collection may contain a few proverbs coming from the period before the final destruction of Jerusalem, it is probable that, like the smaller appendices to the first large collection, they were not gathered until the early part of the Greek period.  The long appendices in chapters 30-31 are clearly late.  The note of doubt in the opening section of 30 is closely akin to that which recurs in the book of Ecclesiastes.  It is also based on Isaiah 44:5 and 45:4.  Aramaisms and the acrostic form in 31:10-31 imply that the background was the late Persian or early Greek period.

The history of the book of Proverbs is therefore reasonably clear.  Its original nucleus was probably a small group of popular proverbs that had been transmitted orally from the days before the final destruction of Jerusalem.  These, together with proverbs which first became current during the Persian period, were collected some time in the days following the work of Nehemiah.  To these was added in the Greek period the smaller appendices in 22:17-24:34.  Possibly the same editor joined to them the large collection found in 25-29.  He or some wise man in the Greek period prefixed the elaborate introduction in chapters 1-9.  To the whole was added the appendices in chapters 30 and 31.  It is probable that by the middle of the Greek period, or at least before 200 B.C., the book of Proverbs was complete in its present form.

III.  The Wise in Israel’s Early History.  Long before 2000 B.C. the scribes of ancient Egypt were busy collecting “the words of counsel of the men of olden time.”  Many of these ancient maxims still survive.  The best-known is that which bears the title “The Wisdom of Ptah-hotep.”  The desire to preserve and transmit the results of practical experience is the common motive that underlies the work of the wise.  It is that which inspires the teachers of all ages.  The ancients were keenly alive to the importance of instruction and training.  All that is significant in the civilizations of the past is, in a sense, the result of this teaching motif.

In early Israel there were many men and women famous for their ability to give wise counsel.  In his stormy career Joab, David’s valiant commander, frequently profited by the counsel of certain wise women (Sections LIII:8-11 LIX:35).  David’s friend Hushai, by his wily counsel at the time of Absalom’s rebellion, saved the king’s life.  The narrative in ii Samuel declares that the counsel of Ahithophel was esteemed almost as highly as the divine oracle.  For his keen insight and acute decisions, as well as for his witty utterances, Solomon gained a reputation which made him in the thought of later generations the father of all wisdom literature.  In a significant passage found in Jeremiah 18:18 the three classes of Israel’s teachers are brought into sharp contrast.  In urging that the prophet be put to death his foes declared:  “Teaching will not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet.”  From references in Isaiah and Jeremiah it is evident that before the final destruction of the Hebrew state the counsel of the wise was chiefly political and secular, and often not in accord with the higher ideals of the great pre-exilic prophets.