Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
The faith of the Old Testament has its origin in the fundamental fact that God encountered Israel in the midst of history. The preamble of the decalogue mentions it: ‘I am Yahweh thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.’ From this beginning Israel knows that her God encountered her not in a reaction but in a free divine action in history. Through this action He laid hold upon Israel, called her and made her His people. At a later time this previous deed of God came to be designated by the term ‘election of Israel’. The powerful word-event of Old Testament Prophecy made plain once more this structure of God's action: Yahweh, the God who addresses Israel in and through history by the word of His messengers and who is not only reacting against Israel's sin but acting by His free grace, proves to be the God who stands by the independence of His election.
page 147 note 1 Prov. 11.14, 14.28, 28.15, 29.2.
page 147 note 2 Prov. 14.28, 35, 16.10, I4f etc.; Eccles. 4.13, 5.8 (RV 5.9), 8.2, 4 etc.
page 148 note 1 Prov. 14.31; 17.5; Eccles. 12.1.
page 148 note 2 Rylaarsdam, J. C., Revelation in Jewish Wisdom Literature, 1946, 23.Google Scholar
page 148 note 3 Brunner, H., Handbuch der Orientalistik, 1, 2, 1952, 93–96.Google ScholarGese, H., Lehre und Wirklichkeit in der alten Weisheit, 1958.Google Scholar
page 149 note 1 Pritchard, J. B., Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 1955, 421.Google Scholar
page 149 note 2 Prov. 22.19.
page 149 note 3 von Rad, G., Old Testament Theology, vol. 1, 418f.Google Scholar Also Zimmerli, W., ‘Die Weisung des Alten Testamentes zum Geschäft der Sprache’ (in Das Problem der Sprache in Theologie und Kirche, ed. by Schneemelcher, W., 1959).Google Scholar
page 149 note 4 Alt, A., ‘Die Weisheit Salomos’ (in Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte Israels, 2, 1953, 90–99, esp. 94).Google Scholar
page 150 note 1 von Rad, G., ‘Hiob 38 und die altägyptische Weisheit’ (in Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient Near East, Suppl. to Vetus Testamentum, 3, 1955, 293–301).Google Scholar
page 151 note 1 Gen. a.19–23.
page 152 note 1 Gen. 1.28.
page 152 note 2 Fichtner, J., ‘Die altorientalische Weisheit in ihrer israelitisch-jüdischen Ausprägung’, BZAW 62, 1933, 75–79.Google Scholar
page 153 note 1 2 Sam. 17.1–14. Cf. also Boer, P. de, ‘The Counsellor’ (in Suppl. to VT, 3, 1955, 42–71).Google Scholar
page 153 note 2 Prov. 161, 9, 19.21.
page 153 note 3 Prov. 16.2, 21.2.
page 153 note 4 Prov. 21.1.
page 153 note 5 Prov. 25.2.
page 154 note 1 Prov. 17.15, 20.10.
page 154 note 2 Prov. 11.1, 20, 12.22.
page 154 note 3 Prov. 15.26.
page 154 note 4 Prov. 12.2.
page 154 note 5 Prov. 15.25, 16.4.
page 154 note 6 Prov. 15.29.
page 154 note 7 Prov. 15.3 (11).
page 154 note 8 Prov. 16.3, 20, 18.10, 20.22, 22.19, 28.25, 29.25.
page 154 note 9 Prov. 10.27, 14, 26f.
page 157 note 1 Pritchard, op. cit., 412.
page 157 note 2 Eccles. 1.13, 2.26 (twice), 3.10, 11, 5.17, 18 (RV 5.18, 19), 6.2, 8.15, 9.9, 12.7, 11.
page 157 note 3 Eccles. 2.10, 21, 3.22, 5.17, 18 (RV 5.18, 19), 9.6, 9 (11.2).