Words of Wisdom: Proverbs for Everyday Reading

A.J. Pell is rector of Christ Church in Hope, B.C., and a lecturer in
the Anglican Studies Programme at Regent College in Vancouver.

The word “proverbs” brings to mind both a book of the Hebrew Bible
and everyday sayings in popular culture. This book brings together these
two ideas about proverbs in a most interesting way. Part 1 is a pair of
essays, one on the nature of wisdom and wisdom literature in the Bible,
and the other on the nature of proverbs in both the Bible and in ancient
and modern cultures. Vogels defines wisdom literature as being a
human-centred “creation theology,” as opposed to those literary
genres in the Bible that are God-centred “salvation-history
theology.” In wisdom literature, people seek to make sense of God’s
created world in order to live a full life. Proverbs are the popular,
pithy, and instructive sayings that convey what people have learned
about living in God’s world.

In Part 2, Vogels weaves together the proverbs of Solomon (Prov.
10:1–22 and 25:1–28) with the proverbs of a variety of other
cultures ranging from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt to modern Africa,
Asia, and Europe. The proverbs are divided into four categories: “My
Self,” “My Relations with Others,” “My Relation to Nature,”
and “My Relation to God.” Beginning with wisdom conveyed in biblical
proverbs, Vogels demonstrates how the same thoughts and ideas are
articulated in the proverbs of other cultures throughout history. In
doing so, he makes two points. First, proverbs unite people by
demonstrating all they have in common despite linguistic or religious
differences. Second, proverbs are a form of theological wisdom through
which all people can discover what behaviors and attitudes are important
and of worth in the eyes of God. In an era where many are promoting
religious differences for unholy purposes, these are points not to be
overlooked.