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Chapter 3: Identification and exploration of the relevant proverbs
Introduction
The goal of this chapter is to explore the relevant proverbs that make reference to the fear of the Lord in Proverbs 10:1–15:33, in terms of their poetic expression. The investigation into the functioning of “poetic discourse” (Ricoeur 1977:22) and the second pole of Ricoeur’s hermeneutical considerations, namely objectification, will operate as guidelines for this chapter.
Thus, this chapter will concentrate on explanation, or the ‘what is said’ according to Ricoeur. In terms of Ricoeur’s distinction between explanation and understanding it is necessarily the first stage of a hermeneutical enquiry. By performing an examination of the lexical, syntactic, grammatical and formal elements as well as the internal organisation of the relevant proverbs the “meaning as sense” (Ricoeur 1976:19–20) may be distinguished. Sandoval (2006:22) points out that this may be helpful in “discerning how a text constructs patterns of value.” Scott ([1989] 1990:49) accentuates that careful consideration must be given to the literal level, for it is the vehicle for the nonliteral level, the tenor.
Objectification implies the mode of discourse of the text as a means of production (Reese [1979] 1990:385-386). The message of the text cannot be severed from its vehicle and consequently it is imperative to be conscious of the linguistic system of a text in order to grasp the kinds of meaning and representations of reality that are made possible by that particular rhetorical vehicle (Alter 1985:4; Berlin [1985] 1992:17). Reese ([1979] 1990:391) notes that the crafting or construction of a Biblical text as a work of art is an “urgent invitation to a profound life of faith” and the discourse calls for response. Toward the aim of understanding the response called for by the text, this chapter will investigate the poetics of the relevant proverbs
In this way the content of chapter 3 will serve as the raw material from which the symbolic world, with specific reference to the fear of the Lord that Proverbs 10:1– 15:33 references (cf. Ricoeur 1976:21–22) may be considered in chapter 4, in order to bring it into connection with the world of the contemporary reader in chapter 5.
Firstly, it is necessary to shortly reiterate the methodological considerations for this chapter. Thereafter the consequences of reading the relevant proverbs as poetry will be explored, where after a short exposition on proverb poetics will be made before the relevant proverbs will be identified and explored.
A literary approach with a reader oriented method of Biblical interpretation will be taken, as this study explores a possible understanding of the concept of the fear of the Lord, within Proverbs 10:1–15:33, for contemporary readers. As such this study is interested in the text in its present shape in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (cf. Sandoval 2007:457–459; Human 1999:362) and will take a synchronic approach, not giving attention to diachronic considerations.
In the translation strategy, the “grammatical principle” (MacArthur 2005) will be helpful in illuminating the meaning of the relevant proverbs. A more literal style of translation will be followed, even to the point of awkwardness (cf. Alter 1985:32). A literal translation of the proverbs does not imply a literal interpretation of the text and this study will undertake a reading attentive of the symbolic aspects of the relevant proverbs in the text of Proverbs (cf. Sandoval 2006:67). The presupposition of this study is that ambiguity or double meanings in interpretation need not be avoided, but may even contribute to understanding the symbolic richness of the text.
Attention to the performance, historical, canonical and literary context of the proverbs will be helpful in discerning the workings and meanings of the proverbs. With regard to the literary context, the premise of this study is that the primary source of meaning is the individual proverb; the nature of which is to be self-contained and thus understood independently (Frydrych 2002:8, Clifford 1999:108; also cf. Heim 2001:18), neither denying that the immediate or broader literary context may add certain additional nuances to the interpretation of an individual proverb, nor that the whole of Proverbs is most definitely more than the sum of its parts (Frydrych 2002:8; Gottwald [1985] 1987:564).
With this aim of and methodology for this chapter asserted, it is now possible to turn to an exploration of the significance of reading Proverbs as poetry as well as a short exposition on proverb poetics and thereafter to the task of first identifying the relevant proverbs in chapter 10:1–15:33 of the book of Proverbs and thereafter exploring them.
The significance of reading Proverbs as poetry
In chapter 2, the question as to reading Proverbs as prose or poetry was under consideration. Now an application of the inferences of that consideration is required. Firstly, a reiteration of the presupposition will be made followed by applications of the five subsequent suppositions. During the exploration of each of the relevant proverbs, these five suppositions will be tested.
Ricoeur (1977:15), in his hermeneutical efforts, cautioned against the detachment of the form and content of a discourse. It became apparent that the form in which a message is encoded and the content that the form communicates is inextricably bound together. McKane ([1979] 1990:167) states that ‘what is said’ cannot be separated from ‘how it is said’; the force of speech and writing arises out of a marriage of form and content, and a divorce destroys the literary creation.
This is so much so that the form can be regarded as a means by which the writer uses the resources of literary expression available to capture a fuller understanding of the subject (Alter 1985:183–184; Burden 1986:40; Potgieter 2002:1372). The dynamics of the modes of discourse (literary genres) are employed by the author as the “means of production” (Ricoeur in Reese [1979] 1990:385). It is important to appreciate the linguistic system being used in a text, in order to comprehend what kinds of meaning, what representations of human and divine reality are made possible by the particular rhetorical vehicle (Alter 1985:4; Berlin [1985] 1992:17). Thus, the form of a text becomes an important key to the interpretation of the text (Burden 1986:40; Loader 1986:112; Human 1999:357).
It was concluded in chapter 2, that this study has the presupposition that Proverbs, and in this instance the proverbs relevant to this study, will be read as poetry. From this follows five suppositions that will now be explored in terms of the proverbs relevant to this study.
Parallelism as constructive device
Though with Landy (1984:68) and Kugel (1981), this study questions an absolute dividing line between prose and poetry in the Bible, nonetheless it agrees with Alter (1985:163) that the poetic character of the text, in purely formal terms, is nowhere more evident than in the book of Proverbs. Berlin’s ([1985] 1992:16) observation that poetry uses parallelism as its constitutive or constructive device as well as Fox’s (2004:165) that parallelism is clearly crucial to the workings of the aphorisms in Proverbs, is very relevant and applicable for this study of Proverbs.
Alter (1985:163) notes that most proverbs in chapter 10 and onward of Proverbs take up one poetic line and that the boundaries of the line are clearly marked by symmetries of meaning, syntax, and rhythm. Proverbs 10:27 will serve as an illustration:
The fear of Yahweh will cause to increase days but the years of the wicked will be shortened.
The proverb consists of antithetic parallelism contrasting the fear of Yahweh with the wicked and an increase of days with the years that will be shortened. Each colon ends with the consequences of the choice being made and the severity of the consequences of a choice for wickedness is underlined by the contrast of the increase of days with the years being shortened. In this way the proverb is constructed using antithetic parallelism and the consequences of the two options are neatly spelled out and contrasted with each other.
Another example from Proverbs 15:16 will illustrate this supposition. In the so-called “better-than” (contrastive) proverbs, inversion and even subversion are created through binary opposition (Nel 2002:444):
Better a little in the fear of Yahweh than a great storehouse and panic in it.
Parallelism structures the text by simultaneously setting up a relationship of equivalence between fear of Yahweh and the purpose of keeping away from the snares of death, as well as a relationship of opposition between the source of life and snares of death.
The sign of the poetic function
Parallelism is, in Biblical poetry, the sign of the poetic function (Landy 1984:78; Berlin [1985] 1992:9), which is “the set (Einstellung) towards the message as such, focus on the message for its own sake” (Jacobson in Berlin [1985] 1992:9; Ricoeur 1976:36).
This principle is worded from a different angle by Burke. For Burke (1969:50) “the notion of persuasion to attitude would permit the application of rhetorical terms to purely poetic structures; the study of lyrical devices might be classed under the head of rhetoric, when these devices are considered for their power to induce or communicate states of mind to readers.” Thus, by the use of the poetic device of parallelism, attention is focused on the message for its own sake.
Clifford (2009:247) notes that the “two lines of Hebrew rhetoric, synthetic or antithetic, extend the thought and add drama. They invite the reader to read both lines and take the additional step of relating one line to the other.” It is this focus on the message as such by the use of parallelism which is the sign of the poetic function that marks out proverbs as poetry.
In the fear of Yahweh the trust of strength and for his sons he will be a place of refuge.
The second colon is a continuation and completion of the thought in the first that carries the thought forward. Both halves of the proverb focus on the message that the proverb wants to convey by making use of (progressive/climactic) parallelism.
Poetry: A text convention
Poetry is a text convention according to which poets organise their texts (Burden 1986:68). Alter (1985:168) states that “[a]s an expression of mainline Wisdom activity Proverbs stresses the presupposition that wisdom is a language craft.” Proverbs utilise the resources of poetic expression to achieve a fuller apprehension of its subject (Alter 1985:183).
The smoothness of the parallelistic lines, is according to Alter (1985:164), not at all surprising as the proverbs are devised to transmit, by their unperturbed flow in language, the wisdom of the sages that “derives from a sense of balanced order, confident distinction, assured consequence for specific acts and moral stances.” In Proverbs 14:2 the confident distinction and assured consequence for specific acts and moral stances is efficiently expressed by the crafty construction of the proverb:
Walker in his straightness fearer of Yahweh but goer on his wrong ways despiser of him.
Landy (1984:78) notices that parallelism in prose often marks the intrusion of the divine into the storyline. In this way, the author of a Biblical text uses the resources of poetic expression to mark a significant occurrence in the text. In Proverbs, Clifford (2004:157) notes the use of poetic expression in the poetics or working of the proverbs: the differentness or otherness of a proverb from ordinary speech “makes it appear ‘given’, ‘revealed’, ‘always there’ and so captures our respect and attention.”
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Thesis and aim of the study
1.2 Chapter delimitation
1.3 Focus of the study
1.3.1 Wisdom literature
1.3.2 Proverbs
1.3.3 The fear of the Lord
1.3.4 Proverbs 10:1–15:33
1.4 Conclusion
Chapter 2: Methodology
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Hermeneutics
2.3 The threefold movement within postmodern thought
2.3.1 Beyond foundations
2.3.2 Beyond totalities
2.3.3 Toward the Other
2.4 Interpretation as imagination and the world in front of the text
2.4.1 The functioning of metaphor
2.4.2 The world in front of the text
2.4.3 Aspects of metaphoricity of the text
2.5 A Ricoeurian hermeneutical approach
2.6 Proverbs: Prose or poetry?
2.7 Methodology
2.8 Procedure
2.9 Summary
Chapter 3: Identification and exploration of the relevant proverbs
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The significance of reading Proverbs as poetry
3.2.1 Parallelism as constructive device
3.2.2 The sign of the poetic function
3.2.3 Poetry: A text convention
3.2.4 A special way of imagining the world
3.2.5 Metaphoric play
3.3 Proverb poetics
3.4 Identifying the relevant proverbs
3.5 Exploring the relevant proverbs
3.5.1 Proverbs 10:27
3.5.2 Proverbs 14:2
3.5.3 Proverbs 14:26
3.5.4 Proverbs 14:27
3.5.5 Proverbs 15:16
3.5.6 Proverbs 15:33
3.5.7 Concluding remarks
3.6 Conclusion
Chapter 4: The symbolic world of Proverbs 10:1–15:33 with specific reference to the fear of the Lord
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The world in front of the text or symbolic-textual world of Proverbs 10:1–15:33
4.3 Some limiting factors
4.4 Describing the symbolic world of Proverbs 10: –15:33 with specific reference to the fear of the Lord.
4.4.1 Some broad characteristics of the symbolic-textual world of Proverbs related to the concept of the fear of the Lord
4.4.2 The specifics of the fear of Yahweh-sayings in Proverbs 10:1–15:33
4.4.2.1 Proverbs 10:27
4.4.2.2 Proverbs 14:2
4.4.2.3 Proverbs 14:26
4.4.2.4 Proverbs 14:27
4.4.2.5 Proverbs 15:16
4.4.2.6 Proverbs 15:33
4.5 Concluding remarks
Chapter 5: Fusing the world of the text and the world of the reader
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The broader horizon of the symbolic-textual world of Proverbs 10:1–15:33 with specific reference to the fear of the Lord in conversation with the world of the contemporary reader
5.3 The individual kaleidoscopic horizons of the fear of Yahwehproverbs in Proverbs 10:1–15:33 in conversation with the world of the contemporary reader
5.3.1 Proverbs 10:27
5.3.2 Proverbs 14:2
5.3.3 Proverbs 14:26 and 27
5.3.4 Proverbs 15:16
5.3.5 Proverbs 15:33
5.4 A possible meaning of the fear the Lord for contemporary readers of the Bible according to Proverbs 10:1–15:33
Chapter 6: Conclusion and thesis
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Review of hermeneutical influences
6.3 Review of the Ricoeurian hermeneutic used
6.4 Review of the question of reading Proverbs as prose or poetry
6.5 Review of methodological considerations
6.6 Review of the procedure followed in this study
6.7 Thesis and conclusion
Works consulted
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