On Recent Methods in Psalms Studies

Abstract

On Recent Methods in Psalms Studies Joel M. LeMon and Eric D. McDonnell Jr. A Review Essay of Simon Chi-Chung Cheung, Wisdom Intoned: A Reappraisal of the Genre 'Wisdom Psalms.' LHBOTS 613. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015. Michael Snearly, The Return of the King: Messianic Expectation in Book V of the Psalter. LHBOTS 624. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016. Form criticism has provided the foundation for Psalms scholarship for a century. Yet in recent decades, and especially since the groundbreaking work of Gerald Wilson, canonical criticism has become increasingly important, though scholars have applied different names to the enterprise.1 Two recent monographs share the admirable goal of addressing persistent methodological problems within these two modes of inquiry. Simon Chi-Chung Cheung provides a fresh look at the genre of the wisdom psalms, and Michael Snearly seeks to advance canonical criticism through an analysis of Book V of the Psalter. Together, these projects illuminate the shape of Psalms scholarship today. They also underscore the continuing challenges inherent within its most prominent methods. I. Simon Chi-Chung Cheung's Wisdom Intoned Cheung's study is a revision of his dissertation at the University of Cambridge under the direction of Katherine Dell. The aim of the work, as the subtitle suggests, is to clarify what the category of "wisdom psalms" entails. Cheung takes up the task in an orderly and coherent way. He first identifies prior attempts to define "wisdom psalms," a notoriously amorphous form-critical category. An exceedingly helpful chart included as an appendix shows all the texts that have been classified as wisdom psalms from 1867 (Otto Zöckler) to [End Page 431] 2010 (pp. 188–189). Cheung identifies the problems of categorizing the wisdom psalms by highlighting how several scholars have presented varying lists of wisdom psalms at different points in their careers as their understanding of the genre changed (e.g., James Crenshaw, Otto Eissfeldt, Roland Murphy, Leo Purdue, R. Norman Whybray, pp. 4–9). Notably, Cheung's own list of wisdom psalms does not appear in this appendix. Nor does it appear anywhere in the book, since Cheung has framed his project in a way that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to assemble a definitive list. To reframe the study of wisdom psalms, Cheung identifies challenges that have persisted within scholarship since the category "wisdom psalms" was first introduced. One problem has been establishing the formal content of wisdom literature as a whole, with an associated challenge of determining which of those wisdom forms or "wisdom formulae," according to Cheung's terminology, appear within individual psalms (p. 19). Another problem Cheung identifies is the tendency of form-critical studies to focus on reconstructing the specific historical settings of wisdom psalms, including a specific scribal tradition from which these works emerged (pp. 19–20). Indeed, Cheung rejects "wisdom psalms" as a form-critical category altogether, arguing instead that the wisdom psalms should be understood as a "literary term….[that] refers to a group of psalms that bear varying degrees of resemblances to other sapiential works in the OT" (p. 21). At this point, Cheung employs a "family resemblance" understanding of genre, with the "family" of wisdom psalms including "graded degrees of membership" based on a constellation of features (p. 21). To identify these "salient wisdom features," Cheung turns to Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, having judged that these books alone present characteristics by which other wisdom literature can be determined. Cheung finds Job unhelpful for determining the features of wisdom literature because it is itself a "tapestry" of multiple genres and thus cannot be used to establish the contours of another genre. On this point, Cheung is following directly upon Katharine Dell's judgment that Job does not qualify as wisdom literature, and "can only be called 'wisdom' in a broad sense" (p. 27).2 Cheung bases his subsequent analysis of the wisdom psalms on what he considers to be three constituent features of wisdom literature, the (1) content, [End Page 432] (2) tone, and (3) intention of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Cheung characterizes the content of wisdom literature, somewhat infelicitously, as "a ruling wisdom thrust." Cheung dedicates only two paragraphs...