A Rhetorical Perspective on the Sentence Sayings of the Book of Proverbs
by
Dave Bland
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
University of Washington
1994
Approved by John Angus Campbell
(Chairperson of Supervisory Committee)
___________________________
___________________________
Program Authorized
to Offer Degree Speech Communications
Date January 28, 1994
University of Washington
Abstract
A Rhetorical Perspective on the Sentence Sayings of the Book o Proverbs
by Dave Bland
Chairperson of the Supervisory Committee:
Professor John Angus Cambell
Department of Speech Communication
The dominant perspective of biblical scholarship; is that proverbs are
valued for what they reveal about the wisdom and culture of an ancient
civilization. While they convey insightful information; they are perceived as
mild mannered in spirit. But this perspective is anemic. It eclipses the power
of the proverb. What I have done is to brush away the deposits from the
surface of the proverb and expose the deep structure of its rhetorical shape. I
have demonstrated that far from being harmless cliches, biblical proverbs are
potent rhetorical works of art. What I have discovered is a sharpness about
the proverb that enables it to penetrate the ear and the mind of the listener.
Because of this internal dynamic, the proverb does not lie dormant. It
must have a context in which to work. Even when consigned to a collection,
the proverb seeks out active duty. Contemporary scholarship has of
acknowledged this activity within the book of Proverbs. My work is
distinctive in that it describes the action of the proverb within the collection.
Proverbs do not have to lie around waiting for someone to pluck them from
the loneliness of a collection and appropriate them to a social context before
they experience self-actualization. They have a working context within the
book of Proverbs. Thus, scholarship can no longer be noncritical of the long
standing belief that the texts of Proverbs are randomly Collected. Biblical
scholars must now be more sensitive to macro-structures within Proverbs. I
have shown that the rhetorical power of the proverb enables it not only to
manage individual and social behavior but also to manage texts and ever
changing contexts within the canon of Scripture.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Chapter One: Introduction: The Rhetorical Foundation 1
The Cognitive Paradigm 3
Constraints of the Cognitive Paradigm 8
The Hermeneutic of the Cognitive Paradigm 11
A Rhetorical Hermeneutic as the Foundation for
Approaching Proverbs 18
Rhetoric and Hermeneutics 20
Characteristics of a Rhetorical Hermeneutic 23
The Hermeneutics of Scripture 42
The Contribution of a Rhetorical Paradigm 47
Selection Criteria for the Biblical Proverbs Studied 50
Conclusion 52
Chapter Two: The Biblical Proverb and its Micro-Dimensional
Influences 54
The Structural Character of Biblical Proverbs 55
Reasoning Patterns 90
Proverbial Content 120
The Situational Character of Biblical Proverbs 127
Chapter Three: The Biblical Proverb and its Macro-Dimensional
Influences 138
The Centrality of Speech in the Wisdom Corpus 139
Two Sample Texts: Proverbs 25:11-28 and 10:13-21 144
Oral Discourse as Art: Proverbs 25:11-28 149
The Role of Mentor in Developing the
Art of Speaking: Proverbs 10:13-21 164
Topoi Related to Oral Discourse 171
Topos: The Ethics of Discourse 171
Topos: The Kairos of Discourse 187
Chapter Four: The Ongoing Influence of Biblical Proverbs in the
Tradition of Scripture 201
Proverbs in Various Contexts in the Book of Proverbs 204
The Phenomenon of the Overlapping Sayings 205
Proverbs in the Context of the Proverbial Poem 214
Proverbs in the Broader Context of Hebrew Scriptures 226
Proverbs in the Context of Israelite Tradition 231
Proverbs in the Context of the New Testament 238
Chapter Five: Conclusion 245
Bibliography 260
ii
Chapter One
Introduction: The Rhetorical Foundation
Though small and innocent in appearance, the Proverb has
demonstrated amazing tenacity in transcending time and influencing
cultures. This unique unit of discourse has been the possession of almost all
cultures in all times and places, being utilized for multivalent purposes and
goals.l The power of the proverb is linked to its polysemous quaility.2 More
easily than other rhetorical genres, the proverb shatter contextual constraints
and transcends the confines of authorial intent unfolding to referents before
it its multiple dimensions. Its perspicuity, brevity, commonness, and
structural quality equip it to penetrate the mind, influencing thought and
action. On the surface, the form and content of the proverb work together to
make its thought something that can be immediately affirmed by the hearer.
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1 Whiting describes a broad spectrum of culture and peoples who use
proverbial lore and the variety of ways in which they are employed. He
acknowledges that certain primitive peoples do not seem to have a store of
proverbs. However, he remarks, "It must be borne in mind that it is
impossible to be certain of the complete absence of proverbs, because there is
always the possibility that proverbial sayings have escaped the attention of
foreign observers." See B. J. Whiting, "The Origin of the Proverb," Harvard
Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature 13 (1931): 61.
2 Using the semiotic model of Susan Wittig, James William.
demonstrates the polyvalence of Biblical proverbs. Williams concludes his
essay with these words: "The possibility of multiple meanings may be viewed
as unfortunate or as a way of weaseling out of the interpreter's responsibility.
I view it as a challenge to the interpreter to allow the proverb to provoke and
challenge his mind." James G. Williams, "The Power of Form: A Study of
Biblical Proverbs," Semeia 17 (1980) : 55.
2
But its relatively indeterminate nature also empowers it with a surplus of
meaning.3
A vast amount of material has been written on proverbs, their use in
literature and what they reveal about different peoples. Anthropologists,
folklorists, psychologists, and sociologists have engaged in studying this
elemental form. However, few rhetoricians have entered into the arena to
explore their rhetorical function and influential force.4 Neither have
rhetoricians put much effort into historically investigating how proverbs
have been used.5 In this study I propose to investigate the rhetorical work of
the proverb as it is used and organized in the book of Proverbs in the Hebrew
Scriptures.
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3 Max Black speaks of the polyvalent quality of a proverb indirectly in
his description of metaphors. Black remarks that "when we speak of a
relatively simple metaphor, we are referring to a sentence or another
expression in which some words are used metaphorically while the
remainder are used nonmetaphorically. An attempt to construct an entire
sentence of words that are used metaphorically results in a proverb, an
allegory, or a riddle." Max Black, Models and Metaphors: Studies in
Language and Philosophy (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press,
1960) 26.
4 One of the few are Goodwin and Wenzel who use Ehninger's and
Brockriede's classification system to analyze how contemporary proverbs
illustrate patterns of reasoning or argument. See Paul D. Goodwin and
Joseph W. Wenzel, "Proverbs and Practical Reasoning: A Study in Socio-
Logic," Quarterly Journal of Speech 65 (1979): 289-302.
5 One exception is Gerald Phillips' essay on the dominant role of
speech in the proverbs of Sirach and the Book of Proverbs. See Gerald M.
Phillips, "Rhetorical Gleanings from the Wisdom Literature," Western.
Speech Journal. 26 (1962) : 157-163. Another is an essay by Edd Miller and Jesse
J. Villarreal, "The Use of Cliches by Four Contemporary Speakers," Quarterly
Journal of Speech 31 (1945): 151-155.
3
This collection has been studied by biblical scholars who have revealed
much about its nature. But such studies have been constrained because of the
way in which the book has been approached. What I propose to do is initially
to examine and critique the traditional paradigm used by biblical scholars.
This examination will also include a description and critique of their
underlying hermeneutic. An alternative rhetorical paradigm and
hermeneutic will be offered that does not eclipse the old model but enables
the proverbial material to have its richest expression. It is this rhetorical
hermeneutic that will serve to inform the direction taken in this dissertation.
The Cognitive Paradigm
The dominant paradigm for studying the collection of proverbs in
Scripture is a cognitive one.6 The cognitive paradigm tends to be determinate
and focuses primarily on the content and message of proverbs. Charles
Fritsch's statement that the "way to rescue the valuable teaching of this
collection" is to arrange them according to subject matter, is representative of
this approach.7 After the superficial form of the proverb is boiled away, the
residue that remains is its real essence. The most influential scholars in
Wisdom Literature build their research around this perspective.
William McKane, in his monumental commentary on the book of
Proverbs in the Old Testament Library series, classified the proverbs according
___________________________
6 Arland D. Jacobson has identified this as the paradigm. See Arland
D. Jacobson, "Proverbs and Social Control: A New Paradigm for Wisdom
Studies," Gnosticism and the Early Christian World, eds. J. E. Goehring, C.
W. Hedrick, Jack T. Sanders, and Hans Deter Betz, (Sonoma, CA: Polebridge
Press, 1991) 75-88.
7 Charles T. Fritsch, "The Gospel in the Book of Proverbs,” Theology
Today 7 (1950) : 170.
4
to content and the three phases in the development of that content.8 His
entire commentary is organized around these phases. The first includes
proverbs that are concerned with the success and harmonious life of the
individual. This is "old wisdom" and these proverbs are the earliest part of
the biblical collection. In the second phase the center of concern shifts from
the individual to the community. And the third phase reinterprets the first
by incorporating "God-language." The proverbs in the third phase are the
latest editions to the collection and are the most theological. The historical
development in this scheme is from the secular to the sacred. And the focus
is solely on content.
Other works on Proverbs follow suit. The foundational work on
Wisdom Literature in ancient Israel by Gerhard von Rad, discusses proverbs
under the heading "The Forms in Which Knowledge is Expressed."9 He goes
further and identifies in the Proverbs a "tension between a radical
secularization on the one hand and the knowledge of God's unlimited
powers on the other."10 Such a division is based on content. The most
renowned scholar of Wisdom Literature in America, James L. Crenshaw,
___________________________
8 McKane, Proverbs, A New Approach (Philadelphia: The
Westminster Press, 1970) 11, 415.
9 Gerhard von Rad, Wisdom in Israel (Nashville: Abingdon Press,
1972) 24.
10 Von Rad 98. Claudia Camp takes issue with such a division. She
rightly argues that even though religion is not synonymous with common
sense, common sense is a part of religion. See Wisdom and the Feminine in
the Book of Proverbs (Decatur, GA: Almond Press, 1985) 173-176. Such a
connection is significant for rhetorical theory since endoxa (common or
popular opinion) is crucial for developing any kind of rhetorical argument.
5
entitles his chapter on the book of Proverbs "The Pursuit of Knowledge.”11
John T. Willis, in his little volume, organizes the proverbs in the book of
Proverbs around the various topics they address.12 In one of the most recent
books to come out on Wisdom Literature, Roland Murphy subtitles his
chapter on Proverbs "The Wisdom of Words" which implies an interest that
may reach beyond content.13 In fact Murphy states that the book of Proverbs
"seeks to persuade, to tease the reader into a way of life . . . ."14 However, after
only paying lip service to this element, Murphy devotes the chapter to
summarizing the contents of the major blocks of material in the book. These
works are representative of the dominant way in which the book of Proverbs
is approached.
A number of scholars claim that what has contributed most to
perpetuating the cognitive model has been the placing of proverbs in a
collection. In a collection a proverb's performative context is lost and all that
remains is its content. Whenever a proverb is codified it loses its force and
power. Janet E. Heseltine has maintained this: "Looked at in one way, the
history of the use and disuse of proverbs is a progression from the concrete to
___________________________
11 James Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom: An Introduction,
(Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981) 66.
12 John T. Willis, The Old Testament Wisdom Literature: Job,
Proverbs. Ecclesiastes. Song of Solomon (Abilene, TX: Biblical Research Press,
1982) 84-126.
13 Roland E. Murphy, The Tree of Life: An Exploration of Biblical
Wisdom Literature, The Anchor Bible Reference Library (New Yok:
Doubleday) 15.
14 Murphy 15
6
the abstract."15 Later she adds, regarding the increased interest in collecting
proverbs in the eighteenth century, "We may take it as a sign that proverbs
were on the wane that they now began to be collected so zealously."16 The
paroemiologist Wolfgang Mieder affirms that "the proverb in a collection is
dead."17 Claudia Camp also argues that when a proverb is consigned to a
collection it dies.18
The literary collection of proverbs robs them of the function that
is essential to their identity, leaving only what paroemiologists
refer to as the Baukern or 'kernel,' the proverb's context-free core
composed of its topic and comment. The 'Baukem' is 'the
ultimate source for all subsequent applications, since this core is
the carrier of the message, however, mundane or profound'
(Fontaine, 165). Insofar as the form of the proverb is determined
by its function . . . and insofar as the proverb is only functioning
qua proverb in a performance context, the form and style of the
proverb in a collection become expendable features, as they are
___________________________
15 Janet E. Heseltine, Introduction, "Proverbs and Pothooks," The
Qxford Dictionary of English Proverbs, comp. William George Smith,
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1935) : xii.
16 Heseltine xvii
17 Wolfgang Mieder, "The Essence of Literary Proverb Study,"
Proverbium 23 (1974) 892.
18 Claudia Camp, Wisdom and the Feminine in the Book of Proverbs
(Decatur, GA: Almond Press, 1985): 166.
7
not in the context of use (p. 124). In the collection, it is only the
kernel, the message, that has any relevance at all.19
Camp's solution to the loss of a context for the proverbs is to
recontextualize them. She proposes that this is accomplished by framing the
sentence proverbs (chs. 10:1-22:16 and 24:22-29:33) in a narrative within the
wisdom poems (chs. 1-9 and 30-31). Wisdom personified as feminine offers
an interpretive framework for the collection of proverbs. The feminine
image enables the book of Proverbs to be a unified whole and function as part
of a canon of religious literature.20 Camp's approach is creative and
illuminating in many ways. But to say that the prologue and the epilogue
offer the interpretive key to the text of Proverbs is to continue to confine
proverbs to the abstract. Other than transforming the book into narrative,
how does the beginning and ending interpret the whole? How does it
interpret the sentence proverb? Camp does not say. In the final analysis,
Camp's approach as well is primarily interested in the intellectual content.21
The interpretive responsibility belongs to the narrative itself. There is little
or no dialogue between text and interpreter. The interpretation takes place
___________________________
19 Camp 171. Camp enumerates three effects of placing proverbs in a
collection: 1) they lose their function as cultural model is (i.e. their capacity to
evaluate and affect change); 2) the removal of the performance context creates
the appearance of proverbial dogmatism; 3) "in Israel the loss of he
performance context also meant the loss of the covenant context. It is this
factor that engenders the appearance, and perhaps also the experience, of a
sacred-secular dichotomy" (p. 177).
20 Camp 182
21 Jacobson reaches this conclusion as well when he remarks that
Camp's "model continues to be a primarily cognitive one" (p. 87).
8
within the text between the feminine image and the sentence proverbs.22 All
of this is to say that Camp's interpretive approach is guided by a cognitive
model and therefore is constrained.23
It does seem accurate to claim that collections of proverbs have tended
to promote the cognitive paradigm. The collections are perceived by this
model to abstract proverbs from their oral context and focus interest solely on
intellectual content. But even in collections it is, as Jacobson says, a
"mistaken assumption that intellectual content is what proverbs are about.24
Gathering proverbs into collections does not in and of itself bring about their
demise.
Constraints of the Cognitive Paradigm
Even though the cognitive model has much to commend itself and
even though it has yielded rich insights into the meaning of the contents of
the proverbs, there are a number of constraints that must be faced if we are to
advance further in our understanding and appropriation of proverbs. First,
the cognitive model has no interest in the way in which proverbs influence
thought and behavior. The exclusive focus on content has totally eclipsed the
___________________________
22 According to Camp, the feminine image brings to the fore the focus
on the woman and her characteristics throughout the book. The primary
characteristic has to do with the responsibility of the woman to educate and
advice. She is evaluated not by her role as childbearer but by her
responsibility as advisor.
23 Camp has worked to release her approach from any one method. So
she relies on the use of several including literary, anthropological,
sociological, historical, and canonical (p. 11). Notably absent from her
repertoire is any use of rhetoric.
24 Jacobson 87
9
vital dimension of how a proverb works rhetorically to accomplish its task.
The internal structure and reasoning pattern used by the proverb along with
its content and the context in which it is used all work together synergistically
to energize it with persuasive power. The traditional approach to proverbs
treats them as inert entities. It lumps the various structural patterns of
proverbs into fixed categories of parallelism such as synonymous, antithetic,
or synthetic, and this does not allow for the subtle but dynamic differences
that characterize the individual proverbs. To investigate the rhetorical
dimension that resides within the proverb will yield rich insight into the way
the proverb works, that is, the way in which it influences thought and action.
Proverbs, as such, are a valuable resource for contemporary rhetorical use.
Thus, a constraining factor of the cognitive model is that it has little interest
in the way in which proverbs act upon their audiences.
Second, the cognitive model is uninterested in and even incapable of
discovering possible macro-structural patterns in the book of Proverbs. The
cognitive model assumes that the proverbs gathered together in the Hebrew
collection are a random collection. In fact, the dominant way of
understanding the book has been to see the collection as quite haphazard and
the surrounding context in which the proverb is placed as irrelevant for its
interpretation. William McKane has made this observation of the sentence
proverbs which is representative of much of biblical scholarship: "there is no
context, for each sentence is an entity in itself and the collection amounts to
no more than the gathering together of a large number of independent
sentences, each of which is intended to be a well-considered and definitive
10
observation on a particular topic."25 Such an observation is constraining in
that it disregards the possibility of a macro-structure or, at least, certain
clusters of proverbs that are intentionally placed together in a context. In fact
the cognitive model has no tools for investigating such structural
possibilities.
Third, the cognitive perspective does not take seriously the dialogical
dimension of the proverb. The proverb is designed to be used in an
unlimited variety of situations and contexts. In those different contexts a
traditional proverb is immediately recognizable. But at the same time it may
take on a little different meaning or shape. One or both of its parallel lines
are changed or adapted to fit the situation. Generally speaking the cognitive
perspective views proverbs as determinate in both form and content. The
meaning and structure remains constant regardless of the context in which
the proverb is used. The difficulty with this view is that when many of the
proverbs are found in other parts of Scripture, they are not repeated verbatim.
One or the other of their binary lines are changed and various images
substituted in order to fit the context or rhetorical argument of the text. In
Scripture proverbs are dynamic and ever changing. They enter into a kind of
dialogue with the context in which they are placed. The cognitive model does
not acknowledge this quality in its scheme. Its focus is on what the proverb
___________________________
25 McKane 413. Earlier in his work, McKane had set the tone for his
view and approach to Proverbs when he said that "there is, for the most part,
no context in the sentence literature and that the individual wisdom sentence
is a complete entity. The logical outcome of this argument is the allocation of
the sentences to different classes, since the necessity for such a system of
classification follows from the random way in which wisdom sentences
follow one upon another in any chapter" (p. 10).
11
meant. Therefore it is limited in what it can say about the ongoing function,
the living tradition, of the proverb.
Finally, the cognitive paradigm, even with its topical approach, has
overlooked the primacy that the book of Proverbs has assigned to the role of
discourse and speech. At the heart of sagacity is the ability to use words
effectively. The topical approach can catalog various subjects that are
addressed in Proverbs. But it has no real interest in discovering which ones
are more significant. Central to the texts of Proverbs is a concern for the
proper training in and use of speech. The sage's function appears to be more
rhetorical than cognitive.
My argument in this dissertation is that these four areas are vital to
developing a more holistic understanding of biblical proverbs. These areas
will be addressed in the succeeding chapters of this dissertation. However,
before I can adequately address them, another and more fundamental
problem must be exposed. What lies at the basis of all four of these problem
areas are the hermeneutical presuppositions of the cognitive paradigm. An
exclusively cognitive hermeneutic leads to a restrictive view of proverbs. So,
in addressing this hermeneutical problem, the groundwork for offering a
more productive approach to the study of biblical proverbs is made possible.
The Hermeneutic of the Cognitive Paradigm
Underlying the cognitive paradigm is a hermeneutic that continues to
dominate biblical studies, including the study of biblical proverbs, which has
profoundly influenced the way proverbs are viewed. To briefly explain and
understand this hermeneutic will equip one to understand how proverbs
have been traditionally perceived and will open the door for an alternative
approach.
12
The cognitive hermeneutic takes a determinate approach to Scripture.
Such a hermeneutic came as a reaction against the interpretive practice of the
medieval period and the common idea of the four senses of Scripture.26 The
criticism of the four senses was that they "could easily breed confusion"27 and
Scripture could come to mean anything anyone wanted it to mean. The
concern of the Reformation was to make the interpretation of Scripture more
"respectable." And the way to do that was to make it more scientific.
William Tyndale in explaining the four senses of Scripture, "wrote the first
actual discussion of the nature of a proverb which is to be found in
English:"28
They divide the scripture into four senses, the literal,
tropological, allegorical, and anagogical. The literal sense is
become nothing at all: for the pope hath taken it clean away, and
hath made it his possession. . . . The tropological sense
pertaineth to good manners (say they), and teacheth what we
ought to do. The allegory is appropriate to faith; and the
anagogical to hope, and things above. . . .
Thou shalt understand, therefore, that the scripture hath but
one sense, which is the literal sense. And that literal sense is the
___________________________
26 The four senses are the literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical.
For a nice summary of this hermeneutic see Harry Caplan, "The Four Senses
of Scriptural Interpretation and the Mediaeval Theory of Preaching,"
Speculum 4 (1929) : 282-290.
27 Caplan 287
28 B. J. Whiting, "The Nature of the Proverb," Harvard Studies and
Notes in Philology and Literature (1932): 292.
13
root and ground of all, and the anchor that never faileth,
whereunto if thou cleave, thou canst never err or go out of the
way. And if thou leave the literal sense, thou canst not but go
out of the way. Neverthelater, the scripture useth proverbs,
similitudes, riddles, or allegories, as all other speeches do; but
that which the proverb, similitude, riddle, or allegory signifieth,
is ever the literal sense, which thou must eek out diligently: as
in the English we borrow words and sentences of one thing, and
apply them unto another, and give them new significations. We
say . . . "Look er thou leap": whose literal sense is, "Do nothing
suddenly, or without advisement." "Cut not the bough that thou
standest upon": whose literal sense is, "Oppress not the
commons.". . . All fables, prophecies, and riddles, are allegories;
as AEsop's fables, and Merlin's prophecies; and the
interpretation of them are the literal sense.
So in like manner the scripture borroweth words and
sentences of all manner things, and maketh proverbs and
similitudes, or allegories.29
For the Reformation leaders, proverbs, along with the rest of Scripture had
just one plain determinate meaning, and that was the literal meaning.
Such a view dominated the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The
hermeneutical perspective of John Locke heavily influenced the way in
___________________________
29 William Tyndale, "Obedience of a Christian Man," Doctrinal
Treatises, ed. H. Walter (Cambridge, Parker Society, 1848) 303-305. Quoted by
B. J. Whiting, "The Nature of the Proverb," 292-293.
14
which Scripture was interpreted. Locke's approach was inductive and the
truth of Scripture could be empirically verified:
The scriptures consist of datum exterior to man, and man
receives its truth in the same manner in which the scientist
learns the truth of nature. Through induction one derives
spiritual truth in precisely the same manner as material truth.30
Locke believed that by following the commands of Scripture anyone who
really desired to could be able to see plainly what God required. Scottish
Common Sense Realism and its method of Baconian scientific induction also
had a profound influence on the way in which Scripture was interpreted.
The scientific method of Baconian induction was the means
used by the Scottish Common Sense Realist philosophers to
construct their philosophy. These philosophers believed that
careful generalizations should be built upon an inductive
accumulation of "facts."31
Such a scientific hermeneutic is still dominant in many religious circles
today.32
___________________________
30 Thomas H. Olbricht, "The Bible as Revelation," Restoration,
Quarterly 8 (1965) : 213.
31 Michael Casey, "The Origins of the Hermeneutics of the Churches of
Christ Part Two: The Philosophical Background," Restoration Quarterly 31
(1989): 199.
32 The growing ranks of fundamentalism witnesses to the popularity
of this approach to Scripture. For a description of the tenants of this
hermeneutic see J. I. Packer, Fundamentalism" and the Word of God, (Grand
Rapids: Eerdman's Publishing Co., 1967). For a critique of the hermeneutic of
fundamentalism see Kathleen C. Boone, The Bible Tells Them So: Discourse
15
The central concept related to this scientific hermeneutic is that of
determinism and objectivity. Emilio Betti is the philosopher who has
championed this hermeneutic today. Richard Palmer observes that Betti's
primary concern is with objectivity. Betti, himself states his intention clearly:
This contention which raises a completely new problematic and
which would lead to the negation of objectivity, we, as
historians, have to oppose with all firmness. Our outline has
shown that the subjectivist position rests on a shift of meaning
which identifies the hermeneutical process of historical
interpretation with a situationally determined meaning-
inference . . . and which has the effect of confounding a
condition for the possibility with the object of that process; as a
result, the fundamental canon of the hermeneutical autonomy
of the object is altogether removed from the work of the
historian.33
There are a number of derivative principles in this hermeneutic
stemming from the canon of objectivity. First is the canon of the autonomy
of the object.34 That is, the object has its own existence. The primary way in
which an interpreter respects an object's autonomy is to focus on authorial
intention. For E. D. Hirsch, authorial intention is the norm for validity of
___________________________
of Protestant Fundamentalism (Albany: State University of New York Press,
1989).
33 Emilio Betti, "Hermeneutics as the General Methodology of the
Geisteswissenschaften," The Hermeneutic Tradition: From Ast to Ricoeur,
eds. Gayle L. Ormiston and Alan D. Schrift (Albany: State University of New
York Press, 1990) : 177.
34 Betti 164
16
interpretation.35 According to Gadamer, Spinoza argued that "everything
important can be understood if only we understand the mind of the author
'historically'--i.e., overcome our prejudices and think of nothing but what
the author could have had in mind."36
The second canon, according to Betti, is the coherence of meaning or
"the principle of totality."37 Betti argues that one must understand the text in
context. There is "an inner relationship of coherence between individual
parts of a speech because of the overarching totality of meaning built up of the
individual parts."38
The third canon is the "actuality of understanding."39 With this canon
the interpreter reverses the creative process that produced the object in the
first place; the process and message is reconstructed. Understanding involves
the re-construction of a meaning.40 Betti, who adamantly opposes Gadamer's
idea that the interpreter produces messages, claims that the interpreter's
responsibility is to reproduce the message. The concern is with an accurate
___________________________
35 E. D. Hirsch, Validity in Interpretation (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1967) 27, 38.
36 See Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 2nd rev. ed., trans.
Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall (New York: Crossroad Publishing
Corp., 1991) 181.
37 Betti 165
38 Richard Palmer, Hermeneutics: Interpretation Theory in,
Schleiermacher, Dilthey. Heidegger and Gadamer (Evanston: Northwestern
University Press, 1969) 57.
39 Betti 167
40 Betti 163
17
reconstruction of the meaning of the text. In this regard Hirsch makes the
following observation:
If a meaning can change its identity and in fact does, then we
have no norm for judging whether we are encountering the real
meaning in a changed form or some spurious meaning that is
pretending to be the one we seek. Once it is admitted that a
meaning can change its characteristics, then there is no way of
finding the true Cinderella among all the contenders. There is
no dependable glass slipper we can use as a test, since the old
slipper will no longer fit the new Cinderella.41
The hermeneutic of Betti, Hirsch, Locke and those traditions stemming
from the Reformation movement is concerned primarily with determinacy.
A determinate hermeneutic views a symbol as having univocal meaning that
does not change when the symbol is applied to new objects or in new
situation. Determinacy in texts implies an arbitrary and coercive imposition
of meaning. This leads to the interpreter exerting a tyrannical hold over the
interpretation of a text. But what is needed is a hermeneutic that will allow
the text to be heard. What I want to argue is that a rhetorical perspective does
just that. It enables the interpreter to hear the text on its own terms. Such a
hermeneutic, then, needs fuller elaboration.
___________________________
41 Hirsch 46
18
A Rhetorical Hermeneutic as the Foundation for Approaching Proverbs
Paul Ricoeur maintains that when discourse moves from speaking to
writing it is liberated from its author and original setting.42 This
phenomenon Ricoeur refers to as distanciation is a phenomenon that works
as a positive value in the process of interpretation. It enables the interpreter
to approach the text and its structural nature as fixed and at the same time to
enter into a dialogue with the text and appropriate it to the present situation
rather than confining the meaning of the text only to the past and to
authorial intent. Such a hermeneutic is rhetorical because it views both the
interpreter and his or her audience as active agents in the interpretive
process.
However, when it comes to proverbs, Claudia Camp sees this
perspective as problematic. To begin with Camp's critique at this point will
aid in sharpening the focus for establishing a rhetorical hermeneutic. Of
Ricoeur's hermeneutic, she makes the following assessment:
Although Ricoeur construes this liberation resulting from
writing in a positive way, it becomes quite problematic with
respect to the proverbs as we have already seen. Perhaps more
than any other form of discourse the import of a proverb
depends on 'what the author (or user) meant.' It is designed to
penetrate the world of the listener in a given situation, causing
___________________________
42 Paul Ricoeur, "Philosophical Hermeneutics and Theological
Hermeneutics," Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 5 (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1975) : 14-33. Reprinted with excursus as
"Philosophical Hermeneutics and Theological Hermeneutics Ideology: Utopia
and Faith," The Center for Hermeneutical Studies in Hellenistic and Modern
Culture (Berkeley: n.p., 1976) 5.
19
him or her to see that situation in a new way. . . . Stripped of a
situation in which to create new meaning, there is little work for
it to do, and little demand for a new audience. Thus, the de-
contextualization of a proverb does not provide the conditions
for its re-contextualization but only for its descent into
platitudinalism. The proverb requires a performance context to
be fully meaningful.43
But why does a proverb, more than any other genre, have to depend on
what the original author meant? Why cannot the de-contextualization of a
proverb from its original context provide for its re-contextualization? Camp's
understanding of proverbs treats them as univocal and having one "literal"
meaning, much in the same way as William Tyndale viewed them. When
proverbs are placed in a collection, can they not be multivalent in the way in
which they are appropriated by the interpreter? In fact, is not the proverb by
nature polysemous? In contrast to Camp's position, I would like to argue that
a rhetorical hermeneutic is inventional--it enables written proverbs to be
dynamic by locating their meaning in the emergent speech situations of life.
In order to understand this hermeneutic, it is necessary first to ask
about the relationship between rhetoric and hermeneutics. Second, what
does such a rhetorical hermeneutic look like? Finally, is such a hermeneutic
a foreign template that intrudes on proverbial texts in an artificial and
mechanical way? Or is it endemic to them? Such an investigation, I am
convinced, will confirm the heuristic value of a rhetorical perspective.
___________________________
45 Camp, Wisdom and the Feminine in the Book of Proverbs, pp. 181-
182.
20
Rhetoric and Hermeneutics
First, what is the relationship between rhetoric and hermeneutics?
The close relationship between rhetoric and hermeneutics has been
acknowledged by Michael J. Hyde and Craig R. Smith who have forcefully
argued that from "the hermeneutical situation originates the primordial
function of rhetoric."44 That primordial function is to make known
meaning.45 There is, for these authors, an important dialectic between
hermeneutics and rhetoric: "Without the hermeneutical situation there
would be a meaningless void; without rhetoric the latent meaning housed in
the hermeneutic situation could never be actualized."46 Rhetoric
appropriates the synchronic and diachronic findings of hermeneutics. And
the hermeneutical process is not complete until this is accomplished.47
Hans Georg Gadamer has also acknowledged the centrality of rhetoric
to hermeneutics. He maintains that rhetoric pervades all hermeneutic
activity:
Convincing and persuading, without being able to prove- these
are obviously as much the aim and measure of understanding
and interpretation as they are the aim and measure of the art of
oration and persuasion . . . .
___________________________
44 Michael. J. Hyde and Craig. R. Smith, "Hermeneutics and Rhetoric:
A Seen but Unobserved Relationship," Quarterly Journal of Speech 65
(1979): 347.
45 Hyde and Smith 348
46 Hyde and Smith 354
47 Hyde and Smith 357
21
The ubiquity of rhetoric, indeed, is unlimited.48
Dale Patrick and Allen Scult affirm that hermeneutics is a central
realm of rhetoric. They define rhetoric "as the means by which a text
establishes and manages its relationship to its audience in order to achieve a
particular effect."49 That is, rhetoric empowers a text to continue to address
audiences at different times and in different places.
But while affirming the central role of rhetoric in hermeneutics, Scult
moves beyond Hyde and Smith and Gadamer to offer a corrective to their
view. While Hyde and Smith and Gadamer ground hermeneutics and
rhetoric in the hermeneutical situation, Scult argues that they neglect the
rhetorical situation, that at least in the case of sacred texts the rhetorical
grounding must take precedent.50 For Hyde and Smith the function of
rhetoric in the hermeneutical act exists first in the intrapersonal realm,
between text and interpreter. But Scult affirms that the interpretive process is
interpersonal since the intention is to make a text relevant to a contemporary
audience from the start. The interpreter is guided by the rhetorical situation
and not the hermeneutical situation to make known his or her
interpretation. So the interpreter is not only affected by his or her own
interpretations but by the predispositions and values of the audience. Scult
articulates this point well:
___________________________
48 Gadamer in Philosophical Hermeneutics, 1976, p. 24.
49 See Dale Patrick and Allen Scult, Rhetoric and Biblical
1nterpretation, (Decatur, GA: Almond Press, 1990), p. 12.
50 See Scult, "The Relationship Between Rhetoric and Hermeneutics
Reconsidered," Central States Speech Journal 34 (1983): 221.
22
If an audience, distant in time and place from the original text, is
somehow "intended" by the text to be included in the purview
of its meaning, then that audience's predispositions to
understanding indeed would be a legitimate and necessary
framework for ascertaining the text's meaning. We shall see that
this is precisely the case with Scripture.51
Scult proposes that what has been left out of the process of
hermeneutics in some accounts is that the interpreter's interpretation is
shaped by who the audience is and the values they hold. The audience affects
the way in which an interpreter constructs the interpretation; it is audience
conditioned. Thus the motive for interpreting a text is not simply to bring
that which is distant closer because many ancient texts lie dormant. But
rather the motive lies in the interpreter understanding that when the text is
properly understood it speaks to an exigence.52 Therefore, Scult concludes
that hermeneutics is an element of rhetorical invention. It is a place, a topic
if you will, to which one goes in order to discover a fitting response to a
particular exigence.
Scult offers a further corrective to Gadamer's view. It appears that
Gadamer understands language as the repository of tradition. Gadamer,
however, makes no acknowledgment that language is spoken by someone
and the status of that person determines to a large degree how the language
will be received. Scult comments, "Texts that have greater status in our eyes
move us to delve more deeply into the language, to trust it as a means of
___________________________
51 Scult 222
52 Scult 223
23
enlightening our own thought. . . . Once a text achieves sacred status, it
assumes the power to speak beyond itself."53 When a text achieves sacred
status, its words assume a new dimension and a power that enable them to
continue to disclose knowledge. The interpreter looks to it to locate an
appropriate response to the audience and in so doing carries on the function
that direct revelation once was thought to do.
The hermeneutical act is in its fullest form rhetorical because from the
very beginning of the process such an act is related to a contemporary
audience. Gadamer, himself, continually maintains throughout his works,
that endemic to hermeneutics is application. It is therefore necessary for
rhetoric to claim and develop this territory if it is to flourish and expand.
Scull's thesis is appropriately succinct: ". . . interpretation is a species of
rhetorical invention chosen by the rhetorician-interpreter when there is
warrant to extend in time and space the meaning of a sacred text ."54 What
Scult affirms of sacred texts in general, I would also appropriate specifically to
the proverb.
Characteristics of a Rhetorical Hermeneutic
The point at which I would like to begin to describe a rhetorical
hermeneutic is with Roger Abrahams' succinct remarks in his essay on a
rhetorical theory of folklore. I would like to apply his theory specifically to
___________________________
53 p. 224. Scult refers to the power of a text to speak beyond itself as
"textuality" (p. 224).
54 Scult 223
24
written texts.55 Abrahams says that there are four ways in which scholars
approach a work of art. The first way emphasizes the importance of the
shaping hand of the author and the effect of what he or she says upon the
audience. The second underlines the work of the text as an object, divorcing
the author and the original audience from consideration. This perspective
"implies that once a work is created it is capable of speaking for itself and
must be analyzed in terms of its internal characteristics and the
interrelationships of its parts."56 This is a structuralist view. The third
approach is interested in how the text influences the audience. And the
fourth centers on the way the audience affects the text, the performer or the
piece of art. This last approach analyzes the way in which public values and
conventions affect what is perceived in the text and how it is shaped by such
tastes. Abrahams concludes by maintaining that the last two approaches
emphasize the public nature of the text while the first two have more private
concerns.
Abrahams' point is that all four perspectives have value and a
rhetorical approach is able to incorporate all of them. He proceeds with an
example of a rhetorical analysis which, he correctly states, is not like the
scientific method that relies on a fixed set of procedures to investigate a test
situation.57 Rather it is "a point of view which proposes areas in which
___________________________
55 Roger D. Abrahams, "Introductory Remarks to a Rhetorical Theory
of Folklore," Journal of American Folklore 81 (1968) : 143-158.
56 Abrahams 144
57 Abrahams 149
25
insights might be gained by using comparative or relational methodology."58
To say that a rhetorical approach is simply concerned with comparing one
genre to another is a gross simplification of the rhetorical perspective.59 But
Abrahams general theory proceeds in the right direction. And, with certain
revisions, it is this direction that I would like to develop and refine more
precisely in what follows.
A rhetorical hermeneutic is one that takes seriously the interaction
between text, interpreter and audience.60 A hermeneutic that honors these
elements is one that is compatible with a rhetorical perspective. In this
regard, Paul Ricoeur's project offers some hopeful possibilities. As Barbara
Warnick explains, "Ricoeur's approach . . . leads the critic to ask: What
elements of the text allow contemporary readers to encounter it in a
meaningful way? How has the rhetor touched upon universal themes and
values so that the discourse has lasting significance?"61 His agenda, on initial
reflection, seems to be commensurate with texts that are autonomous and
that have an enduring quality to them.
There are two elements in Ricoeur's hermeneutic that are well suited
to a rhetorical hermeneutic. These are the elements of distanciation and
___________________________
58 Abrahams 149
59 In the remainder of his essay, Abrahams compares the proverb with
the riddle in order to gain a better understanding of how each one works.
60 Kathleen C. Boone says, "Like the famous tree falling in the forest,
texts are silent unless and until someone reads them." The Bible Tells Them
So: The Discourse of Protestant Fundamentalism (Albany: State University of
New York Press) 62.
61 Barbara Warrick, "A Ricoeurian Approach to Rhetorical Criticism,"
Western Journal of Speech Communication 51 (1987) : 228.
26
appropriation. Ricoeur's hermeneutic begins with distanciation. Rhetoric
respects the fixed nature of the text as it is received. One does not approach a
discourse believing that it can mean whatever one wants it to mean. The
text, because it has a set form and structure, provides constraints for its
interpretation. Ricoeur refers to this as distanciation. Distanciation is a part
of writing because such a text has already distanced itself from its original
author and audience. In fact, Ricoeur maintains that speech is inseparable
from writing if it really is to be understood: "It therefore appears that writing
must precede speech, if speech is not to remain a cry."62 Such a quality of
distanciation is not a detriment but an asset to interpretation. It enables the
discourse to be extended to new and different situations and not confined to
one time and place.
It is in attributing value to distanciation that Ricoeur has a quarrel with
the hermeneutic of Hans-Georg Gadamer.63 Ricoeur maintains that the
mainspring of Gadamer's work is the fundamental belief that there exists an
opposition on the one hand between alienating distanciation (objectivity) and
participatory belonging (subjectivity).64 With Gadamer, either one adopts
___________________________
62 Paul Ricoeur, From Text to Action: Essays in Hermeneutics. II,
trans. Kathleen Blarney and John B. Thompson (Evanston, IL: Northwest UP,
1991) 93-94. By speech remaining a cry, Ricoeur seems to be implying that
unless it is connected to a prior text it will remain insignificant and confined
to a one-time event.
63 It is interesting to note that Gadamer had attributed value to
prejudice (i.e. tradition). Ricoeur respects that but goes beyond and attributes
value to the distancing element that Gadamer thought was an obstacle.
64 Paul Ricoeur, Paul Ricoeur: Hermeneutics and the Human
Sciences, ed. and trans. John B. Thompson (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1981) 131.
27
distanciation and a methodological approach to texts which results in
alienation or one adopts the perspective of belonging and renounces
objectivity. Ricoeur rejects this conflict and claims that his project is to bridge
the apparent gap between the alternatives.65
Ricoeur claims that Gadamer did not allow a place for distanciation.
Gadamer's aversion to distanciation was based on its close association with
method. And method alienates. Gadamer was concerned with the fusion of
horizons. Ricoeur maintains that there is a place for both distanciation and
belonging. He believes that distanciation is an inherent part of a text and the
task of writing.66 Distanciation is not the product of methodology; it is not
parasitical. Rather it is a natural quality of a text. The text, Ricoeur says, is
more than just "a particular case of intersubjective communication: it is the
paradigm of distanciation in communication."67 Ricoeur claims that writing
is "the consecration of distanciation more than its cause."68 Like prejudice in
Gadamer's scheme, distanciation in Ricoeur's system serves a positive and
productive role. It enables the interpreter to enter into a "participatory
belonging." Ricoeur's concept of distanciation "brings an 'objective' approach
to textual interpretation together with a 'recreative' or 'evocative approach to
textual significance."69
___________________________
65 Ricoeur, Paul Ricoeur: Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences,
(1981) p. 131.
66 Ricoeur, 1981, p. 140.
67 Ricoeur, 1981, p. 131.
68 Ricoeur, "Biblical Hermeneutics," Semia 4 (1975) : 67.
69 Warnick, "A Ricoeurian Approach to Rhetorical Criticism," p. 228.
28
What are the components of distanciation? First, distanciation
acknowledges that there is distance between the actual event and the
meaning of what is said. The reference is no longer a first order reference to
the original event. But the reference is now a second order reference. The
text is projected in front of itself rather than behind, rather than toward the
past. This is in stark contrast to Biblical scholars who are intent on getting
behind the text of a proverb to the original usage. This, for example, is Carole
Fontaine's task in her volume on Traditional Sayings in the Old Testament
A Contextual Study.70 In a later essay she makes the following observation:
. . . [S]ince the wisdom sayings collected in Proverbs and Qoheleth
were clearly in a secondary phase of usage, the 'prehistory' of the
role of wisdom literature had not been adequately addressed.
Ethnographic data for the use of sayings and proverbs was most
likely to be found in the narrative books, where these 'minimal'
bits of wisdom were shown in social interactions.71
Fontaine is representative of biblical scholarship in Wisdom Literature that is
concerned with understanding the original occasion in which the proverb
was used.
Second, there is distance between text and its psychological meaning,
that is to say, authorial intention. Ricoeur argues, "Hermeneutics no longer
is the search for the psychological intentions of another person which are
___________________________
70 Carole Fontaine, Traditional Sayings in the Old Testament: A
Contextual Study, (Sheffield: Almond Press, 1982).
71 Carole Fontaine, "Proverb Performance in the Hebrew Bible,"
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 32 (1985) : 91.
29
concealed behind, the text . . . ."72 The autonomous "world of the text,"
according to Ricoeur, "may explode the world of the author."73 This is in
contrast to Dilthey who said, "The ultimate aim of hermeneutics is to
understand the author better than he understands himself."74 Severing the
meaning of the text from authorial intention is also in direct opposition to E.
D. Hirsch.75 Ricoeur explains that "the thing of the text," that is to say the
"world of the text" is placed above all else and thus authorial intent is no
longer the criterion for interpretation. The "revelation" of the text is the new
world it unfolds before the interpreter and audience.76 "In other words,
___________________________
72 Ricoeur, 1981, p. 141. Derrida maintains that written signs break
contexts and the further in time a discourse moves from its source or author
the less dependent it is on that source and the more power the interpreter
has. Jacques Derrida, Signature Event Context, The Rhetorical Tradition:
Readings from Classical Times to the Present, eds. Patricia Bizell and Bruce
Herzberg, (Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1990) 1175.
73 Ricoeur, 1981, p. 139.
74 Quoted by Ricoeur, 1981, p. 151.
75 Hirsch argues that "On purely practical grounds . . . it is preferable to
agree that the meaning of a text is the author's meaning" (1967, p. 25).
76 Ricoeur, From Text to Action, p. 96. Ron Highfield, in a paper read
at the 1990 Christian Scholars Conference at Pepperdine University also
affirms this position: "An author's words mean more that [sic] he or she
consciously intends. Great poems and novels arise out of depths of which the
author has no conscious control or knowledge, depths which reach out into
the common human cultural experience and down into its genetic roots--
that vast body of tacit knowledge which provides the silent but powerful
context in which we "consciously think". Most of us who write have had the
experience of being "given" a story or a thought, or of not even knowing
what we think until we write it down or preach on it. Every time I reread
something I have written I find out something I think which I did not recall
"intending" to say. How much less should we expect authorial intention to
be an adequate aim when we are dealing with Holy Scripture in which a
30
revelation, if the expression is to have a meaning, is a feature of the biblical
world.77 It is the sense and new world of the text that is revelation and not
the author.
In regard to the texts that I am concerned with, one of the major foci of
biblical scholars of Wisdom Literature is the authorial origin of proverbs and
the wisdom corpus. The issues is, Was there in Israel a professional guild of
sages or not? R. N. Whybray argues that the wisdom books were not
authored by a professional group of sages.78 On the other hand, scholars such
as Gehard von Rad, Walter Brueggemann, and James Crenshaw argue for a
professional group of sages being responsible for the writing of the Wisdom
Literature.79 There may be value to exploring such origins. But more than
likely the issue will never be clearly resolved. And such a concern imprisons
and relegates the sacred corpus to the past. Ricoeur's focus is on how the text
unfolds itself to the present. There is sometimes considerable distance
between text and authorial origins.
Third, there is also distance between the text and the original audience.
The shared reality and world no longer exist. Sociologically the text is able to
decontextualize itself enabling the text to be recontextualized in a new
___________________________
human mind is not only in touch with the well springs of human being but
is open to the being of God" (p. 21)?
77 Ricoeur, 1991, p. 96.
78 R. N. Whybray, The Intellectual Tradition in the Old Testament (de
Gruyter: New York, 1974).
79 Gehard von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, (Nashville: Abingdon, 1972);
Walter Brueggemann, In Man We Trust (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1972);
James Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom: An Introduction (Atlanta: John
Knox Press, 1981).
31
situation. In a sense, Ricoeur is describing something that is opposite Lloyd
Bitzer's concept of the "rhetorical situation" when a particular discourse is
tied to a specific exigence. Another one of the major debates in Wisdom
Literature and the book of Proverbs is, What is the Sitz im Leben for the
material?80 Did the book of Proverbs arise in a clan or family setting, a court
setting or a school setting? With the last proposal, the school setting, the
debate is extended further, Were there schools in ancient Israel? If so when
did they arise?81 Again such issues are not central for Ricoeur. For him the
___________________________
80 John G. Gammie and Leo G. Perdue have edited a series of essays
addressing the different cultural and social contexts of Israelite wisdom. See
The Sage in Israel and the Ancient Near East (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns,
1990).
81 The amount of material written on this issue is too prolific to cite
here. But I cite just a few simply to demonstrate that it continues to dominate
the focus of scholarship in Wisdom Literature. James Crenshaw maintains
that there was considerable diversity in education in ancient Israel. See James
L. Crenshaw, "Education in Ancient Israel," Journal of Biblical Literature
104 (1985) : 601-615. Bernard Lang looks at three wisdom poems in Proverbs
(1:20-33; 8:1-36; 9:1,-18) and concludes that there were schools in ancient Israel
and uses these texts to describe the educational system. See Wisdom and the
Book of Proverbs: An Israelite Goddess Redefined (New York: The Pilgrim
Press, 1986). However his conclusions were attacked by other scholars who
questioned whether the highly metaphorical language of these poems can be
relied on for an accurate account of Israelite pedagogy. Nili Shupak
summarizes the arguments used to conclude that schools did exist in ancient
Israel. Then he gives additional support to the argument by looking at the
terminology used and the "semantic equivalents" associated with Egyptian
schools. His conclusion is that a "comparative study of the terminologies of
Hebrew Wisdom literature and the literature associated with the Egyptian
Wisdom cycle confirms the existence of a link between Biblical Wisdom
compositions and the educational context" (p. 117). See Nili Shupak, "The
'Sitz Im Leben' of the Book of Proverbs in the Light of a Comparison of
Biblical and Egyptian Wisdom Literature," Revue Biblique. 94 (1987) :98-119.
In December of 1992, Michael V. Fox read a paper at the Society of Biblical
Literature in San Francisco on "Unity and Diversity in Proverbs." His paper
concluded that Proverbs had its origin in the court with the king's men
32
text has been freed from its situational moorings; it is no longer closely tied to
the original audience, reference or authorial intention. Here there is
solidarity with Gadamer.
Scult advocates Ricoeur's decontextualization of the text forcefully and
clearly when he maintains that the original rhetorical situation must remain
dormant so as not to interfere with the text's capacity to speak to the present
with equal force.82 Scult says, "Interpretation that treats the text as sacred
'forgets' the original rhetorical situation in order to enable the text to
continue to fulfill its sacred rhetorical function."83 Literal interpretations
bring us back to the original rhetorical situation of the text and thus cut off
the life of the text in time. Much scholarship on Proverbs has focused on
issues such as whether or not there were schools or whether there was a
professional guild of sages or whether wisdom originated with the clan, the
court, or the school or whether the wisdom material originated with the
upper socio-economic class.84 While all of this has value, it primarily treats
___________________________
because that setting best explains the diversity in a book that has an overall
uniform perspective. In other words, the redactors, or king's men,
incorporate a diversity of folk sayings that were in circulation at the time.
82 Scult, 1983, p. 226.
83 Scult 226
84 In regard to this last issue, there has been a debate as to whether
wisdom literature is the product of the upper class or another economic
strata. Robert Gordis argued powerfully for the former in an essay written in
1944. See Robert Gordis, "The Social Background of Wisdom Literature"
Hebrew Union College Annual 18 (1944) : 77-118. R. N. Whybray has more
recently argued that the book of Proverbs expresses the view of the poor. See
R. N. Whybray, "Poverty, Wealth, and Point of View in Proverbs,"
Expository Times 100 (1987) : 332-336. Michael V. Fox has argued for the elite
of society as the origin of Proverbs. "Unity and Diversity in Proverbs,"
unpublished paper, Society of Biblical Literature, 1992.
33
Proverbs as a resource for the insight it can shed on the past. Robert Alter is
one biblical scholar who has rejected this quest for wisdom's life-setting:
. . . because it is, necessarily, a will-o'-the-wisp and, even more,
because it is a prime instance of the misplaced concreteness that
has plagued biblical research, which naively presumes that the
life-setting, if we could recover it, would somehow provide the
key to the language, structure, and meaning of the poems.85
From the above it is obvious, but important, to observe that Ricoeur's
approach is different from a traditional neo-Aristotelian perspective which
places the original source, message, and receiver or audience in close
proximity. For Ricoeur the authorial intent and the original audience are
eclipsed by the fusion of the text and the contemporary interpreter/audience.
How does the rhetorician-interpreter proceed to affirm the
distanciation of a text? It is through structural analysis that this is
accomplished. A structural analysis of the text honors its autonomy, exposes
its arrangement, genre, and stylistic features, and uncovers what Ricoeur calls
its sense. This stage of the hermeneutic process is mainly descriptive.
Warnick clarifies the function of structural analysis when she remarks,
"In performing a structural analysis, the critic distances him- or herself from
the text and attempts to expose its underlying structure and implicit
___________________________
85 Robert Alter, The Art of Biblical Poetry (New York: Basic Books,
Inc., 1985) 186. Alter makes a similar point earlier in this work when he
argues that "it is idle to speculate about what went on in the Wisdom schools,
if in fact they really existed as schools, because we simply don't have enough
evidence to go on" (p. 176).
34
meaning."86 Structural analysis leads one from a naive understanding of the
text to a more mature understanding. Ricoeur uses the example of a musical
score to illustrate what he means.87 A musical score can be played in a
number of ways. But the musician has constraints placed upon him by the
text of the music. For example, various cultures and subcultures have sung
the hymn "Amazing Grace" in ways that are most fitted to their own style
and tradition.88 But the song is still immediately recognized by all because of
the constraints placed upon the musician-interpreters by the musical score.
In the same way, a sacred text may be interpreted by various people
differently. But it is still immediately recognized because its fundamental
structure remains constant.
In a series of essays in Semeia in 1975, Ricoeur detailed the task of
structuralism. Suffice it to say here that such a task involves uncovering the
patterns, themes, moves, plots, and genres embedded in texts. Ricoeur seems
especially sensitive to the importance of literary genres. He maintains that a
"structural analysis is truncated if it does not proceed from message to code
[genre] and from code to message."89 The surface-structure of the plot is not a
secondary phenomenon but the message itself. The literary genre secures the
survival of the meaning after the disappearance of its Sitz im Leben and in
___________________________
86 Warnick,1987, p. 233
87 Ricoeur, 1981, p. 174.
88 Bill Moyer's special program on PBS "Amazing Grace," 1989.
During the course of the documentary, Moyers makes comments on a verse
of the song that was later added by saying that the "hymn takes on a life of its
own."
89 Ricoeur, 1975, p. 71.
35
that way starts the process of decontextualization which opens the message to
fresh reinterpretation according to new contexts of discourse and of life. The
form preserves the message from distortion. So for Ricoeur genre is not
perceived as a means of classification, but as a means of production. A form
or a genre makes a text into a complex organism that enables it to speak to a
specific situation.
To summarize, distanciation is a descriptive stage in the process of
interpretation that honors the autonomy of the text as it is decontextualized
from its original setting and that gives the text a quality of "objectivity." A
structural analysis enables a text to display its fixed nature, its sense. But
Ricoeur takes issue with the radical structuralists who are content to end the
process at this stage.90 Distanciation is a necessary prerequisite to the next
move which Ricoeur calls appropriation.
For Ricoeur appropriation is commensurate with distanciation
(explanation). With appropriation the rhetorician-interpreter does not seek
something hidden behind the text, but something disclosed in front of it.
According to Thompson, it is to "move from that which it [the text] says to
___________________________
90 Warrick offers a timely explanation of the distinction between
radical structuralists and phenomenologists in her QJS article in 1979. I am
also opposed to structuralists who according to James S. Sanders "disdain the
use of biblical criticism and focus on the overall structure of a biblical passage
no matter when or how it was first composed, or for what purpose." See
James S. Sanders, God Has a Story Too, in Theories of Preaching, ed. Richard
Lischer (Durham, NC: The Labyrinth Press, 1987) 190-191. A rhetorical
approach is sensitive to the findings of higher criticism. For example Allen
Scult, Michael McGee, and J. Kenneth Kuntz in their essay use source
criticism to aid in understanding the relationship between Genesis 1 and
Genesis 2-3. See "Genesis and Power: An Analysis of the Biblical Story of
Creation," Quarterly Journal of Speech 72 (1986): 113-131.
36
that which it says it about."91 It is a move from sense to reference. Warrick
observes, "In appropriating the text, critics come to account for how texts
endure and communicate meaning beyond and apart from the circumstances
in which the discourse was originally expressed."92 This dimension Ricoeur
refers to as the reference (not primary but secondary reference). Warrick
observes, "The move of external reference, in which the work discloses a
world, is appropriation."93
What is finally to be understood in a text is not authorial intention,
nor the structure of the text, but rather the world intended beyond the text as
its reference.94 In Essays on Biblical Interpretation Ricoeur elaborates on this
concept: "The issue of the text is the world the text unfolds before itself."95
The result of writing is that it removes a discourse from the finite horizons of
its author and first audience. Ricoeur explains that such an autonomy opens
up the potential of new worlds to those who read the text:
And the intended implicit reference of each text opens onto a
world, the biblical world, or rather the multiple worlds unfolded
before the book by its narration, prophecy, prescriptions,
wisdom, and hymns. The proposed world that in biblical
language is called a new creation, a new Covenant, the Kingdom
___________________________
91 John Thompson, ed. trans. Paul Ricoeur: Hermeneutics and the
Human Sciences (New York: Cambridge UP, 1981) 15.
92 Warnick, 1987, p. 230.
93 Warnick 234
94 Ricoeur, 1980, p. 100.
95 Ricoeur, 1980, p. 100.
37
of God, is the 'issue' of the biblical text unfolded in front of this
text."96
The text as decontextualized comes to have its own world. The
reference of poetic language97 projects ahead of itself a world in which the
reader is invited to dwell, thus finding a more authentic situation in being.
Ricoeur claims that if the interpreter takes only the prophetic genre98 in
Scripture as the paragon of revelation, then the approach is a psychologizing
interpretation of revelation. But if one takes the variety of genres seriously
then we are delivered from this authorial constraint to a sensitivity to the
sense of the text, to the world-reference it opens up before it.99 From this
perspective the genre of the text makes sense by projecting a reference as a
possibility for the present.100 For an example, Ricoeur considers the parable:
"A parabolic metaphor, in the strangeness of its plot, institutes a shock which
___________________________
96 Ricoeur, 1980, p. 103. Elsewhere Ricoeur has said that the primary
task of a hermeneutic is not to bring about a decision in the reader but first to
allow the text to unfold the new vision of the world: "In this way, above
feelings, dispositions, belief, or unbelief is placed the proposal of a world,
which, in the language of the Bible, is called a new world, a new covenant,
the kingdom of God, a new birth. These are realities that unfold before the
text, unfolding to be sure for us, but based upon the text. This is what can be
called the 'objectivity' of the new being projected by the text" (Ricoeur, From
Text to Action, p. 96).
97 This is a term Ricoeur uses to include all genres (1980, p. 100).
98 Such a genre focuses on the voice behind the prophet's voice, and
this then is extended to all other genres.
99 Ricoeur, 1980, p. 25
100 Ricoeur 26
38
redescribes reality, and opens for us a new way of seeing and being."101 The
Kingdom of God is said to be like something that is quite common. This
form of metaphorical process opens an otherwise matter-of-fact situation to
an open range of interpretations and to the possibility of new
commitments.102 The referential power of the text, in the sense that it opens
a "world in front of it" which we may inhabit, is likened to a "model" that
might be a heuristic device, an instrument for the redescription of reality,
which breaks up an inadequate interpretation of the world and opens the way
to a new, more adequate, interpretation. Such a model permits us "to
'decode' the traces of God's presence in history."103
The foregoing has been an attempt to summarize Ricoeur's
understanding of appropriation. He argues convincingly that it is
commensurate with distanciation. The two are inseparable sides of the
hermeneutic process. One of the criticisms that could be leveled against his
view of appropriation is that the text is placed under the domain of the
contemporary reader. Ricoeur anticipated that criticism and responds to it in
one of his essays on "Appropriation."104 He objects by claiming that
appropriation is not a kind of possession. It actually is a moment of
dispossession. In seeking to clarify Ricoeur's position John Thompson says
that " . . . appropriation is not so much an act of possession as an act of
___________________________
101 Ricoeur 26
102 Ricoeur 26
103 Ricoeur, 1980, p. 26
104 Ricoeur, 1981, p. 192
39
dispossession, in which the awareness of the immediate ego is replaced by a
self-understanding mediated through the text."105 With appropriation the
reader risks being changed by the world the text envisions. The reader
relinquishes self in order to submit to the possibilities of a new world
proposed by the text. In Essays on Biblical Interpretation Ricoeur says it a little
differently:
To understand oneself before the text is not to impose one's own
finite capacity of understanding on it, but to expose oneself to
receive from it a larger self which would be the proposed way of
existing that most appropriately responds to the proposed world
of the text. Understanding then is the complete opposite of a
constitution for which the subject would have the key. It would
be better in this regard to say that the self is constituted by the
issue of the text."106
The text offers a lively threat to "decenter" the self and its aspirations, to strip
us of our desire for power, possession, and honor.107
___________________________
105 Ricoeur, 1981, p. 19
106 Ricoeur, 1980, p. 108
107 Regarding the posture of the interpreter, Dale Patrick and Allen
Scult maintain that the "ideal interpreter seeks to learn from the text rather
then [sic] to use it to confirm and propagate what he or she already knows. If
the text renders a world we potentially or actually share, or sets forth an
argument we are willing to adopt, our own thinking is deepened and
broadened in proportion to how well we listen to and even 'strengthen' the
text. If it opposes us, we should state the strongest case against ourselves and
thereby strengthen our own thinking." See Patrick and Scult, Rhetoric and
Biblical Interpretation (Sheffield: Almond Press, 1990) 84.
40
Both these qualities of distanciation and appropriation are rhetorical
because they necessitate interaction between text, interpreter, tradition and
audience as a part of the hermeneutic process. The process of interpretation is
not done in isolation nor intrapersonally. The process of interpretation is
public, engaging a number of partners in discourse. Keeping the text as the
primary focus and allowing such a text to have the priority in the dialogue,
the interpreter enters into the tradition of the ongoing interpretation of the
text. Thus the hermeneutical process is never ending. Ricoeur acknowledges
the qualities of distanciation and appropriation to be a part of the
hermeneutics of Scripture.108 Ricoeur also acknowledges the dependence of
faith on hermeneutics (a rhetorical hermeneutics). In an eloquently written
passage using different descriptive phrases for faith, Ricoeur highlights the
centrality of faith and its inseparable connection to hermeneutics:
The 'ultimate care' [faith] would remain mute if it did not
receive the power of speech from an endlessly renewed
interpretation of the signs and symbols that have, so to speak,
educated and formed this care throughout the centuries. The
feeling of absolute dependence [faith] would remain a weak and
inarticulated feeling if it were not the response to the proposal of
a new being that opened for me new possibilities of existing and
acting. Unconditional trust [faith] would be empty if it were not
___________________________
108 This will be made more obvious in the next section on "The
Hermeneutics of Scripture." But Ricoeur explicitly states that distanciation
was "already constitutive of primitive faith itself." There was distance
between the first witness and the event (1987, p. 181). The modern meaning
of hermeneutics "is only the discovery . . . of the hermeneutic situation
which was present from the beginning of the gospel but hidden" (p. 181).
41
based upon the continually renewed interpretation of the sign-
events reported by Scripture, such as the Exodus in the Old
Testament and the Resurrection in the New Testament. These
events of deliverance open and uncover the innermost
possibility of my own freedom and thus become for me the word
of God. Such is the properly hermeneutical constitution of faith
itself.109
Hermeneutics is that which gives voice to faith and appropriates it to
new situations enabling faith to be a living dynamic faith. This is a rhetorical
hermeneutic in which the interpreter mediates between text and audience
enabling the text to speak to the present and giving vitality to biblical faith.
Such a hermeneutic is therefore natural to biblical texts. It is not a foreign
object or a template that is forced onto Scripture. Ricoeur himself correctly
acknowledges that Scripture itself engages in this hermeneutic when he
speaks of the relationship between speech and writing. First, speech is related
to an earlier writing that it interprets: Jesus interpreted the Torah; Paul
interpreted the "Christic event in light of the prophesies and institutions of
the old covenant. More generally, a hermeneutics of the Old Testament,
considered a given set of writings, is implied by the proclamation that Jesus is
the Christ."110 The relationship between writing and the spoken word
appears only through a series of interpretations. Ricoeur affirms that "to the
degree that Christianity is dependent upon its successive readings of Scripture
and on its capacity to reconvert this Scripture into the living word" is the
___________________________
109 Ricoeur, 1991, pp. 99-100; brackets are my insertions.
110 Ricoeur, 1991, p. 93
42
degree it is dependent on hermeneutics.111 He uses the New Testament as
an example of this process. It is a reinterpretation of the events of the Old
Testament.112 In deciphering the spiritual meaning of the Old Testament
"'faith is not a cry' but an understanding."113 The kerygma of Christianity is
first and foremost not the interpretation of a text; it is the announcement of a
person (Christ). But the kerygma is expressed in the stories and texts of
Scripture and involves a rereading of those stories.114 "Hermeneutics is the
very deciphering of life in the mirror of the text."115 Scripture itself is
engaged in a rhetorical hermeneutic, to which Ricoeur is sensitive.
Just how commensurate is Scripture with this hermeneutic? The
sacred text itself may offer a model for the kind of hermeneutic necessary for
understanding and appropriating its message.
The Hermeneutics of Scripture
Scripture is a veritable textbook of the appropriation of ancient texts
which continued to give new vision and life.116 Scripture continually
___________________________
111 Paul Ricoeur, The Conflict of Interpretations, in Theories of
Preaching, ed. Richard Lischer (Durham, NC: The Labyrinth Press, 1987) 176.
112 Ricoeur, 1987, p. 178
113 Ricoeur 178
114 Ricoeur 177, 179-180
115 Ricoeur 179
116 James Sanders views Scripture as a hermeneutic paradigm.
"Contextual Hermeneutics," Theories of Preaching, ed. Richard Lischer
(Durham, NC: The Labyrinth Press, 1987) 190.
43
reappropriates the tradition. It is a series of critiques of the communities for
which it was written. Indeed as Leander Keck has observed:
Had the faith of Israel been on target the prophets would not
have denounced it. The prophets are a protest against the
prevailing faith and life of Israel. In the same way, the New
Testament is a critique of early Christianity. This is especially
true in Paul's letters. Had the church in Corinth, for example,
been developing properly he would not have written his letter
to it. The letters of Paul are nothing less (though considerably
more) than a trenchant critique of his own churches.117
Scripture continually decontextualized its own tradition. In line with a
rhetorical hermeneutic, it is not concerned with first order referent, historical
situation or authorial intent.118 A couple of examples illustrate this
decontextualization approach.
One example is found in the New Testament in the letter to the
Hebrews. The Hebrews writer fills his work with references, which are fairly
lengthy, from the Old Testament text. What is his method of interpretation?
He is not concerned with a distinction between what the text meant and what
it means. The words spoken long ago in a different setting are quoted as
___________________________
117 Leander Keck, "The Presence of God Through Scripture,"
Lexington Theological Quarterly 10 (1975) : 12.
118 James Sanders points out this fact: "One might rightly point out
that the biblical authors themselves did not rehash the original meaning of
the traditions or scripture they cited; usually they simply interpreted the
tradition quite directly for their own time. There are interesting exceptions,
but for the most part the biblical authors sought value in the tradition directly
rather than recovering the points it first scored and then applying those
points to their time" (Sanders, 1987, p. 191).
44
words to the author's own community. So he does not make a distinction
between exegesis, hermeneutics, and exposition. When the author interprets
he never asks "What did the text mean to the original audience?" For him
the meaning of a text is not determined by its earliest form.119
The author's "word of exhortation" (Hebrews 13:22) is nothing less
than making the ancient words contemporary. The Hebrews writer interprets
the ancient text within the context of the community of faith. By interpreting
it in this context he does so in a spirit which is fully consistent with the
nature of the documents. He approaches the texts, not as the objective
scientist who stands outside the claims of these texts, but as one who is
absolutely open to the claims which they make about God and his summons
to the believing community. The texts open out in front of themselves and
___________________________
119 John Henry Newman made this appropriate observation: "It is
indeed sometimes said that the stream is clearest near the spring. Whatever
use may fairly be made of this image, it does not apply to the history of a
philosophy or belief, which on the contrary is more equable, and purer, and
stronger when its bed has become deep, and broad, and full" (p. 63). Later in
his treatise Newman makes specific remarks about the text of Scripture: "It
may be objected that its inspired documents at once determine the limits of its
mission without further trouble; but ideas are in the writer and reader of the
revelation, not in the inspired text itself; and the question is whether those
ideas which the letter conveys from writer to reader, reach the reader at once
in their completeness and accuracy on his first perception of them, or
whether they open out in his intellect and grow to perfection in the course of
time" (p. 78). Externally, he says, Scripture is an "earthen vessel" and as such
"it grows in wisdom and stature" (p. 79). As a a religious leader of the
nineteenth century, Newman's statement was especially radical. See
Development of Christian Doctrine (1878), reprint, (Westminster, Md:
Christian Classics, Inc., 1968). James Sanders says that it is the general "trait of
the post-Enlightenment era . . . to find authority only in the most primitive
meaning of a passage" (Sanders, 1987, p. 191). But Sanders also goes on to
offer a warning that neither is the meaning we may discern out of our
immediate modern contexts the only authoritative one.
45
offer the possibility of a new world to those willing to dispossess themselves
in order to hear what it has to say.
The way in which the Hebrews writer interprets ancient texts is not
atypical of the way in which Scripture is appropriated throughout its pages.
One consistently discovers that when the New Testament quotes Old
Testament Scripture, especially the prophets, there is little or no regard for
how it was used in its original context. One example will serve to
demonstrate what is typical. In Hosea 11:1, Hosea, speaking of what God did
for his children Israel in the past, says "When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son." The Gospel writer Matthew quotes this
passage (2:15) and applies it to Christ fleeing down into Egypt during the time
of Herod's persecution. There is no interest in authorial or historical context.
In fact it might be argued that Matthew is playing pretty loose with the
tradition. However, Matthew is simply calling attention to the similarities.
What God did with Israel is a type or a parallel to what God is doing with
Jesus. The ancient tradition is viewed from a new perspective as it points
forward toward the future.
The ancient traditions of Israel are developed, expanded, and
appropriated to the changing circumstances always looking forward. Recently
Michael Fishbane has demonstrated this in a profound way. Modern biblical
scholarship has long been persuaded that Scripture is founded upon tradition.
Tradition history is a salient feature of higher criticism. Tradition criticism
moves back from the written sources to the oral traditions which make them
46
up.120 Fishbane inverts the process and focuses on what he calls "inner-
biblical exegesis" which starts with the received Scripture and moves forward
to the interpretations based on it (p. 7). His goal is to show how the handing
down (traditio ) has modified what was handed down (traditum ). The
traditum is the received tradition as codified in Scripture and the traditio is
the appropriation of that tradition to new situations. Fishbane concludes that
there is no one model or mold that characterizes the relationship between
traditum and traditio . ". . . the Hebrew Bible is the repository of a vast store
of hermeneutical techniques which long preceded early Jewish exegesis."121
Fishbane believes that all religions, including the biblical ones, renew and
regenerate themselves via a "parodoxically dynamic" process. This process is
dynamic because the imagination animating it is enormously creative and
flexible. Yet it is paradoxical because all of this creativity, however
innovative, is grounded solely in earlier tradition--thus placing it, for him, in
the category of exegesis.122 Fishbane cites several examples to prove his point.
Among legal texts, he sees the process in the way earlier laws are repeatedly
updated and expanded.123 Among the historical texts, he notes how Moses'
___________________________
120 Michael Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985) 7.
121 Fishbane 14
122 See Michael Fishbane, The Garments of Torah: Essays in Biblical
Hermeneutics (Bloomington, IL: Indiana UP, 1989). This work is largely an
abbreviated and popularized version of his earlier work Biblical
Interpretation in Ancient Israel.
123 E.g. compare the careful definition of what a "field" is in Deut. 22:9-
11, updating Lev. 19:19; or the lawyerly reexamination of Exod. 23:10-11a in
Lev. 25:3-7.
47
speech to Joshua in Deuteronomy 31:7-8 is exegetically transformed into a
hymn of praise to the law in Joshua 1:7-8. Among the prophetic texts, the
prophets often cited earlier tradition.124 The Hebrew Bible is described by
Fishbane as a multi-layered phenomenon whose outer layers, like outer
garments on a person, are most easily seen and analyzed, but whose ever-
deepening internal layers "conceal deeper and less-refracted aspects of divine
truth," the core of which is "God himself."125
The Hebrew Bible, when viewed holistically, vividly and creatively
carries forth a rhetorical hermeneutic. It is quite clear that such a
hermeneutic is commensurate with the way in which sacred texts engage in
the interpretive process and vice versa. My approach to the book of Proverbs
will take seriously this rhetorical process as a way of enabling this genre of
literature to continue to speak. Thus my specific aim is to offer an
understanding of proverbs in the book of Proverbs that unfolds their
meaning and influence before contemporary audiences.
The Contribution of a Rhetorical Paradigm
The rhetorical hermeneutic that I have explicated above will serve as
the foundation for my investigation of biblical proverbs. Such a hermeneutic
does not eclipse the cognitive paradigm but seeks to extend its boundaries in
order to be more holistic in its investigation. Such a rhetorical hermeneutic
will enable me to investigate four fundamental aspects of the collected
___________________________
124 E.g. the way in which Jer. 23 updates and applies Exod. 19:5-6 to a
radically new situation.
125 The Garments pf Torah, p. 35.
48
proverbs that the cognitive paradigm simply eluded or, more correctly, was
unable to address.
First, it will enable me to explore those internal qualities of a proverb
that equip it to influence behavior. By design proverbs are intended to
manage social behavior, to create order. The hermeneutic paradigm I am
using takes seriously this rhetorical function of the proverb. In addition, a
rhetorical hermeneutic does not approach the proverb as a static and
determinate form. Rather it understands its fundamental nature to be
dynamic and relatively indeterminate. A rhetorical hermeneutic identifies
those qualities that enable the proverb to persuade, to function effectively and
to speak to many different contexts. Such an investigation is the focus of
chapter two.
Second, a rhetorical hermeneutic that is based on Ricoeur's scheme is
interested in disclosing the power of the text as it stands and not primarily in
the historical issues that lie behind it. The hermeneutic that I am engaging
underlines the work of the text as an object, divorcing the author and the
original audience from consideration. Once again in the words of Roger
Abrahams, this hermeneutic "implies that once a work is created it is capable
of speaking for itself and must be analyzed in terms of its internal
characteristics and the interrelationships of its parts."126 I would argue that
Proverbs is especially suited to a synchronic investigation because the
individual proverbs are already decontextualized by the very fact of being
placed in a collection. In addition, the proverbs collected here are
anonymous. There is also no reference to their historical situation nor to a
___________________________
126 See above page 24.
49
primary reference. Proverbs are universalized. Therefore a rhetorical
hermeneutic fits naturally with the canonical collection of proverbs. In line
with this perspective, I will use a structural analysis to locate possible macro-
structures that might organize the collection of biblical proverbs. My analysis
does not seek to create a structure where no structure exists. But its goal is to
honor the natural organization of the text. Chapter three will explore the
texts of Proverbs in this way.
Third, as I explore the texts of proverbs, a rhetorical paradigm will
enable me to discover what they have to say about the role of discourse and
possibly about the interpretive process itself. A rhetorical hermeneutic will
attend to a careful reading of a text giving it an interpretation that enables it to
be the "best possible text."127 I have selected five texts of Proverbs to engage
in interpretive dialogue. They include the following: 10:13-21; 16:21-24; 25:11-
28; 26:17-28; and 26:4-10. The reason for selecting these is that they all have an
interest in the proper or improper use of discourse. They are actually
representative of the central focus of Proverbs on speech. In addition, the last
three of the above texts address two central topoi of speech in which Proverbs
has special interest: ethics and kairos. These passages will be used in chapter
three as I attempt to do a structural analysis of Proverbs.
Fourth, a rhetorical hermeneutic will enable me to engage the
dialogical dimension of the proverb and observe the proverb at work in the
broader canonical context. It will demonstrate how on the one hand there is
an element of constancy to the familiar proverb but on the other hand it also
___________________________
127 Dale Patrick and Allen Scult, Rhetoric and Biblical Interpretation.
Sheffield: Almond Press, 1990, p. 25.
50
is able to change shape and substance to fit the occasion and the audience.
Such a focus does not, as in the cognitive tradition, focus on the past and
what the proverb meant, but on its ability continually to unfold new meaning
to new situations. In the broader canonical context, proverbs are ever
expanding and extending their meaning in time and space. Scripture itself
witnesses to proverbs being appropriated and reappropriated. In chapter four
I want to demonstrate how the dialogic nature of proverbs serves as a
rhetorical model of the hermeneutic process.
Underlying all four of these foci is an interest in how biblical proverbs
influence individuals, contexts and tradition. First, their influence derives
from their internal dynamic, their structure, content, and reasoning pattern.
Second, their influence also derives from the immediate context in which
they are placed in the Hebrew collection of Proverbs. That is, an individual
proverb influences and is influenced by the surrounding proverbs it touches.
They take on new meaning, an added dimension if you will, when they are
considered in clusters. Third, their influence stems from how, when and by
whom they are used. The texts of Proverbs witness to these important factors.
Finally, their influence derives from the larger canonical contexts in
which they are found as they continue to unfold new meaning when placed
in these situations.
Selection Criteria for the Biblical Proverbs Studied
The following is a rationale for the constraints that I will place on the
way in which I select the biblical proverbs for this study. The one general
criterion that will govern the selection process is that I will focus primarily on
sentence proverbs. Sentence proverbs are found in chapters 10:1-22:16 and 25-
29 of the book of Proverbs. The sentence proverbs are small two line units of
51
discourse and stand in contrast to the longer paragraph length instruction
proverbs which dominate the first nine chapters, the last two chapters and a
middle section of the book (22:17-24:22). Thus the general constraint is based
on structure.
Since each of the following chapters in my dissertation has a slightly
different focus, the specific criteria will vary with the respective chapters. As I
investigate how the proverb works in chapter two, the overall guiding
principle of selection will be to include a sufficient number of proverbs to
reasonably conclude that certain strategies are part of the makeup of biblical
proverbs. That there is a sufficient number is a judgment call on my part.
The criteria for proverb selection in chapter three is dictated by my
focus. The criteria are twofold. First, selected texts in Proverbs will be chosen
whose macro-structure appears to unite a series of proverbs into a cohesive
unit. Second, I will select certain texts of proverbs that appear to be clustered
around an interest in discourse and two key themes: ethics and proper
timing. I have chosen five that have already been mentioned above: 10:13-
21; 16:21-24; 25:11-28; 26:4-10; and 26:17-28.
In chapter four I will investigate how proverbs are used and
interpreted in different canonical contexts. An adequate number of examples
will be used from three different contexts of Scripture (Proverbs, Hebrew
Scripture, New Testament) to demonstrate their hermeneutical function.
Again what determines an "adequate" amount will be a judgment call on my
part.
These criteria, I believe, will enable me to proceed in a relatively
consistent and orderly manner. They will also enable me to maintain the
focus I need as I progress.
52
Conclusion
A rhetorical analysis of the book of Proverbs will be of heuristic value
for both biblical and rhetorical scholars. It can offer insight into how proverbs
function. In addition, my aim is to offer an understanding of the proverb and
the book of Proverbs that unfolds its meaning and influence before
contemporary audiences. An ongoing criticism that is leveled against both
the discipline of rhetoric and biblical studies is that little research in these
respective fields is practically oriented.128 My focus is intended to
demonstrate the value of proverbs and the text of Proverbs to contemporary
culture.
In the past decade an increased interest in studying Scripture from a
rhetorical perspective has been manifested by both biblical and rhetorical
scholars. The need for and receptivity to quality research in this area
continues to increase. But it is still relatively new territory. Though the
enthusiasm for such research is great, there is uncertainty regarding how it
should be done. The tendency is to approach Scripture mechanistically by
simply imposing rhetorical jargon onto biblical texts and genres. In addition,
though the value of such a perspective is acknowledged, there is
apprehension about where it leads. Rhetorical analysis of biblical texts is still
a pioneering field. As such there is a need to continue to explore the territory.
___________________________
128 Stanley Deetz levels this criticism against the field of speech. See
Stanley Deetz, "Conceptualized Human Understanding: Gadamer's
Hermeneutics and American Communication Studies," Communication
Ouarterly 26 (1978) : 13-14. In biblical scholarship the dominant
hermeneutical paradigm tends to confine the book of Proverbs to the past and
thus is only secondarily concerned with the contemporary scene.
53
In 1981 James Crenshaw, one of the most distinguished biblical scholars
in America on Wisdom Literature,129 wrote an introduction to this corpus
simply entitled, Old Testament Wisdom: An Introduction. In the preface of
that volume he discloses his motives for writing it: "I have written this book
as preparation for a more ambitious project, a study of the art of persuasion in
Israelite wisdom, which I hope to complete in the near future [emphasis
mine]."130 Later in chapter one he once again refers to this forthcoming
volume.131 However, that volume has not come forth. In a personal letter I
received from Crenshaw, dated September 29, 1988, he offered a very brief
explanation as to why it had not yet been published. He remarked that other
tasks had delayed its completion and "perhaps also, my conviction that it
needs further reflection. One of these days I do intend to turn that study
loose, but not yet." Even now, this volume still has not been produced. His
hesitancy demonstrates the doubts that many biblical scholars have about
taking a rhetorical perspective, how to proceed with it, and what it is really
supposed to accomplish. But it also affirms that there is a strong interest in
pursuing such a focus. It is for this reason that I enthusiastically take on such
a task.
___________________________
129 Wisdom Literature in Scripture primarily includes Proverbs, Job,
Ecclesiastes, and Sirach.
130 James Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom: An Introduction
(Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1981) 7.
131 Crenshaw 34. In footnote 15 in chapter one he has even given the
volume a tentative title, The Art of Persuasion in Israelite Wisdom, and says
that it will be published by Fortress Press (p. 246).
Chapter Two
The Biblical Proverb and Its Micro-Dimensional Influences
By design proverbs function within various cultures to manage social
behavior and maintain the order of the community. Clearly this makes them
rhetorical. But what internal qualities of the proverb, and specifically the
biblical proverb, enable it to carry out its work? How is it that proverbs are
able to influence the thoughts, feelings and actions of those who hear them?
Such a focus is not easy to address because of the multitude of factors at work
simultaneously within the dynamics of proverbs. However, such an
undertaking can be fruitful if approached with rhetorical sensitivity and with
the understanding that the work that proverbs do is not accomplished
mechanistically nor can the way in which they work be completely explained
and rationalized. Because of their multidimensional character there is an
element of mystery that will always be a part of their makeup.
In order to begin to understand the action of the proverb, one must
approach it holistically, taking seriously the polysemous nature that has been
denied the proverb by the cognitive paradigm. Roger Abrahams understands
the rhetorical quality and the relationship between the component parts
when he makes the following statement: "The rhetorical approach deals with
all levels of style simultaneously in order to show how they interrelate
through the direction of argument."l The rhetorical character of the proverb
involves a synergistic relationship between a series of components. These
components include its structural nature, reasoning patterns, content, and
situational character. Each of these four elements will be explicated in this
___________________________
1 Roger Abrahams, "Introductory Remarks to a Rhetorical Theory of
Folklore," Journal of American Folklore 81 (1968) : 146.
54
55
chapter. But again it must be kept in mind that no one element is at work
without the others. Only for the sake of analysis are they here separated.
The Structural Character of Biblical Proverbs
In order to put the structure of biblical proverbs in perspective, I want
to begin with an analysis of the structure of the proverbial genre at large.
Then I will return to a more finely tuned analysis of biblical proverbs. So in
this section focus will first be given to discovering an archetypal or universal
structure to proverbs. Then second and in greater detail, attention will be
turned to a comparison of biblical proverbs and a probing into the richness of
their rhetorical structure.
Roger Abrahams describes the structure of the proverb succinctly: "The
proverb is generally a sentence that is perceptibly broken in the middle."2 It
has a binary or two part construction that, for the sake of rhetorical effect, is
strategically divided. Alan Dundes analyzes this binary structure in more
detail. He concludes that there is a close relationship between the structure of
the proverb and the structure of a riddle. That which they have in common
has to do with what he calls a "topic-comment" format: "A minimum
proverb or riddle consists of one descriptive element, that is to say, one unit
composed of one topic and one comment."3 Thus a proverb must have at
least two words, one being the topic the other the comment. Typically,
___________________________
2 Roger Abrahams, "Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions," Folklore
and Folklife: An Introduction (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972)
120.
3 Alan Dundes, "On the Structure of the Proverb," The Wisdom of
Many: Essays on the Proverb, eds. Wolfgang Mieder and Alan Dundes (New
York & London: Garland Publishing, 1981) 43-64.
56
however, proverbs are longer than this. Dundes elaborates further by saying
that there are oppositional and non-oppositional proverbs. Oppositional
proverbs have the basic formula which says that A does not equal B (Two
wrongs don't make a right; One swallow does not make a summer). Proverbs
based on the formula that A is greater than or less than B (e.g., the
"better/than" proverbs: Hindsight is better than foresight) are also
oppositional proverbs. Examples of non-oppositional proverbs would be the
following: honesty is the best policy; the customer is always right; haste makes
waste; experience is the best teacher. Equational proverbs (A = B) are also
non-oppositional: time is money; seeing is believing. Proverbs which contain
a single descriptive element are usually non-oppositional. Proverbs with two
or more descriptive elements may be either oppositional or non-oppositional.
For Dundes, the lowest common denominator in the structure is that ". . . all
proverbs are potentially propositions which compare and/or contrast.
Comparing originally referred to finding similarities or identifying features in
common; contrasting referred to delineating differences."4
To compare biblical proverbs to this general description of proverbial
structure is helpful. There is a general topic/comment pattern that is a part of
their structure. But a more refined analysis of biblical proverbs is still
necessary. In biblical proverbs, in the collection assembled in the book of
Proverbs, the common element is their binary structure. And as folklorists
and anthropologists struggle to describe the relationship of the two parts of a
proverb (eg. topic/comment), in like manner an important issue with biblical
___________________________
4 Dundes 54
57
proverbs has to do with the relationship between the couplets. To attend to
this relationship can reveal much about their structural strategy.
Since Robert Lowth's work, On Sacred Hebrew Poetry (De sacra poesi
Hebraeorum) published in 1753, biblical scholars have identified the
dominant characteristic of Hebrew poetry in general as that of parallelism.
Lowth was the first to use this term to explain the two part structure of all
poetic language in Scripture which includes Psalms, the Prophetic books and
Proverbs. Hebrew poetry consists basically of two lines standing in a
particular kind of relationship to one another. This relationship is referred to
as parallelism. To take a proverb that opens the sentence collection in
Proverbs chapter ten will illustrate the point. The proverb is structured in
this way:
"A wise son makes a glad father/ but a foolish son is a sorrow to
his mother//" (10:1)
The saying clearly has a binary structure. Two lines make up the proverb.
The second line stands in some kind of relationship to the first. The structure
can be diagramed like this: __________ /____________//.
Since Lowth's time the principle of parallelism has been refined and
standardized. Many works on Hebrew poetry have codified a half-a-dozen
different kinds of parallelism.5 First, there is parallelism that is synonymous.
___________________________
5 As examples see the following: Philip Johannes Nel, The Structure
and Ethos of the Wisdom Admonitions in Proverbs (Berlin and New York:
Walter de Gruyter, 1982) 16; Clyde M. Miller, "Interpreting Poetic Literature
in the Bible," Biblical Interpretation: Principles and Practice, eds. F. Furman
Kearley, Edward P. Myers, and Timothy D. Hadley (Grand Rapids: Baker Book
House, 1986) 164-165; Roland E. Murphy, Wisdom Literature & Psalm
(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983) 37-38; John T. Willis, Insights from tbs.
Psalms (Abilene, TX: Biblical Research Press, 1974) 8-16.
58
The second line in synonymous parallelism states the same thought as the
first only using different words. An example used to illustrate this might be:
"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof/ the world and
those who dwell therein / /" (Psalm 24:1)
A second type is antithetic, parallelism in which the second line forms a
contrast with the first:
"Yahweh knows the way of the righteous/ but the way of the
wicked will perish / /" (Psalm 1:6)
Third, synthetic parallelism consists of the second line advancing the thought
of the first:
"I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God/ than
dwell in the tents of wickedness / /" (Psalm 84:10)
Fourth, emblematic, parallelism uses metaphoric language in one of the two
parallel lines:
"For as the heavens are high above the earth/ so great is his
steadfast love toward those who respect him / /" (Psalm 103:11)
And fifth, chiastic parallelism structures the two lines of poetry in an ABBA
pattern:
"Because he cleaves to me in love (A), I will deliver him (B) / I
will protect him (B), because he knows my name (A) / /" (Psalm
91:14)
These were considered to be the typical kinds of parallelism. A poetic verse or
proverb could be plugged into one of these categories. In all of these
categories emphasis is stressed on similarities, especially semantic
similarities. The second line reiterates the first in some way or another. T. H.
Robinson described the function of the second line in the following way: "So
59
the poet goes back to the beginning again, and says the same thing once more,
though he may partly or completely change the actual words to avoid
monotony."6 The feature of parallelism is simply providing variety.7
The problem with this system of classification is twofold. First, this
model of parallelism, as well as other current models, completely omits any
consideration of how the binary structure serves as a rhetorical strategy.
However, this appears to be a primary function of such a structure. Second,
this model, based on a cognitive mind set, is too rigid and inflexible. All
poetic verse is forced to fit into one of these categories. But not all parallelism
fits so neatly. The result is that the dynamic and rhetorical dimension of the
proverb is stifled. There is no room for flexibility and creative movement. In
addition it can be argued that there is no such thing in Hebrew poetry as one
line being exactly synonymous or antithetic with another. Even words that
are characterized as synonyms or antonyms are not exactly synonymous or
antithetic because they will carry a slightly different shade of meaning than
their counterparts. For example, Proverbs 11:12 says "he who despises, his
neighbor lacks sense/but a man of understanding will be silent." If this were
purely antithetic then we would expect praise or encouragement to be the
antithesis of despise or belittle. But it is not. We are surprised to find that an
___________________________
6 T. H. Robinson, The Poetry of the Old Testament (London: np, 1947)
21.
7 In following this scheme, Philip Johannes Nel has identified a two-
fold element of what he calls the admonition proverb. The twofold structure
includes an admonition followed by a motivation, a reason given for the
admonition. While his findings are helpful, they are mainly based on the
content of the proverb even though he argues that one cannot separate
content from form (pp. 72-74). The Structure and Ethos of the Wisdom
Admonitions in Proverbs (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1982).
60
understanding man is silent. Another way of describing the structure and
function of Hebrew poetry must be sought, one that sees such a structure as a
rhetorical strategy.
In 1981 James Kugel published a volume entitled The Idea of Biblical,
Poetry: Parallelism and Its History. In it he took issue with the long standing
way of describing Hebrew poetry. He argued that the term "parallelism" is
misleading because it implies that each half must parallel the other in
meaning or that each word of the first line must be matched by a word in the
second.8 This view flattens out the dynamic nature of parallelism. After
perusing through the poetic material of Scripture (his examples are primarily
from Psalms but they also include a few examples from Job, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes and some of the Prophets), Kugel concludes that "the ways of
parallelism are numerous and varied, and the intensity of the semantic
parallelism established between clauses might be said to range from 'zero
perceivable correspondence' to 'near-zero perceivable differentiation' (i.e., just
short of word-for-word repetition)."9
Kugel calls the first part of the two part poetic form A and the second
part B and proceeds to elaborate on what he perceives to be a more natural
description of the relationship between the two. In the standard description
of parallelism described above, the medial pause or break that is visible in the
Hebrew text between the first (A) and the second (B) line has been taken to be
___________________________
8 James Kugel, The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History
(New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1981) 2.
9 Kugel 7.
61
a kind of equals sign. But, Kugel maintains, it is a pause and its true character
might be more graphically symbolized by a double arrow (<-->):
for it is the dual nature of B both to come after A and thus add to
it, often particularizing, defining, or expanding the meaning,
and yet also to harken back to A and in an obvious way connect
to it. One might say that B has both retrospective (looking back
to A) and prospective (looking beyond it) qualities. . . . . . . by its
very afterwardness, B will have an emphatic character.10
In Kugel's structure the focus is on the emphatic or "seconding" quality
of B. B does not simply repeat A but in some way, shape or form
complements it. The relationship is that there is a statement made in A and a
"what's more" statement in B. Note this "going beyond" nature of the second
line (B) in the following examples that Kugel cites:
You brought up a vine from Egypt / you banished nations and
planted it / / Psalm 80:9
Let your love, Lord, be upon us / since we hope in you / /
Psalm 33:22
If a camp encamp about me / my heart shall not fear / /
Psalm 27:3
My friends and companions stand aloof from my affliction /
those closest to me stand far off / / Psalm 38:12
Of the primacy of this two-part binary form, Kugel argues that
. . . we are asserting, basically, a sequence: first part-pause-next
part-bigger pause. . . . But even this sequence is a bit of a
___________________________
10 Kugel 8
62
shorthand for the real point, for what those pauses actually
embody is the subjoined, hence emphatic, character of B. The
briefness of the brief pause is an expression of B's connectedness
to A; the length of the long pause is an expression of the relative
disjunction between B and the next line. What this means is
simple: B, by being connected to A-carrying it further, echoing it,
defining it, restating it, contrasting with it, it does not matter
which- has an emphatic, "seconding" character, and it is this,
more than any aesthetic of symmetry or paralleling, which is at
the heart of biblical parallelism.11
In Kugel's eyes, the lines are parallel not because the second line is
symmetrically parallel to A nor the same length as A, but because B completes
it or carries it further. Thus this phenomenon is flexible and dynamic, not
flat and rigid. This explains why the practice of paralleling is so
inconsistent.12 Such unpredictability, I would argue, is intentional and
rhetorical. "Our point," Kugel concludes, "is hardly that parallelism does not
exist, but that care must be taken to see it in the proper terms, as part of a
larger, overall rhetorical structure."13 Kugel maintains that there is a
___________________________
11 Kugel 51
12 Many scholars have tried to impose a metrical structure on Hebrew
poetry. But there has been no consensus on what this meter is. The reason
for no consensus is that the principle of parallelism is inconsistent and a
metrical system relies on consistency.
13 Kugel 56. Kugel takes a whole chapter in his book to argue that this
phenomenon of parallelism is not something confined to poetry. It is also a
characteristic of biblical narrative as well. He goes so far to say that there is
little distinction between poetic and narrative material in the Hebrew
63
"sharpness"14 that is connected with parallelism. "Its sharpness," he explains,
"has nothing to do with spurring to action."15 Rather it has to do, he says,
with "the delight in creating a B half which both connects with, and yet
cleverly expands, the meaning of A. 'Sharpness' represented the potential
subtleties hidden inside juxtaposed clauses."16 Kugel's description of the
"sharpness" of the proverb though appropriate is too constricted. If there is
this quality within the structure of the proverb itself, does it not naturally
follow that the "sharpness" of its quality extends beyond its internal structure
to its external ability to penetrate the ear and the mind of the auditor?
In spite of this constriction in Kugel's model, his assessment of
parallelism is revolutionary. It opens the door to understanding much more
clearly the structure and nature of Hebrew poetry. However, Kugel's
treatment focuses primarily on the poetry of the book of Psalms. How might
his structural analysis help illuminate a more detailed investigation of the
nature of proverbs in the book of Proverbs? I would maintain that his
analysis can be helpful in understanding their rhetorical structure as well.
___________________________
Scriptures. Such a position, however, is extreme and leads to lumping all
genre of Scripture into one conglomerate.
14 By sharpness, Kugel is referring to the frequent association of the
quality of sharpness with the word proverb. hnAyniw; is used in
Deut. 28:37; I Kings 9:7; Jer. 24:9; II Chron. 7:20. See Brown, Driver, Briggs, A
Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 2nd printing (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1975) 1042. Also the idea of sharpness is connected with the
proverb in Proverbs 26:9: "Like a thorn that goes up in the hand of a
drunkard/ is a proverb in the mouth of fools / /." Also compare Ecclesiastes
12:11 "The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the
collected sayings which are given by one shepherd."
15 Kugel 11
16 Kugel 11-12
64
From a cognitive perspective, biblical proverbs are often perceived to be
quite pedestrian in nature. Part of the reason for this disrespect is the lack of
awareness of their rhetorical form. Alter observes that when biblical proverbs
are brought into contemporary culture, there is the tendency to use only one
line of the proverb rather than both halves thus defusing their force.17 But
when both halves are taken seriously they are not so pedantic. However, I
take issue with Alter on this point. Using only one half of the proverb does
not necessarily lead to their blandness. In actuality their binary structure
equips them to undergo a process of fission that enables them to adapt to ever
changing situations.18 What I would like to do is brush away the deposits
from the surface of the proverb and expose the underlying beauty of its
rhetorical shape. I want to demonstrate its multidimensional form by
identifying some overarching structural patterns that are common to it. And
in highlighting these I also want to emphasize its fluidity by showing the rich
variety of forms that reside within these general patterns.
There are five different types of parallelism that I want to highlight.
These include static, antithetic, extension, formulaic, and riddle-form
proverbs.19 I am not proposing these as a new set of categories to replace the
old set. But these are simply dominant structural patterns that have surfaced
___________________________
17 Alter. 165
18 For further development of this quality, see chapter four.
19 Elizabeth Huwiler maintains that there are basically two general
structural patterns: correspondence and distinction. In the former the second
line shows a similarity in relationship with the first. In the latter the
difference between the two is highlighted. Elizabeth Huwiler, Control of
Reality in Israelite Wisdom, unpublished dissertation Duke University (1988)
83ff.
65
in the course of my study and that demonstrate the paralleling principle of
"seconding."20 Nor are these categories completely distinct from one another.
There is much overlap between them. The one common denominator that
ties them all together is the principle that in some way, shape or form the
second line builds on the first.21
First, there are those proverbs that are more static in nature, with the
second line coming close to a verbatim repetition of the first. However, there
is no true synonymity because even verbatim repetition has a heightening
effect as, for example, is observed in the last two poetic lines of Psalm 90:17:
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us/
and establish thou the work of our hands upon us/
yes, establish thou the work of our hands / /.
Though the last line repeats verbatim the former, it is not because the poet is
simply repeating himself so readers will get the point. The second line is a
way of intensifying what is being said. So even though there is no true
___________________________
20 Kugel 51
21 An additional common element has to do with their compactness.
As one author comments, proverbs are a "maximum of meaning in a
minimum of words." See Roland E. Murphy, The Tree of Life: An
Exploration of Biblical Wisdom Literature (New York: Doubleday, 1990) 20.
Typically there are four words to the first line and three to the second. This
pattern does vary and sometimes there are four in the first and four in the
second. And on a few occasions there are more in the second than in the first.
But more often than not the second line is shorter than the first. Sometimes
there is a punch word as in 15:23 "An apt answer is a joy to a man/ a word in
its time- how good!" (mah-tob). Such structural qualities are strategic and are
simply another way of demonstrating the seconding or heightening function
of the second line.
66
synonymity, there are certain proverbs that do come close. The following is
an example of this more static structure.
"A deceiving witness will not go unpunished/ and he who
utters lies will not escape / /"22 (Prv. 19:5)23
In the above, the "deceiving witness" of the first line is matched by "he who
utters lies" in the second. And "not go unpunished" is quite similar to "not
escape."24 There is little development from the first to the second line, nor
does there seem to be much, if any, heightening effect. However, the phrase
"not escape" may be an intentional abbreviation of "not escape punishment."
If that is the case, the abbreviation allows the audience to complete the
thought thus creating a type of heightening effect. In any case, the proverb
comes as close to being synonymous as will be found. The following are
further examples of static parallelism:
"He who gathers in the summer is a prudent son/ he who sleeps
in the harvest is a shameful son / /" (Prv. 10:5)
"A soft answer will turn away anger/ but a harsh word will bring
up anger / / (Prv. 15:1)
In both of these proverbs, the second line is antithetical to the first. And in
both the words and terms of the second come very close to being antonyms of
___________________________
22 It is good to note here that this same proverb is repeated in 19:9. But
"not escape" in the second line is changed to "perish" which intensifies the
second line.
23 The translations of proverbs in this chapter are my own and are
made from Kittel's Biblia Hebraica text.
24 To add weight to its static nature the proverb contains an equal
amount of words in each line (four).
67
the first. The syntax and word order are also quite similar.25 In perusing
through the sentence sayings in proverbs there are other examples that could
be given. But the static proverb is by no means a dominant form. Richness
in structure, a proverb that teases and entertains the mind, is much more the
norm.
A second general structural pattern is the antithetic proverb. The last
two proverbs cited above introduce this type. The antithetic proverb is
scattered throughout the collection of biblical proverbs. But they are most
concentrated in chapters 10-15, chapters that are a part of what is known as the
Solomonic collection. Like the static proverbs they are not as colorful as
others, especially those found in chapters 25-27. In fact, it could be argued that
most of the static-like proverbs are antithetic in form. The following is one
example:
"A man who is kind benefits himself/ but he who is cruel hurts
himself / /" (Prv. 11:17)
Even though the antithetic proverbs are not as colorful as many others,
neither are they as jejune as some would claim. There is a subtle richness to
them when they are closely examined. Many display the principle of
intensification in the second line. In the following proverb
"The righteous one will seek out his friend/ but the way of the
wicked ones will wander/ /" (Prv. 12:26)
the second line intensifies the first by moving from singular in the first to
plural in the second. Furthermore the first line is focused on seeking out a
___________________________
25 In addition both proverbs contain an equal amount of words in each
stich (four).
68
particular kind of person, a friend. Thus the objective is clear. However, in
the second line there is a lack of focus; the wicked ones are those who have
no direction. They are those who wander. The antithetic proverb of 14:24
demonstrates another way of intensifying:
"Wise ones are crowned with their wealth/ but the folly of fools
is foolish / /"
Here, as in most of the antithetic proverbs, the proverb is marked by
succinctness with three words in the first line and three in the second. The
second line intensifies the contrast with the first. All three words in the
second line are different forms of the term for fool. Such repetition heightens
the stupidity of the fool in contrast to the wise. Something similar, as well, is
seen in the following:
"In all a prudent man acts with knowledge/ but a fool spreads
out his folly / /" (Prv. 13:16)
There are four words in the first line and three in the second. Two of the
three words in the second line are words for folly. In addition, notice again
how in the first line the prudent one is focused in direction but in the second
line the fool has no direction. The fool spreads out his folly like a peddler
spreads out his wares. Sometimes intensifying is accomplished by the use of a
punch word or phrase that concludes the proverb. This is illustrated in the
following proverbs:
"When the just man prospers, a town exults/ when the wicked
perish-shouts of joy! / /" (Prv. 11:10)26
___________________________
26 What is translated into English as "shouts of joy" is one word in
Hebrew. One is also surprised to find in this proverb that there is no
antithetic to "a town exults." The antithetic would be something like
69
"A false balance is an abomination to Yahweh/ but a just
weight— his delight! / /" (Prv. 11:1)27
Intensification also occurs when the second line contrasts that which is
salient with that which is evanescent:
"Truthful lips will endure for ever/ but only for a moment is a
lying tongue/ /" (Prv. 12:19)28
The second line of Proverbs 15:8 "seconds" the first in still another way:
"The sacrifice of the wicked ones are an abomination of
Yahweh/ but the prayers of the upright ones—his delight//"
This proverb moves from a general form of worship to a specific form,
namely from sacrifice to prayers.29 The second line also intensifies by using a
punch word: his delight.
Some antithetic proverbs move from singular to plural:
"A rich man's wealth is his strong city / the poverty of the poor is
their ruin / /" (Prv. 10:15)
___________________________
mourning or weeping. Instead there is the word "shouts of joy" which again
is a subtle witness to the dynamic nature of these proverbs.
27 Again the phrase "his delight" is one word and is placed in an
emphatic position at the end of the proverb. It is worthy of also mentioning
here that throughout the Proverbs "abomination" and "delight" are
formulaic contrasting pairs: 11:20; 12:22; 15:8.
28 The phrase "only for a moment" is literally "while I would twinkle"
and emphasizes the brevity of the deceptive tongue. We would say "In the
twinkle of an eye." The proverb is also built on a chiastic structure with an
ABBA pattern.
29 There is also a movement from the singular sacrifice to the plural
prayers.
70
"There is a way which seems right to a man/ but its end is the
ways of death / /" (14:12)
Some move from plural to singular and from less vivid to more vivid
imagery:
"Wise men lay up knowledge/ but the babbling of a fool brings
ruin near / /" (Prv. 10:14)
Others move from feminine to masculine:
"A gracious woman will grasp honor/ but violent men get
riches / /" (Prv. 11:16)30
Still others from exterior to interior:
"A woman of strength is the crown of her husband/ but like
rottenness in his bones is she who brings shame / /" (Prv. 12:4)31
The woman of worth gives her husband a crown which can be seen by all.
The shameful woman affects the interior of her spouse, his health.
In all of these examples of antithetic proverbs, intensification is
achieved in a variety of creative ways, through chiastic structure, punch
words, movement from feminine to masculine, from singular to plural, from
external to internal and vice versa. Intensification is also achieved by
compactness, with the first line typically containing four words and the
second three. As I have already affirmed, there are those that are more static
in nature. But their presence is simply witness to the variety of the
proverbial structure. The above examples could be multiplied. These are,
___________________________
30 This proverb not only moves from feminine to masculine but also
from singular to plural.
31 this proverb is also chiastic in structure with an ABBA pattern.
71
however, sufficient to demonstrate certain patterns that surface and the subtle
rhetorical nature of the antithetical proverb, which first appears to lack
vitality. But when the residue is brushed aside, a form unfolds before us that
is aesthetically pleasing to the mind and rhetorically attractive to the ear.
A third structural form is the proverb that is developed from the
principle of extension. Like many of the antithetic proverbs, the second line
of the extension proverb elaborates on, heightens, specifies, focuses,
concretizes or intensifies the first line but not in a contrasting way. The
proverb
"Gracious words are like the honey of a honey comb/ sweet to
the soul and healing to the bones//" (Prv. 16:24)32
is an example of the second line extending or elaborating on the first. The
second line expounds on and specifies what is meant by the honey metaphor
in the first and reveals how gracious words impact a person.
One of the primary types of extension proverbs are those that contain a
narrative impulse.33 The first line of the proverb expresses a thought or a
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32 There is no contrast intended in the second line between soul and
bones. Unlike the Greeks, for the Hebrews "soul" was simply another word
for the whole of the individual or the self.
33 Roger Abrahams says, "Many of the most widely known and
interesting proverbs tell a condensed story; these items often function
metaphorically when used in a conversational context. That is, in the
proverb ‘People who live in glass houses should not throw stones’ we are
given an image suggestive of a story, but the comparing effect of the
metaphor is not present. Yet when this proverb is used it does imply that the
person in the glass house is to be compared to the one to whom the saying is
directed" (p. 120). "Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions," Folklore and.
FolkIife: An Introduction (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972).
Thomas Long has also claimed that the element of narrativity lies behind
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moral principle followed by the second line which traces through its effects or
consequences. Many proverbs display a narrative form by presumably
encapsulating a variety of similar experiences into one brief vignette. In fact
the New Testament writers use particular proverbs out of which to create a
story.34 The following is one such sample of the narrative form:
"The beginning of strife is like letting out water/ so quit before
the quarrel breaks out / /" (Prv. 17:14)
Numerous other examples can also be given. The following are just a few:
"Do not boast about tomorrow/ for you do not know what a day
may bring forth / /" (Prv. 27:1)
"He who rises early in the morning to bless his neighbor with a
loud voice / it will be counted as verbal abuse / /" (27:14)35
"The consequence for humility and fear of the Lord/ riches and
honor and life / /" (Prv. 22:4)36
___________________________
many of the proverbs. Thomas Long, Preaching the Literary Forms of the
Bible 1989 Fortress.
34 For example, Proverbs 25:6-7 is used by Jesus in Luke 14:7-11 to create
a parable.
35 The first line contains six words the second three. Using humor and
compactness in the second line, this narrative vignette moves from the
superficial facade of what the person does to how it really affects the neighbor.
In commenting on this proverb, William McKane says "The person who goes
to such extravagant lengths to create an impression of aimiability is to be
reckoned as a curse to the one to whom he is excessively civil." McKane p.
619.
36 The narrative flow of this proverb is clear with the second line
heightening the results of the first by stacking on top of one another three
positive terms. Line one contains four words, line two three.
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"Train up a child in the way he should go/ for when he is old he
will not depart from it / /" (Prv. 22:6)37
"The lazy person says, 'There is a lion outside/ I shall be
murdered in the midst of the plaza / /" (Prv. 22:13)
"A lazy person buries his hand in the dish/ he will not even
raise it to his mouth / /" (Prv. 19:24)38
"A man who is reproved yet who is stubborn/ will suddenly be
broken–and there is no healing / /" (Prv. 29:1)39
"A poor man and one who oppresses the poor/ a beating rain –
and there is no bread / /"(Prv. 28:3)40
Some narrative proverbs conclude with the element of surprise. Such is the
case with Proverbs 21:31:
"The horse is made ready for the day of battle/ victory belongs to
Yahweh//"
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37 The narrative impulse of this proverb lives on in contemporary
versions such as the following: "As the twig is bent/ so grows the tree/ /;" or
"The acorn does not fall far from the tree;" or "He is a chip off the old block."
38 Within this encapsulated narrative is a hyperbole that conjures up a
humorous image of a person who is so lazy that he cannot even lift his hand
to his mouth to feed himself.
39 This narrative vignette is capped by a punch phrase in the second
line, a two-word phrase in Hebrew "there is no healing."
40 The narrative of this proverb is completed with a vivid metaphor of
a torrential rain that destroys crops and fruit. Such a metaphor intensifies the
proverbial plot. It is more typical, however, as will be seen later, for the
metaphor or image to be placed in the first line with the second line clarifying
its reference. In this proverb, the metaphor is placed in the second line.
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In this proverb horse serves as a metonymy for battle preparations. The first
line conjures up images of the detail, energy, time and strategy that goes into
the preparations for an encounter with the enemy. Both horse and rider are
trained and outfitted for war in order to insure a successful campaign. But
suddenly there is a turn of events. A third party enters the picture, Yahweh.
He is the one who really determines the outcome. This surprise ending is
intensified even more by the fact that the second line contains only two
words in Hebrew.41
The extension proverbs engage many of the subtle moves that were
observed earlier in the antithetic proverbs. It is not uncommon to find the
binary structure moving from singular to plural, internal to external and vice
versa. They can also move from general to specific as in Proverbs 19:29:
"Justice will be ready for scoffers/ and blows to the back for
fools / /"
Here what is meant by justice in the first line is specified in the second as
referring to a whipping. Frequently the move from general to specific is
accomplished by the use of vivid metaphors in the second line such as is
found in these proverbs:
"He who verbally abuses his father and his mother/ his lamp
will be extinguished in utter darkness/(20:20)
"In the light of the king's face is life/ and his good will is like a
cloud that brings spring rain/ /"42 (16:15)
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41 The first line contains four words.
42 Line one contains four words, line two three.
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With the extension proverbs one begins to delve even further into the
depth of the proverbial structure. Their structure is primarily characterized
by a development from one line to the next. This development takes place in
a variety of ways: in the form of a narrative plot, from abstract to concrete,
from cause to effect, and sometimes in terms of a surprise turn of events. As
Robert Alter has insightfully observed ". . . Proverbs . . . requires close reading
because within the confines of the one-line poem nice effects and sometimes
suggestive complications are achieved through the smallest verbal
movements."43
A fourth type are those proverbs that use some kind of formulaic
phrase or term to structure the saying. In what follows I will isolate two
major and two minor forms.44 The first and most frequent formulaic type is
the "better/than" sequence. These proverbs take some desirable physical
situation or circumstance and place it in the context of strife or chaos.
Suddenly a reversal takes place and the less desirable physical surrounding
becomes the better way because it is accompanied by an atmosphere of peace
and tranquility. This formulaic type is based on the reversal motif which
pervades Scripture. Experiences are not always what they seem.45 There is an
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43 Alter 175
44 The distinction between major and minor is based on the frequency
of appearance in the book of Proverbs and not a judgment statement about
their worth. In addition to these four, one could probably add one or two
more depending upon how flexible one wants to be with what is considered
formulaic.
45 Proverbs 14:12 summarizes this concern clearly: "There is a way that
seems right to a man/ but its end is the ways of death." A number of
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unexpected reversal that takes place. The reversal motif is not only a part of
the content of the proverb but of its structure as well. In the "better/than"
proverbs the sages make a value statement about what are the more
important things in life:
"Better is a dry crust of bread and quietness with it/ than a house
full of feasting and strife / /" (Prv. 17:1)46
"Better a meal of vegetables where there is love/ than prime beef
with hate / /"47 (Prv. 15:17)
"Better is a little with the fear of the Lord/ than much treasure
and confusion with it / /" (Prv. 15:16)
"Better is a poor one who walks with integrity/ than a wealthy
one who is perverted in his ways / /" (Prv. 28:6)
"Better to be a common man who has employment/ than to
make a show of grandeur and be short of bread / /" (Prv. 12:9)
In addition to these there are several "better/than" proverbs that increase the
structural complexity by employing the formula in both the first and second
lines of the proverb:48
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contemporary proverbs also express this thought: "you can't judge a book by
its cover" or "all that glitters is not gold."
46 A contemporary French proverb built on the same structure
conveys a similar sentiment: "Better an egg in peace than an ox in wartime."
47 The phrase I render "prime beef" is literally a "fattened ox."
48 Intensification in the second line is achieved by the surprise
discovery that that which seems to be the more desirable state is really not.
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"Better is one who is slow to anger than the mighty/ the one
who has self control than one who captures a city/ /" (16:32)49
"How much better to acquire wisdom than gold/ to acquire
understanding than choosing silver//" (Prv. 16:16)50
"A good name is better than great wealth/ and to be gracious
than silver and gold / /" (Prv. 22:1)
Several "better/than" proverbs deal with a particular domestic problem: the
"nagging wife:"51
"Better to dwell upon the corner of a roof/ than in a spacious
house52 with a contentious spouse/ /53 (Prv. 25:24)
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49 Besides the double "better/than" form, there is also the
intensification from "mighty" in the first line to "capturing a city" in the
second. Further, within each line there is a move from the internal to the
external, from one who has control over his or her emotions to one who is
able to control others.
50 Once again there is a movement from the internal qualities of
knowledge and wisdom to the external elements of gold and silver.
51 A rhetorical hermeneutic that is concerned with how the text looks
forward to the present can continue to see the power and relevance of these
sayings by rendering them gender neutral which is how I interpret the
following. In addition Proverbs itself acknowledges that "nagging" was not a
trait characteristic only of women. Men as well can be quite contentious
("drippy") as Proverbs 26:21 affirms: "As charcoal to hot embers and wood to
fire/ so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife / /."
52 Here I accept the emendation that Kittel recommends in his note to
this proverb in his Biblica Hebraica, text. I render rhb (bHarA) for hrb (braHA). hrb
refers to that which is common or to company.
53 In this proverb there is a spatial movement from small to large,
from the cramped and seemingly hideous conditions on the corner of a roof
to the openness of a roomy house. This proverb has a doublet in 21:9.
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"Better to dwell in a desert land/ than with a quarrelsome and
angry spouse/ /" (Prv. 21:19)54
Numerous other "better/ than" sayings could be added to these
examples.55 Elizabeth Huwiler classifies these sayings into two general types:
simple (better X than Y) and coordinating (better X with A than Y with B).56
Within this form, the surprise motif is the central element of the structure.
The structure reverses normal expectations in a way that is satisfying to the
auditor and gives voice to what the common person would affirm as the
more important things in life. These proverbs invite us to reconstruct
reality,57 to look at life from a different perspective by focusing on the value
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54 Here the spatial movement might be the opposite as was seen in
25:24. but the real contrast is between deprivation on the one hand and the
comforts of a house on the other. Line one contains four words, line two
three.
55 "Better open rebuke/ than hidden love/ /" (Prv. 27:5). See also 16:8;
16:19; 19:1; 19:22; 25:7; 27:10; 28:6. In the instruction sayings of Proverbs 1-9
there are several "better/than" sayings: 3:14-15; 8:10-11, 19.
56 Elizabeth Huwiler, Control of Reality in Israelite Wisdom,
unpublished dissertation Duke University (1988) 86. Glendon Bryce, in
addition to a historical survey, also does a structural analysis of the "better"
sayings. " ''Better'--Proverbs: An Historical and Structural Study," The Society
of Biblical Literature Book of Seminar Papers (L. C. McGaughy, ed.; Missoula:
SBL, 1972) 343-354.
57 This is one of Walter Brueggemann's main agendas in his most
recent work entitled Texts Under Negotiation: The Bible and Postmodern
Imagination (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993) pp. 12-25. His thesis is that
biblical texts from a postmodern perspective offer a healthy and radical
recreation of our materialistically construed world.
79
of internal qualities over external appearances, on relationships rather than
material prosperity.58
A second formulaic type is the "how much more" proverb.59
There are a number of examples of these:
"If a righteous one is rewarded on earth/ how much more are
the wicked and the sinner / /" (Prv. 11:31)
"Sheol and Abadon are open before Yahweh/ how much more
are the thoughts of men / /" (Prv. 15:11)60
"Choice speech is not becoming to a fool/ how much less61 is
lying to a noble/ /" (Prv. 17:7)
"The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination/ how much more
when brought with evil intent / /" (Prv. 21:27)
The "how much more" sayings62 serve as well as good examples of the
principle of intensification. The pattern is if ________ is true, bad, difficult,
___________________________
58 I have focused on the micro-structure of the "better/than" proverbs.
G. Ogden looks at the the function of these kinds of proverbs in terms of the
macro-structure of the book of Ecclesiastes. His conclusion is that the
"better/than" proverbs serve as either an introduction or a summary of a
particular unit of text in which they are found. See G. Ogden, "The 'Better'-
Proverb (Tob-Spruch), Rhetorical Criticism, and Qoheleth," Journal of
Biblical Literature 96 (1977) : 491-492.
59 In Hebrew the phrase is yKi Jxa.
60 Sheol and Abadon are terms for the grave and the place of the dead
in Hebrew thought.
61 The Hebrew phrase is the same
62 Other "how much more" sayings include 19:7 and 19:10.
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unlikely, or inconsistent then how much more is ________. It is a way of
"upping the ante," of increasing the intensity of the movement.
The" better/than" and "how-much-more" sayings are two of the most
prominent formulaic types of the sentence proverbs. There are two minor or
less frequent types that are also observed in the sentence collection. One of
these is the numerical proverb. They are much more prevalent in the
wisdom poems63 than in the sentence sayings64 Proverbs 20:12; 25:3; 20:10 are
reminiscent of numerical sayings:
"The hearing ear and the seeing eye/ the Lord makes both of
them / /" (Prv. 20:12)
"The heavens for height and the earth for depth/ and the mind
of kings is unsearchable / /" (Prv. 25:3)
"Unequal weights and unequal measures/ both are an
abomination to Yahweh / /" (Prv. 20:10)
The structure of these proverbs are built on a climactic movement of a
narrative type plot built into the two lines.
A second minor formulaic type is one that is structured around an
imagined conversation and patterned after the formula "as X said to Y." Such
a formula may be the predecessor to the more well known Wellerism.
According to William McNeil, the Wellerism is "always a quotation in which
the saying is assigned to a fictitious author. It is always intentionally
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63 The wisdom poems are found at the beginning, chapters 1-9, middle
chapters 22-24, and the end, chapters 30-31, of the book of Proverbs.
64 Proverbs chapter 30 is a collection of numerical proverbs which are
built on the formula "three things . . . four . . . ." There is also a numerical
saying in 6:16-19 which uses the numerical formula "six things . . . seven . . . ."
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humorous."65 While none of the biblical proverbs could be classified as full
blown "Wellerisms," the Wellerism seems to be structured after their pattern.
The formulaic conversation is observed in some of the following biblical
proverbs:
"As a madman shooting missiles and deadly arrows/ so a man
deceives his neighbor and says 'Was I not simply joking?' / /"
(26:18-19)
" 'It is no good, no good!' says the buyer/ but as he goes away he
congratulates himself / /" (20:14)
"Says the lazy one, 'There's a lion outside!/ I shall be slain in the
streets!' / /" (22:13)
"Says the lazy one, 'A lion in the way!/ A lion between the
plazas!' / / " (26:13)
"He who robs his father and his mother and says 'There is no
transgression!'/ he is united with a man who destroys/ /" (28:24)
Like the Wellerism, these proverbs contain hyperboles, ridiculous
excuses or observations by someone who plays the role of a fool.66 Traces of
other formulaic structures might also be found in the sentence sayings.
However, the above mentioned seem to stand out more readily.
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65 William McNeil "Proverbs in American Folklore" audio cassette,
Everett/Edwards Inc. Deland, FL, 1979.
66 Examples of typical contemporary Wellerisms may include the
following: "'Everyone to their own taste,' said the old lady as she kissed the
cow;" or " 'All's well that ends well,' said the monkey as the lawn mower ran
over his tail."
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A fifth structure is what Robert Alter calls the riddle form.67 These are
proverbs based on the principle of a riddle with the first line making a cryptic
like statement and its referent being revealed only in light of the second
line.68 It is quite common, however, for translations to cover over this
structure by reversing the order of the two lines in order for the proverb to
sound better in English. The Revised Standard Version often does this as
seen in the following example:
"A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left
without walls" (25:28)
The proverb actually begins with the image of a conquered city and not until
the second line is the image related to one who is without self control. This
again is an example of the rhetorical power of the proverb being glazed
over.69