SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.32 número1Liturgical aspects of funeral services in Reformed Churches of African originThe reception of a Job poem in some contemporary poems índice de autoresíndice de assuntospesquisa de artigos
Home Pagelista alfabética de periódicos  

Serviços Personalizados

Artigo

Indicadores

Links relacionados

  • Em processo de indexaçãoCitado por Google
  • Em processo de indexaçãoSimilares em Google

Compartilhar


Verbum et Ecclesia

versão On-line ISSN 2074-7705
versão impressa ISSN 1609-9982

Verbum Eccles. (Online) vol.32 no.1 Pretoria  2011

http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ve.v32i1.513 

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

 

The concept of wisdom in the Hebrew Bible - A comparative-philosophical analysis

 

 

Jacobus W. Gericke

Faculty of Humanities, School of Basic Sciences, Subject Group Theology, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, South Africa

Correspondence

 

 


ABSTRACT

This article provides a brief comparative philosophical clarification of the concept of wisdom in the Hebrew Bible. Utilising the format of a presentation presented by Ryan (2008), four philosophical definitions of wisdom were compared with similar sentiments in ancient Israelite religion: (1) wisdom as epistemic humility, (2) wisdom as factual knowledge, (3) wisdom as useful knowledge, and (4) wisdom as successful living. Cumulatively the four criteria might approximate a functional list of individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for instantiating the property of being wise.


 

 

Full text available only in PDF format.

 

 

References

Aristotle, 1941, 'Nichomachean Ethics', in R. McKeon, (ed.), The Basic Works of Aristotle, pp. 935-1112, Random House, New York.         [ Links ]

Barr, J., 1999, The Concept of Biblical Theology: An Old Testament Perspective, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, PA.         [ Links ]

Barr, J., 1961, The Semantics of Biblical Language, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.         [ Links ]

Crenshaw, J.L., 2010, Old Testament wisdom: an introduction, John Knox Press, Westminster, UK.         [ Links ]

Garrett, R., 1996, 'Three Definitions of Wisdom', in K.B. Lehrer, J. Lum, B.A. Slichta & N.D. Smith (eds.),Knowledge, Teaching, and Wisdom, pp. 221-232, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, NL.         [ Links ]

Descartes, R., 1979, 'Principles of Philosophy', in E. Haldane & G. Ross (eds. & transl.) Philosophical Works, pp. 201-302, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.         [ Links ]

Kekes, J., 1983, 'Wisdom', American Philosophical Quarterly, 20(3), 277-286.         [ Links ]

Lehrer, K.B., Lum, J., Slichta, B.A. & Smith, N.D. (eds.), 1996, Knowledge, Teaching, and Wisdom, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, NL.         [ Links ]

Lehrer, K. & Smith, N., 1996, 'Introduction', in K. Lehrer, B.J. Lum, B.A. Slichta & N.D. Smith (eds.), pp. 3-17,Knowledge, Teaching, and Wisdom, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, NL.         [ Links ]

Maxwell, N., 1984, From Knowledge to Wisdom, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, UK.         [ Links ]

Murphy, R.E., 2002, The tree of life: an exploration of biblical wisdom literature, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI.         [ Links ]

Nozick, R., 1989, The Examined Life, Touchstone Press, New York.         [ Links ]

Plato, 1978a, The Apology, in E. Hamilton & C. Huntington (eds.), The Collected Dialogues of Plato, pp. 3-26, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.         [ Links ]

Plato, 1978b, 'The Republic', in E. Hamilton & C. Huntington (eds.), The Collected Dialogues of Plato, pp. 575-844, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.         [ Links ]

Ryan, S., 2008, 'Wisdom' in E.N. Zalta (ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Fall 2008 edn., n.p., viewed 21 March 2011, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/wisdom/        [ Links ]

Ryan, S., 1999, 'What is Wisdom?', Philosophical Studies 93, 119-139. doi:10.1023/A:1004257728638        [ Links ]

Ryan, S., 1996, 'Wisdom', in K.B. Lehrer, J. Lum, B.A. Slichta & N.D. Smith (eds.), Knowledge, Teaching, and Wisdom, pp. 233-242, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, FL.         [ Links ]

 

 

Correspondence:
Jaco Gericke
PO Box 1174
Vanderbijlpark 1900
South Africa
Email: 21609268@nwu.ac.za

Received: 27 Mar. 2011
Accepted: 31 May 2011
Published: 08 Sept. 2011

Creative Commons License Todo o conteúdo deste periódico, exceto onde está identificado, está licenciado sob uma Licença Creative Commons