CHAPTER XXVII

THE PLACE OF WISDOM IN HEBREW LIFE

§ I. THE SAGE AS A TEACHER

We have noted the development of three teachers in Israel: (1) the priests, who gave instruction on ceremonial matters, and later had the duty of carrying out the elaborated cultus which was the supreme object lesson in religion and morality; (2) the prophets, who were intermediaries between God and man, and then became exponents and preachers of righteousness; (3) the scribes, who developed from the priesthood, and were concerned with the teaching of the law. The priests appeared early in Hebrew life and continued to the end of the national existence, their greatest influence being in the postexilic times. The prophets flourished especially while the problems of the divine direction of the Hebrew national life were keenly felt; they found little opportunity after the exile. The scribes belong altogether to later Judaism.

There was a fourth class of teachers, the wise men, or sages, who had a different office from any of these three. Hebrew wisdom had a common origin with that sententious, pithy observation of men and things, and shrewd speculation upon practical affairs, which was found everywhere in the East. It was not especially religious in character, and was probably not a little vainglorious and self-sufficient. The prophets do not seem to have highly esteemed the "wisdom" of their day (Isa 5. 21; 29. 14; Jer 4. 22; 8. 8f.; 9. 23). That is partly accounted for by the difference that always exists between the man who reaches truth by the

process of thought and the man who comes upon it through vital experience. The prophet is a man with a message; the sage is a man with a counsel.

However, wisdom succeeded prophecy and came into something of its inheritance. The prophet was concerned with the relation of Jehovah to the nation. He was essentially the interpreter of God to the people as a whole. A certain national freedom was essential to his task. There was little place for him in postexilic Judaism, where national life was reduced to the smallest possible dimensions. But Jeremiah and Ezekiel had already seen that there is a relationship between the individual and God, as well as between the nation and God. The sacrificial system carried out both ideas of reconciliation for the people and for the individual. So there was an added significance given to the individual and his duties. The sage, therefore, came forward to point out those duties and to consider the practical problems of life.

Hebrew wisdom really assumes Hebrew prophecy. There was no more question of loyalty to Jehovah. The prophets had fought that battle and won. There was no more question of the fundamentally ethical nature of religion. The prophets had forever settled that antagonism. Legalism might emasculate the significance of morality, but the Hebrew people did not need again to be taught that God could not be bribed by sacrifices. The sages succeeded to the ethical monotheism for which the prophets had contended. It was their task to work out the meaning of the righteousness of Jehovah in practical life.

It is evident that the task of the sage and that of the scribe were near akin. The scribe was concerned with making clear to his disciples the requirements of the law; that is to say, he was dealing with the questions of right and wrong from the standpoint of the divinely given legislation. The sage also assumed the divinity of that legislation, and was concerned with the questions of right and wrong from the

standpoint of the experiences of life. Some scholars think that the two teachers were really one, and it seems clear that by the time of the Son of Sirach a complete fusion had been attained.

While Hebrew wisdom had a definite Semitic origin and a long history in its own native strength, it was undoubtedly quickened when the contact between the east and the west came about in the Greek period. With the development of the Jewish community in Alexandria, the process of fusion between Hebrew and Greek thought went forward rapidly, and it is noteworthy that the later books of wisdom emanated for the most part from Alexandria, while Philo, the distinguished Jewish philosopher, belonged to the Alexandrian school.

The wise men were the teachers of Israel during the four centuries before Christ. In that time they produced a considerable literature, the ethical value and literary quality of which should secure for it much more careful study than it generally receives. The influence of the teaching of the sages both in form and in content appears in the Gospels, and particularly in the Epistle of James, which has been well called the wisdom book of the New Testament.

§ 2. THE WISDOM LITERATURE AND ITS PROBLEMS Hebrew wisdom has often been somewhat loosely called philosophy. The Hebrews did not really develop a philosophy, for they were not speculators upon the ultimate meaning of things. They believed in God, the Creator and Governor, who was divinely revealed to them in their law and sacred books. Thus the ultimate questions were settled. The problem before the speculative Hebrew mind was, How shall men live in a world created by the God whom Israel knows?

Thus Hebrew wisdom was fundamentally religious. Its first postulate was always the God of righteousness. This was as clear to the sage as to the prophets. It did not in

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Good understanding getteth fear;

But the way of the transgressor is hard (Prov 13 15. compare 10. 2, 15, 27-39; 11. 31; 14 22; 22. 4f.; 29. 14).

The denial of this great truth was regarded as practical