Proverbs 1-9: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mar 2002 by Bricker, Daniel P

Proverbs 1-9: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. By Michael V. Fox. AB 18A, New York: Doubleday, 2000, xix 474 pp., $42.50.

Michael V. Fox has added another volume to the Anchor Bible. This publication is part of an update of R. B. Y. Scott's contribution to the Anchor Bible, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, which appeared in 1965. Scott's work was one of the earliest offerings in the Anchor Bible and fit closely with the original intention of the series (as I understand it), which was to provide basic introductory material, emphasize a new translation, and offer textual notes, along with a comparatively minimal amount of commentary. Subsequent authors added more weight to the commentary; thus Scott's work was much thinner than other volumes that followed in the series. As evidence of the larger space given in the more recent books in this series, Fox will cover the book of Proverbs in two volumes. The first volume covers chaps. 1-9 of Proverbs, while volume two will cover chaps. 10-31. Ecclesiastes will be treated in a separate volume. Thus what Scott did in one volume (257 pp.) in 1965 will be covered in three volumes in the updates.

The book consists of four main components: (1) commentary, which requires no knowledge of Hebrew; (2) excursuses on topics that arise from the exegesis; (3) philological and technical notes, which appear in small type; and (4) textual notes, which are found at the end of the book. There is also an extensive discussion of introductory matters and, as is true of all offerings in the Anchor Bible, the author provides an original translation of the text.

Fox divides Proverbs 1-9 into a prologue, ten lectures, and five interludes. The ten lectures are father-to-son discourses, each consisting of an exordium, a lesson, and a conclusion. The five interludes, regarded as later additions, are for the most part reflections on wisdom. There are also minor insertions, which are regarded as secondary.

One of Fox's most noticeable traits is that he is not hesitant to disagree with previous scholarship. The reader will soon discover that the claims of C. H. Toy (ICC), W. L. McKane (OTL), and others come under frequent and pointed criticism. However, Fox shows why he differs with these scholars and provides convincing arguments to support his beliefs. For example, there are detailed discussions regarding the identities of Lady Wisdom and the Strange Woman, in which Fox adequately cites the existing views, critiques them, and offers his own views, with reasonable arguments to back them up. It is disappointing that Richard J. Clifford's contribution to the Old Testament Library came out too late for Fox to interact with it in detail. The same can be said of the recent commentaries by Roland Murphy (WBC) and Raymond Van Leeuwen (NIB).

Fox provides a discussion of wisdom vocabulary (pp. 28-43) similar to the study found in Kidner's commentary in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentary series. While Kidney's study still has many valuable insights and deals with a broader range of topics, Fox's treatment is more updated and scholarly. Another positive feature of this book is the discussion of ancient pedagogy (pp. 131-34, 309-17), which dispels some common misconceptions regarding teaching methodology in Israel. One of the most helpful qualities of the book is the frequent occurrence of informative comparisons, contrasts, and parallels with Egyptian literature, concepts, and beliefs. The author also does this with Mesopotamian materials, but to a much smaller degree.

One of the interesting characteristics of this book is Fox's attempt to take ancient Hebrew vocabulary and concepts and find modern Americanized English equivalents, such as jerks" (p. 102), "blockheads" (p. 117), and "zombies" (p. 118). However, he may have gone too far with the blunt warning found on p. 237: "Keep away from another man's wife, or he'll beat the hell out of you, maybe kill you."

It was disappointing that Fox did not interact with Kitchen's discussions of the structure of the book of Proverbs in "The Basic Literary Forms and Formulations of Ancient Instructional Writings in Egypt and Western Asia" (in E. Hornung and 0. Keel, eds., Studien zu altagyptischen Lebenslehren [Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1979] 235-82) and "Proverbs and Wisdom Books of the Ancient Near East: The Factual History of a Literary Form" (TynBul 28 [1977] 69-114). Kitchen made a case for the structure of Proverbs based on his comparison of Proverbs with contemporary literature outside of Israel. Kitchen's studies are listed in the bibliography but never made a part of the discussion.

Assessing this book's place in its field shows both positives and negatives. It is written from a different faith perspective than the one ETS members hold to and rarely includes evangelical scholarship in the discussion. Nevertheless, it is still a valuable resource because of the author's familiarity with ancient Near Eastern materials and his ability to show parallels, comparisons, and contrasts. Fox is also very well informed on the culture and language of ancient Israel. This kind of knowledge is crucial to the understanding of individual proverbs, since so many of them appear without context, as will probably be demonstrated in the second volume. It is also important to the understanding of the social setting and cultural background of wisdom materials.