Q: I have noticed that Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes are different from the rest of the books of the Bible. What is the purpose of these books?
A: Scholars have identified the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes as wisdom literature partly because the term wisdom and similar ones are common in them. As a type of literature, they have some common characteristic (e.g., sayings, dialogues, riddles, didactic narratives). Wisdom is also a way of thinking. The sages believed that the world in which we live is meaningful, even though they could not fathom all of its intricacies. They observed human conduct and experiences as well as the natural world and drew from their observations reliable information and useful behavioral principles. The content of the wisdom books is generally organized around three main areas.
NATURE WISDOM
Guided by the Spirit, Solomon observed the natural world and wrote about plant life and about “animals, birds, crawling things, and fish” (1 Kings 4:33).* This capacity to observe, organize, draw conclusions, and apply them to human conduct was a divine gift to Solomon (1 Kings 3:12, 13). The following cases illustrate how the observation of nature is applied to human conduct. “Go to the ant, you lazy one, observe its ways and be wise, which, having no chief, officer, or ruler, prepares its food in the summer and gathers its provision in the harvest” (Prov. 6:6-8). Here Proverbs uncovers knowledge of the natural world and derives ethical teachings from that knowledge.
PRACTICAL WISDOM
Practical wisdom focuses upon human relationships in an ordered society and provides instructions regarding how to act in a way that encourages peaceful relationships. Practical wisdom is functional and dynamic and not just intellectual curiosity. In many cases it is needed in order to make right decisions (1 Kings 3:16-18). Most proverbs deal with practical wisdom: “Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise” (Prov. 17:28); “Righteous lips are the delight of kings, and one who speaks right is loved” (Prov. 16:13). Only those who behave properly are wise and live in peace with others.
THEOLOGICAL WISDOM
This type of wisdom stresses the limits of human wisdom and identifies God as the fountain of true wisdom (Prov. 8). Wisdom is seen as a mediator of revelation. The ultimate meaning of the world of nature and of human experience is located in God’s wisdom. Among other things, theological wisdom attempts to understand, or at least discusses, how God can be a good loving God in the presence of human suffering. Job and Ecclesiastes are good examples of theological wisdom. This type of wisdom is based on the fact that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10). The sages began their task with the presupposition that there is a loving God who created everything there is, and found joy in honoring Him. Theological wisdom provides the foundation for nature wisdom and practical wisdom. The way things function is perceived in general to include expressions of divine wisdom, and consequently, to study human behavior and the natural world is an exploration in divine wisdom that climaxed, according to the New Testament, in the incarnation of wisdom in Christ.
We could say that wisdom is a pragmatic quest for understanding God’s creation in terms of our relationship with nature, people, and God, and that it uses specific literary forms to communicate its findings. Those are the three levels of relationships within which we exist, and learning how to navigate them will add peace to your life and length of years.
* Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.