Exegesis of Poetic and Wisdom Literature, Exam 3, Dr. Parke, Mississippi College

• Category of Song of Songs

"Megilloth" (writings) and read at Passover! • Song of Songs Rabbinic Viewpoint: a wisdom book, based upon its CONNECTION to Solomon

• It is also an autobiography because the speaker never names themselves, only refers to themselves as

"Qoheleth"

• The Qoheleth of Ecclesiastes discloses five clues about his identity

"Son of David", "King in Jerusalem", wise, wealthy, lots of women

• Philip Yancey states of Ecclesiastes,

"Teacher's pilgrimage-in-reverse as he investigates the meaning of life

• Content of Song of Songs

"not a drama in the theatrical sense, since the theater was not a Semitic institution, but a development somewhere between lyrical poetry and drama"; "series of lyric poems on the theme of love between man and woman"

" • 3 Emphasis of Ecclesiastes

1) Search for Happiness/Substance; 2) Sovereignty of God; 3) Golden Mean of Conduct (avoiding extremes); 4) Foil (someone or something that serves as a contrast to another)

• Drama Interpretations of Song of Songs

1) Two-Character Format (Solomon and Shulammite maiden, NO PLOT), 2) Three-Character Format (Solomon, Shulammite maiden, and shepherd boy, PLOT is LOVE CANNOT BE BOUGHT)

o Tensions in Ecclesiastes

1) Wisdom (invaluable and overrated); 2) God (positive and negative); 3) Work (work hard and why bother); 4) Ethics (Fear God and give in); 5) Pleasure (attainable and inaccessible); 6) Leadership (good and bad); 7) Materialism (pros and cons)

o Example of Development of Material from Proverbs

Chapters 1-9 • personification of wisdom, • longer poems, • later according to form-critics; Chapters 10-29 • mostly 2-liners, • earlier according to form-critics; o Bullock says consider Solomon who is pre-exilic and man of wisdom capable of writing long and deep poems; o One-liner 1 Samuel 10'12 and 24'13

• Focus of Proverbs

Creation Theology by observing humans and animals ("field study") to discern the ORDER ("Cause and Effect") and to minimize mystery [can't eliminate the mystery of life]

• Nehilism, the belief in nothing, everything is worthless, is not the message of

Ecclesiastes

• The Council of Jamnia, convening in a city in the Holy Land, debated whether or not to keep _________ in the Canon, they decided to keep saying that the Song of Solomon corrects its overstatements

Ecclesiastes

• Cultic

Ecclesiastes adapts the myth of Tammuz, a Mesopotamian fertility god who died (killed by his lover Ishtar) and resurrects seasonally

Scoffer

English noun translating the participial form of Hebrew verb "to scorn", a malignant personality to be avoided, prideful, trouble-maker, enjoys sinning, disrupting peace, CANNOT CHANGE/NO HOPE

• Ecclesiastes is the ____ name of a Hebrew book in our English Bibles

Greek

• Allegorical Interpretations of Song of Songs

Jewish - The lovers are not real persons, the shepherd represents GOD and the Shulammite maiden represents ISRAEL, the book depicts God's covenant love for Israel; Christian - the lovers are not real persons, the shepherd represents CHRIST and the Shulammite maiden represents the CHURCH, the book depicts Christ's love for the Church

• Proverbs 8 rivals

Job 28 and the Wisdom of Sirach 24 through its controversial identity of the personified being or whether it is hypostatization (deifying something) - "The Lord possessed" or "created me" or OWNED the wisdom being PERSONIFIED; probably not Hypostatization in monotheistic Egyptian (that would create theological problems in having a created deity)

• Song of Songs Assessment of Dr Parke

NOT a wisdom book, based upon its CONTENT

o Five Kinds of Folly

Naïve, Sluggard, Arrogant, Scoffer

• English Bibles have a Past, Present and Future Sections

Past - Canon, Present - Writings, Future - NT and Revelation

• Ecclesiastes is the Greek equivalent of _______, the book's title in the Hebrew Bible

Qoheleth

• Author of Song of Songs

Solomon

• Content of Ecclesiastes

Tensions

• Foil in the Book of Ecclesiastes

Unity? o Life Under the Sun (death cancels everything [the reality and finality of death mean that life has no ultimate value]), God is unknowable, wisdom cannot achieve its goal, the world is crooked, pleasure commends itself); o Fear God ("Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, BEFORE the evil days come and the years draw near"

• The Hebrew noun, "Hebel" means

VANITY, labor, breath, WIND, empty, vacuous, worthless, senseless, futility

• Distinctive Terms Not In and Separating Song of Songs from Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes (the other Wisdom Books)

Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Discipline, Discretion, Prudence, Insight, and Wise Council

• Ecclesiastes has sections such as introduction and conclusions that could suggest more than one _____

author

Arrogant

can also be translated as fool, says there is no God, to what Job compares his wife's advice, OT Abigail married a man named Naval which means Fool, CANNOT CHANGE/NO HOPE

• The changing or editing of Ecclesiastes to make it less blasphemous ________ be proved

cannot

• Ecclesia, the root of Ecclesiastes, is translated

church, congregation, assembly, or gathering, and Ecclesiastes designates the group leader

• LITERAL INTERPRETATIONS of Song of Songs

collection of love songs or poems that highlight romantic love and addresses two issues - 1) whom to love; 2) how to love

• Proverbs is a collection of

collections

• Life is _________; therefore, a book about life (Ecclesiastes) would be too

contradictory

• When viewing the book of Ecclesiastes as having contradictions, you must see it as being

disunified

• Ecclesiastes has a _____ seen in its contradictions because it was edited by _________ individuals after its _____ author(s)

disunity, multiple, single

• Song of Songs Title

example of Hebrew superlative, "Servant of Servants", "Holy of Holies", "Vanity of Vanities"

• Wisdom is a _______ noun, and therefore personified as a ______

feminine, woman

• According to the Book of Proverbs, folly is personified by _____ kinds of fools

five

• The reason for some of the contradictions or possible insertions by editors in Ecclesiastes is to

make the book more palatable for the reader

• Ecclesiastes is a Wisdom _____

monologue

• Ecclesiastes is a _______ written by a man, possibly Solomon as speaker and author

monologue

• Frequent occurrence of the character "_______" in the book of Proverbs, relating not only to each other but also to God

neighbor

• Robert Gordis thinks Ecclesiastes is a _______, "into which the author jotted down his reflections during the enforced leisure of old age; They differ in mood, in style, and in length," With no attempt to unify them

notebook

• Role Of Solomon

o "Patron" (influence over, force behind, contributor to); o Wrote Proverbs Chapters 1-29, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon; o A lot of his 3,000 poems have been lost

• Kinds of Material in Proverbs

o Instruction Genre - Commandments (admonitions and prohibitions, may begin with the words, "My Son" [clauses can attach to commandments and be conditional, loaded (indicates that the commandment is reasonable), or consequential]; o Wisdom Sentence - Statements/Observations of Life (predominant in chapters 10-29); o Numerical Saying -predominant in chapter 30 [ x+(x+1)]; o Acrostic - "The Virtues of A Godly Woman" is a twenty-two verse acrostic with each verse beginning with a Hebrew letter in order that makes it easier to remember

• The Rabbi's found the book of Ecclesiastes ______

offensive

• The speaker of Ecclesiastes is an ____ man, struggling with ____, and eager to change the ____

older, bitterness, past

o Book of Proverbs describes ____; Books of Job and Ecclesiastes address _______

order, exceptions

• Ecclesiastes is the English translation of the Greek translation of the Hebrew word, "Qoheleth" which the speaker names themselves and means

preacher or leader of the congregation

• Wedding Cycle

series of songs sung during the week-long wedding-feast comparable to Syrian wedding songs

Naïve

simply, spacious, wide, open, air-head, lacking the filters to discern what they her, they are easily deceived, gullible, too open-minded, HAS THE ABILITY TO CHANGE/THERE IS HOPE

• Ecclesiastes is ______ wisdom, along with Job and contradicting the practical wisdom of Proverbs

speculative

• Contradiction in Chapter 26 caused a group of Rabbi's to debate Proverbs' ________ in the Old Testament due to its seemingly contradictory phrase

standing

• Role of Solomon in Ecclesiastes

the name Solomon never appears in the book, hence, it would be an anonymous autobiography OR an Israelite sage used Solomon's life to teach how not to live

• Arguments Against any connection between the Book of Ecclesiastes and Solomon

the speaker never names himself, sounds remorseful or even repentant and neither 1 Kings or 2 Chronicles mentions a change of heart by an aged Solomon

Fool

thick, hard-headed, lacking in sense, not necessarily a lack of intelligence, morally corrupt, insolent - insultingly contemptuous in speech or conduct, CANNOT CHANGE/NO HOPE

Sluggard

thick, lazy, fond of sleep, doesn't exert enough effort to feed himself, opposed to work, CANNOT CHANGE/NO HOPE

• Objective of Proverbs

to Cope

• "Qoheleth"

to assemble, designates the group leader, literally "one who convenes a congregation", title of Ecclesiastes in Hebrew

• Purpose of Proverbs

train royal children in speech, etiquette, and manner (first training of children should come from parents)

• Proverbs is poetry typically in the form of a ___-_____ to make it easier to remember and catchy, but expresses what is typically true by way of field study but can't explain all of it due to length

two-liner

• When viewing the book of Ecclesiastes as having tensions, you must see it as being _____

unified

• Proverbs is a Wisdom Book, therefore it promotes ______ and forsakes ______

wisdom, folly

• Vanity can mean that "everything under the sun" is _______, therefore we should look to God for meaning in life

worthless