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PRODUCT TITLE THE WISDOM LITERATURE - INTERPRETING BIBLICAL TEXTS SERIES
ISBN NUMBER 9780687008469
CATEGORY TYPE OT COMMENTARY
AUTHOR/EDITOR RICHARD CLIFFORD
PUBLISHER ABINGDON PRESS
PRODUCT Type. Books
Summary NA
FORMAT SOFTCOVER
SELLING PRICE $38.00*
*price before member's discount

DESCRIPTION

Biblical texts create worlds of meaning, and invite readers to enter them. When readers enter such textual worlds, which are often strange and complex, they are confronted with theological claims. With this in mind, the purpose of the Interpreting Biblical Texts series is to help serious readers in their experience of reading and interpreting by providing guides for their journeys into textual worlds. The controlling perspective is expressed in the operative word of the title - interpreting. The primary focus of the series is not so much on the world behind the texts or our of which the texts have arisen as on the worlds created by the texts in their engagement with readers.
 
In this volume, Richard J. Clifford seeks to make the biblical wisdom literature intelligible to modern readers. It is easy to quote the occasional proverb, say a few things about "the problem of evil" in Job, or quote "vanity of vanities," but far more rewarding to read the whole book with an appreciative and informed eye.
 
Opening chapters of The Wisdom Literature comment on the striking similarities between ancient and modern "wisdom literature" and on the comparable literature from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Canaan. Thereafter, a chapter is devoted to each biblical wisdom book (Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Sirach, and Wisdom of Solomon), studying not only its content but also its rhetoric -- how it engages the reader.