134/123 SVP/SV

11:7 135/123 PVS/SV

13:2 135/123 PVO/SO

12:2 144/123 SVOP/OV

13:4 144/123 VPscS/SV

12:7 233/123 VO+PscS/SV

14:14 234/123 PVS/PS

11:15 234/123 AV+VO/SPsc

10:10 234/123 SVO/SV

12:17 244/123 SVO/SO

11:22 024/124 Psc/S

14:26 024/133 SPsc/PVO

13:8 024/133 PscS/SVO

15:3 024/133 SP/VO

12:13 034/133 PPscS/VPS

10:2 123/133 VS/SVP

11:25 123/133 SV/SV

12:24 123/133 SV/SVO 133 = 32

13:1 124/133 SO/SVO

14:35 124/133 SO/SVO

13:11 133/133 SV/SV

13:21 133/133 OVS/OVS

10:12 133/133 SVO/OVS

10:30 133/133 SPV/SVO

11:8 133/133 SPV/VSP

14:18 133/133 VSO/SVO

14:32 133/133 PVS/VPS

14:1 134/133 SVO/SPVO

14:10 134/133 SVO/OVS

14:15 134/133 SVO/SVO

14:25 134/133 VOS/VOS

13:16 134/133 SVP/SVO

13:6 134/133 SVO/SVO

10:22 134/133 SV/VOP

11:4 134/133 VSP/SVP

11:5 134/133 SVO/PVS

11:16 134/133 SVO/SVO

11:21 134/133 AVS/SV

12:21 135/133 VOS/SVO

11:9 144/133 PSVO/PSV

12:16 144/133 SPVO/VOS

14:6 244/133 VSO+Psc/SPV

11:28 244/133 SV/PSV

10:6 023/134 SPsc/OVS

10:11 024/134 PscS/SVO

14:29 024/134 SPsc/SVO

15:21 034/134 SPscP/SVO

14:5 123/134 SV/VOS

12:27 133/134 VSO/OVS

10:21 134/134 SVO/SPV

12:8 134/134 PVS/SVO

12:23 134/134 SVO/SVO 134 = 18

13:19 134/134 SVP/SVP

13:22 134/134 SVO/VPS

15:1 134/134 SVO/SVO

15:2 134/134 SVO/SVO

15:14 134/134 SVO/SVO

15:18 134/134 SVO/SVO

15:20 134/134 SVO/SVO

15:28 134/134 SVP/SVO

15:30 134/134 SVO/SVO

12:14 135/135 PVO/SVO

11:19 023/223 SPsc/SPsc

15:9 024/223 PscS/OV

10:19 134/223 PVS/SPsc

11:10 134/223 PVS/PPsc

15:5 134/223 SVO/SV 223 = 14

15:10 224/223 PscP/SV

12:1 224/223 SPsc/SPsc

13:20 233/223 SV/SV

14:21 233/223 SPsc/SPsc

10:17 234/223 PscS/SV

14:31 234/223 SVO/PscS

11:27 234/223 SVO/OVO

13:18 234/223 PscS/SV

10:23 244/223 SPsc/Psc

15:27 324/223 PscS/SV

11:18 134/224 SVO/SO

12:11 234/224 SVO/SPsc

12:15 034/233 SPscP/SPsc

13:5 134/233 OVS/SVV

11:24 234/233 PscS+VO/SP 233 = 6

10:9 244/233 SVA/SV

13:7 244/233 Exst Cl (4x)

14:2 244/233 SVO/SVO

10:18 224/234 SPsc/SPsc

13:3 234/234 SVO/SPscP 234 = 5

11:13 234/234 SVO/SVO

10:5 234/234 SPsc/SPsc

13:13 244/234 SVP/SVÜjÜŒ

15:32 324/324 SPsc/SP

Appendix V

A Comparison with O'Connor's Line Configurations

[Hebrew Verse Structure, pp. 317-18]

Proverbs 10-15 O'Connor's

#2 013 1 (0.3%) 65 (5.3%)

#4 022 4 (1%) 13 (1%)

#5 023 40 (10.9%) 21 (1.7%)

#6 024 40 (10.9%) 5 (0.4%)

#8 033 7 (1.9%) 1 (0.1%)

#9 034 8 (2.2%) 1 (0.1%)

#10 035 1 (0.3%) 0

#11 044 2 (0.5%) 0

#13 122 2 (0.5%) 245 (20%)

#14 123 58 (15.8%) 229 (18.7%)

#15 124 3 (0.8%) 31 (2.5%)

#17 133 52 (14.1%) 275 (22.4%)

#18 134 77 (20.9%) 79 (6.5%)

#19 135 5 (1.4%) 10 (0.8%)

#20 144 4 (1.1) 20 (1.6%)

#23 223 15 (4.1%) 3 (0.2%)

#24 224 5 (1.4%) 0

#26 233 9 (2.4%) 92 (7.5%)

#27 234 20 (5.4%) 19 (1.6%)

#29 244 12 (3.3%) 17 (1.4%)

#XX 324 3 (0.8%) 0

Appendix VI

Types of NP's: Iso types

Hd : N Mod : N[Adj]

--------- + ---------------

It : Pos :

[Qual] :

10:4 S:NP:Ca [f-m,s-p];

10:16 S:NP:It [=];

10:20 S:NP:It [s-p];

10:24 S:NP:Pat [s-p];

10:28 S:NP:It [p-p];

10:32 S:NP:Ag [d-s,s-p];

11:23 S:NP:It [=];

12:5 S:NP:It [=];

12:6 S:NP:Ag [p-s];

13:9 S:NP:Ag [f-m];

14:24 S:NP:It [p-p];

15:2 S:NP:Ag [f-m];

15:8 S:NP:It [m-f];

15:19 S:NP:It [s-p];

15:26 S:NP:It [f-m,s-p];

15:28 S:NP:Ag [s-p];

10:11 S:NP:It--S:NP:Ag [s-p];

10:31 S:NP:Ag--S:NP:Exp [m-f,s-d];

14:8 S:NP:Ag--S:NP:It [s-p];

14:11 S:NP:Exp--S:NP:Ag [c-a];

15:7 S:NP:Ag--S:NP:It [d-s];

10:3 O:NP:Exp [s-p];

15:25 O:NP:Pat [m-f,p-s];

12:12 O:NP:Pat--S:NP:Ag [=];

10:6 O:NP:Exp/Goal--PP:Nuc:NP:Exp/Goal [s-p];

11:11 PP:Nuc: NP:It [f-m];

15:6 PP:Nuc:NP:Loc--PP:NP:Ca[acc] [m-f];

Hd : N Mod : PS

-------- + ---------- 13:3 O:NP:Pat [m-f,s-p];

It : Pos : 14:2 PP:Nuc:NP:It [=]

Hd : N Mod : N

--------- + -------------- 12:14 NP:Mod:NP:Ag [m-f,s-p]

It : Pos :

[Exp]:

----------------------------------------------------------

There are 96 Iso NPs, 73 Homo NPs, and 160 non-Homo.

Types of NP's: Iso types

Hd : N Mod : N

-------- + -----------

It : Qual :

11:1 S:NP:It [d-s,m-f];

12:19 S:NP:Exp [f-m];

14:5 S:NP:Ag [s-p];

11:30 S:NP:It--Psc:NP:Clas [s-p];

13:17 S:NP:Exp--S:NP:It [a-c,s-p];

14:27 Psc:NP:Clas--PP:Nuc:NP:It [s-p,p-s]

11:18 O:NP:Prod [f-m,m-f];

Hd : ptc Mod : N [Adj]

---------- + --------------------

It : Qual :

14:22 S:NP:Ag--S:NP:It[Qual] [=]

Hd : N Mod : ptc

--------- + --------------- 10:5 Psc:NP:Clas [Hi-Ni]

It : Qual :

Hd : ptc Mod : N

---------- + ---------------

Ag : Pat :

[Qual]:

12:20 NP:Mod:NP:Qual--PP:Nuc:Exp [=]

Hd : N[Adj] Mod : N

----------------- + ---------------

Qual : It :

10:8 S:NP:Ag--S:NP:Exp [m-f,s-d]

----------------------------------------------------------

Types of NP's: Iso Types

Hd : N Mod : PS

--------- + ---------

It : Sp :

11:17 O:NP:Exp [f-m];

14:32 PP:Nuc:NP:It [f-m];

12:4 NP:Mod:NP:Pos--PP:Nuc:Sp [m-f,s-p,3fs-3ms];

Hd : ptc Mod : PS

----------- + ------------

It : Sp :

14:31b O:NP:Pat--Psc:NP:Res [msc-3ms]

Hd : N Mod : N

--------- + --------- 14:30 Psc:NP:Clas [m-f,p-s,p-s]

It : Sp :

----------------------------------------------------------

Hd : N Mod : ptc

---------- + ------------ 13:12 S:NP:Ag--S:NP:It [Pu-Q]

It : Sts :

Hd : N[Adj] Mod : N

----------------- + --------- 14:29 S:NP:It [m-f,s-p]

Quan : It :

Types of NP's: Homo Types

Hd : N Mod : N

--------- + --------

It Qual:

10:1b S:NP:Ca [msa+msa];

11:12b S:NP:Ag [msc+fpa];

11:22a S:NPcomplex:Nuc:NP:It [msc+msa];

12:4a S:NP:It [fsc+fsa];

12:22a S:NP:It [fpc+msa];

12:23b S:NP:Ag [msc+mpa];

14:17b S:NP:Exp [msc+fpa];

15:1b S:NP:Ag [msc+msa];

15:17b S:NP:It [msc+msa];

15:18a S:NP:Ag [msc+fsa]

12:28a PP:Nuc:Loc [msc+fsa];

14:33b PP:Nuc:NP:Loc [msc+fpa];

Hd : N Mod : Adj

---------- + ------------

It Qual :

10:1a S:NP:Ca [msa+msa];

11:22b S:Npcomplex:Nuc:NP:It [fsa+fsa];

12:23a S:NP:Ag [msa+msa];

13:15a S:NP:Ag [msc+msa];

15:1a S:NP:Ag [msa+msa];

15:20a S:NP:Ag [msa+msa]

14:4a Psc:NP:Res [msa+msa];

Hd : ptc Mod : N

------------- + ----------- 12:22b S:NP:It [Qptc+fsa]

It : Qual :

Hd : N Mod : NP

------------ + -----------

It : Qual :

10:15a Psc:NP:Clas [fsc+NP]

Hd : N Mod : NP

------------ + ----------

So : Qual :

12:8a PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+NP]

Types of NP's: Homo NP's

Hd : ptc Mod : N

------------- + ----------- 12:8b S:NP:Exp [Niptc+msa]

Qual: So :

Hd : N Mod : ptc

------------ + ------------ 13:19a S:NP:Ag [fsa+Niptcfsa]

It : Qual :

Exst :

Hd : N Mod : ptc

--------- + ------------

It : Qual :

14:33a PP:Nuc:NP:Loc [msc+Niptcmsa]

Mod : N Hd : N 15:20b S:NP:Ag [msa+msa];

-------------- + ---------- 15:30a S:NP:Ag [msc+mda]

Qual : It :

Mod : N Hd : Adj 15:30b S:NP:Ag [fsa+fsa]

------------- + -----------

Qual : It :

----------------------------------------------------------

Hd : N Mod : N 10:15a S:NP:It [msc+msa];

--------- + ----------- 14:35a S:NP:It [msc+msa]

It : Pos : 12:27b O:NP:Pat [msc+msa];

Hd : N Mod : PS 10:15b S:NP:It [mpa+3mp];

----------- + ------------ 14:35b S:NP:It [fsc+3ms]

It : Pos : 12:27a O:NP:Pat [msc+3ms];

Hd : N Mod : PN

---------- + --------- 12:22a Psc:NP:Clas [fsc+PN]

It Pos

Types of NP's: Homo Types

Hd : N Mod : N[Adj]

----------- + ---------------

It Pos :

[Qual]:

10:7b S:NP:Pat [msc+mpa];

13:15b S:NP:It [msc+Qptcmpa]

10:15b Psc:NP:Clas [fsc+mpa];

Hd : N Mod : NP

---------- + ----------- 10:13b PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+NP]

It : Pos :

[Qual]:

Hd : N Mod : ptc

----------- + -------------

It : Pos :

[Qual]:

10:13a PP:Nuc:NP:It [fdc+Niptcmsa]

Hd : N Mod : N

----------- + -------------- 14:28a Psc:NP:Clas [fsc+msa]

It : Pos :

[Sp] :

----------------------------------------------------------

Hd : N Mod : PS

----------- + ---------------

It : Sp :

11:1b Psc:NP:Clas [msc+3ms];

11:20b Psc:NP:Clas [msc+3ms];

12:22b Psc:NP:Clas [msc+3ms];

15:8b Psc:NP:Clas [msc+3ms]

11:5a O:NP:Pat [msc+3ms];

14:15b O:PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+3ms];

Types of NP's: Homo Types

Hd : N Mod : N

----------- + --------------

It : Sp

14:17a S:NP:Ag [msc+mpa];

15:17a S:NP:It [fsc+msa]

14:28b Psc:NP:Clas [fsc+msa];

12:28b PP:Nuc:NP:Loc [msc+fsa];

Hd : N Mod : PN

----------- + ----------- 11:20a Psc:NP:Clas [fsc+PN];

It : Sp : 15:8a Psc:NP:Clas [fsc+PN]

Hd : N Mod : PS

----------- + -----------

It : Sp :

[Qual]:

11:5b PP:Nuc:NP:Ag [fsc+3ms]

Hd : N Mod : N

----------- + ------------ 15:4a S:NP:It [msc+fsa]

Qual : Sp :

Hd : N Mod : PP 15:4b S:NPmod:It [msa+PP];

---------- + ----------- 15:4b Psc:NPmod:Res [fsa+PP]

Qual : Sp :

----------------------------------------------------------

Hd : N[Adj] Mod : N

------------------ + ---------------

Quan : It :

11:12a S:NP:Ag [msc+msa];

15:18b S:NP:Ag [msc+mpa]

14:15a PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+msa];

14:28a PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+msa];

Mod : Adj Hd : N

--------------- + ---------- 14:4b Psc:NP:Res [msa+fpa]

Quan : It :

Types of NP's: Homo Types

Mod : N Hd : Ptc

------------- + --------------

Quan : It :

11:14b PP:Nuc:NP:It [msa+Qptcmsa];

15:22b PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+Qptcmpa]

----------------------------------------------------------

Hd : N Mod : PP

---------- + ----------- 13:19b S:NP:Clas [fsc+mpa]

It : Exp :

Hd : ptc Mod : NP

------------- + ------------- 13:24a Psc:NP:Clas [Qptcmsc+NP]

Ag : Exp :

Hd : ptc Mod : PS

----------- + ---------------

Ag : Exp :

13:24b Psc:NP:Clas [Qptcmsc+3ms]

Mod : ptrc Hd : N

--------------- + -----------

Neg : It

Exst :

11:14a PP:Nuc:NP:It [Neg+fpa]

15:22a PP:Nuc:NP:It [Neg+msa]

Mod : N Hd : N

------------- + ------------

Neg : It :

Exst

14:28b PP:Nuc:NP:It [msa+msa]

Hd : N Mod : N[Adj]

----------- + ------------- 10:7a S:NP:It [msc+msa]

It : Pat :

Types of NP's: Homo Types

Hd : N Mod : PP

------------ + ----------- 13:11a S:ModNP:Ag [msa+PP]

It : So :

Hd : N Mod : PP

------------ + -----------

It Means:

13:11b S:ModNP:Ag [Qptcmsa+PP]

Types of NP's: Non-Homo/Iso

Hd : N Mod : N

---------- + ---------------

It : Qual :

10:23b S:PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+fsa];

11:16a S:NP:Ag[Qual] [fsc+msa];

11:17a S:NP:Ag [msc+msa];

11:25a S:NP:Exp [fsc+fsa];

12:17b S:NP:Ag [msc+mpa];

14:25a S:NP:Ag [msa+fsa];

14:30a S:NP:It [msc+msa];

15:21b S:NP:Ag [msc+fsa];

15:24a S:NP:It [msc+mpa];

10:11a Psc:NP:Clas [msc+mpa];

10:18a Psc:NP:Clas [fdc+msa];

13:12b Psc:NP:Clas [msa+mpa];

13:14a Psc:NP:Clas [msc+msa];

14:12b Psc:NP:Clas [mpc+msa];

14:26a Psc:NP:Clas [msc+msa];

14:27a Psc:NP:Clas [msc+mpa];

15:33a Psc:NP:Clas [msc+fsa]

12:2b O:NP:Exp [msc+fpa];

13:5a O:NP:Pat [msc+msa];

14:7b O:NP:Pat [fpc+msa];

15:31a O:NP:Pat [fsc+mpa];

13:14b PP:Nuc:NP:It [mpc+msa];

14:7a PP:Nuc:NP:It [msa+msa];

Hd : N Mod : Adj

------------- + -----------------

It : Qual :

12:25b S:NP:Ag [msa+msa];

13:1 S:NP:Ag [msa]

14:14b S:NP:Exp [msa+msa];

15:13a S:NP:Ag [msa+msa];

14:12a Psc:NP:It [fsc+msa];

15:10a Psc:NP:It [msa+msa];

11:7a PP:Mod:NP:Sp [msa+msa];

Hd : N Mod : ptc

------------ + ------------

It : Qual :

13:22b S:NP:Ag [msc+Qptcmsa];

10:20a Psc:PPgapped:NP:Clas [msa+Niptcmsa];

14:35a O:PP:Nuc:NP:Pat [msc+Niptcmsa]

Types of NP's: Non-Homo/Iso Types

Hd : ptc Mod : N

------------ + ---------------

Ag : Qual :

10:29b PP:Nuc:NP:Exp [Qptcmpc+msa]

Hd : N Mod : N

----------- + --------------

Temp: Qual:

11:4a PP:Nuc:NP:Qual [msc+fsa]

Hd : N Mod : N

------------ + ---------------

Qual : It :

15:13b PP:Nuc:NP:Ag [fsc+msa]

Hd : Adj Mod : N 15:15b S:NP:It [msc+msa];

---------------- + ------------ 11:19a S:NP:It [msc+fsa]

Qual : It :

Hd : N Mod : N

------------ + -------------

Qual : It :

[Sp]:

12:13a PP:Nuc:NP:means [msc+fpa]

Hd : N Mod : N

---------- + --------- 14:1a S:NP:Ag [fpc+fpa]

Qual : Sp :

Hd : N Mod : PS

---------- + ---------------- 12:8a PP:Mod:NP:Sp [msc+3ms]

Qual : Sp :

----------------------------------------------------------

Types of NP's: Non-Homo or Iso

Hd : N Mod : PS

--------- + ----------------

It : Sp :

10:9b S:TransCl:PP:Nuc:NP:Loc [mpc+3ms];

13:24a S:NPcomplex:Mod:NP:Inst [msc+3ms];

11:28a S:TransCl:O:PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+3ms];

11:29a S:TransCl:O:NP:Pat [msc+3ms];

14:21a S:TransCl:O:PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+3ms];

10:1b Psc:Mod:NP:Exp [fsc+3ms];

13:24a Psc:NPcomplex:ModNP [msc+3ms];

15:27a Psc:TransCl:O:NP:Pat [msc+3ms]

11:19b Psc:PP:Nuc:NP:Prod [msc+3ms];

11:12a O:PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+3ms];

11:9a O:NP:Exp [msc+3ms];

12:10a O:NP:Mod:NP:Sp [fsc+3ms];

12:16a O:NP:Pat [msc+3ms];

12:26a O:NP:Exp [msc+3ms];

15:20b O:NP:Exp [fsc+3ms];

15:5a O:NPcomplex:Mod:NP:Sp [msc+3ms];

14:13b PP:Nuc:NP:It [fsc+3fs];

14:14a PP:Nuc:NP:Ca [fpc+3ms];

15:23b PP:Nuc:NP:It [fsc+3ms];

Hd : N Mod : PN

----------- + ----------

It : Sp :

10:27a S:NP:Ag [fsc];

10:29a S:NP:It [msc];

15:33a S:NP:It [fsc]

14:27a S:NP:It [fsc];

14:26a S:PP:Nuc:NP:It [fsc];

15:9a Psc:NP:Clas [fsc];

15:26a Psc:NP:Clas [fsc];

15:16a PP:Nuc:NP:It [fsc];

Types of NP's: Non-Homo or Iso

Hd : N Mod : N

---------- + -------------

It : Sp :

10:10b S:NP:Exp [msc+fda];

15:11b S:NPcomplex:Mod:NP:Pos[Sp] [mpc+msa];

14:34b Psc:NP:Clas [msa+msa];

15:19a Psc:PP:Nuc:NP:It [fsc+msa]

13:22a O:NP:Exp [mpc+mpa];

11:22a PP:Nuc:NP:It [msa+msa];

14:4ab PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+msa];

14:23b PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+fda];

Hd : N Mod : NP

----------- + --------- 15:23a PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+NP]

It : Sp : 11:7a PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+NP]

Hd : ptc Mod : N

---------- + -------------- 14:20b S:NP:It [Qptcmpc+msa]

It : Sp :

Hd : ptc Mod : PS

---------- + -------------- 14:31a O:NP:Pat [Qptcmsc+3ms]

It : Sp :

Hd : ptc Mod : PS

----------- + -------------

Ag : Sp :

10:26b PP:Nuc:NP:It [Qptcmsa+3ms]

Hd : N Mod : ptc

----------- + ---------------

It : Sp :

11:26b PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+Hiptcmsa]

Hd : N Mod : PS

---------- + --------------- 14:20a PP:Nuc:NP:Ag [mpc+3ms]

Ag : Sp :

Types of NP's: Non-Homo/Iso Types

Hd : N[Adj] Mod : N

------------------ + -------------

It : Sp :

[Qual]:

11:29b PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+Hiptcmsa]

Mod : N Hd : N

---------- + -------------

Sp : It :

15:3a PP:Nuc:NP:Loc [msc+msa]

Mod : N Hd : N[Adj]

----------- + -------------- 13:16a S:NP:Ag [msc+msa]

Sp : It :

[Qual]

----------------------------------------------------------

Hd : N Mod : N[Adj]

---------- + --------------------

It Pos :

[Qual]:

10:14b S:NP:It [msc+msa];

10:21a S:NP:Ag [fdc+msa];

10:27b S:NP:Pat [fpc+mpa];

11:5a S:NP:Ag [fsc+msa];

11:21b S:NP:Exp [msc+mpa];

12:3b S:NP:Exp [msc+mpa];

12:7b S:NP:It [msa+mpa];

12:10b S:NP:It [mpc+mpa];

12:18b S:NP:It [fsc+mpa];

12:24a S:NP:Ag [fsc+msa];

12:26b S:NP:Ag [fsc+mpa];

13:4b S:NP:Exp [fsc+mpa];

13:25b S:NP:Ag[Exp] [fsc+mpa];

15:9a S:NP:It [msc+msa];

15:29b O:NP:Pat [fsc+mpa]

14:19b PP:Nuc:NP:Loc [mpc+msa];

Types of NP's: Non-Homo or Iso

Hd : N Mod : PS

---------- + -------------

It : Pos :

12:11a S:TransCl:O:NP:Pat [fsc+3ms];

13:8a S:NP:It [msc+3ms];

14:12b S:NP:It [fsc+3fs];

13:3a O:NP:Pat [fsc+3ms];

14:8a O:NP:Pat [msc+3ms];

14:10a O:NPcomplex:Mod:NP:Sp [fsc+3ms];

14:10b O:PP:Nuc:NP:It [fsc+3ms];

14:21b Psc:NP:Clas [mpc+3ms];

14:24a Psc:NP:Clas [msa+3mp];

15:32a Psc:TransCl:O:NP:Pat [fsc+3ms]

12:15a PP:Nuc:NP [mpc+3ms];

13:25a PP:Mod:NP:Exp [fsc+3ms];

14:1b PP:Nuc:NP:It [fsc+3fs];

14:26b PP:Nuc:NP:Exp [mpc+3ms];

15:23a PP:Nuc:NP:It [msa+3ms];

13:4a Mar:NP:Exp [fsc+3ms];

Hd : N Mod : ptc

---------- + ---------------

It : Pos :

[Qual]:

13:2b S:NP:Ag [fscQptcmpa]

13:23a PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+Qptcmsa]

Hd : N Mod : PS

------------ + ---------------

Pat : Pos :

10:19b S:TransCl:O:NP:Pat [fdc+3ms]

Types of NP's: Non-Homo/Iso Types

Hd : N Mod : PP

--------- + ---------------

It : Pos :

12:9a Hd:CoorNP:Nuc:Mod:PP:Pos[msa+PP]

Hd : N Mod : N[Adj]

------------ + ---------------- 12:15a S:NP:It [msc+msa]

It : Pos :

Hd : N Mod : N

----------- + --------------

It : Pos :

12:25a PP:Nuc:NP:Loc [msc+msa];

13:8a Psc:NPcomplex:Mod:NP:Ben [fsc+msa]

15:3a S:NP:Ag [fdc+PN]

Hd : N Mod : N

---------- + -------------- 13:2a PP:Mod:NP:So [msc+msa]

So Pos :

[Sp]:

Hd : N Mod : PN

---------- + --------------- 10:22a S:NP:Ag [fsc+PN]

It : So :

Hd : N Mod : N

---------- + -------------- 13:1a O:NP:Pat [msc+msa]

It : So :

Hd : N Mod : N[Adj]

---------- + ---------------------- 13:14a S:NP:It [fsc+msa]

It : So :

[Qual]:

Types of NP's: Non-Homo/Iso Types

Hd : N Mod : N[Adj]

---------- + -------------- 11:10a PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+mpa]

It : Exp :

Hd : N Mod : NP

---------- + ---------------

It : Exp :

13:25a PP:Nuc:NPcomplex:End[msc+NP]

Hd : Ptc Mod : PS

------------ + ----------

Temp: Exp :

13:24b S:NPcomplex:Mod:NP:Temp [Piptc+3ms]

Hd : N Mod : Adv

--------- + ----------

It : Temp:

15:15b Psc:NP:Event [msa+Adv]

Hd : N Mod : Adj

---------- + ----------

It : Quan:

15:16b S:NP:It [msa+msa]

13:7b Psc:NP:Prod [msa+msa]

15:6a Psc:NP:It [msa+msa]

Mod : N Hd : N

------------- + -------------

Quan : It :

12:21a S:NP:Pat [msc+msa];

13:23a Psc:NP:It [msc+msa];

14:29a Psc:NP:Clas [msc+fsa]

10:12b O:PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+mpa];

Types of NP's: Non-Homo/Iso Types

Mod : Adj Hd : N

------------- + -------------

Quan : It :

12:11b Psc:NP:Clas [msc+msa]

10:13b PP:Mod:NP:Pos[Qual] [mcs+msa];

10:19a PP:Nuc:NP:It [msa+mpa];

10:21b PP:Nuc:NP:Ca [msc+msa];

15:21a PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+msa]

Hd : Adj Mod : N

------------- + ----------

Quan : Sp :

12:9b CoorNP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+msa]

Hd : N Mod : N

------------- + --------------

Quan : It :

14:23a PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+msa]

Mod : DA Hd : N

------------ + -------------- 10:26b S:NP:It [DA+msa]

Gen : It :

Hd : N Mod : N

---------- + ------------- 11:7b S:NP:Pat [fsc+mpa]

Pat : Goal:

Mod : Adv Hd : N

------------- + -----------

Rst : It :

11:23a Psc:NP:Clas [Adv+msa]

Hd : N Mod : NP

------------ + -------------

It : Ag :

12:14a PP:Nuc:NPcomplex:Ag [msc+NP]

Types of NP's: Non-Homo and Iso

Hd : N Mod : N

----------- + --------------

It : Inst :

12:18a PP:Nuc:NP:It [mpc+fsa]

Mod : ptrc Hd : N

------------- + --------------- [Neg+msa]

Neg : It :

Mod : Adv Hd : N

-------------- + -------------

Neg : It :

12:28b Psc:NP:It[Exst][Adv+msa]

Hd : N Mod : N

------------- + ------------ 13:6a O:NP:Exp [msc+msa]

It : Sc :

[Qual] :

Hd : N Mod : NP

---------- + ----------------

It : Ben :

13:8a Psc:NPcomplex:Res [msc+NP]

Hd : ptc Mod : NP

------------ + --------------

Ag : Inst:

13:24a S:NPcomplex:Act [Qptcmsa+NP]

Hd : N Mod : N

------------ + -------- 14:3a Psc:NP:It [msc+msa]

Inst: Sc :

Mod : prtc Hd : Adj

-------------- + ---------- 15:23b Psc:NP:Clas [prtc+msa]

Emp : It :

Types of NP's: Non-Homo or Iso

Hd : N Mod : N[Adj]

---------- + --------------------

Loc : It :

[Qual]:

15:31b PP:Nuc:NP:It [msc+mpa]

Hd : N Mod : Adv

---------- + --------------- 15:17a Mar:NP:It [fsa+Adv]

It : Loc :

Bibliography of Works Cited

See Web site for a more complete (210 pages) and up-to-date

Bibliography on Proverbs

(http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/index.cfm)

Sheffield University Press: Phoenix will be publishing a topically

arranged Proverbs bibliography developed by Dr. Fred Putnam

and myself. Should be out June 2009.