Expository Times 11
(1899): 13-16.
Public
Domain
The Fools of the Bible
By the
Rev. W. P. Paterson, D.D.,
Professor of
Theology,
WHETHER
it was because of its greater or because
of its lesser rarity, the subject of folly
commanded
more attention in earlier ages than it does among
ourselves. Alike by the poet, the moralist, and
the philosopher, the theme was felt to be as
important as it was attractive. Some set them-
selves to describe its chief manifestations in man-
as in Brandt's Ship of Fools, which pithily
describes
many varieties, and points out the special humilia-
tion or punishment
appropriate to each kind.
Others
speculated as to the purpose which it
serves in the world-for instance, Erasmus, who
in his Praise of Folly ascribed to it many bene-
ficent uses, and undertook to
show that in many
positions a man may find it to his advantage, and
at all events may be the happier, for not being
over-wise. And to the Literature of Folly the
Bible
had already made its large, while more'
profound and solemn, contributions. For the
Bible
has to some extent the character of a 'ship
of fools'--having on board, and carrying to judg-
ment, human and Divine, the
most representative
and striking of the members of the family. And
certainly if we except the sinner, the saint, and
the
sufferer, there is no human type which it so
closely scrutinizes as the fool, or in which it
is
so keenly interested.
In the idea of the fool, as it is met
with in
Scripture,
the fundamental element seems to be
that he is unable to look after his own interests-
that if not his own enemy he is at least his own
very inefficient servant and guardian. And when
this, the practical outcome of his conduct, is
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Bible
traced to its source, it is explained by the peculiar-
working of a mind which does not do justice to
facts, His is a mind to which realities are largely
imaginations, and imaginations
realities. The
temple of its building is the fool's paradise. 'The
fool walketh in darkness'
(Ec 214).
Starting now from such general
conception,
the Bible first gives us a tolerably minute
portrait
of the fool proper, a weakling in respect of
intellect and will, This variety, which is
specially
prominent in Proverbs, may be cited as Solomon's
fool. Next, it was observed that the title might
be extended to include wicked men as such, on
the ground that they too are guided by the fool's
maxims; and from the specially clear perception
of this in the Psalter, we may distinguish as the
Psalmist's fool the evil-doer. Yet again, it had
.become
clear to the prophetic mind, and was
confirmed by our Lord, that godlessness is
foolish-
ness; whence we may distinguish as a third type
Christ's
fool-the irreligious man. These are the
classes of fools seriously so-called, and in
addition
there is in the New Testament an ironical
extension of the title to the Christian. This is
I. Solomon's Fool.--In analysing the character
of the weakling, or Solomon's fool; we find that
stress is mainly laid upon four qualities. The
first is the essential feature already referred to,
which in his case takes the form of disregard of
the three natural blessings of life. These are
health, issuing in long life, a fair portion of this
world's goods, and the respect of society; and
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while wisdom heaps them with lavish hand upon
her children, the fool cannot acquire or retain
them
(Pr 316). Health and wealth he
squanders, and
his only promotion is from shame to shame (335).
With this essential characteristic, now,
three
other qualities are seen in experience to be
inextricably associated. Perhaps the
most con-
spicuous is want of the power of
self-control. The
fool is a larger child, governed by the impulse of
the passing moment, and indisposed to make any
sacrifice on behalf of the unseen, or to stake
any-
thing on the future. In many ways he shows his
lack of self-restraint. He cannot rule his temper
--'his
wrath is presently known' (1216), or his
tongue-' he must utter all his mind' (2911),
and
he may even be pretty confidently identified' by
multitude of words' (Ec
53). Nor can he refrain
from mixing himself up with what does not con-
cern him--'every fool will
be meddling' (Pr 203).
Of
the accidental characteristics, the next and
only less prominent quality is his self-conceit.
Though
he might have learned humility from his
mistakes and failures, though he may have drawn
upon him many a rebuff because of his empty
speech and his volunteered advice, the experiences
have not at all affected his self-esteem, or shaken
his faith in his own judgment. 'The way of a
fool is right in his own eyes' (Pr 1215).
And
lastly, and very pathetically, he is virtually incor-
rigible. If he be taken in hand
early, it is taught,
the earnest teacher may effect some improvement
through sound instruction enforced by the rod,
but if the season be neglected, his case becomes
well-nigh desperate--'though thou shouldest bray
a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet
will not his foolishness depart from him' (2722).
What is most striking in the above
portrait is
the combination with unmistakable foolishness of
certain qualities which we often place in
another
category. A violent temper rather impresses
timid people as evidence of force of character, the
multitude of words is often regarded with respect
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by the uneducated as good proof of intellectual
ability; and it is well to be reminded that both
may have their root in foolishness, and that the
Carlylean contempt for loquacity may properly be
extended to unbridled anger.
2.
The PsalmIst's fool is distinguished by moral
depravity rather than by weakness of mind and
will. He is, in short, a wicked man, who quite
probably is clever, rich, and powerful. 'I was
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envious at the foolish,' it is said, 'when I saw
the
prosperity of the wicked' (Ps 733)--clearly
imply-
ing thereby that the two
classes are identical. In
the Book of the Proverbs, it is true, there is also
a
distinct consciousness that bad men come within
the definition--'fools make a mock at sin' (149),
but in the Psalms sinners are the main body,
the fools par excellence.
And probably no more important announce-
ment was ever made in the
region of conduct
than that the wicked man as such is a fool. For
the discovery dealt at wrong-doing the deadly
blow of turning the laugh against it. The
difficulty was to prove it true to the whole range
of human experience. Many sins and vices, it
was easy to show, had the character of folly-sins
of the flesh, notably, into which the
weakling-fool
easily and naturally glides. But it was not so
clear that other violations of morality, as lying,
dishonesty, oppression, left the doers thereof with
the worst of the bargain. Especially was it not
clear until the definite announcement of a future
life and a final retributive judgment. But even
without the aid of the doctrine of immortality,
the sages of the Old Testament undertook to
show that the good man as such is wise, and
that the bad man, however prosperous and
honoured, is no better than a
fool. And even
when they had no proof to offer, as in Ecclesiastes,
they had faith enough to believe it.
That wickedness is folly was maintained
on two
grounds. The argument of Ps 13 is that the pro-
sperity of the wicked, though
often great, is short-,
lived--'Thou didst set them in slippery places'
(7318).
Judgment might be delayed, but it would
come at last-involving them and their house in
ruin. But well-founded as this observation was
in general, it was not borne out in every case;
and so the writer of the Book of Job was im-
pelled to undertake a more
exhaustive examination
of the subject in the form of a study of suffering
innocence. What his main argument is has been
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much disputed, but he at least suggests the
thought that a good man, though suffering all
the!
ills that flesh is heir to, nevertheless preserves
and
augments his best possession if he preserves his
rectitude and his faith in God. And, conversely,
it would hold that a bad man, however he might
have prospered by intrigue and injustice, was at
lir bottom a failure and
worthless. The book at
least contains in germ the argument which is the)
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strongest against an evil life, apart from that
supplied by immortality, and which the latter
does
not render superfluous-that goodness is wisdom,
wickedness folly, because of the harvest to which
they ripen in the soul.
3. The Fool in the teaching of our
Lord is chiefly
distinguished by want of spiritual
insight, or 'the
imprudent ordering of the life in regard to
salvation' (Mt 726 2317 252,
Lk 1140 1220, 2425).
The
epithet is applied to those who have perverted
views of religion, or who fail to understand
tial features of the faith
and life of the gospel.
And
most appropriately of all does it apply to
those who practically have no religion. Of the
fools of the Old Testament he 'who saith in his
heart there is no God' (Ps 141) seems to be
fastened on by Jesus as most faithful to type.
In
the twelfth chapter of Luke he is clothed with
flesh and blood in the Parable of the Rich Fool
(vv.16-21).
This man has not the qualities of the
weakling, for he is shown to have understanding
of his business, to grow rich, and to make
provision
for the future. Nor is anything said as to his
being dishonest or profligate. His claim to the
title rests upon the fact that his life was bounded
by the things of sense and time, and that he took
no account of God and of the event which brings
into the nearer presence of God.
Is
the irreligious man as such a fool? Many
will admit something less than this-that he is at
least deficient in one of the higher capacities of
human nature, that he wants a finer sense, and
that to that extent his character is impoverished
or mutilated; yet for the much stronger language
of our Lord we can discover a double ground.
For,
in the first place, if it be most distinctively
the fool's way, as was seen, to shut the eyes to
facts, it must be the height of foolishness to give
no place in our thoughts, and to allow no
influence
upon our lives, to the Being who is the Alpha and
the Omega of existence, the God of whom and by
whom and to whom are all things. To ignore
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God
is to be supremely guilty of fleeing from the
real to take refuge in an imaginary world. In the
second place, irreligion means neglect of the only
existing provision for securing our highest
personal
interests. Everywhere and always religion has
given itself out as the vehicle of attainment and
victory; and the achievement of the highest good
that was foreshadowed and promised in lower
religions is fulfilled in Christianity. It must be
15ba Fools of the Bible
admitted to be supremely desirable that we should
be able to rise to the height of our destiny-by
going on to the perfection of character and the
possession of eternal life; and of this there is
absolutely no prospect apart from the promises and
conditions of God, the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
And if in common life the fool is promptly
recognized by his inability to guide his worldly
affairs, more appropriately must the title
cleave to
those who neither desire nor seek through union
with God to gain the victory over the world's
threefold evil of sin, sorrow, and death.
4. Paul's Fool, as has been said,
is ironically
so-called, and is nothing less than the Christian
believer: The conception is most freely made
use of in 1 Corinthians; and the explanation of
its occurrence here, doubtless, is that in the
Greek
world the apostle's gospel was, as a rule, con-
temptuously dismissed as
foolishness. 'The
natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him'
(I CO 214). In view of which
say, 'Be it so, call us fools, judged by the
world's
standards there is ground for it; only we are not
ashamed of our foolishness, which will yet prove
to be more than all the wisdom of this world.'
'If
any man among you seemeth to be wise in
this world, let him become a fool, that he may be
wise' (318). Let us note the chief
features of St.
Paul's
gospel which provoked this charge of
foolishness in which he was enabled to glory.
To begin with, the Christian was liable to
be
regarded as a fool by educated Greeks because of
his appeal to Revelation as the source of his
knowledge. What passed for wisdom in the Greek
world was the result of human observation and
reflection, was laboriously evolved by reasoning
processes from data of nature and experience;
and it is easy to appreciate the impatience with
which thinkers trained in such a school regarded
the methods of those, whether Jew or Christian,
who surmounted their difficulties and cleared up
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their mysteries with the help of an alleged revealed
Word of God. The cultured antique mind,
accustomed to gropings
and speculations, did not
take kindly to a principle of undisguised authority
in matters of highest thought-' not many wise
men after the flesh' were called (126).
But had
their method, the apostle could retort, been so
successful that they were entitled to take up this
scornful attitude? As a fact they had discovered
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little by reason, and that with small certainty, in
regard to the deep things of existence which are
most worth knowing. 'Where is the wise? where
is the scribe? where is
the disputer of this world?
hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this
world' ? (120) Man having failed in his
quest (or
truth, it was not strange that God should have
Himself sent light into the world. 'After that
in
the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not
God,
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe' (121).
Still more, it would seem, was the
contempt of
educated hearers excited by the doctrine of the
salvation of the world by the crucified Christ.
'Unto
the Jews a stumbling-block,' it was' unto the
Greeks foolishness' (123). Had the apostle con-
tented himself with saying that the greatest and
wisest of all teachers had died the death of a
martyr, it might have passed-the event had its
well-known parallels; but to teach that a Jew as
crucified, because He had endured a cruel and
shameful death, was the Saviour
fully furnished to
cope with the sin and woe of the world, was to
make an impossible demand on their credulity.
But
if it sounded foolish, it was not said without a
reason given that could be tested. He and those
for whom he spoke had realized in their own
experience that the once crucified and now risen
Christ
had the power to save them from their sins
and to build them up in holiness. He was' unto
them which are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God'
(124).
And St. Paul's appeal to experience has since
been corroborated by the testimony of history.
What
once seemed a foolish dream has become an
historical fact. The death of Christ, through which
He
passed to His throne, to become the acknow-
ledged King of kings, is now seen to have been,
as
of the wisdom with which God exercises His govern-
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ment, and realizes His
purposes, among the sinful
children of men.
It is probable also that, on the ground
of his
moral ideal with its elements of humility and self-
abnegation, the Christian was deemed a fool by
the representatives of antique culture. Those who
being reviled, blessed; being persecuted, suffered
it; being defamed, entreated; and who counted the
goods of life but dung that they might win Christ,
clearly were, from the Hellenic standpoint,
'fools
for Christ's sake' (410).
Such, then, has been the course of the contro-
versy between revealed
religion and the world:
the first laboured to
prove that the world was
steeped in folly, and the world retorted the
charge
upon Christianity. That
it smilingly, keenly felt the contemptuous
rejection
of the gospel by the thinkers and the learned, is
more than evident; and it is well that he ex-
perienced the trial, as it
prompted him to utter;
the apostolic mind in regard to a conflict which
may possibly be perennial. For, again, in the
modern world Christianity is face to face with the,
same questioning, doubting, self-confident spirit
that worked in the Greek world, and again a great
movement of thought tends to raise the question
if Christianity is wisdom or foolishness. And
assuredly the Christian, with his belief in a
special
revelation, a crucified Saviour,
and a Christlike life,
is either supremely wise or unspeakably foolish
splendidly right or deplorably astray. That his
faith is wisdom and not foolishness is certified
him inwardly when he lives near his God, and is
con-
firmed by knowledge of the lives and the deeds it
has inspired. And he is persuaded that, whatever
conflict and falling away might come to pass, the
needs of mankind would draw them back to
Christ, and that history would repeat the proof
that 'the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and;
the weakness of God is stronger than men' (125).
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