The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Wisdom Literature

Description

Study of the wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible and the contemporary cultures in the ancient Near Eastern world is evolving rapidly as old definitions and assumptions are questioned. Scholars are now interrogating the role of oral culture, the rhetoric of teaching and didacticism, the understanding of genre, and the relationship of these factors to the corpus of writings. The scribal culture in which wisdom literature arose is also under investigation, alongside questions of social context and character formation. This Companion serves as an essential guide to wisdom texts, a body of biblical literature with ancient origins that continue to have universal and timeless appeal. Reflecting new interpretive approaches, including virtue ethics and intertextuality, the volume includes essays by an international team of leading scholars. They engage with the texts, provide authoritative summaries of the state of the field, and open up to readers the exciting world of biblical wisdom.

Katharine Dell is Reader in Old Testament Literature and Theology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St. Catharine's College. She is the author of The Book of Proverbs in Social and Theological Context, Interpreting Ecclesiastes: Readers Old and New, and The Solomonic Corpus of 'Wisdom' and its Influence. Suzanna Millar is a Chancellor's Fellow in Hebrew Bible at the University of Edinburgh and assistant director of its Centre for Theology and Public Issues. She is the author of Genre and Openness in Proverbs. Arthur Keefer is Schoolmaster and Chaplin in the Divinity Department of Eton College. He is the author of The Book of Proverbs and Virtue Ethics.