On the Relationship Between Law and Wisdom in the Old Testament

Introduction

The liturgical life of nascent Judaism was structured around three readings, one from each of the three divisions of the Old Testament Scriptures: the Law (torah), the Prophets (nebi’im), and the Writings (ketubim) (Tarazi 157). Prophetic literature frequently includes polemics to demonstrate that Yahweh is the only true God and the deities of the nations are non-entities. The Law and the Writings, on the other hand, assume an equivalence between Yahweh and God (124). This shared assumption in the Law and the Writings reflects the fact that each represents a different approach in the post-exilic Jewish community’s attempt to redefine itself in the absence of a local kingdom. The Law is something that can be implemented anywhere that God’s people gather as a synagogue (121), but in its essence it is still linked with the particular realm of a deity and its monarch (123). Wisdom, which is a dominant theme in the Writings, on the other hand, is universal in nature even if expressed locally by an individual ruler (124). This post will explore three things: 1) the origin of the concept of Law in the Old Testament, 2) the origin of the concept role of Wisdom in the Old Testament, and 3) the relationship between the two in nascent Judaism.

The Origin of the Concept of Law in the Old Testament

The Bible was not written in vacuum. Rather, the authors of the Old Testament were part of a wider Near East cultural context. This context can inform our understanding of the Old Testament when we realize that the institutions and societal structures portrayed in the Old Testament are particular Hebrew implementations of general Near East categories such as tribe, patriarch, tribal deity, king, and law. In this section we explore how the concept of law develops in the Old Testament.

The basic unit of society in the ancient Near East is the tribe, the members of which are bound together by their obedience to the authority of their tribal patriarch (1-2). The tribe is known by the name of its forefather, who as the prototype of subsequent patriarchs, is also the original link to a specific deity as well as to a specific location at which the deity appeared to the forefather. Subsequent generations of patriarchs renew and perpetuate the tribal link to this deity and location (4).

Over time, nomadic tribes make permanent settlements along larger bodies of water, creating cities and necessitating new forms of governance. This gives rise to the office of king, who while no longer necessarily being the oldest descendent of the forefather, still possesses a role similar to patriarch (10-11). As such, his relationship with the deity continues to be unique: He is a vassal under the deity’s suzerainty (59) as well as high priest mediating between the citizens and the deity (69-70).

As vassal of the deity, one of the king’s responsibility is to execute justice among the citizens according to the will of the deity (36). This is where law enters the picture. The will of the deity is encapsulated in law, whose ultimate author is the deity, and the king is to rule the city in the same way that the deity does, according to divine law (66). Two places in the Old Testament especially illustrate this: 1) “the two tablets of the Testimony [are] tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18) and 2) each king of Israel is commanded to “write a copy of this Law on a scroll for his own use at the dictation of the levitical priests … he must read it every day of his life” (Deuteronomy 17:18-19). Tarazi summarizes the situation in this way: “Thus, divinity, kingship, and the city commonwealth, i.e., the people or citizenry, were materially bound together through the law that was concurrently a divine, royal, and social reality” (66).

Given this general understanding of law in the Near East, we can observe two chronological distinctives of its Hebrew implementation. First, pre-exilic Israel and Judah are represented as chronically breaking Yahweh’s law and thus actively opposing the good that Yahweh intends to do for his people. Thus, it is the divine will through law that actually “founds, builds, and maintains the existence of the city” despite all the opposition of its citizens (88-89). In post-exilic Judah, on the other hand, law gets a new lease on life. Given the abolition of the kingdom and the dispersion of the citizens throughout the nations, Jews lay hold of the law as the institution to unite them and give them identity. And not only this, but obedience to and veneration of the law becomes synonymous with being one of the people of Yahweh. Tarazi summarizes thus: “It is thus the law (torah) that, in the eventual elimination of the king as necessary intermediary between God and his people, became the direct and immediate bridge between the latter two; hence, the preeminence of the torah in nascent Judaism” (83).

In this section, we saw how the concept of law in the Near East is the encapsulation of the will of a deity given to the king of his local city. This king functions as the deity’s representative for executing justice according to that law. In the Hebrew context, after the Exile when there is no longer a king nor city, the concept of law evolves to become itself the new representative of Yahweh, binding the people of Israel together regardless of where they live.

The Original of the Concept of Wisdom in the Old Testament

Similar to law, the concept of wisdom also derives its origin from tribal society. At its core, wisdom is related to preservation of life. The tribal patriarch needs to be both wise and authoritative. An unwise decision easily leads to death in a harsh climate; unheeded wise advice likewise leads to death (117). Wisdom, furthermore, is the property of a council of elders who have actively acquired it from previous generations of elders. Learning merely from common life experiences is inadequate because survival depends upon wise decisions, not trial and error (115). Thus together the patriarch and his council of elders, bound by an unwritten rule of unanimity, can make wise decisions that guarantee the continued existence of his people (119).

As tribes settle into cities and begin to be governed by kings, the locus of wisdom naturally moves to the king, who becomes the chief elder regardless of age. In order to validate his claim to wisdom, the king is represented as having received it from the deity, and thus divinely equipped to execute justice (108). This theme is quite explicit in the Old Testament. Two parallel passages link a king with divine wisdom: 1 Kings 3:4-15 and 2 Chronicles 1:3-12 both record Yahweh’s appearing to Solomon in a dream to bestow wisdom upon him. The testimony of the Queen of Sheba corroborates that Yahweh is the source of Solomon’s wisdom: “Blessed be Yahweh your God who has granted you his favor, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because of Yahweh’s everlasting love for Israel, he has made you king to deal out law and justice” (1 Kings 10:9). Even wisdom itself is given a voice and identifies divine and kingly wisdom: “I, Wisdom, am mistress of discretion … By me monarchs rule and princes issue just laws … Yahweh created me when his purpose first unfolded … I was by his side, a master craftsman, delighting him day after day” (Proverbs 8:12, 15, 22, 30). This “by [wisdom] princes issue just laws” really brings together an important point: In the Near East generally and the Old Testament particularly, it is both law and wisdom that are represented as gifts that the deity of a realm gives to his vassal king. The law is tangible and objective, but the devil is in the details, and so the deity has to bestow wisdom to the king as well in order to guarantee that his will would be implemented correctly. Wisdom is “the personal quality of understanding and knowledge that ensured the law would be put to its intended purpose” (Tarazi 119-120).

Despite the fact that among humans, wisdom is the particular property of kings, ordinary persons not only have the opportunity but also the responsibility to acquire wisdom. Personified Wisdom gives an open invitation: “Listen to instruction and learn to be wise, do not ignore it. Happy those who keep my ways! Happy the man who listens to me” (8:32-34). She also threatens those who disregard her: “They would take no advice from me, and spurned all my warnings: so they must eat fruits of their own courses, and choke themselves with their own scheming” (1:30-31).

Related to the fact that wisdom is universally accessible is the fact that wisdom technically is universal. In other words, a saying cannot be wise in one city and foolish in another. If a saying is truly wise, its value is universal (Tarazi 113). We see this in the Old Testament where Solomon’s wisdom is able to be compared to the wisdom of people in far away lands (1 Kings 4:30-31) as well as the fact that people from far away lands come to hear his wisdom (4:32). The usefulness of this fact becomes especially apparent during post-exilic times when the people of Israel are redefining what it means to be one of the people of God in the absence of king and city. As we will discover later, those living away from Jerusalem found their identity not just in observing the Law but by having wisdom writings with universal appeal.

In this section we saw how wisdom is the key to preservation of life in the Near East. Whether a patriarch and his council of elders or a king, the ruler needs wisdom in order to keep his people alive. Furthermore, he needs to appear wise so that people will heed his advice. One way this is accomplished in the Old Testament is by making wisdom to be a gift from Yahweh to the king. At the same time, wisdom is also available to everyone who applies himself to acquire it, and if a person has truly acquired wisdom, it will be universally recognized.

The Relationship Between Law and Wisdom in Nascent Judaism

Having explored law and wisdom as categories in Near Eastern culture generally as well as in Hebrew culture specifically, we now turn to the way they combined in nascent Judaism to create a system that both gave religious identity and provided a platform for dialogue with other religions. We will look at their relationship in the eschatological kingdom and their relationship in Jewish proselytization.

The prophetic writings of the Old Testament point the blame for the destruction of Jerusalem on neglect to obey Yahweh’s law, especially by the leaders, for example: “This people’s leaders have taken the wrong turning, and those who are led are lost … And so the Lord will not spare their young men” (Isaiah 9:15-6). “Woe to the legislators of infamous laws, to those who issue tyrannical decrees … What will you do on the day of punishment, when, from far off, destruction comes?” (10:1, 3). “The priests have never asked, ‘Where is Yahweh?’ Those who administer the Law have no knowledge of me. The shepherds have rebelled against me; the prophets have prophesied in the name of Baal, following things with no power in them. So I must put you on trial once more” (Jeremiah 2:8-9). The king, having been invested with the divine law and wisdom, brings about Jerusalem’s destruction by ignoring the law (Tarazi 121).

Given this fact, the only hope for the future would be a king who could with wisdom faultlessly implement the divine law (122). And it is just such a king that the prophets envision: an eschatological new David ruling over a New Jerusalem. Isaiah foresees a shoot “from the stock of Jesse” (i.e., the father of David), upon whom rests a “spirit of wisdom … and the fear of Yahweh” and who “judges the wretched with integrity” (11:1-2, 4). Jeremiah prophesies that Yahweh will “make a virtuous Branch grow for David, who shall practice honesty and integrity in the land … And this is the name the city will be called: Yahweh-our-integrity” (33:15-16). But the prophets also add a twist: The law will be so gloriously implemented by the eschatological David in the eschatological Jerusalem that other nations will be attracted to it, with the result that they too will adopt Yahweh as their deity. Isaiah describes it this way:

In the days to come the mountain of the Temple of Yahweh shall tower above the mountains and be lifted higher than the hills. All the nations will stream to it, peoples without number will come to it; and they will say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Temple of the God of Jacob that he may teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths; since the Law will go out from Zion, and the oracle of Yahweh from Jerusalem” (2:2-3).

Despite the magnificence of this prophetic vision, it is hard to use it as a platform for interfaith dialogue. Even if a Jew could persuade a Gentile to take a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he would not yet find a king gloriously dispensing justice according to the law of Yahweh. Law, as a platform for dialogue, is too localized (Tarazi 125).

And so nascent Judaism turned to wisdom as their currency of dialogue. As was shown earlier, wisdom is universal, and as such, it has a singular source, the one true Creator God, who with that one wisdom rules his one realm, the whole world. Jews knew that it was Yahweh who “by wisdom … set the earth on its foundations, by discernment, he fixed the heavens firm” (Proverbs 3:19). At the same time, by replacing the name of local deity Yahweh with a more generic God, Jews found a vocabulary for speaking about this one Creator to people with no connection to Jerusalem (124). Furthermore, although the Hellenistic context in which nascent Judaism grew up was aggressively polytheistic, Hellenism still had a wisdom tradition tracing back to ancient Greek philosophy. Showing that the Jewish and Greek wisdoms are in fact one and derive from the one Creator God proved to be a fruitful argument for monotheism (125).

Conclusion

This post explored the relationship between Law and Wisdom in the Old Testament. We first looked at the concepts of law and wisdom individually, both in their general Near Eastern origins and later in their specific Old Testament usage. Secondly, we showed how Law and Wisdom became two approaches to making the God of Israel accessible to the other nations. The prophetic writings especially focused on Law, but the later post-exilic writings found Wisdom to be a more useful notion. By including in their scripture all three components of Torah, Prophets, and Writings, nascent Judaism resolved the tension between Law and Wisdom. The Writings demonstrated that “intangible divine wisdom took tangible form in the written expression of the Law and its companion scripture, the Prophets”. In this way, the Law continued to be relevant to the Jews, whose identity depended upon the observance of it. At the same time in dialogue with Gentiles, the Law was useful as a “reference implementation” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_implementation) of universal wisdom. And as Jews increasingly discovered common ground with Gentiles, it protected them from the exclusivism that plagued some branches of Judaism (Tarazi 126-127).

Works Cited

The Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1968.
Tarazi, Paul Nadim. Psalms & Wisdom. Volume 3 of The Old Testament: Introduction. St. Paul, MN: OCABS, 1996.