Can the Book of Proverbs be a player in "biblical theology"?

Another construal, not simply for the Book of Proverbs, but for the entire wisdom enterprise, has been put forth by W. P. Brown (1996). Envisaging the idea of character as the center of wisdom literature, he traces it through the three wisdom books of the Tanak, a "journey" (21) describing ethical character in Proverbs and its recasting (without losing itself) in Job and in Qoheleth. Readers who undertake this journey are set on a way, a way of life, along which wisdom accompanies them. N. Habel (1972) had already pointed to "way" as a key if not dominant metaphor in chapters 1-9. As Brown puts it, "This temporal aspect [he means from Proverbs to Qoheleth] of character formation is indicated in the frequently repeated motif the `way of wisdom'" (151). This is without doubt a key symbol in the Bible, with a remarkable crossover to the Law in Psalm 1 and elsewhere (e.g., Ps 119), not to mention the prominence of the term in Christian literature.

These construals, inventive and creative, are helpful because they call attention to the interpretive possibilities of the book as a whole. They make sense of the design of the Book of Proverbs, all the while assuming the validity and value of the distinct sayings in chapters 10-29. We shall now concentrate on these later chapters. It is possible to get lost, as it were, in the thicket that each chapter presents, an average of thirty proverbs. But the adage about not seeing the forest for the trees is not pertinent here. What is called for is careful, even meticulous, reading of each saying in a chapter, with an eye to its theological/anthropological relevance. General observations about the collections in these chapters are available in the Proverbs commentaries mentioned above. It is obvious that the important and huge topic of the personification of Wisdom as a woman needs a volume, and several books have been given over to that issue; see, e.g., the summary in Fox (2000: 293-306; 331-59).

To keep within a reasonable space for this article, I will choose a proverb that illustrates the subtlety and also the fruitfulness of a theological interpretation:

   The treasures of wickedness do not profit but justice saves from death
   [Prov 10:2].

How are the terms of the text to be understood? The phrase "treasures of wickedness" literally means wealth acquired in ways that are wrong or dishonest. Justice or righteousness is continually opposed to wickedness in the Bible, and especially in Proverbs 10-15. It can be broadly described as a relational term, indicating the proper conduct of one person towards another, and in a religious sense, especially toward God (cf. Abram in Gen 15:6). Death can be taken normally as the end of life, the end of one's days. But how is one "saved" (literally, "delivered") from death? It does not necessarily mean that one escapes death; the Old Testament perception of reality did not allow that, except perhaps for characters like Henoch (Gen 5:23-34) and Elijah (2 Kgs 2:11). Their deaths are not recorded, but they are described as being "taken" from this world in marvelous fashion. "Death" has a certain coloring; it can refer to a premature death, or to art an ugly, unhappy death (especially for those who put their trust in riches and not in God; Ps 49:7, 14). Immediately the reader is faced with more than one level of meaning. Death for the Israelites was nearly always an unhappy event because the non-life of Sheol awaited them. Sheol was even considered to be dynamic, a power that (as Death itself) pursued everyone (see the "hand of Sheol" in Ps 89:49). But it carried an extra nuance for the wicked. For them death will somehow be unhappy; whether premature or otherwise, is not always explicit. But implicit is the thought that the "treasures" of life will be of no avail--you can't take it with you--a point that is made more vigorously elsewhere, especially in Psalm 49:7-11, 17-20. What about the "death" of the just? They cannot escape death, but something of the "sting of death" (Hos 13:14) can be lessened. Justice (=righteousness) will "deliver" from an unhappy and unpleasant death. Thus the just person is expected to live to a ripe old age, a sign of blessing from the Lord in whom the righteous trust. The progeny of the just is their form of "immortality." Their memory is recalled in blessing, while the name of the wicked rots (Prov 10:7).