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The wisdom books of the Old Testament concern the topic of Wisdom (Hebrew: Chokmah; Greek: Sophia), which is personified in many of the books as a female figure.
Most commentators include five books in this group:
Proverbs, Job, Ecciesiastes (also called Kohelet), Ecclesiasticus (also called the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach) and the Wisdom of Solomon (the Book of Wisdom).
What becomes apparent when reading the different books listed above is that perspectives about Wisdom gradually changed over time and were these perspectives were affected by the historical circumstances present when the individual books were composed.
The Book of Job asks why unhappiness exists if humanity is meant to be happy, for in spite of his piety Job's life has become miserable. He implores God to help him understand the meaning of unhappiness and whether the expectation of reward is justified. What he comes to realize is that happiness and recompense for piety are bound up with mysteries which cannot be understood by reason alone. It is only when this is accepted that the Lord who transcends everything can ultimately bring about happiness and well being.
Eventually things do turn out better for Job. The wise attitude that Job expresses at the beginning of his trials: "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1,21) helps him to persevere through much pain and suffering. Trusting surrender, faith, and constancy in trial leads him to happiness.
The Book of Ecciesiastes (Greek: Ecciesiastes; Hebrew: Kohelet) also talks about surrender; yet not surrender born of piety and courage but of disappointment and resignation:
I considered my handiwork, all my labor and toil: it was futility, all of it, and a chasing of the wind...
So I thought, "I too shall suffer the fate of the fool. To what purpose have I been wise? Where is the profit? Even this," I said to myself, "is futile" (Eccies. 2,11,15).
For everything its season, and for every activity under the heavens its time: A time to be born and a time to die. . . a time to weep and a time to laugh.. . a time for war and a time for peace (Eccies. 3,1-8).
To eat and drink and experience pleasure in return for his labors, this does not come from any good in a person: it comes from God (Eccies. 2,24).
Such resigned surrender can lead to an attitude which is accepting of life, taking life as it comes and making the best of it, satisfied with the modest happiness of daily life.
Yet because Ecciesiastes has a tendency toward resignation and even pessimism, the question has been raised as to why it was taken into the Canon of Holy Scripture? It can be answered that the point of view that it expresses does belongs to a universal kind of wisdom that mediates the tensions between hope and despair, ideal and reality, happiness and unhappiness, and success and failure that life brings. Both Ecciesiastes and Job pose questions about the meaning of happiness in a radical way and try to offer solutions that validate existence.
The Book of Proverbs contains a summary of the proverbial treasures of the Jewish people and their neighbors gathered over a period of hundreds of years (the Wisdom teachings of the Egyptians and Babylonians in particular were integrated into Judaism). Parts of it are older than Job and Ecciesiastes.
The oldest portion of Proverbs talks about various paths to happiness, and in the portion composed later these paths merge into the way pointed out by Wisdom who appears as a person.
Happiness is initially depicted in worldly terms (riches, honor and personal welfare) but ultimately comes to signify the development of qualities like integrity, fear of the Lord, righteousness, good conduct and willingness to learn. Wisdom is life, but it gradually becomes clear that life signifies more than material riches; it is virtue itself:
She [Wisdom] is a tree of life to those who grasp her, and those who hold fast to her are safe (Prov. 3,18).
In my hands are riches and honour, boundless wealth and prosperity. . . . I endow with riches those who love me; I shall fill their treasuries (Prov. 8,18,21).
Happy the one who listens to me, watching daily at my threshold. .. . For whoever finds me finds life. . . but whoever fails to find me deprives himself (Prov. 8,34-36).
Wisdom has built her house. . . . Now, having slaughtered a beast, spiced her wine, and spread her table. . . she says
"Come, eat the food I have prepared and taste the wine I have spiced" (Prov. 9,1-5).
Idle hands make for penury; diligent hands make for riches (Prov. 10,4).
The fruit of humility is fear of God with riches and honor and life (Prov. 22,4).
The Book of Ecclesiasticus presupposes "fear of the Lord"-great reverence for God and His Law-as the necessary precondition for happiness:
The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord. . . . Wisdom's garland is fear of the Lord (Eccius. 1,14,18).
In common with Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus also enumerates many gifts of Wisdom-honor, pride, cheerfulness, joy and long life (Ecclus. 1,11-12,17-18). In ensuing chapters, however, Ecclesiasticus is clearer about a personal view of Wisdom which sees Her as Mistress and Teacher:
Wisdom raises her sons to greatness. . . . He who holds fast to her will gain honor; the Lord's blessing rests on the house she enters. . . . the Lord loves those who love her (Eccius. 4,11,13,14).
It is befitting that the wise person serve Wisdom, for in serving Wisdom one serves the Holy One (Eccius. 4,14) and one's efforts bear fruit: "If you cultivate her. . . soon you will be enjoying the harvest" (Eccius. 6,19). The author goes so far as to recommend:
Put your feet in Wisdom's fetters and your neck into her collar. . . . Do not let her go. . . . she will transform herself for you into joy.. . . You will put her on like a splendid robe and wear her like a garland of joy (Eccius. 6,24,27-28,31).
She will be to him "like a mother and young bride" and crown him "with joy and exultation" (Eccius. 15,2,6). She is "the mother of honourable love" (Eccius. 24,18).
In Ecclesiasticus one finds Wisdom and happiness by fulfilling the Law. Wisdom is "the law laid on us by Moses" (Ecclus. 24,23). The life-giving strength of this Law is compared with the rivers of Paradise and with the most beautiful trees and scented bushes (24,13-15,25). Wisdom's happiness in Ecclesiasticus consists of paradisical abundance and splendor.
The Book of the Wisdom of Solomon is the most recent of the Wisdom Books to appear, and it resolves the enigma of life in an essentially new way. It leaves behind an earthly pursuit of happiness and opens the door to a vision of the eternal life which the soul reaps as its reward: "to keep her laws is a warrant of immortality; and immortality brings a person nearer to God" (Wisd. 6,18-19). Wisdom leads the way to eternity and the transcendent order, and this fundamentally new perspective questions previously held values and points to the resolution of hitherto unresolved problems.
References to life after death in the Book of Wisdom (and in Proverbs also) evinces an Egyptian influence. Descriptions of Wisdom's cosmological dimension ("She is more beautiful than the sun, and surpasses every constellation. . . . She spans the world in power from end to end, and gently orders all things") - 7,29; 8,1) also recalls the Egyptian goddess Isis, though in a more Hellenistic form.