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WISDOM LITERATURE
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See also:WISDOM LITERATURE , the name applied to the See also:body of Old Testament and Apocryphal writings that contain the philosophical thought of the later pre-See also:Christian Judaism. Old Semitic See also:philosophy was a See also:science not of See also:ontology in the See also:modern sense of the See also:term, but of See also:practical See also:life. For the Greeks " love of wisdom " involved inquiry into the basis and origin of things; the See also:Hebrew " wisdom " was the capacity so to See also:order life as to get out of it the greatest possible See also:good. Though the See also:early See also:Hebrews (of the See also:time before the 5th See also:century B.C.) must have reflected on life, there is no trace of such reflection, of a systematic sort, in their extant literature. " See also:Wise men " are distrusted and opposed by the prophets. The latter were concerned only with the See also:maintenance of the See also:sole See also:worship of Yahweh and of social morality. This was the task of the early Hebrew thinkers, and to it a large See also:part of the higher See also:energy of the nation was devoted. The See also:external See also:law given, as was believed, by the See also:God of See also:Israel, was held to be the sufficient See also:guide of life, and everything that looked like reliance on human wisdom was regarded as disloyalty to the Divine Lawgiver. While the priests See also:developed the sacrificial See also:ritual, it was the prophets that represented the theocratic See also:element of the See also:national life—they devoted themselves to their task with noteworthy persistence and ability, and their efforts were crowned with success; but their virtue of singlemindedness carried with it the defect of narrowness—they despised all peoples and all countries but their own, and were intolerant of opinions, held by their See also:fellow-citizens, that were not wholly in accordance with their own principles. The reports of the earlier wise men, men of practical sagacity in See also:political and social affairs, have come to us from unfriendly See also:sources; it is quite possible that among them were some who took See also:interest in life for its own See also:sake, and reflected on its human moral basis. But, if this was so, no See also:record of their reflections has been preserved. The class of sages to whom we owe the Wisdom Books did not arise till a See also:change had come over the national fortunes and life. The See also:firm See also:establishment of the See also:doctrine of practical monotheism happened to coincide in time with the destruction of the national political life (in the 6th century B.C.). At the moment when this doctrine had come to be generally accepted by the thinking part of the nation, the See also:Jews found themselves dispersed among See also:foreign communities, and from that time were a subject See also:people epvironed by aliens, Babylonian, See also:Persian and See also:Greek. The prophetic See also:office ceased to exist when its See also:work was done, and part of the intellectual energy of the people was thus set See also:free for other tasks than the establishment of theistic See also:dogma. The ritual law was substantially completed by the end of the 5th century B.C.; it became the See also:object of study, and thus arose a class of scholars, among whom were some who, under the See also:influence of the See also:general culture of the time, native and foreign, pushed their investigations beyond the limits of the national law and became students and critics of life. These last came to See also:form a See also:separate class, though without formal organization. There was a tradition of learning (See also:Job viii. 8, xv. ro)—the results of observation and experience were handed down orally. In the 2nd century B.C., about the time when the See also:synagogue took shape, there were established See also:schools presided over by eminent sages, in which along with instruction in the law much was said concerning the general conduct of life (see PIRKE ABOTH). The social unification produced by the conquests of See also: Scholars were held in See also:honour in those days by princes and people, and Ben-Sira frankly adduces this fact as one of the See also:great advantages of the pursuit of wisdom. It was in cities that the study of life and philosophy was best carried on, and it is chiefly with See also:city life that Jewish wisdom deals. The extant writings of the Jewish sages are contained in the books of Job, See also:Proverbs, See also:Psalms, Ben-Sira, See also:Tobit, See also:Ecclesiastes, Wisdom of See also:Solomon, 4th See also:Maccabees, to which may be added the first See also:chapter of Pirke Aboth (a Talmudic See also:tract giving, probably, pre-Christian material). Of these Job, Pss. x1ix., lxxiii., xcii. 6-8 (5-7), See also:Eccles., Wisdom, are discussions of the moral See also:government of the world; Prov., Pss. See also:xxxvii., cxix., Ben-Sira, Tob. iv., xii. 7-11, Pirke, are manuals of conduct, and 4th Maccab. treats of the See also:autonomy of See also:reason in the moral life; Pss. viii., See also:Rix. 2-7 (i-6), See also:xxix. 3-10, XC. 1-12, cvii. 17-32, cxxxi$., cxliv. 3 f., cxlvii. 8 f. are reflections on See also:man and See also:physical nature (cf. the Yahweh addresses in Job, and Ecclus. xlii. i 5-xliii. 33). Sceptical views are expressed in Job, Prov. See also:xxx. 2-4 (Agur), Eccles.; the See also:rest take the current orthodox position. Though the intellectual world of the sages is different from that of the prophetic and legal Hebraism, they do not break with the fundamental Jewish theistic and ethical See also:creeds. Their monotheism remains Semitic—even in their conception of the cosmogonic and See also:illuminating See also:function of Wisdom they regard God as See also:standing outside the world of physical nature and man, and do not grasp or accept the See also:idea of the identity of the human and the divine; there is thus a See also:sharp distinction between their general theistic position and that of Greek philosophy. They retain the old high See also:standard of morals, and in some instances go beyond it, as in the injunctions to be See also:kind to enemies (Prov. See also:xxv. 21 f.) and to do to no man what is hateful to one's self (Tob. iv. 15) ; in these finer See also:maxims they doubtless represent the general ethical advance of the time. They differ from the older writers in practically ignoring the physical supernatural--that is, though they regard the miracles of the See also:ancient times (referred to particularly in Wisdom xvi.-xix.) as See also:historical facts, they say nothing of a miraculous element in the life of their own time. Angels occur only in Job and Tobit, and there in noteworthy characters: in Job they are beings whom God charges with folly (iv. 18), or they are mediators between God and man (v. I, xxxiii. 23), that is, they are humanized, and the Elohim beings (including the Satan) in the See also:prologue belong to a popular See also:story, the figure of Satan being used by the author to See also:account for Job's calamities; in Tobit the " affable " See also:Raphael is a See also:clever man of the world. Except in Wisdom ii. 24 (where the See also:serpent of Gen. iii. is called " Diabolos "), there is mention of one demon only (See also:Asmodeus, in Tob. iii. 8, 17), and that a Persian figure. Job alone introduces the mythical dragons (iii. 8, vii. 12, ix. 13, See also:xxvi. 12) that occur in See also:late prophetical writings (See also:Amos ix. 3; Isa. See also:xxvii. I) ; as the earliest of the \Visdom books, it is the friendliest to supernatural machinery. Like the prophetical writings before See also:Ezekiel, the Wisdom books, while they recognize the sacrificial ritual as an existing custom, attach little importance to it as an element of religious life (the fullest mention of it is in Ecclus. See also:xxxv. 4 if., I); the difference between prophets and sages is that the former do not regard the ritual as of divine See also:appointment (Jer. vii. 22) and oppose it as non-moral, while the latter, probably accepting the law as divine, by laying most stress on the universal See also:side of See also:religion, lose sight of its See also:local and See also:mechanical side (see Ecclus. xxxv. 1-3). Their broad culture (reinforced, perhaps, by the political conditions of the time) made them comparatively indifferdnt to Messianic hopes and to that conception of a final See also:judgment of the nations that was closely connected with these hopes: a See also:Messiah is not mentioned in their writings (not in Prov. xvi. 10-15), and a final judgment only in Wisdom of Solomon, where it is not of nations but of individuals. In this regard a comparison between them and See also:Daniel, See also:Enoch and Psalms of Solomon is instructive. Their interest is in the ethical training of the individual on See also:earth. There was nothing in their general position to make them in-hospitable to ethical conceptions of the future life, as is shown by the fact that so soon as the See also:Egyptian-Greek idea of See also:immortality made itself See also:felt in Jewish circles it was adopted by the author of the Wisdom of Solomon; but See also:prior to the 1st century B.C. it does not appear in the Wisdom literature, and the nationalistic dogma of resurrection is not mentioned in it at all. Everywhere, except in the \Visdom of Solomon, the Underworld is the old Hebrew inane See also:abode of all the dead, and therefore a negligible quantity for the moralist. Nor do the sages go beyond the old position in their ethical theory: they have no philosophical discussion of the basis of the moral life; their standard of good conduct is existing law and custom; their See also:motive for right-doing is individual eudaemonistic, not the good of society, or See also:loyalty to an ideal of righteousness for its own sake, but See also:advantage for one's self. They do not See also:attempt a psychological explanation of the origin of human See also:sin; See also:bad thought (yeses ra', Ecclus. xxxvii. 3) is accepted as a fact, or its entrance into the mind of man is attributed (Wisd. ii. 24 )to the See also:devil (the serpent of Gen. iii.). In See also:fine, they eschew theories and confine themselves to visible facts. It is in keeping with their whole point of view that they claim no divine See also:inspiration for themselves: they speak with authority, but their authority is that of reason and See also:conscience. It is this definitely rational See also:tone that constitutes the differentia of the teaching of the sages. For the old external law they substitute the See also:internal law: conscience is recognized as the See also:power that approves or condemns conduct (ipixih Ecclus. xiv. 2; Qussi ats, Wisd. Sol. xvii. II). \Visdom is represented as the result of human reflection, and thus as the guide in all the affairs of life. It is also sometimes conceived of as divine (in \Visd. of Sol. and in parts of Prov. and Ecclus., but not in Eccles.), in accordance with the Hebrew view, which regards all human See also:powers as bestowed directly by God; it is identified with the fear of God (Job See also:xxviii. 28; Prov. i. 7; Ecclus. xv. I ff.) and even with the Jewish law (Ecclus. See also:xxiv. 23). But in such passages it remains fundamentally human; no attempt is made to define the limits of the human and the divine in its See also:composition—it is all human and all divine. The personification of wisdom reaches almost the See also:verge of See also:hypostasis: in Job xxviii. it is the most See also:precious of things; in Prov. viii. it is the See also:companion of God in His creative work, itself created before the world; in Ecclus. xxiv. the nationalistic conception is set forth: wisdom, created in the beginning, compasses See also:heaven and earth seeking rest and finds at last its dwelling-See also:place in See also:Jerusalem (and so substantially 4th Maccabees) ; the height of sublimity is reached in Wisd. of Sol. vii., where wisdom, the brightness of the See also:everlasting See also:light, is the source of all that is noblest in human life. Greek influence appears clearly in the sages' attitude toward the phenomena of life. God, they hold, is the sole creator and ruler of the world; yet man is free, autonomous—God is not responsible for men's faults (Ecclus. xv. 11-20) ; divine wisdom is visible in the See also:works of nature and in beasts and man (Job xxxviii. f.; Pss. viii., cxxxix.). On the other See also:hand, there is recognition of the inequalities and miseries of life (Job; Ecclus. xxxiii. 11 if., xl. I-1 ; Eccles.), and, as a result, See also:scepticism as to a moral government of the world. In Job, which is probably the earliest of the philosophical books, the question whether God is just is not definitely answered: the prologue affirms that the sufferings of good men, suggested by the sneer of Satan, are intended to demonstrate the reality of human goodness; elsewhere (v. 17, xxxiii. 17 ff.) they are regarded as disciplinary; the Yahweh speeches declare man's inability to understand God's dealings; the prosperity of the wicked is nowhere explained. The ethical manuals, Prov. (except xxx. 2-4) and Ecclus.,are not interested in the question and ignore it; Agur's See also:agnosticism (See also:Prow. xxx. 2-4) is substantially the position of the Yahweh speeches in Job directed against the " unco-wise " of his See also:day. Koheleth's scepticism (in the See also:original form of Ecclesiastes) is deep-seated and far-reaching: though he is a theist, he See also:sees no See also:justice in the world, and looks on human life as meaningless and resultless. For him See also:death is the end-all, and it is against some such view as this that the See also:argument in Wisd. of Sol. ii.-v. is directed. With the establishment of the belief in ethical immortality this phase of scepticism vanished from the Jewish world, not, however, without leaving behind it works of enduring value. In all the Wisdom books virtue is conceived of as conterminous with knowledge. Salvation is attained not by believing but by the See also:perception of what is right; wisdom is See also:resident in the soul and identical with the thought of man. Yet, with this See also:adoption of the Greek point of view, the tone and spirit of this literature remain Hebrew. The writings of the sages are all See also:anonymous. No single man appears as creator of the tendency of thought they represent; they are the product of a See also:period extending over several centuries, but they form an intellectual unity, and presuppose a great body of thinkers. The sages may be regarded as the beginners of a universal religion: they felt the need of permanent principles of life, and were able to set aside to some extent the local features of the current creed. That they did not found a universal religion was due, in part at least, to the fact that the time was not ripe for such a faith; but they See also:left material that was taken up into later systems. 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