Chapter 6 focuses on a theological evaluation of the whole book, evaluating scholarly discussions of this century that have strongly impacted this discussion, such as a relatively recent interest, for example, in the ‘fear of the Lord’ as a guiding theological principle of the book and in the place of “creation” in Proverbs. This chapter looks at the key intersection of theological themes with a fresh emphasis in scholarship on character formation, on the moral and educational goals of the book and at ideas about life as a journey.

Chapter 3 treats Proverbs 1-9, which demands a whole chapter because of its theological significance and maturity. Both the educational context of the prose instruction texts and the figures of Wisdom and Folly in the poetry are essential parts of this discussion as is the place of God as creator/orderer and the notion of the fear of the Lord in its theological worldview.

Knut Heim examines the literary and historical contexts of wisdom literature, taking the book of Proverbs as a case study, and surveying the work of key scholars in the field. Beginning with literary context, he argues that the sayings are organised into ‘clusters’ through linguistic and thematic links with their neighbours, and that this context has hermeneutical significance. Particularly important is the placement of religious proverbs, which are well integrated with their surroundings. This calls into question the scholarly assumption that religious elements are a late addition to the book, and that wisdom was originally a ‘secular’ endeavour. Rather, elements like the ‘fear of the Lord’ were already embedded within the sayings collections by the time an editor added chapters 1–9. This has implications for the historical development of Proverbs and, more broadly, of wisdom in Israel.

Katharine Dell’s contribution explores the question whether there is a distinctive set of theological ideas for the three key wisdom books – Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes. After a brief survey of scholarship on this debate over the last century and a half, key themes that the books have in common are explored, with salient examples – the doctrine of retribution; the fear of the Lord; the figure of Wisdom and the attainment of wisdom; the theme of creation; communication and life and death. Although considerable commonality is found, there is also a discovery of difference and of interlinking with other books in the canon. The themes themselves are not confined to these ‘wisdom’ books, even though they characterize them accompanied by an essential didactic approach.