Note: The Wisdom Bible Study has concluded, however, materials will remain available here until the next Bible Study begins.

“But where shall wisdom be found?”
Job 28:12

This Bible study will seek to find the various ways in which the Biblical authors, both in the Hebrew scriptures and in the New Testament, appeal to wisdom as a way of receiving God’s revelation and as a way of faithful living. We will read and briefly review the ways of faithfulness in the canonical Wisdom books of the Hebrew scriptures – Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes – and of the Wisdom deutero-canonical books, Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirach. We will also read and discuss the ongoing evocative authority of the Hebrew Wisdom literature in the New Testament and in non-canonical early Christian writings.

Wisdom literature has been used in contemporary theological and spiritual exploration in many ways. Wisdom is a modern scholarly category to isolate and explore certain Biblical texts. Wisdom thus isolated proposes a way of faithfulness that is different from that of “the law and the prophets” particular to Israel. Wisdom, instead, harks back to the narratives of first creation and God’s presence with and in all creation.

This Bible study will depend upon participants doing “homework” in prior Biblical reads. All are welcome to the class, but full participation depends on keeping up with reading in the Wisdom texts of the Bible.