The Book of Proverbs

Programme

The book of Proverbs stands at the beginning of the wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible and provides a gateway to further study of wisdom as a concept and of key wisdom texts. It is a rich text with many internal linguistic and thematic issues to discuss, but it also has essential links to the wider ancient Near Eastern world and an afterlife at Qumran, in the Versions, amongst the Rabbis and in early Christians thought (and beyond).  It is a key source of ethics, advice on character formation, practical and spiritual admonition and knowledge of God. Its feminine personification of Wisdom is a unique and rich concept.

This research group will hold two sessions each year, one of invited papers and the other of offered papers.

Chairs

Katharine Dell, University of Cambridge

Tova Forti, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Sessions

Leuven 2016

The research group on the Book of Proverbs will conduct two sessions at the 2016 meeting. The first will consist of invited papers on the relationship between different sections of the book of Proverbs and whether these diverse collections hold together in a unified way and what “unified” may signify if this is the case.

The second session is open to submissions and addresses the relationship between concepts, maxims and instructions in Proverbs and key Qumran texts, notably Instruction or Musar le-Mevin (4Q415-4Q418, 4Q423), Mysteries (1Q27; 4Q299-4Q301), Beatitudes (4Q525), “Wiles of the Wicked Woman” (4Q184), and others like 4Q185, 4Q424-4Q426.