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The Wiley Blackwell Companion
to Wisdom Literature
The Wiley Blackwell Companions to Religion
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The Wiley Blackwell Companion
to Wisdom Literature

Edited by

Samuel L. Adams
and
Matthew Goff
This edition first published 2020
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

Names: Adams, Samuel L., editor. | Goff, Matthew, editor.

Title: The Wiley Blackwell companion to wisdom literature / edited by Samuel L.
Adams, and Matthew Goff.
Description: Hoboken, NJ, USA : Wiley, 2020. | Series: The Wiley Blackwell
companions to religion | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019031710 (print) | LCCN 2019031711 (ebook) | ISBN
9781119158233 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119158257 (adobe pdf) | ISBN
9781119158271 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Wisdom literature–Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Classification: LCC BS1455 .W525 2020 (print) | LCC BS1455 (ebook) | DDC
223/.06–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019031710
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019031711

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents

Notes on Contributors viii

Acknowledgmentsxiii
Abbreviationsxiv

Editors’ Introduction 1
Samuel L. Adams and Matthew Goff

I. Texts 11
1 Proverbs 13
Jacqueline Vayntrub
2 Job 30
Davis Hankins
3 Ecclesiastes 49
Jennie Grillo
4 Psalms 67
William P. Brown
5 Sirach/Ben Sira 87
Bradley C. Gregory
6 Wisdom of Solomon 104
Randall D. Chesnutt
vi contents

7 Wisdom Texts From the Dead Sea Scrolls 122

Elisa Uusimäki
8 Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes in the Septuagint (LXX) 139
Patrick Pouchelle

II. Themes 157

9 The Figure of Solomon 159
Blake A. Jurgens
10 Female Imagery in Wisdom Literature 177
Tova Forti
11 Scribes and Pedagogy in Ancient Israel and Second Temple
Judaism 195
Matthew Goff
12 God in Wisdom Literature 213
James L. Crenshaw
13 Jewish Wisdom in the Contest of Hellenistic Philosophy and
Culture: Pseudo‐Phocylides and Philo of Alexandria 229
Michael Cover
14 Wisdom and Apocalypticism 248
Jason M. Zurawski
15 The Orality of Wisdom Literature 267
Timothy J. Sandoval

III. Antecedents 287

16 Ahiqar and Other Legendary Sages 289
Seth A. Bledsoe
17 Wisdom Literature in Egypt 310
Samuel L. Adams
18 Mesopotamian Wisdom 328
Nili Samet

IV. Reception 349

19 Wisdom in the New Testament 351
Benjamin Wold
 contents vii

20 Wisdom and the Rabbis 368

Ari Mermelstein
21 The Wisdom Tradition in Early Christianity through Late
Antiquity 389
Carson Bay
22 Jewish Sapiential Traditions in the Nag Hammadi Library 412
Dylan M. Burns
23 The Sapiential Books in the Latin Middle Ages 429
Gilbert Dahan
24 The Reception History of Job 447
Mark Larrimore
25 Wisdom from African Proverbs Meets Wisdom from the Book
of Proverbs 464
Madipoane Masenya (Ngwan’a Mphahlele)
26 Cinematic Wisdom: Film and Biblical Wisdom Literature 479
Matthew S. Rindge

Index 496
Notes on Contributors

Samuel L. Adams is the Mary Jane and John F. McNair Chair of Biblical Studies at
Union Presbyterian Seminary. He received his PhD from Yale University in 2006. He
is the author of monographs on wisdom literature and economics in the biblical
world and is editor of the journal Interpretation.
Carson Bay received his PhD from the Religions of Western Antiquity track of the
Department of Religion at Florida State University. He is now a Postdoctoral
Researcher in the Theology Faculty at the Universtät Bern, Switzerland. During the
present volume’s writing, he was a Fulbright Graduate Fellow at the Institutum
Judaicum Delitzschianum of Westfälische Wilhelms‐Universtät Münster, Germany.
Seth A. Bledsoe is Assistant Professor of Textual Sources of Judaism and Christianity
in the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology, and Religious Studies at Radboud University
in Nijmegen, in the Netherlands. His research focuses on wisdom literature and
ancient narratives from the Second Temple period, with special attention to Jewish
communities in Egypt. He has published several articles and a (forthcoming) mono-
graph on Ahiqar.
William P. Brown is the William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament
at Columbia Theological Seminary. He received his PhD from Emory University in
1991. He has written widely on the Psalms and the wisdom literature, as well as on
the intersections between science and theology.
Dylan M. Burns is a research ­associate at the Egyptological Seminar of the Freie
Universität Berlin. Co‐managing editor of Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies
(Brill), he is the author of Apocalypse of the Alien God: Platonism and the Exile of
Sethian Gnosticism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), and co‐editor of New
Antiquities: Transformations of Ancient Religion in the New Age and Beyond (Equinox,
2019).
 notes on contributors ix

Randall D. Chesnutt is the William S. Banowsky Chair in Religion at Seaver

College, Pepperdine University, where he has served on the faculty since 1984. He is
the author of From Death to Life: Conversion in Joseph and Aseneth (Sheffield Academic
Press, 1995), and various other studies of Jewish life and literature in the Hellenistic
period.
Michael Cover is Assistant Professor of Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity at
Marquette University. His research and teaching interests include the Pauline
Epistles, Philo of Alexandria, the historical Jesus, the enculturation of Judaism and
Christianity within the Greco‐Roman world, and the development of Trinitarian
thought. He is the author of Lifting the Veil: 2 Corinthians 3:7–18 in Light of Jewish
Homiletic and Commentary Traditions (Walter de Gruyter, 2015). His current project
is a commentary on Philo’s allegorical treatise, On the Change of Names, for the Brill
Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series.
James L. Crenshaw is Robert L. Flowers Emeritus Professor of Old Testament,
Duke University and has published extensively on wisdom literature, including
commentaries on Job, Ecclesiastes, and Sirach. A Guggenheim Fellow and Phi Beta
Kappa, he has devoted much attention to theodicy, culminating in the publication
of Defending God: Biblical Responses to the Problem of Evil (Oxford University Press,
2005).
Gilbert Dahan is Emeritus Director of Research at the National Center for
Scientific Research (Paris) and Research Professor at the Ecole pratique des
hautes études (chair of the unit “History of Christian Exegesis in the Middle
Ages”). He has written numerous studies on the exegesis of the Bible in the
medieval Christian West, particularly in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. His
publications include L’exégèse chrétienne de la Bible en Occident medieval (Cerf,
1999); Lire la Bible au moyen âge. Essais d’herméneutique médiévale (Droz, 2007);
Interpréter la Bible au moyen âge. Cinq écrits du XIIIe siècle sur l’exégèse de la Bible
traduits en français (Parole et Silence, 2007), and most recently Dominique et ses
frères lecteurs de la Bible au XIIIe siècle (Cerf, 2016). He has directed several sym-
posia on medieval exegetes and is the author of numerous articles on the
subject.
Tova Forti is Associate Professor in the Department of Bible, Archaeology and
Ancient Near East at Ben‐Gurion University of the Negev. Her research interests
include wisdom literature (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, wisdom psalms, and Ben Sira).
She has published the following books on animal imagery: Animal Imagery in the
Book of Proverbs (Leiden: Brill, 2008), and “Like a Lone Bird on a Roof”: Animal
Imagery and the Structure of Psalms (Eisenbrauns and Pennsylvania State University
Press, 2018). She is currently collaborating with Katharine Dell (Cambridge
University) on a commentary on Ecclesiastes (International Exegetical Commentary
on the Old Testament).
x notes on contributors

Matthew Goff is a Professor in the Department of Religion at Florida State

University. He received his PhD in 2002 from the University of Chicago, and his
research focuses on the Dead Sea Scrolls. He is the author of three monographs,
including most recently 4QInstruction (Society of Biblical Literature, 2013).
Bradley C. Gregory is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies in the School of
Theology & Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington,
DC. His research focuses on the deuterocanonical books and sapiential ethics. He is
the author of Like an Everlasting Signet Ring: Generosity in the Book of Sirach (Walter
de Gruyter, 2010).
Jennie Grillo is Tisch Family Assistant Professor of Theology at the University of
Notre Dame. She is the author of The Story of Israel in the Book of Qohelet: Ecclesiastes
as Cultural Memory (Oxford, 2012), and articles on subjects including wisdom lit-
erature, the Daniel tradition, and the interactions of early Jewish and early Christian
biblical interpretation. Her current project is a study of the history of interpretation
of the Additions to Daniel.
Davis Hankins is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of
Philosophy and Religion at Appalachian State University. He also serves as faculty
affiliate in the Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies and in the Gender,
Women’s, and Sexuality Studies program. He is the author of The Book of Job and the
Immanent Genesis of Transcendence (Northwestern University Press, 2015) as well as
articles on Job, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and 4QInstruction, among other texts and
topics.
Blake A. Jurgens is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and a doctoral
candidate at Florida State University. His research interests include sapiential litera-
ture, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Testament of Solomon, and ancient and antique
demonologies. Recent publications of his have appeared in the Journal for Biblical
Literature, the Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, and the Journal for the Study
of Judaism.
Mark Larrimore is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Eugene Lang College
of Liberal Arts, The New School. He is editor or co‐editor of The Problem of Evil: A
Reader (2001), The German Invention of Race (2006), and Queer Christianities: Lived
Religion in Transgressive Forms (2014), and the author of The Book of Job: A Biography
(2013). His current research explores modern manifestations of religion and the
politics of their study.
Madipoane Masenya (Ngwan’a Mphahlele) is Professor of Old Testament
Studies in the Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies at the University of South
Africa, Pretoria. She has published numerous scientific articles and chapters in
­specialist books in the area of the Hebrew Bible and gender, especially in African
contexts. She served as one of the associate editors of The Africana Bible: Reading
 notes on contributors xi

Israel’s Scriptures from Africa and the African Diaspora (Fortress, 2010). Her book How
Worthy is the Woman of Worth? Rereading Proverbs 31:10–31 was published by Peter
Lang (2004). She has recently (2018) co-edited with Kenneth N. Ngwa a volume
titled, Navigating African Biblical Hermeneutics: Trends and Themes from our Pots and
our Calabashes (Cambridge Scholars).
Ari Mermelstein, Associate Professor of Bible at Yeshiva University, holds a PhD
in Judaic Studies from New York University (NYU) and a JD from NYU Law School.
His first book, Creation, Covenant, and the Beginnings of Judaism: Reconceiving
Historical Time in the Second Temple Period, was published by Brill in 2014. His
research spans the Hebrew Bible through rabbinic literature, and he is currently at
work on a monograph devoted to the relationship between emotion and power in
ancient Judaism.
Patrick Pouchelle is an Associate Professor in the Centre Sèvres, Paris. He pub-
lished his dissertation Dieu éducateur: une nouvelle approche de la théologie biblique
entre Bible hébraïque, Septante et litérature grecque in 2015 (Mohr Siebeck). He is a
member of the editorial team of the Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint.
He has organized two conferences on the Psalms of Solomon and published the
­proceedings in Psalms of Solomon: Language, History, Theology (Society of Biblical
Literature, 2015). He had the distinction of being a member of the Seminar of
Advanced Jewish Studies in Oxford University in 2018.
Matthew S. Rindge is Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University (Spokane,
WA). He is the author of Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Fool: Luke 12:13–34 among Ancient
Conversations on Death and Possessions (Society of Biblical Literature, 2011) and
Profane Parables: Film and the American Dream (Baylor University Press, 2016). He is
currently writing Bible and Film: The Basics (Routledge). From 2012–2018 he
chaired the Bible and Film section in the Society of Biblical Literature.
Nili Samet teaches Bible and Assyriology in the Department of Bible at Bar‐Ilan
University, where she has been a faculty member since 2011. One of her main
research interests is biblical and Mesopotamian wisdom literature. Samet is the
author of The Lamentation over the Destruction of Ur: A Revised Edition (Eisenbrauns,
2014), and several articles in the fields of Sumerian and Akkadian wisdom litera-
ture, the books of Proverbs and Qoheleth, and biblical Hebrew.
Elisa Uusimäki is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Aarhus University and
holds the title of docent at the University of Helsinki. Her first book Turning
Proverbs towards Torah: An Analysis of 4Q525 was published by Brill in 2016.
Uusimäki’s research focuses on ancient Jewish wisdom and virtue discourses. She
has published articles on topics such as wisdom and torah, the Dead Sea Scrolls,
early biblical interpretation, the figure of the sage, exemplarity, and travel in the
ancient world.
xii notes on contributors

Timothy J. Sandoval is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity

School at Texas Christian University. He is the author of The Discourse of Wealth and
Poverty in the Book of Proverbs (Brill, 2005), Money and the Way of Wisdom (SkyLight
Paths, 2008), and “Wisdom and Worship: Themes and Perspectives in the Poetic
Writings” in The Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The Old Testament and Apocrypha
(Fortress Press, 2014).
Jacqueline Vayntrub is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale Divinity
School, with expertise in biblical poetry, wisdom literature, Semitic philology,
­literary criticism, and the history of biblical scholarship. She is the author of Beyond
Orality: Biblical Poetry on its Own Terms (Routledge, 2019), and over a dozen articles
and essays in peer‐reviewed journals and edited volumes.
Benjamin Wold is Assistant Professor in Early Judaism and Early Christianity at
Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin. His research interests include
­sapiential literature of the Second Temple period, the Jewish context of Christian
origins, and especially the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Jason M. Zurawski earned his PhD in Second Temple Judaism from the University
of Michigan in 2016, and he is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Qumran
Institute, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen
(Netherlands). His research focuses on Jewish paideia (education) during the Second
Temple period and the relationship between education and identity formation. He is
currently ­preparing his monograph, Jewish Paideia: Education, Enculturation, and the
Discourse of Identity in the Hellenistic Diaspora, for publication.
Acknowledgments

A volume of this size is very much a collective effort. The editors would like to
acknowledge the many different people without whom this project would not have
come to fruition. This large group of people includes first and foremost the
­contributors and of this group Jacqueline Vayntrub deserves special thanks. The
editorial assistants, Blake Jurgens (who is also a contributor) and Megan Strollo, did
excellent work in terms of getting the chapters into final shape. We thank Giancarlo
Angulo and Emily Olsen for compiling the index. Special thanks go to Rebecca
Harkin, formerly an editor at Wiley Blackwell, who initially suggested this project.
The editors are also grateful to Juliet Booker and Richard Samson, both ­editors at
Wiley Blackwell who helped see this manuscript to publication.
Abbreviations

Abr. Philo, On the Life of Abraham (De Abrahamo)

ADRN Avot de‐Rabbi Nathan
Adv. Her. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses
Ag. Ap. Josephus, Against Apion
Ahiq. Ahiqar
Ant. Josephus, Antiquities
Ap. John Apocryphon of John
Auth. Log. The Authoritative Teaching
Avod. Zar. Avodah Zarah
b. Babylonian Talmud
Bar. Baruch
2 Bar. 2 Baruch
B. Qam. Bava Qamma
Ber. Berakhot
BG Berlin Gnostic Codex
Borysth. Dio Chrysostom, Borysthenitica (Borysthenic Discourse)
CD Damascus Document
Cels. Origen, Contra Celsum
Cert. Contest of Homer and Hesiod (Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi)
1 Chr 1 Chronicles
2 Chr 2 Chronicles
Col Colossians
Contempl. Philo, On the Contemplative Life (De vita contemplativa)
1 Cor 1 Corinthians
2 Cor 2 Corinthians
Dan Daniel
 abbreviations xv

DER Derekh Erets Rabbah

Deut Deuteronomy
DEZ Derekh Erets Zuta
Dial. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho
Dial. Sav. Dialogue of the Savior
Eccl Ecclesiastes
1 En. 1 Enoch
Ep. Jerome, Epistulae
Eph Ephesians
Erub. Eruvin
2 Esd 2 Esdras
Eug. Eugnostos the Blessed
Exod Exodus
Ezek Ezekiel
Fug. Philo, On Flight and Finding (De fuga et inventione)
Gen Genesis
Git. Gittin
Gos. Thom. Gospel of Thomas
Hab Habakkuk
Hag. Hagigah
Heb Hebrews
Her. Philo, Who is the Heir? (Quis rerum divinarum heres sit)
Hos Hosea
Hul Hullin
Hyp. Arch. The Hypostasis of the Archons
Isa Isaiah
Jas James
Jer Jeremiah
Jub. Jubilees
Judg Judges
J.W. Josephus, Jewish War
1 Kgs 1 Kings
2 Kgs 2 Kings
1 Kgdms 1 Kingdoms (LXX)
4 Kgdms 4 Kingdoms (LXX)
KJV Kings James Version
Lam. Rab. Lamentations Rabbah
Leg. Philo, Allegorical Interpretation (Legum allegoriae)
Let. Aris. Letter of Aristeas
Lev Leviticus
Lev. Rab. Leviticus Rabbah
Lk Luke
xvi abbreviations

LXX Septuagint
1 Macc 1 Maccabees
2 Macc 2 Maccabees
3 Macc 3 Maccabees
4 Macc 4 Maccabees
Makk. Makkot
Mal Malachi
Matt Gospel of Matthew
Mek. R. Ish. Mekhilta de Rabbi Ishmael
Midr. Prov. Midrash Rabbah
MT Masoretic Text
Neh Nehemiah
NHC Nag Hammadi Codices
NJPS New Jewish Publication Society
NJV New Kings James Version
NRSV New Revised Standard Version
Num Numbers
Num. Rab. Numbers Rabbah
Op. Hesiod, Works and Days (Opera et Dies)
Opif. Philo, On the Creation of the World (De opificio mundi)
P. Insing. Papyrus Insinger
Pan. Epiphanius, Panarion
Pesiq. Rab. Pesiqta Rabbati
Pesiq. Rab. Kah. Pesiqta de‐Rab Kahana
PGM Greek Magical Papyri
Praep. ev. Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica
Prot. Plato, Protagoras
Prov Proverbs
Ps Psalm
Ps.‐Phoc. Pseudo‐Phocylides
Pss Psalms
Q Qumran
Qidd. Qiddushin
Qoh Qoheleth
Qoh. Rab. Qoheleth Rabbah
Quaest. conviv. Plutarch, Table Talk in Nine Books (Quaestionum convivialum
libri IX)
1QM War Scroll
4QMMT Miqsat Maase Ha‐Torah
1QpHab Habbakuk Pesher
11QPsa Qumran Psalms Scroll (11Q5)
1QS Community Rule
 abbreviations xvii

Rev Revelation
Rom Romans
Ruth Rab. Ruth Rabbah
1 Sam 1 Samuel
2 Sam 2 Samuel
Sanh. Sanhedrin
Sent. Sext. Sentences of Sextus
Sept. sap. conv. Plutarch, Dinner of the Seven Wise Men (Septem sapientium
convivium)
Shabb. Shabbat
Sib. Or. Sibylline Oracles
Sir Ben Sira
Song Song of Songs
Song Rab. Song of Songs Rabbah
Soph. Jes. Chr. Wisdom of Jesus Christ
Spec. Philo, On the Special Laws (De specialibus lebigus)
Strom. Clement, Stromata
t. Tosefta
TAD Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Documents
(4 vols. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1986‐1999)
T. Dan Testament of Dan
Teach. Silv. Teachings of Silvanus
T. Gad Testament of Gad
Theog. Hesiod, Theogony
Thund. Thunder: The Perfect Mind
T. Iss. Testament of Issachar
T. Naph. Testament of Naphtali
Tob. Tobit
T. Sol. Testament of Solomon
Vit. Mos. Philo, The Life of Moses (De vita Mosis)
Wis Wisdom of Solomon
y. Jerusalem Talmud
Yad. Yadayim
Yeb. Yevamot
Yom. Yoma
Editors’ Introduction
Samuel L. Adams and Matthew Goff

T his handbook is designed to give the reader, whether an advanced scholar or

an undergraduate student, a basic introduction to and overview of wisdom
literature. The volume will also provide an impression of how this material has
been read and interpreted in various contexts and historical periods. The authors
engage the topic from a variety of approaches, asking historical, literary, theo-
logical, and f­eminist questions (among others) about wisdom literature. The
chapters offer detailed and thorough studies of the relevant texts and also dis-
cuss a number of issues that are pertinent to the study of wisdom literature,
such as the figure of Solomon, pedagogy in the ancient world, and the oral trans-
mission of sayings. While many of the chapters focus on antiquity and the con-
text in which wisdom literature was produced, the contributors deal with later
periods as well, including our own context, as in, for example, Chapter 26 on
sapiential themes in contemporary cinema. The cultural contexts that the con-
tributors take into consideration include both the ancient world, as in Chapters
17 and 18 on, respectively, Egypt and Mesopotamia, and also settings that are
traditionally not prominent in the study of wisdom literature, such as Chapter 25,
which compares the book of Proverbs to didactic and gnomic traditions in Africa.
This volume and its contents raise two essential questions: What is wisdom? And
what is wisdom literature? As our introduction and the subsequent chapters dem-
onstrate, this is not always an easy question to answer. The editors have not imposed
a single, monolithic definition of wisdom or wisdom literature upon the contributors.
The extent to which wisdom literature is a viable or coherent category is a topic of

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Wisdom Literature, First Edition.

Edited by Samuel L. Adams and Matthew Goff.
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
2 editors’ introduction

debate (Weeks 2016; Kynes 2015, 2019). The authors of the chapters that
follow in general lay out how they understand these topics. Yet a basic over-
view about how to understand the terms wisdom and wisdom literature is
necessary.

Wisdom as a Concept: A Pedagogical Ideal and Expansive Knowledge

Wisdom (hokmah in Hebrew; sophia in Greek) is an important and somewhat

ambiguous term in the literature of ancient Israel and beyond. It is difficult to
define, because it encompasses knowledge and learning in a broad sense. In the
ancient instructions, wisdom can denote the desire and ability to study and learn,
and the act of doing so, and it can also signify the knowledge or comprehension
that one has attained. For many of the ancient texts classified as wisdom litera-
ture, the primary aim is stated from the outset. For example, the book of Proverbs
begins with an explicitly pedagogical prologue: “for learning about wisdom and
instruction” (1:2).
In addition to signifying knowledge in a broader sense, wisdom can denote
specific skills or types of comportment that one might develop, including a vir-
tuous disposition. In the book of Exodus, for example, the term signifies crafts of
various sorts, including metalworking and embroidery, in which Bezalel and
Oholiab, who are commissioned to help construct the tabernacle, are skilled
(35:30–35). In this example, wisdom indicates a specific skill set. In another
example, King Solomon famously prays to God for wisdom in 1 Kings 3–4 (see
Chapter 9 in this volume), and the wisdom he receives includes extensive knowl-
edge regarding plants and animals (4:33). Solomon’s legendary wisdom also
includes the ability to rule with “righteousness,” which is required of any king
considered good in the ancient world. This designation suggests that wisdom
signifies not only having a wide range of knowledge but also a predilection to be
virtuous.
Relatedly, wisdom can denote a mental aptitude – an ability to understand the
world accurately and prosper as a result. A person with wisdom can make appropri-
ate and apt decisions with regard to basic but important spheres of life, such as
marriage and finance. A wise person is portrayed as someone who leads a long and
fulfilling life. The rewards of wisdom are famously described in Proverbs 3. This
chapter depicts personified “Wisdom” as both a woman and a “tree of life” (Prov.
3:18), a figure one should embrace (in pointed contrast to the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil in Genesis 3). She holds in her hands “long life” and “riches” (Prov.
3:16). Envisioning Wisdom as a woman and a tree constitutes a colorful effort to
give concrete expression to a vague and abstract concept. The portrayal of Wisdom
as a woman is multifaceted (see Chapter 10), but the metaphor thrives and develops
in the context of pedagogy.
 editors’ introduction 3

Such depictions of the figure of Wisdom raise the question of ancient educa-
tional practices. While much about education in ancient Israel remains unknown,
it is reasonable to understand it as by and large a male enterprise, in terms of both
teachers and students. The personification of Wisdom seems targeted at male
addressees, students who are supposed to be on the proper path (toward virtuous
behavior). A fundamental goal of this literature is to inculcate a desire for and even,
as some texts say, a love for Wisdom (e.g. Prov 8:17), which will then lead to suc-
cess. The figure of Wisdom as a tree of life helps signify human flourishing, the
ability of people to thrive and lead fulfilling lives, with regard to material success
and harmonious family relations.
The promise of such benefits is critiqued in certain texts, giving the impression
that wisdom, as represented in Proverbs and other instructions, was a subject of
debate in the ancient world. The viability of wisdom to result in fulfillment is
famously questioned in the book of Job, with its poignant investigation of a man
trying to understand why he has lost his family, prosperity, and health (see
Chapter 2). Job 28 paints a poetically rich picture of people striving for wisdom, like
miners digging through the earth for precious metals, and the chapter seems to
conclude that wisdom (the ability to understand and succeed in the world) is not
accessible in our earthly realm. This is in contrast to the book of Proverbs, where
Wisdom, personified as a woman, calls out to passers‐by, urging them to study with
her and acquire understanding (Prov. 8:1–9). According to Proverbs, if one desires
wisdom, it can be attained. Ecclesiastes, offering a different critique of wisdom than
Job, presents wisdom as something that can be acquired, but the book (as Chapter 3
examines) questions one’s ability to make a lasting or substantive difference, even
with the requisite knowledge.
In some of the passages addressed in this volume, wisdom can be understood as
an attribute of God rather than something that people can acquire. There is human
wisdom, and there is divine wisdom. God’s wisdom helps explain why the wise per-
son can predict outcomes and make good and apt decisions in life. The world has a
rational structure that can be apprehended by someone who is wise. It is under-
standable, because God made it that way. According to Proverbs 3:19, for example,
the Deity fashioned the created order “with wisdom.” Wisdom allows one to under-
stand the world, because God used divine wisdom when creating it. Another exam-
ple of this perspective is Proverbs 8, which offers a fascinating autobiographical
account of personified Wisdom being present at the dawn of creation and providing
essential help to God.
The idea that wisdom is embedded in the created order and can be apprehended
by discerning individuals appears regularly in Proverbs, is questioned in Job, and is
taken up and extended in later texts. Ben Sira (chapter 24) poetically expands the
account of personified Wisdom found in Proverbs 8. The book also includes
­extensive poetic praise of the cosmic order, the perception of which, the book urges,
should elicit exaltation of God and be considered a source of wisdom (Sir. 42:15–44:33;
4 editors’ introduction

see Chapter 5 in this volume). The Wisdom of Solomon, which combines sapiential
traditions found in Scripture with Hellenistic philosophy, envisions Wisdom not
only as a woman (as in Proverbs) but also as a benevolent spirit that extends
throughout the cosmos and binds all things together (1:7; for an overview of this
composition, see Chapter 6). There is something similar at work in the Qumran wis-
dom text 4QInstruction, which encourages its addressees, who are part of an elect
community, to study the raz nihyeh. This Hebrew phrase can be translated “the mys-
tery that is to be” (see Chapter 7 in this volume; Goff 2013). The addressee (called a
mebin, or “understanding one”) is urged repeatedly to contemplate this mystery.
That it is a “mystery” denotes that it is esoteric, supernatural revelation disclosed to
this select group (the “understanding ones”). The term raz denotes revelation in
apocalyptic texts (e.g., Daniel 2), not traditional wisdom texts, suggesting that in
the late Second Temple period some wisdom texts could be heavily influenced by the
apocalyptic tradition (see Chapter 14).

Wisdom as a Textual Category

As the discussion so far has implied, there is a delineated group of texts that scholars
traditionally turn to when discussing wisdom. Wisdom is itself a theme in these
texts – a basis for the label wisdom literature – works that praise learning and encour-
age proper behavior in the world are often grouped into this category. The fact that
some texts pursue the same themes across generations and centuries indicates note-
worthy continuity. For example, it is no coincidence that Ben Sira and the Wisdom of
Solomon present a personified Wisdom figure, just as we find in Proverbs 8.
Scholars generally use the term wisdom to denote a group of texts – in particular
biblical texts: in the Hebrew Bible, Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, and in the
Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical books (canonical in the Catholic and Orthodox
traditions but not the Protestant Old Testament or Jewish scriptures), Ben Sira and
the Wisdom of Solomon (Collins 1997a). The term is also used to describe didactic
literature produced in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and also some texts from Qumran,
such as 4QInstruction (see Chapters 17, 18, and 7 respectively).
Yet some interpreters have suggested in recent years that the wisdom label causes
more problems than it solves and should be abandoned. One basic critique is that
wisdom literature is a creation of modern scholarship, and many interpreters have
identified false coherence for this category (Kynes 2015, 2019). A related charge is
that the wisdom label is not only vague but, through the application of this cate-
gory to a diverse group of works, it becomes difficult to appreciate the particulari-
ties and idiosyncrasies of each text so classified (Weeks 2016; cf. Sneed 2011).
Such critiques force the careful interpreter to articulate how they understand
wisdom as a textual category. Scholars generally delineate wisdom as a category on
the basis of commonalities between the texts so‐categorized in terms of literary
 editors’ introduction 5

form, theme, content, worldview, function, and social setting. The texts praise
instruction and learning as a virtue and were in general circulated in pedagogical
contexts, transmitted across generations from teacher to student (some of whom
would become teachers themselves who would in turn have their own students). In
the specific context of ancient Israel and Second Temple Judea, the texts so‐catego-
rized often have terminological and thematic affinities with the book of Proverbs.
Wisdom is not a literary genre in the sense that to be classified as such a member
must adhere to a rigid or formalized literary form as with, for example, a sonnet or
a haiku. Collins for example has stated “there is universal agreement that wisdom
does not constitute a literary genre and that it can find expression in various liter-
ary forms” (1997b, 265; cf. Goff 2010). Rather, wisdom literature encompasses a
somewhat eclectic body of literature in which one finds a diversity of themes and
literary structures that together comprise a category on the basis of their common
features. Recognizing this understanding of the category can prevent us from fail-
ing to appreciate the subtleties of each text. We as editors maintain, as do the con-
tributors to this volume, that there is a constellation of texts about proper human
behavior, the search for knowledge, and reward and punishment (or the lack
thereof) that can accurately be called wisdom or sapiential literature.
Many of the texts that fall under the wisdom label are properly labeled instruc-
tions, and these works have common generic features and themes. Specifically, one
finds in these texts monostich (one‐line) sayings, two‐line sayings, and warnings or
admonitions. Different aspects of human existence and the natural world are com-
pared through the use of poetic parallelism. Through this formal content, the
instructions offer perspectives on appropriate conduct and the role of the Deity in
adjudicating fair outcomes. Early works like the Egyptian Instruction of Ptahhotep
self‐identify as instructions and offer timeless maxims on such topics as careful
speech, corruption, and marital relations. The Israelite book of Proverbs can also be
classified as an instruction, and the two‐line saying is its common structural fea-
ture, especially in chapters 10–30. These sayings are often practical and relate to
everyday human existence: “Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen
to advice” (Prov. 13:15). This type of observation epitomizes the wisdom tradition
that will be explored in this book, both in terms of form and content. The works
explored in this volume are appropriately classified as wisdom literature, and many
of them are more specifically instructions. As editors, we are proceeding with the
understanding that wisdom literature is an etic category, a designation by modern
interpreters that must be explored thoroughly and with the caveat that we are deal-
ing with a diverse group of texts in this volume. Yet the works that are analyzed
here have many common elements, from similar structural features to an abiding
interest in the meaning of everyday experience, how best to conduct oneself, and
the manner in which God(s) intervenes to shape events and judge human ­outcomes.
The chapters in this volume demonstrate that wisdom literature is not nebulous,
but a category with coherence and viability.
6 editors’ introduction

The Contents of the Volume

This volume is arranged into four Parts: Texts, Themes, Antecedents, and Reception.
These various sections allow for comprehensive exploration of wisdom literature
and invite consideration of areas that have not gained enough attention in more
traditional and limited treatments of this topic.
The first Part (Texts) addresses the major texts in the ancient Israelite and Second
Temple Judean context that are usually grouped in the wisdom literature category.
Chapter 1 by Jacqueline Vayntrub considers the book of Proverbs, usually seen as
the clearest example of wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible. Vayntrub does not
dispute the significance of this instruction for sapiential discourse in ancient Israel,
but she cautions against using Proverbs as the template for judging subsequent
texts, and she includes some groundbreaking work on how we should understand
this collection. In the next chapter, Davis Hankins provides a creative treatment of
the enigmatic book of Job. The human protagonist in the story repeatedly protests
his innocence to God and his associates, and Hankins’s provocative chapter explores
the depiction of gross unfairness in Job, along with God as a dysfunctional force of
plasticity in the world. In Chapter 3, Jennie Grillo offers a remarkably astute intro-
duction to the book of Ecclesiastes. The author of this ancient work, Qoheleth,
harps on the brevity of life and the frequent unfairness of human outcomes and
relationships. Grillo explores the probable Hellenistic‐era milieu for this text and the
timeless questions addressed by its author.
Chapter 4 by William P. Brown focuses on the book of Psalms and whether some
of the content can accurately be designated as wisdom literature. Brown’s helpful
overview of the debate over classifying certain psalms as wisdom highlights the dif-
ficult nature of what we group into this category and the importance of sapiential
ideas in ancient Israel. Next, in Chapter 5, is the exploration of the book of Sirach
or Ben Sira by Bradley C. Gregory. This instruction can be dated with relative preci-
sion because of a prologue by the Jewish author’s grandson, and Gregory explores
the combination of traditional discourse (sayings, warnings) and the explicit invo-
cation of Israelite legal and prophetic traditions, a feature that is notably absent
from the books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. The Wisdom of Solomon was
influenced by Greek ideas and philosophical systems, and in Chapter 6 Randall D.
Chesnutt offers a lucid exposition of how the author (Pseudo‐Solomon) depicts the
righteous life and accompanying rewards, including the possibility of individual
immortality. This text, written in Greek around the turn of the common era (CE),
contains a fascinating amalgam of Middle Platonic ideas and the traditional subject
matter of earlier instructions (e.g. adultery).
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 has transformed our understand-
ing of ancient Jewish and Christian texts, including wisdom literature.
Archaeologists found a trove of fragmentary texts near Qumran that have been
identified as wisdom literature. In her lucid chapter (Chapter 7), Elisa Uusimäki
 editors’ introduction 7

explores the combination of apocalyptic and instructional motifs in these texts. She
demonstrates the manner in which the esoteric mystery language in such works as
4QInstruction and 4QMysteries forces us to reevaluate our narrow, traditional cri-
teria for what constitutes wisdom. The last chapter in this first section is from
Patrick Pouchelle, who analyzes the Greek translations of various wisdom texts
that appear in the Septuagint (LXX). Pouchelle considers how certain translations
depart from the original Hebrew texts with a “divine revealed wisdom” (e.g.,
Proverbs), while others (Ecclesiastes) seek to follow the Hebrew more faithfully.
Pouchelle’s chapter demonstrates that an author’s time period and religious beliefs
influence translation decisions.
Part II (Themes) looks at some of the important motifs and subtopics in wisdom
literature. In Chapter 9, Blake A. Jurgens takes up the figure of Solomon and
explores why this famous Israelite king came to be identified as the author of
Proverbs and a person of immense knowledge. According to Jurgens, the abiding
interest in Solomon illustrates the importance of this king in the cultural memory
of Jews and Christians in the ancient world. Solomon’s reputed wisdom in the book
of 1 Kings became an important touchpoint for determining how ancient authors
and audiences constructed their perspectives on wisdom. Moving to another impor-
tant theme, the book of Proverbs and other ancient instructions are replete with
female imagery involving the figure of Wisdom, and in Chapter 10 Tova Forti con-
siders this type of language and its significance. As a close reader of Hebrew texts,
Forti provides a helpful overview of such pivotal figures as Lady Wisdom and the
Other Woman in Proverbs 1–9 and what they symbolized to their audiences.
Ancient instructions often contain vivid female imagery, and Forti offers helpful
context on the function of these varied depictions.
Ancient scribal and educational practices are not fully understood, but it is
indisputably clear that the sayings and discourses that we identify as wisdom lit-
erature were gathered and in some cases authored by learned scribes. In
Chapter 11 Matthew Goff explores the scribal culture undergirding much of this
literature, and he pays close attention to the social location of the scribe (whether
in the temple, royal court, or some other setting) and the manner in which Greek
ideas influenced the authors and compilers of these texts. The next chapter
addresses the nature of the God we meet in these ancient works and comes from
one of the most accomplished scholars of wisdom literature, James L. Crenshaw.
According to his argument, there is an evolution in these texts, from God as par-
ent in Proverbs to a merging of sacred traditions with wisdom in later instruc-
tions (e.g. Ben Sira). Crenshaw pays special attention to the complex and
memorable portrait of God in Job.
As our introduction has already stressed, one of the most significant features of
this literature is the influence of Greek ideas. In Chapter 13, Michael Cover provides
a lucid overview of the numerous examples in this regard. Specifically, he examines
two important authors of the late Second Temple period, Pseudo‐Phocylides and
8 editors’ introduction

Philo, and the manner in which they utilized Hellenistic concepts and thereby
transformed Jewish wisdom. Cover pays particular attention to the interplay of
Hellenistic and Jewish ideas in diasporic settings like Alexandria. Next is the rela-
tionship between wisdom and apocalyptic in a helpful chapter from Jason M.
Zurawski. In recent decades, scholars have paid closer attention to the fact that
generic categories were not rigidly observed in the ancient world. Contrary to the
frequent assertion that wisdom and apocalypticism are fundamentally distinct
modes of discourse, Zurawski successfully demonstrates how much fluidity there
was between these two categories in the late Second Temple period. The final chap-
ter in the Themes section examines the oral transmission of sayings in the ancient
world, particularly the maxims found in the book of Proverbs. Timothy Sandoval
considers the likely origin for the sayings in Proverbs and how people in the ancient
world collected and shared their gnomic traditions.
The next part of this volume is Antecedents, by which we mean the instructions
in the ancient Near East that had an impact on Israelite and Jewish wisdom. Israelite
and Jewish instructions were heavily dependent on an international wisdom tradi-
tion that existed millennia before the first books of the Bible were ever composed.
Chapter 16 by Seth A. Bledsoe examines the legends involving the sage Ahiqar,
most notably the Aramaic text found among those Judeans living in fifth‐century
BCE Egypt. Bledsoe provides a comprehensive overview of how the legend of
Ahiqar developed and the pairing of this colorful story with timeless wisdom say-
ings. Next is the chapter by Samuel L. Adams on the wisdom tradition in Egypt.
Adams considers how the shape and tenor of instructional literature remained a
critical aspect of this ancient culture, including the justice principle known as
Maat, and he also examines how one Egyptian text (Amenemope) became the model
for a section of the biblical book of Proverbs. The last chapter in this part analyzes
the relevant Mesopotamian texts. Nili Samet points to the heterogeneous character
of the Mesopotamian works commonly placed under the wisdom banner, and she
offers a helpful overview of the various works that contain sapiential elements,
­particularly Sumerian and Akkadian literature.
The final part of this volume considers Reception, specifically how later voices
utilized the wisdom tradition and interpreted it in new contexts. Commentators
often pay insufficient attention to the sapiential themes and elements in the New
Testament, but Chapter 19 by Benjamin Wold offers a necessary corrective to this
tendency. Like the authors of other chapters in the volume, Wold is careful with
definitions of wisdom, and he offers helpful analysis on the sayings in the Synoptic
Gospels, especially the material labeled as “Q” and the Letter of James. This chapter
also considers the pivotal question of whether the historical Jesus can be labeled a
“wisdom teacher.” For Chapter 20, Ari Mermelstein addresses the myriad ways in
which the rabbinic literature utilized and built upon the sapiential texts of the
Hebrew Bible and early Judaism. Mermelstein carefully examines the mishnaic
 editors’ introduction 9

tractate Avot and the manner in which it is similar to and different from earlier wis-
dom literature. Along similar lines, Chapter 21 by Carson Bay considers the con-
tinuation of the wisdom tradition in early and late antique Christianity. These
interpreters made extensive use of Jewish wisdom, including Ben Sira and the
Wisdom of Solomon, but framed their discussion through a Christian lens, both on
the allegorical and more mundane levels (e.g., financial matters).
The texts of the Nag Hammadi library have captivated interpreters since their
discovery in 1945, particularly with regard to the light they shed on long lost gnos-
tic forms of Christianity. This corpus also includes wisdom literature. In Chapter 22,
as an expert on this literature, Dylan M. Burns analyzes the Teachings of Silvanus,
the so‐called Sentences of Sextus, and the utilization of Wisdom/Sophia traditions in
the Nag Hammadi texts. These texts build on the content of earlier Jewish wisdom
and the New Testament, but they also contain ascetic elements that are so charac-
teristic of the Nag Hammadi corpus. Moving to a later period, the ancient wisdom
literature also captivated Christian interpreters of the Middle Ages. Gilbert Dahan,
in Chapter 23, considers the medieval interpretations of sapiential texts (excluding
Job, which was not attributed to Solomon) and the fascinating exegetical moves of
many later commentators. Dahan includes some important discussion on the inter-
pretation of Ben Sira and the Wisdom of Solomon in the Middle Ages.
When considering the reception history of the wisdom texts, the book of Job
deserves special consideration. In Chapter 24, Mark Larrimore gives a dazzling sur-
vey of the different responses to Job in artistic representations and commentaries
throughout the ages. He notes the ways in which interpreters have struggled with
the theodicy question in the book, the relationship between the prose and poetic
sections, and the profound theological issues raised by this timeless classic.
Wisdom literature has not just flourished in the Middle East and Europe: there is
a rich and diverse heritage of sayings in Africa. Madipoane Masenya is one of the
foremost experts on wisdom traditions in this context, and in Chapter 25 she offers
readers of this volume a useful introduction to this material, both in terms of form
and content. With a primary focus on her South African context, Masenya shows
how proverbs can function as social commentary, shape human behavior, and
influence cultural norms. This chapter also reveals remarkable similarities between
African wisdom and the book of Proverbs, even though there is no direct connec-
tion between these traditions.
Finally, Matthew Rindge examines wisdom themes in modern cinema. Some of
the primary questions in the ancient texts, such as the existence of a just God,
whether a fair relationship between act and consequence exists, and the best
standards for human conduct, are also explored in contemporary films. Rindge
shows that the wisdom literature being examined in this volume addresses time-
less and fascinating questions, and a vibrant interpretive process continues to the
present day.
10 editors’ introduction
References
Collins, John J. 1997a. Jewish Wisdom in the
Hellenistic Age. Louisville: Westminster
John Knox.
Collins, John J. 1997b. Wisdom reconsid-
ered, in light of the Scrolls. Dead Sea
Discoveries 4: 265–281.
Goff, Matthew. 2013. 4QInstruction.
Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical
Literature.
Goff, Matthew. 2010. Qumran wisdom
literature and the problem of genre. Dead
Sea Discoveries 17: 315–335.
Kynes, Will. 2015. The modern scholarly
wisdom tradition and the threat of
pan‐sapientialism: A Case report. In:
Further Reading
Crenshaw, James L. 2010. Old Testament
Wisdom: An Introduction. 3rd ed.
Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox.
A leading introduction to the subject.
Perdue, Leo G. 2008. The Sword and the
Stylus. An Introduction to Wisdom in the
Age of Empires. Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans. An introduction to the topic
with an expansive understanding of
wisdom texts.
Was There a Wisdom Tradition? New
Prospects in Israelite Wisdom Studies (ed.
Mark R. Sneed), 11–38. Atlanta, GA:
Society of Biblical Literature Press.
Kynes, Will. 2019. An Obituary for “Wisdom
Literature.” New York: Oxford University
Press.
Sneed, Mark R. 2011. Is the “wisdom
tradition” a tradition? Catholic Biblical
Quarterly 73: 50–71.
Weeks, Stuart. 2016. Is “wisdom literature”
a useful category? In: Tracing Sapiential
Traditions in Ancient Judaism (ed. Hindy
Najman, Jean‐Sébastien Rey, and Eibert
J.C. Tigchelaar), 3–23. Leiden: Brill.
Perdue, Leo G. 2007. Wisdom Literature: A
Theological History. Louisville, KY:
Westminster John Knox. A theological
overview of wisdom literature.
Rad, Gerhard von. 1972. Wisdom in Israel.
London/Valley Forge: SCM Press/Trinity
Press. This book helped spark contempo-
rary interest in wisdom literature.
I. Texts
CHAPTER 1

Proverbs
Jacqueline Vayntrub

Introduction

The book of Proverbs is a multifaceted collection of instructions, allegorical poetry,

sayings, and riddles, with many of its aphorisms and themes making their way into
Jewish and Christian liturgical traditions. The reception of this work in biblical
scholarship has greatly influenced the study of biblical wisdom literature as well as
theories of biblical poetry. The following overview covers the predominantly canon-
ical lens through which Proverbs has been received in scholarship and how this
lens has shaped the scholarly category of biblical wisdom literature. Throughout,
the overview considers the form and content of texts contained within Proverbs
against the background of ancient Near Eastern instructional literature, as well as
various themes explored in Proverbs, such as speech, skill, deception, beauty, desire,
and the acquisition of wisdom. A single, unifying form, principle of organization, or
thematic focus cannot be identified for the book of Proverbs. However, the broader
ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean literary genre of the “instruction” – as
well as the relationship between instructor and student (frequently, father and son)
which this genre configures and also the promises and obligations implied by the
genre – can contextualize much of what is found formally and thematically in the
book of Proverbs.

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Wisdom Literature, First Edition.

Edited by Samuel L. Adams and Matthew Goff.
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
14 texts

Organization and Presentation

As a collection of poetry, the book of Proverbs is in some ways comparable in its most
superficial presentation as a text to other collections of poetry found in the Writings
of the Hebrew Bible. Narratives in the Hebrew Bible, like Ruth and Esther, are organ-
ized through the chronology of unfolding events and a narrative voice (Vayntrub
2018). Poetry in the Hebrew Bible is either presented within a story in the voice of
speaking characters or it is outside of a narrative framework, organized in collec-
tions. A good example of such a collection of poetry, where the organization follows
a principle rather than the chronological sequence of events is the book of Psalms.
Like Psalms, Song of Songs, and Lamentations, the book of Proverbs can be seen as
a collection of self‐contained poetic units. But unlike these works, and therefore
unique within the Hebrew Bible, the book of Proverbs presents itself as a collection
of collections. As an anthology that brings together units attributed to individuals
other than its titular King Solomon – for example, “The Wise” in 24:23 (and recon-
structed in 22:17) and “King Lemuel” in 30:1 – the book of Proverbs resembles
Psalms in its presentation. In Psalms, there are 150 more or less self‐contained
poems, many with titles that attribute and dedicate them to a variety of figures, such
as David, Solomon, Sons of Korah, and Asaph. But while in the Masoretic version,
the Psalter is divided into five books (Psalms 1–41; 42–72; 73–89; 90–106; 107–
150), there is little other than the closing doxological statements of each “book”
within the Hebrew Psalter (for example, at 41:13, 72:19, etc.) to identify these as
independent collections (Kraus 1988, 16–20). By contrast, the collections brought
together in the book of Proverbs, whether or not these were in fact originally inde-
pendent collections, the titles and distinct attributions framing these sections give
the sense that Proverbs brings together a variety of preexisting collections. This is
because while each “book” of the Hebrew Psalter indicates a division between sec-
tions, the individual psalms are still self‐contained and delimited poems with their
own individual titles and attributions. The comparison to the manner in which
Proverbs is presented – since both of these works are collections bearing multiple
titles and attributions – helps to contextualize what ancient authors and readers
may have understood in the organization of these texts. The various sections of
Proverbs – Chapters 1–9; 10:1–22:16; 22:17–24:22; 24:23–34; 25–29; 30; 31:1–
9; and the alphabetic acrostic in 31:10–31 – are designated by initial titles attribut-
ing the respective sections to a variety of figures. The rearrangement of these sections
by the Septuagint (in which the book is ordered 1:1–24:34; 30:1–31:9; 25–29; and
the alphabetic acrostic in 31:10–31) only reinforces the sense that these sections are
self‐contained collections, delineated by their framing title (see also Chapter 8 in this
volume). The Sections “Proverbs and the Question of Solomonic attribution” and
“Sections of Proverbs” below will deal with the distinction between the Masoretic
and Septuagint arrangements of the collections and offer some suggestions as to
what these different arrangements might communicate to readers.
 proverbs 15

The title for the work in 1:1 in Hebrew is a framing statement of attribution simi-
lar to those found in Eccl. 1:1, Song 1:1, and various psalms. The title is translated
simply in nearly all English Bible translations as “The proverbs of Solomon, son of
David, king of Israel,” which is where the common English title for the work,
“Proverbs,” seems to derive. How we ended up with “Proverbs” as the work’s title is a
bit more complex than a straightforward translation of the Hebrew into English may
appear. The Hebrew term translated for “proverbs” is mishle, the first word of the
entire work. First words, or “incipits,” functioned frequently as the titles of works in
antiquity. Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets written in Sumerian and Akkadian were
often identified by their incipits, a practice that continues in our reference to some of
these more famous works today. For example, the Babylonian epic of creation,
Enuma Elish (meaning “When above”), is named for the opening two words of the
work. This practice continues in the biblical literary tradition as well, where Genesis
is referred to in Hebrew, for example, as Bereshit, Lamentations is called Eicha, and
Song of Songs as Shir HaShirim, etc. However, this is not a consistent practice. A
number of works are named in Hebrew for their protagonists (e.g. Ruth, Esther,
Jonah, and Job) or main speakers (e.g. most of the latter prophets, Qoheleth), while
others are named for their contents (Psalms, as Tehillim, and Chronicles, as Divre
HaYamim). The Hebrew title for the book of Proverbs is an intersection of the prac-
tice of naming a work by its incipit and a term that in some way designates the work’s
contents. The Hebrew term mishle often translated in English as “proverbs of,” is the
plural construct form of the term mashal. However a brief study of how the incipit
mishle shelomoh has been translated by the Greek and Latin versions gives a glimpse
into the complicated past lying behind the English title for the work. The translation
of mashal as “proverb” is not reflective of the term’s usage in Biblical Hebrew more
broadly. The term is used in three titles in the work, always attributed to Solomon, in
1:1, 10:1, and 25:1. English “proverb” might be an appropriate description of the
numerous brief prosodic sayings in Chapters 10:1–22:16 and 25–29. An accepted
broad definition of “proverb” among folklorists is that they are “traditional expres-
sions in which there is a topic and a comment” (Vayntrub 2019b). However, the
material that the term mashal is meant to describe in chapters 1–9 could hardly
account for the type of texts found there: father‐to‐son instructions interspersed by
poetic interludes on Lady Wisdom and her adversary, Lady Folly.
The book’s title in English appears to derive from the Latin Vulgate but not from
the work’s incipit in that translation, since in 1:1, mishle is translated parabolae. The
Latin title, proverbium (later appearing in the Douay‐Rheims 1582 English transla-
tion of the Vulgate as “Proverbs”), appears to derive from the incipit of the Greek
version, the Septuagint, which gives the term paroimiai. The Septuagint, as men-
tioned, attests a distinct organization from the Masoretic text. It varies in its titles for
the various collections, and so where the Hebrew has two distinct titles in 1:1 and
10:1, defining these two sections as distinct collections, the Greek has only the one
title in 1:1, with no heading in 10:1. Therefore the title in 1:1 governs the entirety
16 texts

of 1:1–22:16, that is, until a separate title is given in 22:17 identifying it as a new
section: logois sophōn, “The Words of the Wise.” But the Greek does not consistently
translate mishle in the titles for sections of Proverbs as paroimiai. This leads us to
conclude that the title Proverbs for the entire work – first paroimiai, as incipit in the
Septuagint for all of 1:1–22:16, next as in the Vulgate title, yet in the work’s incipit
in 1:1, and subsequently as “proverbs” in English – as we have received it, is the
result of ancient and early modern reception of the work as mostly, but not entirely,
comprising proverbial statements. As discussed below, an accurate translation of
the Hebrew mishle, given this complex history and the way the term is used in the
rest of the biblical text “proverbial statements,” but is not limited to this translation.
A better translation would be “saying” or even “instruction.”
While many have focused on the Solomonic attribution to Proverbs, discussed
below, equal if not more attention should be given to Proverbs’ anthological and
multivocal character. As a collection of multiple collections, attributed not only to
Solomon, but to a slew of abstract, unknown, or obscure characters such as “The
Wise,” “Agur,” and “King Lemuel,” the work reads distinctly, if not intentionally,
as a curated, irreducible collection of the best of ancient advice.

Proverbs and the Question of Solomonic Attribution

How might we understand the attribution of Proverbs to Solomon in 1:1, as well as

his appearance in 10:1 and 25:1? The first hint as to how we might understand the
Solomonic attribution in Proverbs is understanding Solomon’s character in the
Deuteronomistic History – his gift for wisdom, his penchant for excess, and in par-
ticular, his performance of many sayings. To understand the array of Solomonic
ideals evoked in the attribution in Proverbs, we must first outline how Solomon’s
literary character integrates his divine gifts of wisdom, his material success and
penchant for excess, and the collection of speech‐items such as the mashal (see also
Chapter 9 in this volume).
In 1 Kings, as David is on his deathbed, he instructs his son Solomon who is to
succeed him to “walk according to [God’s] ways,” to follow his laws in order to find
success, that this path will lead to an eternal dynasty (1 Kgs. 2:1–4). While the lan-
guage echoes Deuteronomy (“with all of their mind and all of their being,” e.g. 6:5),
the description of behavior as a “path” also recalls much of the language and the-
matic focus on walkways and correct action in Proverbs. Shortly after Solomon
assumes the throne of his father David, the Israelite deity appears to Solomon at
night. The Deity grants Solomon a wish, to which Solomon responds by affirming
the continuity of relationship between the king and the Deity from the previous
generation to the present. Solomon laments his youth and lack of knowledge and
requests “a wise and discerning mind” from the Deity, who bestows this unto him,
in addition to the traditional rewards of wisdom: long life, material wealth, and
 proverbs 17

glory (a weighty reputation). These rewards, the Deity says, are granted so long as
Solomon walks according to God’s ways (3:14).
It is on this background, on the knowledge of Solomon’s gifted wisdom and suc-
cess, that his great achievements are enumerated in 1 Kings 5, in particular, how
his great wisdom manifested itself. The Israelite deity “granted Solomon wisdom
and great discernment, and a mind as vast as the grains of sand on the seashore,”
(5:9). It is particularly the description of Solomon’s breadth of mind (leb) that con-
textualizes the Solomonic attribution in Proverbs. Only a few verses later, Solomon
is described – among the many of his enumerated excesses in this chapter – as hav-
ing performed “3000 mashal” and that “his shir (songs) numbered 1005” (5:12).
This excess of speech is, in fact, directly related to his “breadth of mind,” in that
speech‐items, like instructions, are stored and collected in the body. Speech, as text‐
like instructions, is described in Proverbs as an object that is transmitted from the
teacher to the passive, attentive student without any alteration. These instructions are
attributed with life‐protecting properties, and described as amulets, necklaces, or
objects fastened around one’s head or fingers. In Prov. 3:3, the instructed son is told
“Do not let devotion and fidelity forsake you, tie them around your neck, write them
on the tablet of your mind” (emphasis added). Not only are these instructions
life‐saving, and amulet‐like, they are also collected in the leb, the mind. Likewise,
Prov. 7:3 instructs the son to “Tie them,” that is, the words of the teacher, “around
your fingers, write them on the tablet of your mind” (emphasis added).
Throughout the father to son instructions of Proverbs 1–9, the mind (leb) is
where these instructions are stored, fully intact. A particularly rich literary
­tradition of Solomon as an exemplary collector of instructions, one whose mind
is broad enough to contain vast numbers of mashal, is evoked in the attribution
to him in the titles of Proverbs.
While the narrative background evoked by these titles seems more or less clear,
the actual role Solomon plays both in these titles – as well as in 1 Kgs. 5:12 as the
speaker of many mashal – requires some further discussion. In ancient reception of
this title, as early as the second century CE, Solomon was understood to be the
work’s author. Traditionally, Solomon is connected to three works: Proverbs, Song
of Songs, and Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth). Origen explained that Solomon first “taught”
morals in Proverbs, the course of nature in Ecclesiastes, and loving communion
with God in Song of Songs (Wright 2005, 287; Greer 1979, 217, 219). In Shir
HaShirim Rabbah 1.6, the pattern of three is extended to the works themselves.
Solomon was believed to have spoken – not authored in the contemporary
sense – three sets of mashal in Proverbs (according to the Hebrew titles framing
chapters 1–9; 10–22:16; 25–29); three “vanities” in Ecclesiastes (hebel as one, and
habalim as two or more); and three “songs” in Song of Songs (shir as one, and shirim
as two or more). There was even speculation among the rabbis as to which of these
three works came first in the course of Solomon’s lifetime, with Ecclesiastes as the
work of Solomon’s old age, and Proverbs as either first, according to the order in
18 texts

1 Kgs. 5:12 (mashal, then shir), or as the mark of mature wisdom, coming after his
youthful songs (Vayntrub 2019b, 26–27). Modern biblical scholarship, however,
does not find historical value in the Solomonic attributions; as one scholar notes,
“[they are] of a fanciful kind, surely marked by legendary tendencies, useful for
canonical consideration, but out of which no certain historical judgement can be
made” (Brueggemann 1990, 118–19; see also Vayntrub 2019b, 183–84). Another
writes, “Historically, it is improbable that many – if any – of the proverbs were writ-
ten by Solomon,” but adds, “Solomon was famed as an author of wisdom” (Fox
2000, 56). The important distinction, therefore, to make in understanding the
attribution of Proverbs and its sections to Solomon is that while the titles should not
be looked at as historical claims to actual Solomonic authorship, the titles them-
selves are not unimportant elements of the composition.
In fact, when seen outside of the category of authorship, and in alignment with
ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean practices of text production, it becomes
clear that attribution designates not authorship, in the modern sense, but a blend of
literary genre designations, narrative situating of non‐narrative texts, and broad
characterization of legendary voices (Vayntrub 2018). Solomon, for example, func-
tions in the title of Proverbs as a figure of wisdom, just as David functions in Psalms
as a figure of prayer. As legendary voices framing non‐narrative collections, the
poems are resituated in a broad literary context that evokes the narrative biography
of these characters, or in the words of Eva Mroczek (2016, 75), the work done by
attribution is more biography than bibliography.
Two important pieces of evidence lend themselves towards this reading. The first
is simply the way Solomon is described in 1 Kgs. 5:12 as the figure associated with
mashal and shir: he is said to have spoken them, not written them. Related to this
notion is a text, known as “David’s Compositions,” found in the Psalms scroll from
Qumran. The text, identified by scholars as 11QPsa XXVII, describes David’s compo-
sitional activity in very similar phrasing as Solomon’s performance and composi-
tional activity in 1 Kgs. 5:12. The text states that “David the son of Jesse was wise,”
that “Yahweh gave him a discerning spirit,” and that he “composed three thousand
six hundred psalms.” A further accounting is given in this text enumerating David’s
composition of “song” (shir), a total of 450. Altogether, the text enumerates 4050 com-
positions of David. In 1 Kgs. 5:12, Solomon is credited with 4005 total compositions –
45 fewer than the number David claims in the Psalms scroll. Beyond the clear
competition between the compositional activity of Solomon and David set up by
this remarkable text in the Psalms Scroll, we should note that David is not only
appropriating Solomon’s “wisdom and discernment” in claiming success; David is
also appropriating Solomon’s characteristic excess in the process: to be a Solomonic
voice, one must configure oneself as a prolific voice. As one scholar helpfully
describes, wisdom in the biblical literary tradition has an “anthological temper”
(Kugel 1997). Proverbs, in its curation of multiple collections of self‐contained
instructions, allegories, riddles, and advice, evokes this characteristic prolific
 proverbs 19

notion – a Solomon with a mind as vast as the sands on the seashore, containing
and giving voice to multitudes.
A second reason to understand Solomonic attribution, and attribution in bibli-
cal texts more generally, as reflections of literary practices rather than actual his-
torical claims, is that ancient scribes frequently attributed their texts to much
older, possibly fictional, figures of renown. This was especially the case with
Egyptian and Mesopotamian instruction texts. Naming the text for a famed figure
from the hoary past did not simply authorize the advice for its readers, it provided
a narrative frame for the advice. These were not disembodied bits of wisdom col-
lected up on one tablet or sheet of papyrus, they were the displaced words of
known figures of wisdom spoken to a passive listening son. Their advice, which
had led them to considerable success, was therefore reliable in a similar way.
Mesopotamian instruction texts, such as the Instructions of Shuruppak, and
Šimâ Milka, and Egyptian instruction texts, such as the Instruction of Prince
Hardjedef, Instruction to Kagemni, the Instruction of Ptahhotep, the Instruction
of Amenemope, and the Instruction of Ani, frame their advice as speech from a
famed father to his son – often hailing from a period much earlier than the work’s
composition, and in the case of the Instructions of Shuruppak, featuring alto-
gether literary characters: Shuruppak’s son Ziusudra who is the recipient of his
father’s wisdom in the text, was also, according to the Sumerian flood account,
the figure whose wisdom enabled his survival and immortality (see Chapters 17
and 18 in this volume). The notion that Proverbs’ Solomonic attribution is either
an indication of authorship or otherwise a false historical claim neglects these
rich dimensions of compositional practices in biblical and wider ancient Near
Eastern literary traditions.
The distinct arrangement of Proverbs in the Septuagint is in itself significant
for considering both the anthological nature of the work and its Solomonic attri-
butions. Some scholars have seen the Septuagint’s arrangement and titles as
privileging a notion of Solomonic authorship and resisting the multivocality of
the distinct sections attributed to other characters (Fox 2000, 56; Cook 2012,
94). It has been argued, in particular, that the Septuagint order of the work may
have been a deliberate change in the Greek translation for the specific purpose of
promoting Solomon as the work’s primary compositional figure. It remains,
however, a curiosity of Proverbs that Solomon, the work’s patron, never appears
beyond the titles, and even from these titles, never speaks. This stands in contrast
to ancient Near Eastern instruction texts, where as an authorizing feature of the
text’s frame the named instructor speaks his wisdom for the benefit of his stu-
dent. In this sense, the Solomonic figure remains even more distant in Proverbs
than he does in Song of Songs, where Solomon is directly addressed by one of the
speakers in 8:12, or in Ecclesiastes, where the main speaker, Qoheleth, is never
Solomon by name but a former king and son of King David who frequently evokes
a Solomonic voice.
20 texts

Sections of Proverbs

The book of Proverbs, if divided by its headings, can be seen as a compilation of at

least eight discrete sections. Following the order of the Hebrew these are: (i) chapters
1–9, “proverbs of Solomon”; (ii) 10–22:16, “proverbs of Solomon”; (iii) 22:17–
24:22, “words of the wise”; (iv) 24:23–34, “also words of the wise”; (v) 25–29, “also
proverbs of Solomon…transcribed by Hezekiah’s men”; (vi) 30, “words of Agur”;
(vii) 31:1–9, “words of Lemuel,” an instruction issued by his mother; (viii) 31:10–
31, the alphabetic acrostic poem of the “Woman of Valor.” While the final section
does not bear its own heading as the others do, it is a clearly self‐contained work in
its alphabetic structure, with the first line beginning with aleph and the final line
beginning with the letter tav. As previously noted, the title of the third section,
22:17–24:22, is not found in the Hebrew in v. 17 but is found in the Greek.

“Proverbs of Solomon” as Instruction and Allegory (Prov. 1–9)

This initial section can be described as a series of 10 father‐to‐son instructions,

framed by an initial statement of purpose (1:2–7), and interspersed with five poems
that do not take the form of instruction but rather the form of extended imagery of
personified Wisdom, Folly, and their respective benefits and dangers. As Fox out-
lines in his commentary, the 10 instructions follow a particular shared structure
that can be compared to Egyptian and Mesopotamian instructions (Fox 2000).
They begin with a call to attention in which the relationship between the speaker
(the father) and the addressee (the son) is identified. The father usually begins,
therefore, with a vocative “My son!” or “My children!” A command that the
addressee listens usually follows, along with the speaker’s identification of
the source of the advice, “My son, listen to my words,” and once as advice that the
speaker had himself received from his father (4:1–4). In the case of the latter, it is
unclear whether the words spoken are those of the speaker or a quotation of words
his own father had spoken to him. Perhaps such a distinction, in the context of
transmitted instruction, is unnecessary in any case, since instruction transmission
in biblical and ancient Near Eastern literature appears to be shaped by an underly-
ing concept of the unaltered and complete transmission of words from one genera-
tion to the next (Vayntrub 2019a). The instruction’s “call to attention” continues
with a claim of the potential benefits of the instruction to the addressee, often a
praise of its life‐preserving qualities. The instructions in Proverbs 1–9 do not iden-
tify specific situations but tend to speak in generalities, for example, that the son not
be lured into criminal behavior (1:8–19), the path and benefits of wisdom (2:1–22;
3:1–12; 3:21–35), and the distinct attitudes one should have towards good and bad
choices (4:1–9; vv. 10–19; vv. 20–27). These more general instructions on behav-
ioral choices, described as paths, lead to instructions on correct choice of women – to
 proverbs 21

choose one’s own wife and not be seduced by desire of the wife of another (5:1–23),
and how the incorrect choice will lead to death (6:20–35). Anne Stewart (2016, 3)
has argued that Proverbs, particularly in this section, uses not only message but
poetic form to shape “emotions, motivations, desires, and imagination, not simply
[one’s] rational capacities.” Stewart shows how the poetic compositions, particu-
larly the personifications of Wisdom and Folly, hone desire and shape choice using
extended imagery and activating visualization through language. These messages
as well as these rhetorical techniques are resumed and reconfigured in the acrostic
poem concluding the work, in 31:10–31.

“Proverbs of Solomon” as Pithy Statements (Prov. 10–22:16)

While this collection is also designated as the “proverbs of Solomon,” its form and
structure are distinctive from the preceding chapters. A notable feature of this sec-
tion, analyzed at great length by Patrick Skehan (1948, 117), is that the collection
contains “precisely 375 single‐line proverbs, and that the numerical value of the
Hebrew name Solomon in the title ‘Proverbs of Solomon’ (10:1) is likewise 375.”
While readers should be cautious with such claims to numerical architecture in the
composition of biblical texts given their largely unknown redaction history and fre-
quently spotty manuscript history, this particular datum is of interest given the fact
that a related type of scribal game – an alphabetic acrostic – concludes the entire
work, with other potential compositional games lurking elsewhere in the text.
Whatever the provenance of the numerical game, it allows for a loose organiza-
tional principle that would make otherwise hundreds of independent poetic units
seem completely arbitrary. The form of these sayings was described by scholars as
“sentence literature,” to be distinguished from the longer and thematically con-
nected poetic units of the preceding chapters, 1–9 (von Rad 1972, 26). A number
of scholars have attempted, rather unsuccessfully, to find other types of unifying
schemes in this collection and in the following collections. Several attempts have
been made, specifically, through identifying patterns in the repetition of various
“expressions” (Snell 1993; Heim 2013). A number of scholars divide Prov.
10–22:16 into two sections, with disagreement on where the division exactly
should be located, but with the notion that the sayings in the first section, from
chapter 10 to somewhere in chapter 15, are more structurally similar (for example,
a high concentration of “antithetical” sayings) than those in the second section
(Fox 2009, 509). Many of the sayings in this section focus on distinguishing
between the consequences of good and bad behavior and the relationship of this
behavior to wisdom and folly, respectively.
There are a number of approaches to thematizing and organizing the material of
these chapters (along with the similarly anthological section of chapters 25–29).
One approach already mentioned, is to explore the repetitions of verses, half‐verses,
22 texts

and phrases found throughout (Snell 1993; Heim 2013). Snell finds several, usu-
ally pairs, of whole verses and half‐verses repeated in 10–22:16 (1993, 35–54).
The “antithetical” structure Fox observes corresponds to commonly found themes
in this section of the rewards of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked
(2009, 509). Chapters 16:1–22:16 are more diverse in the topics covered (Fox
2009, 509). The theme of speech, specifically the effects of the speech of the right-
eous and of the wicked, is prominent in this collection of sayings. For example, the
words for organs of speech (“mouth” and “tongue”), occur many more times in this
collection than they do in chapters 1–9 or chapters 25–29. Likewise, deception
appears more frequently in this section than elsewhere. For example, the term
sheqer (“lie”), appears over a dozen times in this section and only a handful of times
in both chapters 1–9 and 25–29 combined. Falseness is connected in this section to
the speech and activities of the wicked (10:18; 12:17, 19; 13:5; 14:5; 17:4, 7;
19:5, 9; 21:6). At times the sayings evoke images of physical pain and sensory dis-
comfort in false speech. For example in 20:17, profit born of deceit, while initially
filling one’s mouth with food, will eventually “fill one’s mouth with gravel.” In
10:31, the lying tongue itself will be cut off. As in chapters 1–9, the imagery of fol-
lowing a particular pathway is prominent and evocative: the path of the righteous
is straight, unencumbered by blockages or sharp and dangerous objects, and leads
directly to reward, while the path of the wicked, foolish, and lazy is winding, full of
dangers, and leads to death.
Another theme, more prominent in chapters 16:1–22:16 than in chapters
10–15, is the figure of the king. In this section, kings are idealized as figures of
truth in speech (16:10, 13; 20:28; 22:11) but also as paradigmatic figures of
authority and judgment (16:14–15; 19:12; 20:2; 21:1). Finally, the figure of the
“lazy” man and “laziness” feature as a recurring theme in chapters 10:1–22:16.
The lazy man is not exactly wicked, but his path ends similarly: the lazy do not plow
in winter and do not reap their harvest (20:4), they go hungry for their laziness
(13:4; 19:15), their path is paved with thorns (15:19), and their laziness leads them
ultimately to their demise (21:25).

“Words of the Wise” and Amenemope (Prov. 22:17–24:22)

This particular section of Proverbs is known for its relationship to an Egyptian

instruction text, the Instruction of Amenemope. A curious phenomenon of mod-
ern biblical scholarship is that the book of Proverbs – now frequently studied
against the background of ancient Near Eastern instruction literature – was seen
outside of this international wisdom context prior to the publication of landmark
studies by Adolf Erman and Hugo Gressmann in 1924, which identified affinities
between this section of Proverbs and the Egyptian text. These comparisons were
made possible by the translation and edition of the Egyptian text by E. A. Wallis
 proverbs 23

Budge in the previous year. These publications significantly shifted scholarship in

Proverbs towards comparative studies. For example, Crawford H. Toy’s commen-
tary, published in 1899, did not compare Proverbs to other arguably similar texts
outside of the biblical corpus, such as the works of Hesiod, even though those texts
were readily available in Toy’s time. Thus, the comparison of Proverbs to broader
ancient Near Eastern literary traditions comes out of a particular set of interests
and discoveries of modern scholarship in the twentieth century. Proverbs 22:20
can be understood to refer to 30 instructions, “Have I not written for you thirty,”
although the Hebrew text has a reading tradition in which the text says not thirty
but “threefold” or “noble words” (Fox 2009, 710). The Instruction of Amenemope
refers to itself as an instruction of “thirty chapters.” Some scholars even identify
30 instructions in this section of Proverbs, though others disagree (Shupak 2005).
While the earliest manuscript fragment of the Egyptian text dates no earlier than
the eleventh‐century BCE and was copied for hundreds of years, it is believed that
the text itself originates from an even earlier period. The exact nature of the rela-
tionship between the Egyptian instruction and this section of Proverbs remains a
matter of debate among scholars. What can be observed between the two texts,
regardless of the perspective taken, is shared themes, specific advice (e.g. diligence
in one’s work, avoiding confrontation, and not stealing from the poor), and termi-
nology (e.g. to store up instruction in one’s “belly”). The advice seems to be directed
towards skilled professionals, possibly those employed by the court. Following the
identification of a strong relationship between Prov. 22:17–23:11 and the
Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope, scholars have also in more recent years iden-
tified affinities between 23:12–24:22 and other Egyptian instruction texts, sug-
gesting “a general connection” with Egyptian wisdom but not an explicit
connection as we see with the Instruction of Amenemope (Shupak 2005). The
title of the section, “Words of the Wise,” only appears in the Greek but can be
reconstructed by the Hebrew of 22:17, where the advice opens: “Incline your ear,
attend to the words of the wise.” Considering the title of the subsequent section,
“These too are the words of the wise,” perhaps here we have a case of scribal erro-
neous deletion, where seeing the title and the initial call to attention, inadvertently
erased the title.

“These Too are the Words of the Wise” (Prov. 24:23–34)

Unlike the preceding section, there seems to be a looser organization of the material
in this very short section. It is singled out as its own section here because the
author(s) and/or collector(s) of Proverbs gave it a title of its own, connecting it to
the preceding section but also distinguishing it from it. The advice is focused on
professional behavior, whether in the specific context of a court (vv. 23–28), or
more generally in advocating for a diligent disposition (vv. 30–34).
24 texts

“These Too are the Proverbs of Solomon, ‘Copied’ By Hezekiah’s Men” (Prov. 25–29)

Like 10–22:16, scholars continue to debate whether an overall structure or intri-

cate organizational pattern governs this section. A curiosity of this section has to do
with its title, which not only attributes it to Solomon, but identifies a legendary
transmission of the collection, from Solomon to Hezekiah’s men, who “copied” or
“collected” them. The “these too” element of the title, like the similar phrasing in
Prov. 24:23, imparts the sense of a larger collection, accreted over time, whether or
not this was actually the case or deliberate design in its presentation. Another fea-
ture shared between the sayings in 10–22:16 and this collection is a focus on the
wisdom of kings: over a dozen references to kings can be found in 10–22:16 and
seven in 25–29. Chapter 25 opens with an explicit discussion of the role of kings in
uncovering wisdom concealed by God. Some scholars conclude that such sayings
originated in a court setting, though there is little in the texts themselves to cor-
roborate such a claim. A more sustainable line of interpretation is that instruction
as a discourse, both in Proverbs and in ancient Near Eastern literary traditions, are
closely connected to kingship and the anxieties surrounding succession. We see in
this section a number of themes and rhetorical strategies used elsewhere in
Proverbs, such as the observation of natural phenomena and animal behavior to
make analogies to human relationships and behavior, as well as praises of “true”
speech and recurring warnings against deceptive speech and its connection to an
“other” or a “foreigner.”

“The Words of Agur” (Prov. 30)

The title of Proverbs 30 is similar to titles of other sections of Proverbs that describe
the contents as “words of,” and not “proverbs of.” The latter, of course, is only used
to attribute sections of Proverbs to Solomon, whereas the former is attributed to
any of the other figures in the titles of Proverbs, for example, “the wise,” or “Lemuel.”
Proverbs 30:1a begins with the formula similar to these other sections identifying
the type of speech (“words” or “proverbs”), the name of the figure and the patro-
nymic, or name of the father: “The words of Agur, son of Jakeh.” The second half
of the title is distinct from the others found in Proverbs, linking it with titles found
in prophetic collections: “the pronouncement: the utterance of the man.”
Sometimes the term which I have translated here as “pronouncement” is identified
as a geographic designation, since other titles like those in Prov. 1:1 or Eccl. 1:1,
indicate a title (“king”) or a geographic designation (“Israel” or “Jerusalem”) fol-
lowing the attributed figure’s name and patronymic. In the Septuagint, neither
Agur’s name nor his title are given, and the Aramaic translation helps us read the
term as “pronouncement” instead of a title or a place name, since it reads “the
utterance of the man who received prophecy” (emphasis added). The remainder of
 proverbs 25

the title in 30:1 is difficult to translate: the Hebrew might read “To Ithiel: to Ithiel
and to Ukal,” but none of those figures are known. The Greek gives an entirely dif-
ferent frame than the Hebrew: “My son, fear my words, and repent when you receive
them, this is what the man says to those who believe in God, now I stop.” Another
interesting feature of this section is how it is introduced with first‐person speech.
The speaker makes an unusual statement – particularly given that the context of
his speech is instruction or knowledge more broadly – that he has no authority to
give advice: “Indeed, I am more ignorant than any man, I do not possess human
discernment, I have not acquired wisdom, nor do I have knowledge of holiness”
(30:2–3). While many scholars divide the chapter into two sections, at vv. 1–14 and
vv. 15–33, one scholar divides the chapter into two discrete sections, vv. 1–9 and vv.
10–33, arguing that vv. 1–9 “form a cohesive first‐person meditation,” and that its
subsections “cohere and presuppose one another” (Fox 2009, 849). In this scheme,
the speaker builds towards a message of freedom from deception and simple living
in four steps: an initial statement of ignorance (vv. 1–3); a claim structured as four
rhetorical questions, the final one a double rhetorical question, on the limitation of
human knowledge and ability (v. 4); a statement regarding the Deity’s perfection in
speech (vv. 5–6); and “a prayer for honesty and simplicity” (Fox 2009, 850–60).
The significance of this section for broader themes meditated upon in Proverbs,
however, is not limited to the unusual first‐person orientation of the speech or the
message of human inadequacy in the face of divine capability. The passage in vv.
5–6 blends a concern throughout Proverbs for faithfulness in speech – a concern
observed in the depiction of the “foreign” or “strange” woman’s deceptive and
“slick” speech in Proverbs 1–9 – with a broader scribal statement for faithfulness
and obedience in the transmission of words. This passage reads, “The entirety of
God’s speech is pure, he is a shield for those who trust in him. Do not add to his
words, lest he rebuke you and you are discovered a liar.” This recalls other warn-
ings, scattered throughout the biblical text, to those reading or hearing instructions
that they should maintain these instructions intact as they received them. These
warnings command the reader to neither add nor subtract from these instructions.
For example, in Deut. 4:2, the Israelites are told to preserve God’s commandments
as transmitted to them: “Neither shall you add to what I command you, nor shall
you take from it.” One scholar has made the connection between these warnings
found in biblical literature and ancient Near Eastern treaties and instructions that
bear a similar message, that those who encounter the words are prohibited from
adding to them or subtracting from them (Weinfeld 1972, 262; 1991, 200). Many
versions of this warning, such as Ben Sira’s, that “Nothing added and nothing
taken away, he has no need in his understanding” (42:21) appear to refer to the
completeness of God’s wisdom and revelation to the scribe. However the version in
Prov. 30:5–6 makes an important connection of the completeness of instruction to
a native concept of “truth,” connecting this so‐called “scribal principle” of neither
adding nor subtracting to the dangerous potential of speech to prove deceptive
Another random document with
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In the Council’s collection are:—
[418]Ornamental plaster ceiling in Board Room on first floor
(photograph).
[418]Carved deal chimneypiece in Board Room (photograph).
[418]Ornamental plaster ceiling in Grand Secretary’s Room, first floor
(photograph).
XL.—GREAT QUEEN STREET CHAPEL
(Demolished).
General description and date of
structure.
Before its destruction in 1910 the Wesleyan Chapel in Great
Queen Street occupied the greater portion of the sites of three houses
with their gardens. These were Nos. 66 to 68, intervening between
Conway House and the stream which divided Aldwych Close from
Purse Field.
The land on which these three houses were erected was
roughly the shape of a truncated right-angled triangle, the base of
which was represented by Great Queen Street, the perpendicular by
the line of Middle Yard, and the hypotenuse by the course of the
stream. The land in question was leased[419] by Newton to Peter
Mills[420], of Christchurch, London, bricklayer, and it would seem
that at that date (15th September, 1639) no houses had been erected
thereon.[421] The building was therefore carried out probably in 1640;
at any rate No. 66 is known to have been occupied in December,
1641. No information can be gleaned from the ratebooks as to when
the three houses were rebuilt, but at least one (No. 67) seems to have
been still standing at about 1817, when an illustration of it was
included in Parton’s Hospital and Parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields.
The first reference that has been found to the building of a
chapel of ease for the parish occurs in the Vestry Minutes under the
year 1693:[422] “Ordered, to inquire of the gentry in Lincoln’s Inn
Fields, which of them will take pews in case a chappell should be
erected in the neighbourhood of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and report to
be made to the next Vestry.” It was, however, left to private
enterprise to provide such a building.
In 1706 a Mr. Baguley took a house (apparently No. 67)[423],
built a chapel in the rear, and seems even to have officiated therein,
although not in Priest’s orders. Naturally enough, he soon got into
trouble with the Rector of St. Giles, who, as Baguley affirmed,[424]
induced the vendor of the house and land to break off his agreement
with Baguley, and sell to “one Burges, a coachmaker.” According,
however, to the ratebooks the house occupied by Burges was No. 68.
Between 1720 and 1723 the assessment of No. 68 also dropped.
Whether this implies an extension of the chapel over a portion of the
ground in the rear of that house is uncertain, but it will be seen that
when the chapel comes, as it were, into the light of day, at the
beginning of the 19th century, it covers nearly the whole of the rear
of both houses.
The whole of its early history, however, is shrouded in
obscurity, and no reference to it or to the services held therein has
been found between 1728[425] and its acquisition by the Rev. Thomas
Francklyn. Even the date at which this occurred cannot be definitely
stated. The chapel seems to have been in his hands in February,
1758, for on the 17th of that month he preached a sermon there,
which he published in the same year.[426] In 1759 his name appears in
the parish ratebook in connection with the chapel.[427] His residence
at the house (No. 67) does not seem to have begun until 1761. On
Francklyn’s death in 1784, his executors appear to have carried on
the work of the chapel. On 19th July, 1798, Mrs. Francklyn’s
executors sold to the Society formerly carrying on the West Street
Chapel, Seven Dials, their leasehold interest in the two houses and
the chapel for £3,507 10s.[428]
The chapel was at that time, says Blott,[429] a very homely
structure; it was dark, and, lying below the level of the street, could
not easily be kept clean, and the entrance to it was by a passage
through a dwelling house. The surrounding houses overlooking it
were at times a means of annoyance during service. Negotiations
were therefore entered into with the owners of No. 66, and on 14th
March, 1815, a purchase was effected of the whole of the back part of
the premises, bounded by Middle Yard on the one side and the old
chapel on the other, and having a length of 102½ feet and a breadth
of 31 feet.[430] The new chapel was opened on 25th September, 1817.
[431]
Alterations were carried out in 1840, when an improved frontage
and new portico were constructed.[432]
The elevation to Great Queen Street (Plate 32) was of brick
faced with stucco, the lower part having a portico of four Greek Ionic
columns the full width of the building, executed in Talacre stone
from North Wales.[432] Above this, in the main wall of the chapel was
a three light window with Corinthian columns and pilasters
supporting an entablature, over which was a semi-circular pediment
and tympanum. Crowning the whole was a bold modillion cornice.
The interior (Plate 33) had a horseshoe gallery supported by
Ionic columns; above the back of the side galleries were other
smaller galleries. Facing the entrance was an apse ornamented with
Corinthian columns, pilasters and entablature carrying an elliptical
arch. Covering the whole area was a flat ornamental ceiling.
There is preserved by the West London Mission a measured
drawing of the elevation of the Chapel to Great Queen Street with the
adjacent buildings by R. Payne, Architect, June 21 (18)56, and an
internal view in perspective drawn with ink and coloured, probably
executed by the same hand and about the same date. Both these
drawings agree with the illustrations taken in 1906, and reproduced
in Plates 32 and 33. The premises were demolished in 1910, and new
buildings erected. The room over the portico was used at first as a
day school room, but in 1860 the school was removed to new
premises in the rear.
Biographical Notes.
No. 66.
The first occupant of No. 66, of whom any record has been found,
was the Countess of Essex, who was there in December, 1641.[433] This was
Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir William Paulet, who, in 1631, became the
second wife of Robert Devereux, third Earl of Essex. The marriage turned
out very unhappily, and eventually a separation took place. Subsequently
she married Thomas Higgons (knighted after her death), who survived her.
She died in 1656.[434]
The Subsidy Roll for 1646 contains the item: “The Lord Kensington
in the Countes of Essex house.” This was presumably Robert Rich, son of
Henry Rich, first Earl of Holland, the latter having been created Baron
Kensington in 1623. The former in 1673 succeeded his cousin Charles, as
fifth Earl of Warwick.
In 1665 and 1666 Magdalen Elliott is shown at the house, and in 1673
Lady Porter. The entries in the Hearth Tax Rolls, Jury Presentment Rolls
and sewer ratebook from this time until 1700 vary between “Lady Porter,”
“Lady Diana Portland,” and “Lady Ann Porter.” There can be no doubt that
they all refer to the same individual, viz., Lady Diana Porter. She was a
daughter of George Goring, Earl of Norwich, and married (1) Thomas
Covert, of Slaugham, Essex, and (2) George Porter,[435] eldest son of
Endymion Porter, royalist and patron of literature. George Porter served as
lieutenant-general in the western royal army, under the command of his
brother-in-law, Lord Goring. The latter described him as “the best company,
but the worst officer that ever served the king.” Porter died in 1683.
The ratebook for 1703 contains the name “Ralph Lane” crossed out,
and “Wortley” substituted. This seems to point to Lane having recently
moved and “Wortley” taken his place. The “Ralph Lane” in question is no
doubt the person of the same name, who had in the previous year purchased
the house to the west of Conway House (see p. 74). His residence at No. 66
could not have lasted more than about two years. The “Wortley” of the 1703
ratebook is expanded in the records of 1709 and 1715 to “Wortley Montague,
Esq.” and “Sidney Wortley als Montague, Esq.” This was Sidney, second son
of Edward Montagu, first Earl of Sandwich, who married Anne, daughter
and heir of Sir Francis Wortley, Bt., and assumed the surname of Wortley.
His eldest son, Edward Wortley Montagu, married Lady Mary Pierrepont,
the famous Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Sidney Montagu died in 1727.
After Montagu’s residence the occupiers of No. 66 seem to have been
as follows:—
 Before 1720 until after 1723. Martin Wright.
Before 1730. Elizabeth Perry.
1730–42. William Aspin.
1743–45. Dr. John Taylor.
1746. —— Davis.
1747. Lilley Smith.
1748. “Augusti” Arne.
1749–51. Col. Guy Dickens.
1753–61. Elizabeth Falconer.
1761–62. —— Davis.
1762–63. The Rev. Mr. Francklin.
1763–64. Miss Faulkner.
1764–83. —— Davis.
1783–87. —— Saunders.
1789–94. Ric. Sadler.
1795– J. Savage.

“Augusti” Arne is almost certainly Thomas Augustine Arne, the

celebrated composer. He was the son of Thomas Arne, an upholsterer, and
was born in 1710. On leaving school he was placed in a lawyer’s office, but
his love of music overcame all obstacles, and eventually his father was
induced to allow him to cultivate his talent in this respect. His first work, a
setting of Addison’s Rosamond, was produced at Lincoln’s Inn Fields
Theatre in 1733. This proving successful, it was quickly followed by the
Opera of Operas and Dido and Æneas. In 1738 he established his
reputation by his music to Comus, and in 1740 he wrote the music to
Thomson and Mallet’s Masque of Alfred, containing Rule Britannia. His
later works included the songs Where the bee sucks, Under the greenwood
tree, Blow, blow, thou winter wind, the oratorios Abel and Judith, and the
opera Artaxerxes. In 1769 he set to music the ode by Garrick, performed at
the Shakespeare jubilee at Stratford on Avon. He died in 1778.
No allusions have been found to his residence at No. 66, Great Queen
Street. He is stated to have been living “next door to the Crown in Great
Queen Street,” in 1744[436] but that must refer to a different house. The
sewer ratebook for 1734 shows a “Mr. Arne” resident at No. 34, Great Queen
Street, but there is no proof that this was the musician. His residence at No.
215, King’s Road, Chelsea, has already been mentioned.[437]

No. 67.
 Early records of the residents at No. 67 are wanting. The first
mention of the house occurs in the Hearth Tax Roll for 1665, which gives
“Lady Thimbleby” as the occupier. This was Elizabeth, one of the six
daughters of Sir Thomas Savage and Elizabeth, Countess Rivers (see p. 67).
She married Sir John Thimbleby of Irnham, in Lincolnshire.[438] How long
she had been at No. 67 in 1665 is unknown, but it is permissible to suggest
that she was there while her mother was still living three doors away. It
seems likely that during Lady Thimbleby’s stay here, her sister, Henrietta
Maria, who had married Ralph Sheldon, of Beoley,[439] also came to live
close by, for the Jury Presentment Roll for 1683 shows “Ralph Sheldon,” in
occupation of No. 69. Another sister, Anne, who had married Robert
Brudenell, afterwards second Earl of Cardigan, was also only a short
distance away, on the south side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields.[440]
Lady Thimbleby’s residence lasted until between 1700 and 1703, and
in the latter year the name of John Thimbleby appears in respect of the
house. He had left before 1709, when the house is shown as empty. The
occupiers after that date were as follows:—

1715. Mr. Vaune.

1720. Mr. Froude.[441]
Before 1723 until 1734. Mary Forrester.
1735–51. Adam Hallam.
1751–54. William Pritchard.
1755–61. Stephen Hunt.
1761–84. The Rev. Thomas Francklin.
1784–95. Mrs. Francklin.
1795–98. Francis Const.[442]
1798. —— Rowley.

Thomas Francklin, son of Richard Francklin, a bookseller of Covent

Garden, was born in 1721. He was educated at Westminster School and
Trinity College, Cambridge. For some time he found employment as usher
in his old school, and in 1750 he became Greek professor at Cambridge, a
position which he held until 1759, when he was presented to the vicarage of
Ware. At the same time he was fulfilling other clerical duties in London. As
early as 1749 he seems to have held a chapel in Bloomsbury, for in June of
that year he performed the marriage ceremony for Garrick there.[443] By
1758 he had obtained the lectureship at St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, and was
installed in the Great Queen Street Chapel. He was appointed King’s
chaplain in 1767, and ten years later he vacated the living at Ware for the
rectory of Brasted, in Kent. Through the influence of Dr. Johnson and Sir
Joshua Reynolds, he was appointed chaplain to the Royal Academy, and on
 the death of Goldsmith in 1774 he obtained the professorship of ancient
history. His literary output was considerable. In 1757 he brought out a
periodical paper called The Centinel, which only lasted two years. He wrote
four plays, the most important of which was The Earl of Warwick. His
translations were numerous, those of Sophocles’ tragedies being long
considered the best in the English language. After a laborious life he died in
his house in Great Queen Street[444] in March, 1784. His widow died in
1796.[445]

No. 68.

In the case of No. 68 also, no records of the names of any occupiers

exist before the Hearth Tax Roll for 1665. In that document the occupant’s
name is given as “Sir Willm. Hartupp.” This seems to have been Sir William
Hartopp, of Rotherby, son of Sir Thomas Hartopp, of Burton Lazars. Sir
William married Agnes, daughter of Sir Martin Lister.[446]
The Hearth Tax Roll for 1666 shows the house “Empty,” and that for
1672, “Empty—Mr. Bradshaw owner.” It seems probable that between these
dates occurred the joint occupancy of Lord Roos and Lady Chaworth, if
indeed that can be referred to this house at all. An item in Lord Roos’s
expenditure under date of 25th February, 1667–8, runs: “Paid Major Seales
for Sir William Hartopp for one quarter’s rent for the house in Queen Street,
beginning the 18th October, when his Lordship had the keyes, at 80li per
annum, Lady Ch[aworth] is to pay the next quarter, 20li.”[447] That Sir
William Hartopp’s house in 1667 was the same as that in 1665 is probable,
but unfortunately cannot be considered certain. Assuming, however, that
such is the case, Lord Roos’s occupation is seen to have commenced on 18th
October, 1667.
John Manners, third son of the eighth Earl of Rutland, was born in
1638. On the death of his two elder brothers, he assumed, apparently
without right,[448] the title of Lord Roos.[449] His first marriage, in 1658, to
Lady Anne Pierrepoint, was unhappy, and he was divorced from her by Act
of Parliament in 1670. In 1677 he was made Lord Lieutenant of
Leicestershire. He succeeded to the earldom in 1679. At the coronation of
James II. in 1685 he bore the Queen’s sceptre, but he does not seem to have
been in favour and in 1687 was dismissed from his lord lieutenancy. He
supported William at the Revolution, and was soon after restored to his
office. In 1703 he was created Marquess of Granby and Duke of Rutland. He
died in 1711.
His sister Grace married Patricius Chaworth, third Viscount
Chaworth.[450] Apparently the expenses of the house in Great Queen Street
were shared equally between her and her brother, for numerous items such
as the following occur in the Accounts of Lord Roos’s Expenditure
contained in the Duke of Rutland’s MSS.:—[451]
“1670. April 21. For the repaires of the parish church and maimed
soldiers, etc., this Queene Street house is taxed 5s., whereof Lady Chaworth
paying ½, his lordship ½, comes to 2s. 6d.”
“To the beadle for watching the Queene Street house ending the
above said Christmasse [1671] 4s.; Lady Cha[worth] paying ½, his lordship
other ½, comes to 2s.”
“July 3, 1669. The hire of paper windowes last year, 1668, to save the
hangings in the dining roome and drawing roome, the ½ of cost, Lady
Cha[worth] payes the other half, 5s.”
Some indication of the reason that influenced Lady Chaworth in
setting up housekeeping with her brother may be afforded from a letter
dated 25th June, 1670, from Lord Chaworth to his wife, at Lord Roos’s
house in Great Queen Street, requesting her to return to him, and offering
to receive her with respect and affection.[452]
In the Hearth Tax Roll for 1673, the house is shown as “Empty.” Two
years later “The Lady Morpeth” is shown in occupation. This was Elizabeth,
dowager lady Berkeley, wife of Edward Howard, Viscount Morpeth,
afterwards second Earl of Carlisle. It was in this same year that her eldest
son Charles, afterwards third earl, was born. Later occupants of the house
were:—
1683. Sir Edward Mosen.
Before 1698 until after 1709. Mrs. Eleanor Complin.
Before 1715 until after 1720. Thomas Burges.
Before 1723 until 1732. Ashburnham Froude and Thomas Burges.[453]
1733. Ashburnhame Froud.
1733–1740. Madame Eaton.
1740–44. Madame Pain (Paign).
1746. —— Davis.
1747–51. Elizabeth Falconer.
1753–55. James Ward.
1755–57. G. Stewart.
1758–70. Thos. Brock (Brooke).
1770–74. Thos. Rudd.
1775–78. Ric. Rudd.
1779. —— Thomas.
1780–86. Mrs. Thomas.
1786– John Arthur.
In the Council’s collection are:—
[454]Exterior(photograph).
Side entrance in Middle Yard, erected 1859–60 (photograph).
Interior from the gallery (photograph).
Interior looking south (photograph).
Interior looking north (photograph).
Fanlight under stairs (photograph).
Staircase (photograph).
Lantern light over staircase (photograph).
Loculi in crypt (photograph).
Two silver chalices dated MDCIIIC, originally presented for use in
West Street Chapel (photograph).
 XLI.—SITE OF WELD HOUSE.

The history of that part of Aldwych Close lying within the

angle formed by Great Queen Street and Wild Street has already
been traced[455] up to the division of the greater portion of it between
Sir Edward Stradling and Sir Kenelm Digby in 1629. Eleven years
previously, Henry Holford had leased to John Ittery the extreme
southern portion, reaching 100 feet northwards from Sardinia Street,
and a trench had been dug separating Ittery’s portion from that lying
to the north. On the transfer of the latter to Sir W. Calley and Geo.
Strode in trust for Stradling and Digby, Ittery’s portion was included,
and added to Stradling’s share. Stradling without delay began the
erection on his portion of “a faire mansion house with stables and
other outhouses.”[456] On 12th December, 1632, the ground, with the
mansion, etc., was sold by Calley and Strode to Stradling, and was
then described as extending south from the partition wall[457]
between Digby’s and Stradling’s portions “together with that parte
formerly demised to the said John Ittery, and then enclosed together
with the same, at the end next Drewry Lane by a square lyne 300
foote, and at the other end next Lincolne’s Inne Feildes 296 foote.”
By 1632 Stradling had also divided his portion into two by a brick
wall, “beginninge at the west end towards Drewry Lane and
extendinge itselfe eastwards towards Lincolne’s Inne Feildes 144
foote, and then towards the north in length 132 foote, and then again
eastwards towards Lincolne’s Inne Feildes 132 foote, and standinge
distant at the west end thereof from the fore-mentioned partition
wall 157 foote, and at the other end next Lincolne’s Inne Feildes 31
foote.”[458]
On 20th December, 1632, Stradling sold that part lying to the
north of this second partition wall, including the house, etc., to
George Gage. The house had not yet been completed, but a provision
was subsequently made that Strode was to finish, before Easter,
1634, “the dwelling house and buildings now erected or begun to be
erected, within and without ... in all respects, fitt and necessary for
one or more dwelling house or houses.”[459]
The date of completion of the house may therefore be ascribed
with probability to the year 1634.
Gage used the house as his own residence, and while “lyeinge
sicke in the said messuage of the sickness whereof he died” made his
will on 14th August, 1638, bequeathing the premises,[460] together
with other property, to William Darrell and William Bierly to sell for
the payment of his debts. On 25th February, 1639–40, it was
purchased by Humphrey Weld for £2,600.[461]
The portion of Stradling’s property which lay to the south of
the second partition wall, and which extended to the southern limits
of Aldwych Close, Stradling seems to have sold to Dr. Gifford for 500
years for £400 without right of redemption.[462] In 1649 Andrew
Gifford sold the property for £650 to Weld, who assigned it to his
mother, Dame Frances Weld, in trust. Three years later she re-
assigned it to him.
Humphrey Weld thus became possessed of the whole of
Aldwych Close lying to the east of Wild Street, and to the south of the
gardens of the Great Queen Street houses, and he now began to
develop the property by building. A reference to Hollar’s Plan of 1658
(Plate 3) shows that by that year the whole of the east side of Wild
Street, south of Weld House, and all the north side of Sardinia Street
had been covered with houses.[463] Weld himself stated about 1670,
that he had by that time laid out £15,600 in building.[461]
The street which had at least since 1629,[464] and probably
since 1618,[465] led from Great Queen Street to Kemble Street, then
Princes Street, seems for some time to have been without a name. It
is referred to in early deeds as “the back side of Drury Lane,” “a way
leading from Princes Street to Queen Street on the back side of Drury
Lane,” etc. In the Subsidy Rolls up to 1646 inclusive, it is merged in
“Cockpit Side.” The earliest instance of the name Weld Street or Wild
Street[466] so far discovered is in a deed of 24th April, 1658,[467] which
refers to “the street now called Wild Street, but heretofore called a
way or passage of 40 foote breadth leading from Queenes Street to
Princes Streete.”
 How far Weld House was identical with the mansion built by
Stradling and Strode is uncertain. Blott, after mentioning the latter,
says: “Adjoining it, on the south side, were the grounds and premises
of Weld House, Drury Lane, occupied by Lady Frances Weld, widow.
In 1657, Weld House and Stradling House underwent a complete
transformation, the two houses were united together and became
one building, having, besides extensive additions made to it, a
chapel[468] built in the garden; the front arranged to face Aldwyche
Close instead of Drury Lane, and an approach made to it called Weld
Street. This extraordinary enlargement was not to make the building
a residence suitable to the dignity of the Welds, but rather for State
purposes, such as the accommodation of princes and ambassadors in
London.”[469]
Blott gives no authority for his statements, one of which,
relating to the formation of Weld Street, is demonstrably wrong. The
statement that the “extraordinary enlargement” was carried out with
a view to the reception of princes and ambassadors in the building is
probably only an inference from the indisputable fact that
ambassadors did afterwards reside in a portion of the house.[470]
Nevertheless the view of the house given in Hollar’s Plan of 1658
(Plate 3) certainly does suggest the amalgamation of two distinct
houses, and the Subsidy Roll for 1646 shows that at that date two
large residences existed side by side,[471] although of course these may
have been only portions of one very large house.
As early as 1664 the house (or houses) seems to have been
split up among a number of occupants. The entries in the Hearth Tax
Rolls for 1664–1674 in respect of this portion of the street (amending
the wrong order of the first roll) are as follows. The numbers in
brackets represent the number of hearths taxed.
 1665. 1666.
Sam Nelson (6) Samuel Nelson (6)
Lord Baltimore (15) Cecill, Lord Baltimore (15)
Lord Marquess of Winchester in 2 houses
Lady Spencer (16)
(30)[472]
A. Gilbt. Crouch, Esq. (7) Widow Tattershall (6)
B. John Wolstenholm (14) John Wolstenholme, Esq. (14)
C. Humph. Wild, Esq. (14)
The Portugall Embassador’s E (20)
House.
D. Humph. Wild, Esq. (16) Humfrey Weild, Esq. (16)
E. Countess of Exeter (9) E (10)
F. Mary Sanders (9) Mrs. Mary Sanders (9)
G. John Worsley (3) John Worsley, Marcht of Intercost (6)

1673. 1675.
Samuel Nelson (6) Samuel Nelson (6)
Lord Baltimore (15) The Lady Baltimore (15)
Marquess of Winchester (3) Marquess of Winchester (30)
A. Thomas Hawker[473] (7) Thomas Hawker (7)
B. Mary James (13) E (13)
C. The French Embassadour
Spanish Ambassador (20)
(20)
D. Humphrey Wild, Esq. (16) Humphrey Wild, Esq. (16)
E. Thomas Weedon, Esq. (5) Madd. James (5)
F. Mary Saunders (9) Mary Saunders (9)
Mary Watson (1) Mrs. Watson (1)
G. John Worseley (6) John Worsley (6)

Of these neither (A)[473] nor (G)[474] formed part of Weld

House, and (B) is doubtful. (C) and (F) however, certainly did, the
former being the ambassadorial residence (see below) and the latter
being mentioned in a deed of 1673, quoted by Parton[475], as “the
wing of the said great house, late in Mary Saunders’s possession.”
The house was therefore at this time in at least four distinct
occupations.[476]
 The two chief residences thus formed were evidently the
house occupied by Weld himself and the ambassadorial house,
immediately adjoining on the south. The former was the scene of a
wild riot in 1671, when, Humphrey Weld having attempted to arrest
the ringleaders in a tumult close by, the rabble, in a fury, attacked his
house.[477]
The Portuguese Ambassador seems to have taken up his
residence at Weld House in 1659, for on 9th July in that year he
(Francisco de Mello) wrote from “Wild Street” to William Lenthall,
announcing the arrival of his credentials, and asking for an audience.
[478]
The extracts from the Hearth Tax Rolls given above show that he
was still there in 1665, gone in 1666, that the French Ambassador
was there in 1673,[479] and the Spanish Ambassador in 1675.
Numerous references to the residence of the last mentioned occur.
[480]
On the flight of James II. in December, 1688, the mob sacked the
ambassador’s house.
Shortly afterwards Weld House and the ground belonging to it
were purchased by Isaac Foxcroft, who let out the property on
building lease.[481] The house, or a portion of it, was however, still
standing in 1694.[482]
In the Council’s Collection is:—
North-east side of Great Wild Street, in 1906, looking south-east
(photograph).
 XLII.–XLIII.—Nos. 6 and 7, WILD COURT.

The Society for the Improvement of the Condition of the

Labouring Classes are the ground landlords of these houses.
The only objects of interest which the premises contain are
four 18th-century hob grates, illustrated below.
The Council’s collection contains:—
[483]Four cast-iron hob grates (measured drawing).