The Discourse of Wealth And Poverty in the Book of Proverbs

Discussion of wealth and poverty is spread throughout ancient Israelite and Jewish wisdom literature, says Sandoval (Hebrew Bible, Chicago Theological Seminary), but he focuses here on how it is constructed and how it functions in the instructional book of Proverbs. He characterizes his work as an exercise in biblical ethics, a sub-discipline of biblical studies that, among other goals, seeks a full description of the moral contours of biblical and cognate texts. By shedding light on the question of the social setting from which the text emerged, he says, it also contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the larger social landscapes of ancient Israel and Judah as these are refracted through Proverbs. The study is slightly revised from his 2004 Ph.D. dissertation for Emory University. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Timothy J. Sandoval received his Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible for Emory University and is currently Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at Chicago Theological Seminary. He is the editor, with Carleen Mandolfo, of Relating to the Text: Interdisciplinary and Form-Critical Insights on the Bible (2003) and is currently working on a project entitled Wisdom’s Worth: Wealth, Poverty, and Value in Israelite Wisdom Literature.