Reviewing commentaries is a tricky business – particularly for me as a generalist, and an in-publisher editor of commentaries! I tend to offer my review based on the format and content of the volume, and it’s utility or otherwise to preachers and pastors. Occasionally I’ll digress into particularly theological or stylistic quirks.
I always enjoy starting to read a commentary by John Goldingay – he is a prolific author, with a sense of humour, and a way of saying things well. That said, I’m starting to wonder if I need to put a cap on the number of Goldingay commentaries I read a year. But I digress. I was interested to pick up this – the first Old Testament volume in Eerdmans’ new Commentaries for Christian Formation series (I reviewed the inaugural volume, by N.T. Wright on Galatians, here). I was also interested to read it as I think Proverbs is one of those books of the Bible that many of us Christians know snippets of (or at least think we do), but it is not one that is regularly preached, and certainly not preached or worked straight through. I have been spoilt recently by working on Paul Overland’s superb AOTC Volume on Proverbs – on reflection that AOTC is probably closer to one of Eerdmans’ NICOT volumes, than this CCF. But I digress.
At xvii+478 pages, this is a substantial book – reflecting the length and complexity of Proverbs as a book of the canon. A relatively short introduction (less than 15 pages, all in) leads in to just under 400 pages of commentary proper, a short conclusion (‘Actions and Consequences’, ‘Proverbs in the Context of the Scriptures’ and ‘Virtue’) of less than 10 pages, and then around 40 pages of end matter (Selected Bibliography, indices of Subjects/Authors/Scripture and Other Ancient Sources). The introduction is largely an overview of Goldingay’s thoughts on the book – with occasional hints regarding the formative emphasis of the text, for example “some Levites or other people engaged in teaching might have had access to one as a resource” (p. 8) – and he suggests that “Proverbs does not obviously address specific contexts. The issues it raises recur through Israel’s history and in the history of other traditional peoples” (p. 9). The section headed ‘Proverbs as Scripture’ opens in a way that I felt perhaps detracted from the series aims of ‘Christian Formation’: “As we can only guess at the process whereby Proverbs came into being, we can only guess at the process whereby it found a place among the Srciptures, as is true of other works in both Testaments. We know of nobody who decided on books to include or exclude. My guess is that works would need to commend themselves to the community…” (p. 13). What I found particularly bewildering about this section was that the lines I’ve just quoted had precisely zero references. Given the formative aims of the commentary, I find this a bit disconcerting, and given Goldingay’s academic ability (which surpass mine by a factor of at least 100), a bit puzzling. That said, the remaining two pages of this short introduction do sketch something of the history of Christian reception and use of Proverbs – noting that “Some references in the New Testament take for granted the scriptural status of Proverbs” (p. 14). But overall, the introduction to this volume felt a little bit cursory to me.
The ‘commentary proper’ follows a relatively standard format, with each major unit/chapter divided into pericopes, usually of quite preachable length. Hebrew is transliterated, and Goldingay is pretty consistently a delight to read. One of Goldingay’s key themes for the book is picked up early on and found elsewhere: commenting on 1L8-19 he notes that “Awe for Yahweh links with wisdom and discipline. People do not understand things that matter unless they start from commitment God, or rather to Yahweh… Yahweh is the source of real knowledge” (p. 27). Elsewhere the very theological nature of Proverbs is picked up – particularly with reference to wisdom: “Yahweh is the one who gives wisdom. … Yahweh gives wisdom, but people have to take it” (p. 44). In this area, at least, I felt Goldingay captures the tension of Proverbs with regard to wisdom being God’s, and ours for the getting, quite well. Indeed, in Goldingay’s formulation (which gives good grounds for spiritual formation), we read “walking with wisdom means walking with God, and vice versa, and therefore being secure” (p. 58).
The complexity of Proverbs’ teaching – and it’s interrelation with the wider sweep of the Bible – is a feature of this commentary that I did appreciate, even if it was a little uneven regarding when these links were made explicit by Goldingay. As a strong example, though, commenting on 5:1-20, ‘Marital Unfaithfulness and Faithfulness’, Goldingay writes “Adultery contravenes principles on which a stable society is based, which are embodied in the working of family life in a community. Therefore someone caught in adultery gets into deep trouble. Therefore adultery is stupid. But (the chapter finally indicates) it’s also an act of waywardness and an offense in God’s eyes because it imperils society and the family and (those broader considerations imply) because it fails to image God” (p. 75). This relates to a wider theme. Proverbs is well known for Proverbs 31, a paradigm of ‘good womanhood’, and so Goldingay notes, commenting on 6:24-25 ‘Resist Enticement’, that “Proverbs has been seen as viewing women as either good or bad… actually this is the only ‘bad’ woman in Proverbs…” (p. 96). This reader wonders whether Goldingay is on to something really interesting when he notes that “If anything, allusions to ‘bad’ people characteristically refer to men, starting with 2:12 (also, e.g. 4:14, 17:11), though many references… could go either way” (p. 96-7). The reality of sexuality and it’s complexity is in full view – and Goldingay is generally resonating with a traditional orthodox understanding – though I was somewhat puzzled by his comment that “In another direction, 1 Corinthians 7 pushes further a downbeat attitude to sex and marriage” (p. 104). This is something of a hand grenade to throw out and not expand upon – and this is not the only one in the commentary!
Goldingay’s commentary broadly divides Proverbs into three parts – ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’, broadly corresponding with the three main chapter divisions across its 31 chapters. This structure doesn’t really distract the reader, and occasionally aids it. For example: “Proverbs 10 speaks thirteen times of the faithful (tsaddiq, traditionally ‘righteous’) and twelve times of the faithless (rasha’, traditionally ‘wicked)… In some ways faithfulness is the bigger idea; in some ways wisdom is bigger. Wise people think straight about reality, talk straight, and behave straight…” (p. 139). This introduction to the section balances a good summary with a good look forward. And this slightly time-bending approach to wisdom is a hallmark of both the text and the commentary – and perhaps it’s most useful contribution to the idea of Christian Formation (though I do wonder if Goldingay could have been more explicit in calling that out and making it clear). For example, he writes “Attaining discernment doesn’t mean reaching ultimate wisdom; a discerning mind continues to seek knowledge” (p. 209-10). This points, perhaps, towards a living faith, the kind I think Goldingay describes thus, in an echo of some of Jesus’ teaching, “sacrifice and prayer mean nothing unaccompanied by faithfulness and straightness” (p. 274).
Possibly the most succint description of Goldingay’s A/B/C approach is found at the beginning of his comments on C (Proverbs 22:17-31:31):
“The third part of Proverbs comprises blocks of teaching of varying length that had already been compiled but are now set one after the other. While much of Proverbs C compares with Proverbs B in being collections of one-verse sayings assembled into sequences, these compilations work more consistently by themes than the sequences in Proverbs B. In addition, Proverbs C has more substantial sections on specific topics, like Proverbs A. The subjects of the teaching are the same as those in Proverbs A and B, but the format differs somewhat” (p. 293).
I appreciated Goldingay’s clarifying comment – useful for Christian Formation – that “Proverbs treats work as another aspect of the regular order of the world, of being human” (p. 345). It is somewhat odd that having here, and in many other places, written about Proverbs as a cohesive whole, it appears not to be the way Goldingay actually reads the book. He opens his conclusion thus: “One valuable approach to thinking about the implications of Proverbs is to seek to bring together its scattered teaching on the various topics it covers. In this commentary, however, the final pages consider three broad question(s)* arising from the study of the book” (p. 417). This statement in itself is somewhat disconcerting for the goal of the series, and explains why rather underwhelmed response to this volume. That isn’t to say that the conclusion is disappointing, though. Goldingay rightly in my opinion concludes that “In Christ, the possibility of walking in wisdom is restored” (p. 425), with a footnote to Andrew Errington’s work. In terms of ‘Virtue’, which is perhaps the most ‘Christian Formation’ aspect of this Conclusion, Goldingay notes that “Faithfulness is the dominant virtue in Proverbs. To put it better, its dominant positive descriptor of a person is faithful. Unfortunately and ironically, the translation of this key word (tsaddiq) is tricky” (p. 427).
Overall then, this is a slightly disappointing commentary from my reading. It is a nicely produced hardback from Eerdmans (As I’d expect!), and apart from one rather surprising typo* it was a pleasure to read. Goldingay is an entertaining and provocative writer, but I felt the provocation in this volume (some noted above) detracted from the overall project. I also felt that the ‘Christian Formation’ USP of this volume was not as interlaced or as explicit as it could have been, and this was a shame. This is not to say that this is a bad commentary, just that it isn’t as good as it’s predecessor in the series, and as a commentary on Proverbs I think Overland’s Apollos volume and Wilson’s TOTC volume, would be better suggestions for pastors (The former being more technical, but also much keener on Proverbs as a whole). I think that Proverbs is a book of the Bible I need to dig deeper into, and intend to review other commentaries on the book in the coming years. A few books of the canon later, I studied Jeremiah with Goldingay’s new NICOT, which I was really impressed by. So, to summarise, this is a commentary I broadly enjoyed reading, but felt that it wasn’t a particularly useful look at a complex and important book of the BIble, and suffered from disconcerting inconsistencies. It makes me wary of the CCF series – though I am quite intrigued by Amy Peeler’s new volume on Hebrews, which I hope to get to this year.
3/5
Interestingly, my two previous (recent – there are some ‘For Everyone’ reviews on my old blog) reviews of Goldingay’s commentaries are 3/5 and 4/5.
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