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Calvin’s Reading List

Friday, September 17th, 2010

I mentioned yesterday that I intended to read a good amount while I’m out of classes. I won’t mention the books I’ve read over the summer, but here are the books I plan to read over the coming month or two. Some may find their way onto the Floppy Hat as reviews or reflections. Others may not.

Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative by Adele Berlin – I’ve been doing a series of chapter reviews on this book. This is here primarily to show that I haven’t forgotten about those reflections. We will finish the book. It really has been quite informative.

At the Scent of Water: The Ground of Hope in the Book of Job by Gerald Janzen – I’ve wanted to read this book since it was published last year. As anyone who knows me or frequents this blog will know, the Book of Job is absolutely fascinating to me. I look forward to reading Janzen’s thoughts. According to the introduction, this book is laid out in a more thematic way than a commentary. Essentially, I think Janzen is striving to answer the “why” of the book, without directly addressing all the other questions. Of course, he’s already written a commentary on Job so he’s already wrestled with many of the questions.

Word-Order Variation in Biblical Hebrew Poetry: Differentiating Pragmatics and Poetics by Nicholas P. Lunn – Perhaps as part of my fascination with Job, I’m also fascinated with Biblical Hebrew Poetry. I especially find the relationship between grammar and structure in poetry an interesting area. I was first made aware of this book by a professor several years ago, and was reminded of it last year by Robert Holmstedt’s mixed review [link goes to PDF] in JSS. I think this book will be extremely interesting to read. I’d also be very interested in suggestions for other books dealing with Biblical Hebrew poetry, word order, structure, poetics, etc.

Dust, Wind and Agony: Character, Speech and Genre in Job by Michael Cheney – Returning to my interest in the Book of Job, I picked up this study when it was an Eisenbrauns Deal of the Day. The problem, of course, is that Eisenbrauns often has so many amazing deals that I get a backlog of books. Either way, I’m planning on finally sitting down to read this book sometime relatively soon.

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Genesis 1 and Proverbs 8 – Part 2

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

In a previous post I attempted to briefly contrast Genesis 1 and Proverbs 8 as a way of illustrating the importance of of genre in Biblical interpretation. In this post I continue those thoughts with specific attention to how evangelical Christians–my own particular segment of Christianity, you might say–interpret Proverbs 8 vis-à-vis Genesis 1.

Why do most conservative evangelical Christians not even discuss Proverbs 8 in regards to the “creation wars?” The answer is simple. They instinctively understand that Proverbs 8 is not meant to be taken literally. Proverbs 8 is poetry, and like the rest of the Book of Proverbs it is filled with metaphor, simile, hyperbole and a plethora of other literary devices. We read Proverbs 8 and easily discern that its genre is not historical narrative. Because of this we understand that we cannot expect it to behave as a piece of historical narrative might behave. Yet, when we read Genesis 1 we often jump to the conclusion that it ought to be understood literally. Conservative evangelical Christians often jump to the further conclusion that this literal understanding is a kind of polemic against evolution. Yet neither conclusions are necessarily correct. Why should Genesis 1 be understood as historical narrative? I am, personally, unaware of any convincing argument for why its genre must be historical narrative, and not a whole host of other possibilities.

Where does this leave us? Certainly not hopelessly adrift, as some might suggest. It does reveal that understanding the Bible is not an easy thing all the time. It often takes hard work and study to understand the Bible, as it takes hard work and study to understand any piece of ancient near eastern literature. That shouldn’t dissuade anyone from studying the Bible, it ought to encourage everyone that it is a book worth studying.

It also ought to make it clear that genre is a key link in determining the purpose of a text. As I already mentioned, we instinctively understand that Proverbs 8 is poetry, specifically poetry meant to teach. It falls in the broader section of Proverbs 1-9 which is clearly addressed to young men as a means of starting them on the wise path in life. Proverbs 8 is part of this. In my opinion, Genesis 1 is a (possibly liturgical) polemic that shows how God is fundamentally different from the other gods (there are other ways to understand the genre and purpose of Genesis 1 that do not see it as historical narrative). The use of metaphorical and other non-literal language in either passage in no way takes away from what they are trying to do. Quite the opposite, the metaphorical and non-literal language in both passages adds to what they are trying to accomplish.

In the end, genre is vitally important to determining the meaning of a text. How one understands the genre of a text irrevocably impacts how how understands that text–whether as polemic, temple cosmology, ancient near eastern creation motif, chiastic hymn, or historical narrative. My own hope is that one day evangelical Christians may begin to understand that studying genre–and by extension other ancient near eastern literature which helps to flesh out a genre–is an important part of studying the Bible. In addition, I hope that one day we as Christians will understand that a disagreement over the genre and purpose of a text is normally not cause for throwing someone out of a church.

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Genesis 1 and Proverbs 8 – Part 1

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

When an average layperson thinks about creation stories and the Bible, he normally only thinks of a single story–Genesis 1. This is perfectly understandable since anyone who has ever attempted to read the Bible has likely begun with this chapter. It is also, obviously, about creation. When scholars talk about creation and the Bible, however, they often discuss passages beyond Genesis 1. Some may mention certain Psalms, or passages in the prophets. Others might comment on various sections of the Book of Job. Still others talk about Proverbs 8.

Proverbs 8 is a poem in which the speaker, Lady Wisdom, discusses how she was with God when he created the world. Indeed, one even gets the impression that Lady Wisdom assisted God in his creative activity. Below, I include the relevant verses from Proverbs 8. I assume that everyone already knows Genesis 1.

22 “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of old.
23 Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth,
26 before he had made the earth with its fields,
or the first of the dust of the world.
27 When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28 when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
29 when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30 then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
31 rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man. (ESV)

Recently, I’ve discussed genre and it’s importance in understanding the Bible. To illustrate this importance, I thought we might look at Genesis 1 and Proverbs 8. Both of these passages discuss what we might call the creation of the world, but they do so in widely disparate terms.

Genesis 1 is, of course, familiar to us. Proverbs 8, however, may be less so. Here Lady Wisdom explains how she was at the creation of the world. Before the world began God created Lady Wisdom. But she also gives us some hints about how God created the world. In this passage there is no hint of creation via divine fiat (i.e., God does not command things to be, and they are). Rather, God shapes the mountains. When God makes the sky firm (!) Wisdom is with him. Lady Wisdom explains that God set a limit on the sea, and made foundations for the earth.

There are quite obviously difficulties in reconciling a literal reading of this passage with a literal reading of Genesis 1. For instance, why is Lady Wisdom not mentioned in Genesis 1? Why does God shape the mountains here, but in Genesis he simply commands them to be? What is all of this about firm skies? In some ways, if one understands the background that both of these passages are set against (an ancient near eastern understanding of the universe, e.g., a solid/firm sky, the earth sitting on pillars, etc), they actually make some sense side by side. Nevertheless, if we were to accept the plain, literal reading of Proverbs 8 we come away with a rather different view of the creation than we do if we accept a plain, literal reading of Genesis 1.

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Hunting Down a Citation

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Perhaps one of the most frustrating things in the life of a student is books which do not cite things easily or well. A case in point is David Clines’ Job commentary. On the whole the commentary is excellent, and normally Clines is careful to cite his sources. However, on occasion he forgets (?) to include the proper information so that I can go look up the origin for myself.

I’m currently attempting to understand what Elihu offers (if anything) to the Book of Job. Clines has an enticing quote from Carol Newsom (on pg 710 of his second volume) which he does not cite. He says only that Carol Newsom said it. I have checked his bibliography at the beginning of the section, and there are no works by Newsom cited there. My first thought was that it would be in her book, A Contest of Moral Imaginations. However, it could also be in her NIB commentary on Job, or possibly in one of the articles she has written. Below I’ve included the entirety of the quote which Clines gives–if anyone knows where I can find the context, that would be extremely helpful.

into an intense moment, not just among the characters in the book, but also between the reader and the book. He breaks the dramatic spell and spoils the integrity of an aesthetic, emotional, and religious encounter at the climax of the book….By the end of chap. 27, Elihu has distanced the reader from the immediacy of Job’s passion and has changed the nature of the reader’s experience of the book, so that ideas dominate over passions….Elihu’s need to control–to control the reader’s perception of God and perhaps even to control God–is amply on display when he speaks. This dynamic, coupled with Elihu’s unconcealed conviction that he alone understands what is said and can point out and remedy its defects is what earns Elihu the undying resentment of generations of readers.

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Michael Fox on the Forbidden Woman

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

I have been a little busy for the past week or so. As a result updates have been fairly rare. However, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to quote Michael Fox quoting Ben Sira on the strange woman.

In my view, the Strange Woman is another man’s wife, whose transgression is thus adultery. She is not a prostitute but a wanton amateur of the sort who “opens her quiver for every arrow,” as Ben Sira puts it.

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Repetition as Pedagogy in Proverbs 1-9

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

I have had a wonderful time working my way through Proverbs 1-9 recently. Part of the reason that the labor has been so enjoyable is that I have been refreshing my own knowledge of the various aspects of this part of the Book of Proverbs. I have always found Proverbs 1-9 to be fascinating; the interplay between Lady Wisdom and the forbidden woman, the father and the son, the My Son poems and the various interludes, are all intriguing. When I read through Proverbs 1-9 recently I noticed a pattern in the first several poems that I would like to wax eloquent about for a few sentences. I will then wildly speculate about what this pattern might indicate. I’m sure some of you will be kind enough to correct me in the comments thread, and I welcome this.

To begin, it might be wise to establish a few assumptions that I’m making. The foremost of these is that repetition is an aid in learning. The more a teacher repeats something, the more likely a student is to remember it. A second assumption that I’ve made is that Proverbs 1-9, in its received form, has been shaped and that there is a reason and/or logic to this shaping. That is not to say that scholars completely understand this reason, but such a reason existed in the mind of the redactor/writer/editor.

Turning to the text itself, the intriguing pattern I was referring to is the tendency, early on in the poems of Proverbs 1-9, to conclude a poem with a summary statement concerning the fate of the wise over against the fate of the wicked. This juxtaposition of the wise and the fool occurs in 1.19 (but only concerning the fool), 1.32-33, 2.21-22, and (possibly) 3.32-35. Each of these sections deal somehow with the fate of the wicked, and most also deal with the fate of the wise as contrasted with that of the fool. Furthermore, each of them reinforces the doctrine of retribution as the governing law of life.

The first three poems (My Son poem #1, Interlude A, and My Son poem #2) all conclude with such statements. The final statement, in 3.32-35, comes at the end of a My Son poem, though Interlude B and My Son poem #3 both lack a similar concluding proverb. What I think may be going on here is that the editor is using these statements as a kind of pedagogical tool.

What I mean by this is that the summary statements serve to do exactly that: summarize the poems that have come before. By repeating similar statements, or at least statements with a similar moral, at the end of the first three poems, the editor is driving home the point that A) each of these poems is, to some extent, saying the same thing and B) obedience==blessing while disobedience==cursing (cf. Deut. 28). The end of chapter three would then serve to again drive home this point. Interestingly these verses juxtapose the wise and foolish in a somewhat unique way (when compared with the other verses listed above); line A of each verse discusses the negative things which YHVH will do to the foolish while line B contrasts the positive things which YHVH will do for the upright. Perhaps also worth mentioning is the fact that these verses represent the first cluster of antithetically parallel verses in Proverbs. That may or may not be significant. I haven’t decided.

By means of conclusion, I think that the various summary statements in Proverbs 1.19, 1.32-33, 2.21-22 and 3.32-35 are intended to drive home a very specific point to the reader. On the one hand it is the point that each of the poems makes in a more specific and verbose way: obedience to YHVH==blessing while disobedience==cursing. As for why the statements cease after the first few poems, my off-the-cuff theory is that having firmly established the point, the editor feels free to begin allowing the specifics of the poems themselves to take center stage. Not that this wasn’t taking place before, but the summary statements certainly draw ones attention back to the overarching point which is being irrespective of the specific content of each poem.

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Job 5.2-7: Forms, Part 2

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Earlier posts in this series are available here, here, here and here.

In a previous post I discussed that verse two is a fairly straight forward distitch wisdom saying. Specifically this saying is concerned with the fate of the fool. Verses six and seven are also wisdom sayings. Although verse six could stand alone, verse seven appears to be predicated upon verse six. The two verses together form a quatrain, verse six with a quasi-chiastic structure that is carried on in stitch A of verse seven. It is now time to turn to the interior of this pericope, verses three to five.

This section is the most difficult to identify within the pericope. On the one hand one might take it as an admonition to avoid foolishness, since the fool is consumed. However, there is never an actual admonition to turn from being a fool. The section might also be taken as a paranesis, or in layman’s terms, “an address to an individual (or group) that seeks to persuade with reference to a goal.”1 However, again there is no goal that is specified in the text.

Murphy classifies this as an “example story.”2 Norman Habel takes these verses as an attempt “to substantiate the proverb he quotes[in verse 2] by citing his personal experience of fallen fools.”3 This appears to agree with Murphy’s classification of these verses as an example story, which the latter defines as, “a genre that provides a concrete example as an illustration of a point that an author…is making.”4 Interestingly, Habel associates these verses with the wisdom saying in verse two, while Murphy associates them with the wisdom sayings in verses six and seven. 5

Of course, the whole point of working to establish the various forms used in a passage is to compare the use of those forms in the present passage to their use in other passages. What light might similar pericopes shed on Job 5.3-5? Proverbs 7.6ff is the quintessential example story within the wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible. It is, in every way, more involved than the comparatively laconic example story found in the present pericope. Even so, the stories are introduced similarly with a form of ראה followed by the story proper. Beyond this there are no clear similarities in form between the two passages. The Proverbs passage is longer, and contains embedded speech. It, furthermore, has the feel of a narrative, whereas the passage in Job has the feel of a report.

Using a form of ראה to introduce a topic is also used in Qohelet (cf. Qohelet 3.16; 6.1). There is an important difference between the use here and in Proverbs 7 on the one hand, and the use in Qohelet on the other. In the latter אני ראיתי is used to introduce a general truth that the sage has observed, whereas in Job the same phrase is used to introduce a particular–although possibly(probably) fictionalized–story.

Identifying these verses as an example story form is not so much helpful in finding exact parallels as much as it is helpful in more clearly establishing the purpose and function of the verses. These three verses serve as an example of the fool who is destroyed, not randomly, but because he is a fool. In this way, it serves to illustrate the point which Eliphaz is striving to make in much the same way that a modern member of the clergy might use a story from her own life to illustrate a point.

  1. Murphy, Wisdom Literature, 180. ↩
  2. Ibid., 24 ↩
  3. Habel, The Book of Job, 130. ↩
  4. Murphy, Wisdom Literature, 176. ↩
  5. cf Ibid., 24 and Habel, The Book of Job, 130. I will discuss my own thoughts in regards to this in a subsequent post. In the meantime, I’d love to hear how others view the internal section of the poem. ↩

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Job 5.2-7: Forms, Part 1

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Earlier posts in this series may be found here, here and here. Of particular interest is this post, since it contains the Hebrew text (see here for an English translation) of Job 5.2-7 with which I am working. In this post, I intend to survey the literary forms which are used in Job 5.2-7. The particular forms have some bearing on the structure of the passage, which will be discussed in a future post.

Establishing the precise forms which occur in Job 5.2-7 is not an easy task.1 Clearly verse two is a wisdom saying. Verses six and seven also appear to be a wisdom saying, though whether a single saying or two juxtaposed sayings is a more complex question to answer. The interior of the section is more difficult to categorize. It has certain affinities with several forms, which will be discussed below.

The pericope with which this paper is concerned (Job 5.2-7) is found in the first cycle of speeches, in Eliphaz’ first speech. Most scholars would outline the Book of Job thusly:2
I. Prologue (Chapters 1-2)
II. Dialog (Chapters 3-27)
    A. First Cycle (Chapters 3-14)
    B. Second Cycle (Chapters 15-21)
    C. Third Cycle (22-27)
III. Monologue (Chapters 28-42)
    A. Job (Chapters 28-31)
    B. Elihu (Chapters 32-37)
    C. God (Chapters 38-41)
IV. Epilogue (Chapter 42)
Murphy labels Eliphaz’ first speech as a disputation speech.3 Regarding Job 5.2-7 he says only that “wisdom forms prevail.”4

Verse two is a simple, bicolon wisdom saying. Murphy defines a wisdom saying as “a didactic saying, based on experience and/or tradition that inculcates some value or lesson.”5 In this case, it would appear that the saying is based on both tradition and experience, as the discussion of verses three to five (in the next post in this series) will make clear. The bicolon or distitch proverb is among the most common in the Book of Proverbs.6 The Book of Job, although it favors longer speeches, still makes use of this basic(?) proverbial form. This is also a very common pattern in Egyptian literature. In this light, Job 5.2 falls well within a common proverbial form attested in both the Bible and ancient near east.

Specifically, Job 5.2 is a wisdom saying that deals with the fate of the fool. Such sayings are very common in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 17.20 is an example:
      He who has a crooked heart finds no good.
      He who is perverted in his language falls into evil.
There are also wisdom saying which deal with the fate of the wise. In form these sayings are identical to the wisdom sayings which deals with the fate of the fool. In content, however, they are quite different. Proverbs 11.25 is an example:
      The generous man will be made fat
      he who waters will himself be watered
As can be seen from these two examples, as well as Job 5.2, this type of wisdom saying follows the form: A-B-C-A’-B’-C’, where A’, B’ and C’ are synonymous with A, B and C. This can be easily illustrated with Job 5.2:
      For anger (A) slays (B) the fool (C)
      and envy (A’) kills (B’) the simple (C’)
Interestingly, none of the verses cited are chiastic.7

Job 5.6-7 likewise comprise a wisdom saying, or possibly two such sayings that have been juxtaposed to further drive home the point which Eliphaz is seeking to make; namely that human beings bring about their own downfall because of sin. Morris Jastrow agrees with the idea of both verses six and seven being proverbial sayings. However, he incorrectly removes them from the text as the later additions of “a pious commentator.”8 Murphy appears to take them as separate when he calls verses six and seven “wisdom sayings,” but he does not discuss this at any length. 9 Verse six is a wisdom saying which is similar to verse two above, though not dealing with the fate of any particular group. Rather it is a simple statement that trouble does not come from nowhere. It is possible that it could stand alone and be entirely understandable. Verse seven, on the other hand, appears to require some explanation beyond itself. This may be evidence that the author of Job knew the saying reproduced in verse six, and so created verse seven. However, the exact process that lead to the creation of the extant text is impossible to determine for certain–and even if it were not so, the exact development is not necessary to ascertain.

Verses six and seven, when taken together, as they are obviously meant to be in the present passage, form a quatrain. Verse six is quasi-chiastic, with an A-B-C-B’-A’-C’ structure:


כי לא יצא מעפר און
ומאדמה לא יצמח עמל

Verse seven picks up from verse six, using some of the same vocabulary (עמל), and then furthers the first stitch in the second. Stitches A and B of verse seven do not represent a synonymous parallelism, but rather a so-called synthetic parallelism.10

The form of the internal portion of Job 5.2-7 will be dealt with in my next post on the topic.

  1. cf. Norman Habel, The Book of Job. Old Testament Library (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1985), 42. ↩
  2. The specifics of this outline are debated by scholars. See Andersen, Job, 20-23; Murphy, Wisdom Literature, 15; Habel, The Book of Job, 35-40 for a representative sample. ↩
  3. Murphy, Wisdom Literature, 24. ↩
  4. Ibid. ↩
  5. Ibid., 184 ↩
  6. Garrett, Proverbs, 33. ↩
  7. The sample is far to small to make any sweeping judgment regarding the form, however I’m quite curious to see if wisdom sayings regarding the fate of the wise/fool hold to this pattern over a larger sampling of verses. It is entirely possible that such a study have been done and I haven’t come across it yet. Anyone know of such a study? ↩
  8. Morris Jastrow, The Book of Job (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1920), 214. ↩
  9. Murphy, Wisdom Literature, 24. ↩
  10. See the discussion of Parallelism in Wilfred G. E. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry (New York: T&T Clark, 2001), 114ff. I will also discuss the relation of verse six to verse seven in a subsequent post. ↩

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