(00:00) Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are sometimes referred to as “Wisdom Literature.” These texts may have developed during the period of the monarchy. Proverbs shows some Egyptian influence.
(07:44) The big picture of Proverbs: Do I seek wisdom? Wisdom is portrayed as feminine and is a Tree of Life to all who lay hold upon her.
(24:04) The Wisdom Tradition clarifies the difference between the wise person and the fool. Many parallels exist between Nephi and Proverbs, as Nephi was trained in the Wisdom Tradition.
(31:00) Truth and goodness are found in so many religions and cultures. We can cultivate holy envy and compare bests with bests when discussing other religious traditions.
(34:22) The “Strange Woman” described in Proverbs can be seen as a type of the evils mankind should avoid, as her paths lead to death.
(35:24) Whoever finds wisdom finds life unto their soul. Wisdom speaks of her companionship with God during the creation.
(44:44) Who can find a virtuous woman? This can be interpreted as finding wisdom or as being a woman of strength and power.
(48:57) The dominant theme in Ecclesiastes is that all is vanity or “hevel”, meaning that everything on this earth is temporary and fleeting. A valuable lesson we can take from this is to focus our time and energy on what matters most.
(54:03) The authorship of Ecclesiastes is traditionally attributed to Solomon, but can also be dated to a later time period.
(1:03:01) Ecclesiastes 12 contains evidence of a later editor reshaping the final message of the book, where it is concluded that the only activity of lasting and permanent value comes from obedience to God’s commandments.
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Dear Dr Day,
Liked your Proverbs and Ecclesiastes show. Because of your, Dave Butler’s and Bryce’s influence and even the young Paul brothers, I have been studying the OT using [http://qbible.com/hebrew-old-testament/song-of-songs/5.html] interlinear Hebrew transliteration to look up the actual Hebrew and see whether I agreed or didn’t agree with the KJV translators.
Today, even though the Church isn’t studying it, based on having heard Mandy Green’s case for Song of Solomon, a few years ago, and since it’s right after Ecclesiastes, I examined it all the way through.
I was pleasantly shocked by chapter 5–once it’s taken back to it’s Hebrew meaning, out pops the endowment. And with chapter 8, the same thing. The whole book is temple and sadly we’re skipping it because of 50-year old understanding of things as they were. I agree that the English isn’t inspired, but surely the Hebrew is.
Have you and Dave ever thought about getting together with other Hebrew reader/speakers and doing a retranslation of the Masoritic Text to English using a Temple and Gospel lens? 😉
Here’s what I got for Song 5:4-5 using qbibile:
4. A token of love sent by hand from the hole; my bowels were moved upon.
5. I arose to engrave the token of love; my hands dripped with myrrh and grasped his hand of myrrh in a lock.
Now granted if people don’t know much about the ancient temple, they won’t understand why the hands drip myrrh, but instead of a ‘love poem’ this is the temple. The whole chapter is like that.
Thoughts?
P.S. BIG FAN of Talking Scripture.
Sincerely,
Thanks for the kind words. I hope to work with Dave continuously as time moves forward. The problem is time. And money. We both have tons to do and podcasting is a bit of a passionate hobby. But one day I hope to do more stuff. Bryce is amazing to take time out of his day to do Talking Scripture and I am forever in debt to him for his time and service. It is a labor of love. And you make it all worth it. Thanks for listening!