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18 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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5. Give a broad stroke outline of Proverbs. Explain how the parts relate to one another.
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Basic outline:
1:1-7 Title, introduction, and motto (give the overall idea of the book) 1:8-9:18 A father’s invitation to wisdom (note “my son” frequently: 1:8, 2:1 etc. mostly motivational: why should you pay heed? These chapters are the hermeneutical key to the book. 1:1-7 overall idea, 1:8-9:18 are motivational for paying attention. 10:1-22:16 Proverbs of Solomon (Here is where “proverbs proper” start) 22:17-24:22 Sayings of “the Wise” 24:23-34 Further sayings of “the Wise”—“These are also the sayings of the wise” 25:1-29:27 More proverbs of Solomon (collected by Hezekiah’s men) 30:1-33 Sayings of Agur (unknown) 31:1-9 Sayings of King Lemuel (unknown) 31:10-31 An alphabet of womanly excellence |
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5. Give a broad stroke outline of Proverbs. Explain how the parts relate to one another.
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In relating the parts to one another, I’m not exactly sure how to do this, except to use the first two sections above with the overall idea (1:1-7) and the motivation (hermeneutical key to the book 1:8-9:18) for paying attention as the rubric for the book. The parts following those are related under the umbrella of the first two sections. For example, the proverbs of Solomon and Agur are related in that practical wisdom is being offered in the latter sections, wisdom and skill in the art of Godly wisdom is being explained/discussed in relation to the overall idea and the motivation.
ESV Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” We are to seek wisdom and instruction from the entire book, not that each saying or statement is true “all the time” but that the principles of wisdom are being given in the book. Applications: (from page 105) Proverbs shows us – 1. God’s will applies to every aspect of our lives all of life– it’s intensely practical! A proper relation to God means that we try hard to understand his truth, and what we understand we embrace and obey. 2. A life lived by God’s will is a happy life (3:21-26). 3. A life lived by God’s will is a useful life (3:27-28, 12:18,25). 4. A life lived by God’s will does not just happen – you have to seek after it, study, pursue, discipline yourself….a disciplined life 5. Such a life is available to those who go after it (9:1-6). |
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6. Give the basic interpretive issues in Proverbs. Explain what means and how to apply them to particular texts from Proverbs.
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1. Imagined literary history (revisionist) of a proverb from critical scholars is irrelevant (unless one can prove an allusion to earlier literature). Let’s not make assumptions on what we don’t have.
2. Look for paragraph structure (it may or may not be there, but if it is, is provides an interpretive context). Coreferential & Coherence 3. The immediate and overall literary context of a proverb is material – cf. Heim, who shows that coherence of 10:1-5; further, what he does not show, is that chapters 1-9 are the hermeneutical key to the book: again 1:1-7 the overall idea, 1:8-9:18 motivation for paying attention, 10:1 where proverbs proper start. This means we have a goal (1:2-6), the spring (1:7 – Yahwistic and there by covenantal and related to earlier Torah and covenant history of Israel), and the orienting mentality (1:8 ff – definitions, outcomes, etc) as a theological context for interpretation. 4. Covenant—Authority and Application 5. Culture |
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13. What is the nature of God’s reply to Job?
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Kidner: Compellingly, Powerfully, Assertive, “He answers out of the whirlwind – formidably, boisterously, never for a moment on the defensive… the entire reply is a stream of unanswerable questions, starting with the farthest reaches of tie and speace, and drawing ever narrowing circles round him of things beyond his knowing, even things as close at hand as the beasts and birds that he would have taken for granted… God has changed the subject… Job and his friends have not only found the wrong answers; they have been asking the wrong questions… God is enlarging Job’s horizon… it will reassure him that his Maker is unimaginably wise and of infinite resource; that it will also bring it home to him that his ash heap is not the center or circumference of the world, and this his perplexing role is intertwined with that of innumerable others…
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7. Explain Heim’s argument about paragraph context.
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Heim has articulated conditions for identifying a paragraph in the sentence proverbs:
1. Coreferentiality (referring to the same thing…may not be syn. but expressions of the same thing) of the main protagonists (or some of them). eg. “morning star” and “evening star” referring to the planet Venus. 2. Coherence between the sayings (through semantic links and inference) of the paragraph– 3. Coincidance of both coreferentiality and coherence. 4. Context- (immediate) If the first three conditions are met, the expected result is that the individual sayings give a context to one another and thus mutually influence their meaning. This meaning in context should manifest itself in a logical development of thought. ~4.a. There may be an inclusio (like in 10:1-5 “a wise son”) that provides a bracket, envelope, or book ends to help signify that this is a paragraph. CJC adds Covenant (overall context of book) and Culture (ancient Israel, cultic Israel, non-Israel) |
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14. What are two main repeated words in Job and how do they contribute?
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$rb- bërák- “To Bless”- Euphemism (less offensive synonym)
1:5- lest children have “blessed” (cursed) God; 1:10, 11- God blessed Job, but Job would bless “curse” God; 1:21- Job blessed God; 2:5 Satan says Job will “bless” (curse) God; 2:9- Job’s wife urges Job to bless (curse) God; 3:12- (possibly different verb); 4:4- (possibly different verb); 31:30- Job is sure the poor man has blessed him; 42:12- Lord blesses Job; ~xn- naHám- “to comfort, be comforted” 2:11- friends “comfort” him; 7:13- bed will not “comfort”; 16:2- friends are miserable “comforters”; 21:34- friends would “comfort” him with empty words; 29:25- Job “comforted” mourners; 42:6- “and repent (Niphal of nhm “I am comforted”) in dust and ashes”…Climax of Job’s response to the revelation of God in chapters 38-41; 42:11- Job’s friends and relationships “comfort” him. |
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8. Give a definition of ‘wisdom.’ How does Proverbs work to instill it?
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As CJC told us wisdom is “skill in the art of Godly living.” C.S. Lewis wrote, “The means by which the Lord provides for the needs of his children, is by instilling diligence and wisdom to them.” The question is whether or not I’ve been faithful to the tasks that God has given me to do. The pastor who carries out a ministry in obscurity, or one who is dominated by changing diapers isn’t less, Ecclesiastics tells us, none of us know how our lives are in God’s plan, the great scheme of things, it is our faithfulness in whatever God gives us to do that matters. We don’t have to write great books like JI Packer, or write articles like Jack Collins. “You did what God gave you to do today.” We live below the line: pray, carry on without fear, moving forward, don’t try to probe above the line. The creaturely conduct is to seek wisdom/discernment, to seek a good course of action.
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15. What are the four main repeated words in Ecc.? What do they help us see?
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1.) acm– mäcä--“to find” – has the nuance “to find by research” (cf. 9:15; 12:10). A recurring theme in Ecclesiastes is the impossibility of “finding out the meaning of it all” by research (cf. 3:11; 7:14, 24; 8:17)
2.) rteAy – yôtër– “advantage, excess”—2:15, 6:8, 11; 7:11, 16; 12:9, 12 3.) !Arßt.Y–yitrôn – “advantage, profit” – both 2 and 3 show that the author is looking for an advantage, for a benefit; 1:3; 2:11, 13; 3:9; 5:8, 15; 7:12; 10:10, 11 4.) har– rä´â – “to see” – the recurring idea: “seeing,” i.e. by experience They all show that man is constantly trying to find out, see by experience, or find an advantage to life and understand how everything in life fits together. Man thinks wisdom is knowing what God knows and once man “understands” God, he can then faithfully obey. Eccl. 1:8, 10, 14, 16; 2:1, 3, 12f, 24; 3:10, 13, 16, 18, 22; 4:1, 3f, 7, 15; 5:7, 12, 17; 6:1, 5f; 7:11, 13ff, 27, 29; 8:9f, 16f; 9:9, 11, 13; 10:5, 7; 11:4, 7; 12:3; |
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9. Apply these principles to specific texts in Proverbs.
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•What is the ground (bottom line) of the instruction?
•What is the purpose of the individual proverbs and its relation to the context? •How is this wisdom depicted in the life of the regenerate? The overall message which cultivates wisdom, God’s truth applied to concrete circumstances. I would think that CJC may give us a proverb or passage and expect us to apply these things to it. On page 106 he does this with ESV Proverbs 16:6 “By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil.” and looks at its context in the book and in the passage (vv.1-9) and then with v. 6 as “gospel obedience” For more on this and further study cf. pgs 106-144 in the notes, where various examples are discussed in the notes. |
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16. Who is the intended audience of the Ecc.? What is the overall message?
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Other questions to ask…Who is this book written for? Who is the man that is being described?
Koheleth – “the preacher” Kinder- A man apart from God “having a debate with himself” on “what he cannot help seeing and what he still cannot help believing”; without God you cannot understand; Pre-evangelism; Or the man is the audience. Ecclesiastes is Koheleth’s “challenge to the man of the world to think his own position through to its bitter end,” (p. 91). Koheleth “holds up the mirror to man, showing him the transience of his work and the fact that God’s work alone endures.” (p. 115). This fits with his interpretive approach to the book. Wright/Pakcer- The man is the audience. He goes through the world looking for the solution to life, yet discovers that life does not provide the key to itself (The Interpretation of Ecclesiastes – p. 142). J.I. Packer in “Knowing God” calls the book a sermon. Koheleth (“Preacher”) gives the text (“vanity of vanities,” 1:2; 12:8), an exposition of its theme (chapters 1-10) and an application (11:1-12:7). (Knowing God – p. 104) Overall message “Man cannot understand how all things fit together in this life” (3:10-11; 7:14; 8:17). “Understanding all of life is not a pre-condition for faithful obedience.” We know all things work together for good, but we don’t know “how” they work out that way. Wisdom is “not our need to know” what God is up to in order to live lives of faithfulness. Instead, wisdom is discerning in ordinary circumstances what it means to live faithful lives as the covenant people of God. We are called to “fear God and keep His commandments” (12:13). The Biblical wisdom that the writer of Ecclesiastes is getting us to embrace is – a life of faith on “this side” of the line. The only movement we are privy to is God’s down to us and not vice versa. God has a plan and we can trust in this plan because He has been faithful to His covenant children. We have seen and experienced this faithfulness. Packer says “the text is intended as a warning against the misconceived quest for understanding.” (Knowing God – p. 105). |
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10. What is the message of Job as a whole?
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Collins: “The message of the Book of Job relates to the problem of suffering – but how? There are different kinds of suffering: deserved and undeserved, individual and corporate… Job focuses on the (apparent) undeserved suffering of on individual… It is enough to say that the book of Job is not an essay on the problem of pain, and to observe that we should be careful so to frame our doctrine of suffering that we do not commit the errors of Job’s friends…
Kidner: “Among its major topics, it probes into ‘disinterest obedience… innocent suffering, social oppression, religious experience and pious duty, a man’s relation to God, and the nature of the God… the reminder to Job of mystery, beauty and harmony in the natural world invites the inference that the equally baffling moral order is no less glorious, and can be rejoiced in with no less confidence… what Job longed for blindly has actually happened. God himself has joined us in our hell of loneliness… (here) is the final answer to Job and to all the Jobs of humanity.” Steinman: “the central concern of Job is how a righteous person’s faith and integrity come through a crisis… therefore we can only conclude that Job’s main message revolves around the subject of faith and integrity, not the theodicy of suffering. In the view of the author of Job, trust in God precludes questions of theodicy.” Further we must remember that “faith” (= trust) is a personal act toward a person who has shown that he deserves trust; hence it is rational behavior {to trust God}… We do not know what happens “above the line”… |
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17. How do the different interpretive approaches for Ecc.(such as Kidner and of Stafford Wright) compare and contrast?
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Kidner- Preparation for evangelism; The truth of a worldview without God; A “searching criticism of human self-sufficiency” A challenge to the secularist as an apologetic with the aim of addressing man “whose view is bounded by the horizons of this world” (p. 93). Therefore, Koheleth meets him on his own turf with the hope of convicting him that his own view of the world is vanity (1:2) – a mist or vapor; empty. Koheleth signals man that the “abyss of final vanity is the destination of every road but one” (p. 93-94). Man is not to set his heart on the vanity of this world, but instead on the bigger truth of our Creator, from whom we can gladly and responsibly accept things for what they are and in whom alone is eternity (3:10-14) (p. 94). The search for truth about life through man’s self-absorption ends when man is called to be totally absorbed with the One and only truth – God our Creator (12:1) (p. 102).
Wright, on the other hand, develops a slightly different approach to the book. He sees the keys to the book in the preface (1:2) and conclusion (12:8) which says, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Sandwiched between is man going through the world with Koheleth, “looking for the solution to life, and at every turn he forces us to admit that here is only vanity, frustration, bewilderment. Life does not provide the key to itself.” (The Interpretation of Ecclesiastes – p. 142) The key is not in nature, humanity or in wisdom. “All life is vanity in the sense, “that it is unable to give us the key to itself. The book is the record of a search for this key to life. “It is an endeavor to give a meaning to life, to see it as a whole” (p. 140). Yet it is God who holds the key and since He will not give it to us, we must trust Him as the locksmith to open the doors (p. 140) (3:10-11, 7:14, 8:17). The universe does make sense, there is a plan and a purpose and our attitude is to be one of faith and confidence in God’s plan (p. 144). There is the certainty of this divine plan, “even though individual steps in the plan remain a mystery, and must be accepted by faith.” (p. 145) It is for this reason that we conform to God’s plan and “sincerely desire to arrange our lives for His glory” (p. 148) and to fulfill the purposes for which God made us (p. 150). Likewise, Packer approaches the book the same way as Wright. He says, “For the truth is that God in his wisdom, to make and keep us humble and to teach us to walk by faith, has hidden from us almost everything that we should like to know about the providential purposes which he is working out in the churches and in our own lives.” (Knowing God – p. 106). Wright’s view makes more sense within a Biblical worldview, derives from the textual features of the book itself and can easily be applied in the evangelistic way that Kidner applies it. (i.e. The book sheds light on Christian difficulties such as the problem of evil.) |
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11. How do the individual characters contribute to the message of Job?
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Kidner: The Accuser: “the Hebrew treats the word Satan not as a name but as a common noun, ‘the satan’, to indicate the place he is allowed to occupy in the total scheme of things. In a trial at law, the Satan, or adversary is a term for an accuser or persecutor, and in the present context this creature’s cynicism fits him to produce the most damning charge that can be brought… if he can prove God’s finest man a hypocrite, no-one’s sincerity will still be credible…”
Job’s Comforters (so-called friends): Overestimate; Misapply; Close Mind; “it is possible to dismiss these friends of Job too lightly… and every speaker believes firmly in the one God, who is not only all-powerful but wholly just, and at the same time quick to restore the penitent and to heap blessing on the teachable (conventional wisdom: my addition)… their outlook chimes in very largely with the promises and warnings of the law, especially Deuteronomy, and with the wisdom of the Proverbs and the morel standpoint on the Prophets. Yet these men are ‘miserable comforters’ not only in Job’s estimation but even more strongly in God’s… a closer look at the material shows that the basic error of Job’s friends is that they overestimate their grasp of truth, misapply the truth they know, and close their minds to any facts that contradict what they assume,” (italics mine)… “Job’s well meaning comforters demonstrate the force of this by straying even further from reality, as they pursue their fixed ideas of suffering as punitive or, at best, purgative… to reinforce this, they pain idealized pictures of a world of prosperous saints and destitute sinners, brushing aside all contrary examples… on the specific issue of suffering, the basic mistake of these comforters is still with us wherever Christians make projections from their axioms about God, or from their doctrine of redemption, to the effect that the perfect health of the redeemed, here and now, must be what God intends…” (Bold face mine). Collins on Elihu, quoting Kidner: “[Elihu’s speech] not only delays the denouement of the book, but more importantly, the fact that his words are totally ignored, far from being evidence of their insertion by a clumsy editor, implies “that God has already heard more than enough of our well-meaning arguments, even before Elihu offers his opinions, and that any further contributions are simply not invited (what about saying “not needed”), for us or from anyone else.” Job Himself: “Job feels himself to be under attack from… his friends and from his God…” -The central concern of Job is how a righteous person’s faith and integrity come through a crisis and is not primarily about suffering -Job expresses one form of the less: a full understanding of God’s reasons and plans is not a prerequisite for faithfulness (and neither is deep perplexity and questioning a provocation to God) |
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18. What are the three main interpretive questions for Solomon?
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Is there a single plot from beginning to end?
-COHERENCE -Traditional view- Yes -Modern/Contemporary view- No (standard, dominant view) 2. Who are characters?CHARACTERS -Young Lady…deciding between shepherd and Solomon -Shepherd…maybe Solomon or there is a hypothesis is that this is different than Solomon. -Solomon….King but maybe an idealization of the shepherd -Shepherd/Solomon…historical/traditional view -Chorus 3. When do the boy and the girl “get together”? CONSUMATION -Are the love songs indifferent to marriage? -5:2-8 is a dream -7:1-10 is anticipation of enjoyment -Canon -Proverbs 5:15-19 (sexual delight within marriage) “Therefore the best way to read the Song of Songs is as a single story of two betrothed Israelites who look forward to their marriage and the pleasure of their union.” -CJC |
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12. What is the ideology of Job’s friends?
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The basic error of Job’s friends is that they overestimate their grasp of truth, misapply the truth they know, and close their minds to any facts that contradict what they assume. The book shows how small a part of any situation is the fragment that we see.
-Job focuses on the apparently undeserved suffering of an individual. -The book of Job is not such a treatise, but the story of one man, his loss, his search and his discovery. -Job is not an essay on the problem of pain -Elihu → God has already heard more than enough of our well-meaning arguments -In the midst of life’s incomprehensibility, we trust and obey. |
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19. What is the problem with the figure of Solomon?
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Traditional interpretations have seen Solomon as the same as the shepherd lover – but this raises problems because of the historical Solomon. The Shepherd hypothesis finds the shepherd boy and Solomon to be different – with the woman deciding between them. This is an imposition onto the text in 19th century Europe. The dream interpretation sees two main characters, the woman and the shepherd – with Solomon as an idealization of the shepherd in the woman’s dream.
Traditional interpretation says that Solomon is the shepherd lover. However, the historical Solomon that we know from Scripture had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3). Solomon’s first wife is Pharaoh’s daughter (1 King 3:1). Instead of Solomon being the shepherd lover or the idealization of the shepherd in the woman’s dream, he may have a rival. Webb calls him a remote, ideal figure. Shepherd’s Hypothesis When does the shepherd speak and when does Solomon? Dream Hypothesis Solomon is not an intruder, but a distant figure that the girl uses as an idealization (she must have not known him well). This allows us to see the praise of the women’s beauty (4:1-16) as an expression of proper delight. |
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20. Why do some interpreters prefer to allegorize Song of Songs?
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Some interpreters see the soul as a figure for the woman and Christ a figure for Solomon, thus putting the soul in relation to Christ. However, the problem with this view is that it takes away from the “good” world God created – including the sex He has made and is portrayed in this book. Some interpreters would rather not talk about this genre / Biblical literature as an erotic poem containing sex.
Example: Spurgeon, John Owen, “black curled locks…divine counsel” This looses the character of the book? Where is redemption? The sensuous descriptions in this book have provided motivation to turn the Song into an allegory, namely an extended picture of the love between Christ and his bride (either the Church or the individual soul). For example, a friend of mine who is editing a book by John Owen told me, I bet you didn’t know that the black curled locks of the lover’s hair (5:11) represent the divine counsel. As God is said to dwell in thick darkness, so do his thoughts, represented by the curls (which aren’t entangled). We can admire the motivation behind this kind of approach; but for all that we still have to say that it loses the wisdom character of the Song, with its endorsement of God’s good work of creation. |
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21. What is the main message of Song of Songs?
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Marriage and the consummation is only subsequent to the marriage bond. This book is all about the proper love of a woman and a man and the unquenchable nature of pure love and the sex / erotic love that this pure love engenders. To shy away from this emphasis is to not embrace God’s “good” creation and created order as well as reject the purpose for which this book was written.
Marital faithfulness and sexuality from a Biblical view Obedience in the Word of God shows the joys of living in the right way. Allow your emotions to flourish in the betrothal (engagement) period and not before because this is preparation for marriage. |
