Endnote 1 – Wisdom Literature Makes A Comeback

Proverbial material can be found throughout the Hebrew Bible. Jeremiah and Ezekiel, for example, quote the proverb “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (Jeremiah 31:29b; Ezekiel 18:2b), in order to refute it. Eating sour grapes coats the teeth with a dry, bitter substance. The proverb’s statement that the bitter taste can be passed on through the generations suggests that children suffer for the actions of their parents. Jeremiah and Ezekiel want to argue against this, to assert that everyone has a chance in life and a child cannot be blamed for the actions of his or her parents. Clearly the presence of a few proverbs in any book is not enough to characterize it as Wisdom literature. Prophetic books such as Jeremiah and Ezekiel belong to a separate “prophetic” genre. It is only where we find proverbial material and Wisdom concerns in large measure that we can truly speak of Wisdom literature. So, while we find many Wisdom concerns in psalmic laments and may speak of some “Wisdom psalms,” we would not classify the entire Book of Psalms as Wisdom literature.