The Theology of the Book of Proverbs

In this volume, Katharine Dell offers a guide to the nature and character of the Book of Proverbs. She explores its key messages and major theological themes, notably God as creator and Wisdom as mediator, standing at the center of a profound theological relationship between God and humanity. Dell provides an overview of scholarly evaluations of these writings, which explore its literary forms, subdivisions, content, purpose, and social contexts. Summarizing important modern debates, she also examines the intertextual and canonical relationship of Proverbs to other biblical books, the afterlife of Proverbs in wisdom material from the Apocrypha, Qumran, and the New Testament, and the place of Proverbs in the history of interpretation. Her book will help readers to understand the nature and character of the book of Proverbs. It also enables them to assess its key messages and to see its wider context within the canon of scripture and its relevance within the history of interpretation.

• Gives an overview of past and present approaches to the theology of a key biblical book, the book of Proverbs
• Grounds Proverbs in the theology of the canon of the Old Testament and relates it to other key books and a look at the history of interpretation which shows its interpretative relevance over the centuries
• Summarises the contents of the whole book and divides it up into sections to reflect its diversity whilst showing the theological distinctiveness of these sections