Day 2471 – Theology Thursday – Who Wrote the Book of Proverbs? – I Dare You Not To Bore Me With The Bible

Welcome to Day 2471 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom – Theology Thursday – Who Wrote the Book of Proverbs – I Dare You Not To Bore Me With The Bible. Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2471 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2471 of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before.   Today is the twenty-fourth lesson in our segment, Theology Thursday. Utilizing excerpts from a book titled: I Dare You Not To Bore Me With The Bible written by Hebrew Bible scholar and professor the late Dr. Michael S Heiser, we will invest a couple of years going through the entire Bible, exploring short Biblical lessons that you may not have received in Bible classes or Church. The Bible is a wonderful book. Its pages reveal the epic story of God’s redemption of humankind and the long, bitter conflict against evil. Yet it’s also a book that seems strange to us. While God’s Word was written for us, it wasn’t written to us. Today, our lesson is: Who Wrote the Book of Proverbs? Who Wrote the Book of Proverbs? The first book of Proverbs announces, “These are the proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel” (compare Prov 10:1; 25:1). By its own testimony, though, the book of Proverbs had many authors: “These are the sayings of the wise [literally, wise ones]” (Prov 24:23). This same idea—that the proverbs in the book were written by several sages—is reiterated in Proverbs 1:6 and 22:17. But old traditions die hard, and the authorship of these proverbs is still debated. What role did Solomon actually play in writing this Wisdom literature? Solomon Had a Pen Name? In some passages of Proverbs, the sages who wrote the book are named. Proverbs 30 was written by Agur, son of Jakeh (30:1), but we know nothing else about him. Some believe Agur is a pen name for Solomon. However, there is little evidence to support this. The name may also be translated more commonly as “the assembler,” which may point to an anonymous collector of proverbs who also wrote chapter 30. Proverbs 31:1 informs us that King Lemuel wrote the famous chapter about the virtuous woman. In this verse, we learn that Lemuel was taught proverbs by his mother. There is little else known about this elusive king. Jewish tradition views the writer as yet another pen name of Solomon, but there is no reliable proof for this connection. In the Tradition of Solomon Proverbs 25:1 provides another insight into authorship: “These also are proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied.” The word translated “copied” can also mean “transcribed.” This suggests that some of the proverbs (perhaps chapters 25-29) were produced by scribes living in the days of Hezekiah (ca. 715-687 bc), after the lifetime of Solomon. At least one anonymous sage did contribute to Proverbs. Portions of Proverbs 22-23 come from an Egyptian wisdom text composed before Solomon’s lifetime, The Instruction of Amenemope.- In addition,...