Bibliographical details:
Blenkinsopp, J. (1995). Wisdom and Law in the Old Testament: The Ordering of Life in Israel and Early Judaism. Rev. ed. The Oxford Bible Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Publisher’s information:
‘What a pleasure to find a book that takes seriously the meaning and importance of “law” in the Hebrew Bible … This book is a helpful introduction to the current state of critical theory … both informative and stimulating.’ – The Universe
This revised edition has been considerably expanded to take in work on the legal and didactic material published since the 1980s. It gives more attention to the different literary genres used by Israel’s sages and to the social settings in which the material came into existence and circulated. References to relevant archaeological data have also been brought up to date. The main purpose of the book, however, remains the same: to trace the course of two related key streams of tradition, law and wisdom, throughout the history of Israel in the biblical period, and to demonstrate their essential lines of continuity with classical Jewish thought and early Christian theology.
Joseph Blenkinsopp is Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.
Table of contents:
I. SAGES, SCRIBES, AND COUNSELLORS … 1
The Writings: the third section of the Hebrew Bible … 1
The many faces of wisdom … 5
The professional sage … 9
Education in Israel … 12
2. EDUCATION FOR LIFE … 18
Proverbs: the book … 18
The proverb … 20
The religious dimension … 24
The ethic of the sages … 29
The instruction … 31
Acrostics, numerical sayings, riddles … 35
Sapiential narrative … 39
3. GOD AND THE MORAL ORDER … 46
The link between act and consequence … 46
Political disaster and religious crisis … 51
Job … 57
Qoheleth … 68
The problem remains … 79
4. THE GROWTH OF ISRAEL’S LEGAL TRADITION … 84
Ordering life by law … 84
Law in early Israel … 90
The Covenant Code: Exodus 20:23–23:19 … 94
The Decalogue … 102
The Second Law: Deuteronomy, religious programme and civil constitution … 107
5. LAW IN EARLY JUDAISM: TEMPLE COMMUNITY AND SECT … 120
The Priestly History … 120
Cultic and ritual laws … 126
Wisdom and law in the Chronicler’s work … 133
Law and legal exposition in Jewish sectarianism … 140
6. THEOLOGICAL WISDOM … 151
The confluence of wisdom and law … 151
Job 28: inaccessible wisdom … 153
Proverbs 8:22-31: Wisdom, first-born of creation … 157
Ecclesiasticus 24:1-29: Torah assimilated to Wisdom … 162
The Wisdom of Solomon: towards a new synthesis … 167
Apocalyptic wisdom … 173
Wisdom in transition: some further developments … 179
Select Bibliography … 183
Index of Passages Cited … 187
General Index … 193
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