Interpreting the Book of Proverbs (Part 1)

I am going to do a 14-part series on interpreting the book of Proverbs. This is an update from a workshop that I did in October of 2000 at the Mid-America Conference on Preaching. This initial post will serve as an introduction to the series. After this, I will do twelve posts on six hermeneutical principles for understanding Proverbs and a final post on a recommended bibliography for studying Proverbs.

How often have you heard a sincere believer claim a supposed prayer promise from the book of Proverbs or a verse that sounds as if success in some aspect of life, such as a business venture or a domestic activity, is guaranteed for one who trusts in the Lord. Yet, when the expected results did not come to fruition, the believer was left in a state of bewilderment about his lack of faith, or whatever sort of deficiency he is able to conjecture. On some different occasions, I have heard someone question a well-intentioned believer about his application and/or interpretation of a passage in Proverbs, and have received a response something like: ???this is what the passage means to me!??? Though I do not want to minimize an individual believer???s responsibility in applying Scripture to his life, I am convinced that legitimate application can only be accomplished after a believer directs his primary focus away from the application to a foundational level that focuses on what did this passage mean to its original author. This basic interpretative task is especially important when we come to Proverbs.

This interpretative task in Proverbs is germane for two reasons. First, Christians need to know how to live wisely in a humanistic and hedonistic society. Proverbs tells the individual believer how to live wisely in the everyday circumstances of life. This purpose is clearly articulated in Proverbs 1:2???6. This section states that the purpose of the book of Proverbs is to challenge its readers to obtain wisdom. The term translated as ???wisdom??? in Proverbs can be understood as biblical skill in living. This is to say wisdom enables one to live a successful and godly life. In 1:2???6 we can see that wisdom includes moral skill in holy living (vv. 2a, 3???5) and intellectual understanding (vv. 2b, 6). The theme of Proverbs is found in 1:7. This verse states that wisdom is an outgrowth of one???s relationship to fearing, ???reverentially trusting,??? God. Thus, Christians need the wisdom found in Proverbs in facing the demands and temptations encountered in a secular society. Second, while Christians need the wisdom of Proverbs to regulate their lives, they must use Proverbs in a biblically informed manner to avoid misapplying the wisdom of Proverbs as necessarily direct guarantees from God. Because the applications drawn from the book of Proverbs have been so abused, we need that which is basic for all effective application of Proverbs: a development of hermeneutical guidelines to establish the meaning of Proverbs. Consequently, my objective with this series of posts is to lay a foundation for effective application by developing six principles for interpreting Proverbs. With my next post, I will focus on the first hermeneutical guideline.

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Wisdom literature, Proverbs

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