An Obituary for "Wisdom Literature" The Birth, Death, and Intertextual Reintegration of a Biblical Corpus

An Obituary for "Wisdom Literature" considers the definitional issues long plaguing Wisdom scholarship. Will Kynes argues that Wisdom Literature is not a category used in early Jewish and Christian interpretation. It first emerged in modern scholarship, shaped by its birthplace in nineteenth-century Germany. Kynes casts new light on the traits long associated with the category, such as universalism, humanism, rationalism, empiricism, and secularism, which so closely reflect the ideals of that time. Since it was originally assembled to reflect modern ideals, it is not surprising that biblical scholars have faced serious difficulties defining the corpus on another basis or integrating it into the theology of the Hebrew Bible.

The problem, however, is not only why the texts were perceived in this one way, but that they are perceived in only one way at all. Therefore, Kynes builds on recent theories from literary studies and cognitive science to create a new alternative approach to genre that integrates hermeneutical insight from multiple genre proposals. This theory is then applied to Job, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs, mapping out the complex textual network contributing to their meaning. With the death of the Wisdom Literature category, both the so-called Wisdom texts and the concept of wisdom find new life.

Will Kynes, Professor of Biblical Studies, Samford University

Will Kynes is Professor of Biblical Studies at Samford University. He is the author of My Psalm Has Turned into Weeping: Job's Dialogue with the Psalms (de Gruyter, 2012), which received the Manfred Lautenschläger Award for Theological Promise in 2015. He is also the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Wisdom and the Bible (Oxford University Press, 2021) and co-editor, with Katharine Dell, of Reading Job Intertextually (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2013), Reading Ecclesiastes Intertextually (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2014), and Reading Proverbs Intertextually (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2019).

List of tables and figures
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Part 1: Historical Metacriticism
1. The Rise and Impending Demise of Wisdom Literature: The Modern Scholarly Wisdom Tradition and the Threat of Pan-sapientialism
2. The Ancestry of Wisdom Literature: Ancient Tradition or Modern Invention?
3. The Birth of Wisdom Literature: The Nineteenth-Century Origin of the Wisdom Corpus
Part 2: Genre Methodology
4. The Universe of Texts: The Intertextual Network of Genres from Multiple Perspectives
Part 3: The Reintegration of Wisdom Literature
5. The Intertextual Network of Job and the Selective Nature of Genre
6. The Intertextual Network of Ecclesiastes and the Self-Reflective Nature of Genre
7. The Intertextual Network of Proverbs and the Subjective Nature of Genre
Conclusion
Appendix: Ps 107:40 and Job 12:21, 24 in Commentaries on the Psalms and Job
Bibliography