Scripture, Culture, and Missions
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 55, No. 1 – Fall 2012
Managing Editor: Terry L. Wilder
By Michael V. Fox. The Anchor Yale Bible. Volume 18b. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. 729 pages. Hardcover, $60.00.
This volume of the Anchor Yale Bible series is a continuation of Fox’s volume on Proverbs 1–9. Although the volume continues Fox’s previous work, it can be read independently. Fox’s commentary is composed of six primary parts: 1) an introduction, 2) the commentary proper, 3) four more or less self-contained essays, 4) textual notes, 5) a new translation of the book of Proverbs, and 6) a bibliography. In the introduction Fox takes up important issues related to the interpretation of Proverbs 10–31. First, he addresses how to read Proverbs as a collection. Fox argues that there are “proverb pairs” and even, on occasion, “proverb clusters” that form an interpretive context. He explains these groupings as the result of associative thinking, that is, “[w]hen one thought gives rise to another or one word evokes a related one” (480). However, he does not see larger, elaborate structures in chapters 10-29. As Fox sees it, “It is far-fetched to imagine editors compiling proverbs according to grand and detailed designs” (481).
Next, Fox deals with the hermeneutical considerations for reading an individual proverb by focusing on its form and describing the templates that may have been used to construct a proverb. His description of the disjointed proverb template in which there is “a gap between the [parallel] lines [that] invites the reader to fill it” (494; e.g. Prov 15:16) is especially helpful for interpretation. Fox provides pointers for identifying this type of proverb, detecting the gap, and finding appropriate ways to fill it.
The commentary proper deals with the text verse by verse or unit by unit. Fox presents his translation of each unit followed by commentary. The length of the commentary varies widely from two or three paragraph to several pages, on occasion, including an excursus alongside the commentary. Technical discussions take place in a smaller font immediately following the commentary. Textual variants that Fox accepts, but that deviate from the Masoretic Text, are listed below the translation and most often addressed in the technical discussions. This format enables a readable commentary that also provides its technical basis.
Throughout the commentary Fox interacts with three primary dialogue partners: 1) Ancient Near Eastern Wisdom, 2) medieval Jewish Rabbis, and 3) modern scholarship from Franz Delitzsch to the present day. These dialogue partners reveal much about Fox’s work. First, the work focuses on the historical authors and/or editors responsible for producing the text of Proverbs 10-31. It describes what they meant and how they put the text together by analyzing the historical, literary, and linguistic features of the text, each area in which Fox is quite skilled. It does not include an attempt to incorporate that historical meaning into universal theological discussions or bring out contemporary application. Second, the traditions that shape Fox’s perspective are Jewish scholarship and modern critical scholarship. He rarely, if ever, deals with Christian interpreters from the ancient, medieval, or reformation periods. Third, his view of the Bible is consistent with modern historical-critical scholarship.
Following the commentary proper, four essays outline Fox’s reconstruction of the fundamental ideas that gave rise to the book of Proverbs as it is. The essays deal with the following topics as it pertains to wisdom: 1) the growth of wisdom, 2) ethics, 3) revelation, and 4) knowledge. From these essays Fox paints the following picture of the wisdom of Proverbs: wisdom is a human cognitive enterprise that seeks to discover what is good. What is good is what is consistent with the ideal of harmony. At first, the collectors of Proverbs viewed wisdom as a means to an end, not necessarily ethical and not requiring revelation (i.e., divine law) since humans are able to uncover what is good. Over time their picture of wisdom becomes more overtly ethical and theological. The first shift occurs when wisdom becomes a means to avoid evil, relating wisdom to revelation. Finally, wisdom becomes transcendent, and revelation is wisdom.
The commentary closes with textual notes, a translation, and bibliography. First, the textual notes include an analysis of textual variants for Proverbs 10-31. Fox catalogues the textual variants and offers commentary on the significance of each variant and its possible implications for the meaning of the text. Second, the translation that Fox offers is fresh and enlightening. Fox possesses excellent technical expertise in Biblical Hebrew, and he is sensitive to preserving the structure and rhythm of the Hebrew in such a way that the English translation has a rhetorical effect similar to the original. Third, the sixty-page bibliography covers both volumes of the Proverbs commentary.
Fox’s commentary skillfully does what it aims to do. It offers virtually no help in relating the text to universal (especially Christian) theological discussions, nor does it provide ways for relating the text to contemporary life issues, but anyone looking for a commentary that aims to describe the meaning of those who produced Proverbs will find this work competent, erudite, and insightful.
