The Writings: Job–Sirach

Abstract

The WritingsJob–Sirach Martin Kessler, Bradley C. Gregory, Christopher T. Begg, Fred W. Guyette, Bradley C. Gregory, Jaime A. Banister, Paul R. Redditt, William J. Urbrock, Francis M. Macatangay, Bradley C. Gregory, and Frederick E. Greenspahn 1771. [Wisdom Literature; African Proverbs] Eleonaro Hof, "Wijsheid is niet slechts in een huis te vinden – dialog tussen spreekwoorden uit Afrika en Bijbelse wijsheidsliteratuur [Wisdom is not Found in just One House: Dialogue between Proverbs from Africa and Biblical Wisdom Literature]," ACEBT 31 (2017) 107-17. African approaches to biblical Wisdom literature tend to critique the dominant Eurocentric hermeneutic approach, emphasizing the need to interpret Wisdom literature not only with ANE parallels but also through the lens of indigenous African Wisdom. H. surveys three approaches to this dialogue. First, the African Proverbs Project has for more than twenty years been collecting a wide-ranging corpus of indigenous African proverbs which is made available on their website and Facebook pages. This Project espouses a positive outlook on African proverbs and urges pastors to root their sermons deeply in African soil by making use of indigenous Wisdom categories. Two African authors, Daniel Bediako-Akoto and Peter Kimilike take a more critical approach. Bediako-Akoto paints a particularly bleak picture of the skewed treatment of gender relationships, menstruation, and female sexuality expressed by many African proverbs. He does not discern any possibility of salvaging such sayings, but rather calls for a liberating rereading of biblical texts. Similarly, Kimilike voices his concerns about gender violence incorporated in many African sayings, but discerns a liberated potential in the sayings on poverty. This liberating potential is uncovered when wealth and poverty are seen as contingent rather than reflecting an eternal and stable order of society. For him, African proverbs have an important role to play in highlighting the communal responsibility to eradicate poverty in society. [Adapted from published abstract—M.K.] 1772. [Wisdom Literature] Jesse Rogers, "Where Is Wisdom to Be Found and How Do We Apprehend Her?," Septuagint, Sages, and Scripture, 84-98 [see #2008]. The personifications of Wisdom in Proverbs, LXX Proverbs, Job, Sirach, Baruch, and Wisdom of Solomon are compared by R. with the spatial location of Woman Wisdom (e.g., public or domestic, heaven or earth, etc.) and with the sensory modes through which humans are able to access Wisdom. In each book, Wisdom's place is with God as well as the created world but only in Proverbs does Wisdom love the public sphere. Throughout these texts, when Wisdom is inaccessible it is because she is hidden, not absent. While Proverbs emphasizes listening to gain wisdom, Sirach highlights sensuous and tactile capacities, and Wisdom of Solomon stresses the sense of sight.—B.C.G. 1773. [Job] Allan Bornapé, "'Solo soy polvo y cenizas': una mirada al problema del sufrimento en el libro de Job desde la antropología y la poética hebreas," DavarLogos 15 (2016) 5-21. The Book of Job is undoubtedly the literary work that has provoked the most comments about the issue of suffering in human existence. In this discussion, the expressive [End Page 582] richness with which man is described and his relationship with evil in the book have not been fully elucidated, however. Accordingly, in this article, B. seeks to explore the issue of human suffering in the Book of Job in accordance with the book's own vision and in light of classical Hebrew anthropology. More particularly, the article takes as its starting point (1) some linguistic observations concerning the description of the body and the expression of the emotions in the Hebrew Bible, (2) a similar survey of the Book of Job and in particular its rich anthropological vocabulary in the description of the experiences of pain and suffering, esp. as these are found in chap. 3, and (3) the scope of the anthropological conception of the Book of Job and the poetic articulation of this in the book as a whole, with the aim of thereby establishing a bridge between the present and the past (Job and ourselves), and between the figure of Job and our own daily experience of suffering. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 1774...