Proverbs: A Mentor Commentary

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dec 2008 by Bricker, Daniel P

Proverbs: A Mentor Commentary. By John A. Kitchen. Inverness, Scotland: Mentor, 2006, 789 pp., n.p.

In recent years several commentaries have appeared on the book of Proverbs: van Leeuwen (1997), Murphy (1998), Clifford (1999), Fox (2000), Waltke (2004-2005), and Longman (2006), to name a few. Each of these authors approaches Proverbs from an academic standpoint, and this is appropriate, since all are biblical scholars. To help provide a balance, John A. Kitchen has written a commentary that examines the text from a pastoral point of view and emphasizes practical application. Kitchen holds the position of senior pastor at the Stow Alliance Fellowship in Stow, OH.

The format of the book consists of 32 chapters; the first is an introduction, which briefly addresses matters such as the context of Proverbs within the ancient world and in the biblical canon, authorship and date, interpretation, theology, and structure of the book. The following 31 chapters, each one tied to a chapter in Proverbs, contain the author's comments on every individual verse, with the nasb acting as the anchor version. Following the commentary are two appendices. The first is a discussion of wisdom and folly, while the second is a helpful thematic index of the book of Proverbs tied to the nasb. There are also indices on subjects and Scripture cited, along with a brief bibliography.

When reading the introduction from one of the commentaries listed above, the reader is exposed to information that helps interpret, learn to appreciate, or understand better the wisdom movement of the ANE, and by extension, the book of Proverbs. Literary forms are discussed and shown to be familiar genres throughout that geographical region. In Kitchen's introduction there is no significant comparison of proverbs from neighboring cultures to give the reader a' sense of what wisdom materials from other countries were like or to show the wisdom movement was truly an international phenomenon. The only example of foreign wisdom brought into the discussion is the Instruction of Amen-em-ope (referred to as the Wisdom of Amenemope), but so little information is given that it is impossible to get a feel for what Egyptian wisdom was like. The same can be said for Mesopotamian wisdom. The author could have mentioned and given examples from the proverb collections discovered at Ebla (Tel-Mardikh), or the Sumerian proverbs found in Nippur, Susa, and Ur.

Kitchen also accepts without question, and with limited discussion, the Solomonic authorship for all the proverbs found in Prov 1:1-22:16 and 25:1-29:27. The arguments of those who hold a different position are never mentioned.

In the commentary, each proverb is dealt with individually, making it difficult to see literary relationships when the text is composed of larger literary units such as those in chapters 1-9 and 30-31. Even passages that obviously fit together as sentences that spread over more than one verse (e.g. 23:1-2) are given separate treatment. It is difficult to see literary linkage and flow when the poetic sections are chopped up this way. Most of the individual proverbs are classified according to their type of parallelism, but other literary features are usually not mentioned. The text from the nasb appears as prose rather than poetry, which fails to visually display the proverb as the small poem that it is.

The author tends to cite the same sources repeatedly and rarely interacts with the most recent and scholarly works on Proverbs. For example, in the bibliography David A. Hubbard's articles on "Proverb" and "Proverbs, Book of," from the New Bible Dictionary (1962) are listed, but Hubbard's more recent, detailed, and scholarly equivalent articles in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1986) are never mentioned. Instead, Kitchen prefers to use the older ISBE articles by John F. Genung (1939).

Using the first ten chapters of the book as a fair indicator of the rest, an analysis of the works cited is telling. Because Hebrew word meanings are often discussed, the most prominent source in use is the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (1980) with 127 citations. The New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (1997) has 49 citations, while BDB has eight. Notably missing here is any use of the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (1974-2006). This author certainly favors certain commentaries over others, with the most frequent appearances belonging to Whybray (1994), with 51 citations, followed by Ross (1991) with 47, Delitzsch (1872) with 33, Kidner (1964) with 31, and Buzzell (1988) with 17. The commentaries listed in the first paragraph of this review are referred to infrequently, and some are not engaged in the discussion at all. Even more rarely cited are pertinent journal articles. It is not that any of the authors Kitchen cites prominently are poor scholars, but his research base appears rather limited.

This book's accomplishment lies in the areas of pastoral concerns and a devotional approach rather than in academics. That being acknowledged, more engagement with the best in scholarly sources would have enhanced the book's quality.