Wisdom Literature (Speer) - Course Study Guide (Print)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION TO OLD TESTAMENT WISDOM LITERATURE. . 1
LESSON 2: THE CHALLENGE OF JOB (I).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
LESSON 3: JOB’S FRIENDS SPEAK (II) .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
LESSON 4: JOB’S RESPONSE TO HIS FRIENDS (III).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
LESSON 5: JOB’S ARGUMENT WITH GOD (IV). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
LESSON 6: ELIHU’S ASSESSMENT OF JOB’S SITUATION (V). . . . . . . . . . . 30
LESSON 7: GOD’S FINAL WORD FOR JOB (VI). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
LESSON 8: INTRODUCTION TO ECCLESIASTES.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
LESSON 9: ECCLESIASTES – FALSE PHILOSOPHIES OF LIFE (I).. . . . . . . . . 43
LESSON 10: ECCLESIASTES – FALSE PHILOSOPHIES OF LIFE (II). . . . . . . . . 47
LESSON 11: ECCLESIASTES – FALSE PHILOSOPHIES OF LIFE (III). . . . . . . . 52
LESSON 12: ECCLESIASTES – FALSE AND TRUE PHILOSOPHIES OF LIFE .. . 57
LESSON 13: ECCLESIASTES – TRUE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
LESSON 14: INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PROVERBS.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
LESSON 15: PROVERBS – SOLOMON ON RICHES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
LESSON 16: PROVERBS – SOLOMON ON THE TONGUE.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
LESSON 17: PROVERBS – SOLOMON ON SEX.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
LESSON 18: PROVERBS – SOLOMON ON PURPOSEFUL PARENTING. . . . . . . 86
LESSON 19: INTRODUCTION TO SONG OF SOLOMON.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
LESSON 20: SOLOMON ON MARITAL SEX (I).. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
LESSON 21: SOLOMON ON MARITAL SEX (II). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

INTRODUCTION:
This book, the Song of Solomon, might be regarded as perhaps the least read
and studied and the most diversely interpreted book in the whole biblical
canon, certainly in the Old Testament. It, along with books like Zachariah
and Revelation are seen as the most difficult books, and maybe the least understood,
because of their figurative language. Perhaps this book is least understood because
it has a lot of poetic language in it. And when you think about poetic language,
usually all poetic language, in the day that it’s written, is tied to that day – to the
culture of that day. It’s tied to the idioms of that day, tied to the understanding and
the connotation of words and figures of the day. If you have literal language in a past
document that becomes a little easier to interpret. But when you have poetic
language that’s connected to so much of the culture and language and the
connotation of the day in which it was written it becomes more difficult to interpret.
This was actually quite a popular book among Christian writers and preachers in the
first part of the Christian age. For instance an ancient writer, Origen, in 185 A.D.
wrote 10 volumes on the song of Solomon. The book consists of only eight chapters
and we might find astounding that somebody would write that much material on this
particular book. By A.D. 1200 there had been 100 commentaries written on this
particular book. Bernard of Clairvaux who lived about 1090 A.D. wrote 86 sermons
on the first two chapters. That’s probably due to the interpretive approach he took
to the book. The hermeneutical approach he took to the book would not be one that
I’m going to take.
But if it was an analogy and if it was an allegory perhaps and foreshadowing the
coming of Jesus and the building of the church then you can see perhaps how he
might find a lot of symbolism to talk about in 86 sermons.