Shared with Permission from Criswell Theological Review
Interpreting The Wisdom Books: An Exegetical Handbook by Edward M. Curtis as part of the Handbooks for Old Testament Exegesis series edited by David M. Howard, Jr. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2017, 204 pp., $21.99 Paperback.
In Interpreting The Wisdom Books: An Exegetical Handbook, Edward M. Curtis, PhD from Pennsylvania University (1984), and Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at Biola University, teaching there since 1974, has added to an impressive list of published works in journals like Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society and Bibliotheca Sacra, edited works like The Apologetics Study Bible (2007) and The Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992), commentaries like Song of Songs (1988), Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs (2013) and his previous books with John Brugaletta, Discovering the Way of Wisdom (2004) and Transformed Thinking (2011). Curtis also received a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to participate in a seminar on the Bible and Cuneiform Literature at Yale University (1987).
Curtis has striven to guide the pastoral reader with the series’ prescribed approach to Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs in hopes of preparing leaders to navigate this challenging material and demonstrate for others the superiority of God’s way.
Curtis begins with an overview of the nature of wisdom literature as common sense made Scripture, light on theology, save for its core dependence on Yahwistic worldview. It promotes the spiritual value of the mundane as functioning best in Yahweh’s world, tainted as it is with sin. It cultivates humility, patient pondering, and divine trust in the face of human limitation, and calls the worshiper to wrestle with tension and through ambiguity both within Scripture and between text and real world. Here the poetic is an essential element of the message not some discardable husk for the propositional and prescriptive, doing what other genres cannot. Poetry brings sensory depth in shared human experience with structures especially tuned for a provocation to reflection and memorization.
In Chapter 2, Curtis prepares pastors to use primary themes as a mental anchor in an ever intensifying engagement of details. Job explores tensions between faith and suffering, human limitation, and God’s acceptance of honest cries. One must focus on who God is and not on what God does for them, for His sovereign hand works toward hidden purposes. Proverbs sees the root of wisdom in the fear of Yahweh. All discoveries of Him and His world come from Him. It pits wisdom against folly and values restraint, justice, humility and discretion. Ecclesiastes explores the messy confusion of life, in an attempt to separate vain striving from meaningful activity. Life should be enjoyed as God enables. Wisdom is best, but death is coming. Fearing God and keeping his commands are the ultimate duties of life as God works out His “long-game” in divine shadows. After a summary of the major approaches to Song of Songs, Curtis settles his approach in human relationships which are applicable to, but not about, Divine relationships. Love and sex are part of God’s plan. Healthy relationships are essential to spiritual development, none more than marriages, which grow best in an environment of wisdom and order. The ideal exposes the selfishness of broken relationships.
In chapter 3, Curtis lays out prerequisites for proper interpretation, Ancient Near Eastern backgrounds, skilled text criticism and contemplative translation. He provides a solid list of principles and resources for each.
Chapter 4 moves the reader into direct meditation on wisdom texts. The student must learn thoughtful engagement of the hermeneutical spiral created when each stage of exegesis (words, grammar, structure, literary context, background, and theological cohesion) informs the other stages. Job must be read as a unity, as poetry, and as ANE literature. It’s a journey with a suffering soul. In Proverbs, one must wrestle through tensions and ambiguities on a path to wisdom. Balance is created by the interplay of proverbs on related subjects. Both shallow antagonism and shallow acceptance should be avoided. Ecclesiastes should be read as a unified dialogue, marching down a crooked road to a sanctified conclusion where skepticism and faith live harmoniously. Song of Songs needs careful distinction of natural units and speakers and an answer to the ultimate interpretive question: divine love in metaphor, or human love with divine implications? Bask in the poetic beauty and resist ruining the aesthetics with overly simplistic propositional renderings.
Chapters 5 and 6 turn to the proclamation of wisdom material. In 5, Curtis addresses the modern reluctance to preach wisdom books: Practical isn’t spiritual enough, wisdom material is labor intensive and ambiguous in a canon otherwise full of low hanging fruit, too much “secular” material, and wisdom approaches to life are “outmoded.” Curtis emboldens the reader to bring Scripture’s relevancy to the fore. Wisdom discussions directly address Christians in the real world, engage the suffering, cope with unexpected outcomes, and confront injustice in a fallen world. Each book is revisited with helpful tips for maintaining context and getting practical. Chapter 6 attempts to take the student through the whole process from text to sermon, from analysis to organization to presentation. He uses friendship issues in Proverbs and Job as his foundation.
On the whole, Edward M. Curtis has written a fine exegetical introduction to wisdom literature. His writing is clear and concise. There are many keen insights into the nature of wisdom and into the intentions of wisdom writers. He waxes particularly strong on Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes where his sensible reading stands out amid many convoluted treatments by other scholars. His handling of Job pulsates with a compassion for the suffering that goes far beyond mere academic analysis.
There is, however, some room for improvement. While Curtis does include some gems, the book as a whole suffers from a paucity of illustration. Textual examples are sparse and those that are included tend to lack punch. The final chapter, Putting it All Together: From Text to Sermon, which I was initially excited to read, proved jumbled and unhelpful for actual sermon building.
After acknowledging the weak motivation for many to delve into this material, one would expect the author to thrill the reader early and often with new discoveries, surprising meanings, impactful lessons, and even the occasional excursus to unpack some text, like the severely undertreated wisdom Psalms. The final chapter might be rewritten to include edited “sermons” that demonstrate Curtis’ concerns for text/background, organization and presentation, even if those sermons need to come from others whom Curtis deems to have hit the mark.
Secondly, Interpreting the Wisdom Books lacks the personal touch modern students crave. In a book aimed at helping pastors pastor, I would hope to find more than what the author knows, but to feel that, in some sense, I’ve come to know the author himself. I would hope to experience the book as a type of mentorship in handling wisdom and wisdom literature.
Finally, the book is somewhat redundant from chapter to chapter, revisiting issues (well-presented as they are) rather than increasing practical precision in them. The space saved by reducing repetition could be used to pepper the material with many more insightful examples, “sermons” and, perhaps, to spend some time on wisdom psalms.
That said, I found the book insightful, particularly in Curtis’ thoughtful encouragement to eschew both shallow antagonism and shallow acceptance and to wrestle through tension and ambiguity in practical engagement of the text in the real world. For that is the path to wisdom. Interpreting The Wisdom Books is worth having on every pastor’s shelf.
