Psalms and Wisdom Literature

Psalms

what are they
    hymnbook of second temple?
    personal outpourings of heart?
    individual? corporate?
    sung?  by whom?

numbering
    150 but
    vulgate chapters
    heading verses
    lxx, syriac, and qumran

who wrote / spoke them?
headings on some - vary from hebrew to greek
   some headings give musical instructions
tradition of david
some clearly pre-exilic
a few clearly (post?) exilic

hebrew poetry
    ugaritic similarities
    parallelismus membrorum
    inclusio
    no recognizable rhyme
    syllable counts
       question of metre

forms
    laments, penitential
    hymns, praise, thanksgiving
    wisdom, torah, ethical
    historical, covenant renewal
    coronation, liturgical

Psalm 23 
individual trust & thanksgiving
Psalm 42-43
   refrain -- joined together
   others: 103, 139

Psalm 133
hinneh mah tov 
   other short: 134, 117
community trust & thanksgiving
   others: 115, 146

Psalm 150 
hymns of praise
   others: 8, 46, 100

Psalm 72
roles of king
possibly for coronation
    others? 2, 110
  Psalm 45
     marriage of king

Psalm 47
enthronement of God
   others? 93, 99

Psalm 19
  creation / torah
  one or two psalms?
Psalm 1 
  torah / wisdom
   others 112, 119

Psalm 137
imprecatory psalms
   other community laments: 74, 10
        see book of Lamentations
   other exilic? 126
Psalm 130 penitential

Psalm 90
other individual laments 22, 41


marks of liturgical use
   Psalm 24 entrance liturgy
   Psalm 136 antiphonal responses


Other Songs of Israel
Lamentations
     1:1-4, 12-16

Song of songs
when canonized, interpreted allegorically
	other suggestions
		drama
		wedding songs
		sanitized fertility rites
		most likely: love songs & images

	5:2-16
	7:1-10
	8:6-7

Wisdom Literature
Backgrounds and features

   features
      internationalist
      emphasis on thought
      the right as what works
      not keyed to history or cult

   international backgrounds
    Egyptian
       magicians etc versus Moses
       instruction of Ptah-hotep
        ANE p234 Prov 23:1-3
       instruction of Amen-em-opet
        ANE 237-238,243 Prov 22:17-29
    Akkadian
       compare wisemen of Daniel
       source of "magi"
       pessimistic dialogue 9-12
        ANE 251-252
    Greek
       philosophy
       Aesop tradition
    sometimes thought Phoenecian

   the image of Solomon
      1 kgs 3:3-14 
      plus 2 women & sheba
      patron / author / model
         Proverbs
         Ecclesiastes
         Wisdom of Solomon

parallel to priest/torah and prophet/word
    Jeremiah 18:18; Ezekiel 7:26
    although "secular," not separate from God

Proverbs
   divisions of book
	introduction 1-9 
	  possibly latest
	proverbs of solomon 10:1 - 22:16; 25 - 29
	   possibly earliest
	words of wise 22:17 - 24:34
	assorted foreign wisdom 30 - 31

   Fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom 1:7
   9 (the figure of wisdom calling)
   10 (sample wisdom teaching)


Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth)
skeptical, pessimistic side
some apparent editing (by orthodox)
   12:9-13
9:1-12 (a summary)
famous passages
   1:1-11 vanity of vanities
   3:1-8 times for every matter
   12:1-8 remember creator (?)

Job
structure of book
   prose bread, poetic insides
   tale of call to human faithfulness
is it theodicy?
	Milton's justifying ways of God?
comforters who bring pious justification
    22:21-30
Job claims righteousness and calls for God as witness
    19
Elihu appears out of nowhere
    34:16-37
God answers from whirlwind
    38:1-11; 40:1-9
Job submits
    42:1-6
what does it all mean?

Wisdom Books in the Apocrypha
Jesus ben Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)
   apocryphal, but quoted by rabbis
   traditional, without resurrection
but historical and cultic interest

Wisdom of Solomon
   hellenistic philosophical tendencies
   role of wisdom in guiding history