X. THE SO-CALLED HOKHMAH (WISDOM) LITERA- TURE (Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes).
The earliest trace of the ‘wise’ as a separate professional class is found in Jer 1818, where they are placed side by side with the priests and pro- phets as possessors of ‘counsel,’ ¢.¢. ability to select the best course in particular cases. ‘They also appear frequently as a separate class in Pro- verbs (1° 13 2217 etc.; cf. also Ec 124), above all as teachers of youth (14 2! 3! 41-10 ete.). This is quite compatible with the fact that they are like- wise (in part, perhaps, exclusively) to be conceived as writers. And, since in the period to which the creations of the Hokhmah (7>2n) belong it is im- possible to speak of authorship beyond the limits of the religion of the Law, the ‘wise’ ought in the main to be identified with the ‘scribes’ ; only, they rather represent a particular side of the scribes’ activity,—not the fixing of the letter of the Law,
or instruction in its punctual observance (e.g. in’
‘matters of cultus),—but the useful application of the specifically ethical content of the Law and of
* Cf. the literature cited on p. 668, and add F. Schmidt, Der Unsterblichkeits- und Auferstehungsglaube in der Bibel, Brixen, 1902. We may take this opportunity of remarking that we do not consider that proof has been given of the influence of Parsism on the rise of the Jewish hope of the resurrection. Charles (in work cited on p. 725% note) holds Mazdean influences possible in Dn 122, but sees in Is 2619 a product of purely Jewish thought. But the distance from Is 2619 to Dn 12? is easily bridged. Cf., further, on the ques- tion of Parsi influences : J. H. Moulton’s art. ZOROASTRIANISM in vol. iv. of the present work; T. K. Cheyne, ‘Possible Zoro- astrian Influences on the Religion of Israel,’ Hapos. Times, Aug. 1891; E. Stave, Ueber den Einfluss des Parsismus auf das Judentum, Leipzig, 1898 [holds that the future expecta- tions connected with this world emanated from J udaism, while those connected with the world beyond, particularly the (post- canonical) doctrine of a general resurrection, are traced to Parsism] ; E. Boéklen, Die Verwandtschaft der juidischchrist- lichen mit der parsischen Eschatologie, 1902 {a careful collection of matter, the author's own intention being, above all, to pro- vide material for arriving at a judgment; but his procedure in adducing Parsi parallels to OT passages is in not a few instances too artificial].
RELIGION OF ISRAEL
Scripture generally—so far as Scripture existed— as the revelation of the will of God, which alone may determine human action. For ‘ wisdom,’ * the unsurpassable worth of which is ceaseless]
lauded in Proverbs, and the attainment of whic
at any cost is incessantly inculeated, is not the fruit of philosophic or religious speculation, or even an esoteric or secret doctrine; it is (as already in Jer 18'*, see above) ability for the right conduct of life, or, in one word, the practical wis- dom of life. One who possesses wisdom is capable of rightly judging every situation in which he may find himself, and of taking the best way to master it. Thus what distinguishes the wise from fools is, aS it were, the art of taking a wide view of things. Now, if we consider that the political situation of the people under heathen rulers, and the increasing, and in part wealthy and influ- ential, Jewish Diaspora in heathen lands, made ever greater demands for a prudent attitude towards foreigners, we can understand how it is that the doctrine of wisdom shows traces here and there of a certain cosmopolitanism, at all events the inculeation of prudent judgment of, and atti- tude towards, the king and heathen rulers. The tendency of wisdom to run out into the practical prudence of life is shown, above all, in the multi- plicity of its principles and aims. It is astonish- ing to mark what a number of questions relating to the prudent conduct of life are canvassed in Proverbs: occupation, profit, business in general, intercourse with superiors and inferiors and with
‘different classes of men generally, one’s attitude
to rulers, and numberless others. How far the specifically religious interest gets justice alongside of the thoroughly predominant practical interest, is a question to be investigated when we come to discuss the individual books.
1. Proverbs. —(a) Like the Psalms, Proverbs ought also for our purposes to be treated as a liter- ary unity, in spite of the variety, and, it may well be, the divergence in age, of its component parts.+ Between the Prologue (chs. 1-9) and the collections of proverbs proper the difference is at most this, that in the first we find not only numerous con- nected arguments, but also—at least on one point —attempts at religious speculation ; while in the ‘Proverbs of Solomon’ and the collections which follow we encounter almost everywhere isolated proverbs, antithetic in form (so from the very first, 10'*""), in the most motley mixture, and only very seldom in connected groups. Besides, it has long been recognized that the number of proverbs which can be viewed as real proverbs, current on the lips of the people, is small. The majority obviously belong to artificial poetry both in contents and form.+
* Cf., for special literature on the Hokhmah : T. K. Cheyne, Job and Solomon, or the Wisdom of the Old Testament, London, 1887 [an incisive critical, exegetical, and biblico- theological discussion of the Books of Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Sirach]; H. Zschokke, Der dogmatisch-ethische Lehrgehalt dei alttest. Weishettsbiicher, Wien, 1889; W. T. Davison, The Wis- dom Literature of the Old Testament, London, 1894; K. Benkenstein, Der Begriff der Chokhma in d. Hagiographen a: AT’, Nordhausen, 1895.