Katherine Dell. Get Wisdom, Get Insight: An Introduction to Israel's Wisdom Literature. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2000. Pp. ix + 203. $16.00 (Paper).

Abstract

"Katherine Dell, a lecturer in Divinity at the University of Cambridge and author of The Book of Job as Sceptical Literature (1991) and Shaking a Fist at God: Struggling with the Mystery of Undeserved Suffering (1997), has produced yet another text in her study of the "wisdom tradition" of ancient Israel. Get Wisdom, Get Insight is taken from the oft-repeated phrase in Proverbs admonishing readers to continue in their pursuit of this supreme goal: "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost you all you have, get understanding" (4:7; NIV). Dell's selection of topics in this text includes: The major wisdom books of the Old Testament and Apocrypha Wisdom in the prophets and the psalms Wisdom in later Jewish, Greek, and Christian literature Wisdom in the Dead Sea scrolls library Similarities and differences between biblical and ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature The influence of wisdom thought on the sayings of Jesus [2] This book is an attempt to focus on what Dell calls the "mainstream wisdom literature" of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha and to demonstrate how widespread the influence of wisdom thought has been both within the Old Testament and outside it. In the course of her work she is constantly in dialogue with previous scholarship, both agreeing and at times disagreeing with it. While the book offers an extensive bibliography of current Wisdom Literature writing and has ample indices of biblical (including apocryphal) references as well as author and subject indices, an index of extra-biblical references (e.g. Pirke Aboth, the Sentences of Phocylides, the Teachings of Silvanus, the Dead Sea Scroll library, et al.) would have been helpful. The frequent chapter summaries help the reader to focus on the main points and would be especially helpful in the classroom. [3] Dell makes a clear distinction between "wisdom literature" and "wisdom influence." The distinction is necessary because the boundaries that define what should and should not be considered wisdom literature are problematic. For example, previous scholars have attempted to include the Joseph story in Genesis (9) or the Succession Narrative in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings (9) within Old Testament wisdom literature. Dell maintains that these biblical passages and others like them should not be referred to as "wisdom literature," but rather as passages that have come under the influence of wisdom thought (thus her category "wisdom influence")."(pg 1)