The Moral Vision of Proverbs

A VIRTUE-ORIENTED APPROACH TO WISDOM

Timothy J.

Sandoval

a division of Baker Publishing Group

Grand Rapids, Michigan

© 2024 by Timothy J. Sandoval

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

Grand Rapids, Michigan

BakerAcademic.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Sandoval, Timothy J., author.

Title: The moral vision of Proverbs : a virtue-oriented approach to wisdom / Timothy J. Sandoval.

Description: Grand Rapids, Michigan : Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, [2024] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2023040039 | ISBN 9781540967206 (paperback) | ISBN 9781540967350 (casebound) | ISBN 9781493444649 (ebook) | ISBN 9781493444656 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Proverbs—Criticism, interpretation, etc. | Virtue. | Ethics.

Classification: LCC BS1465.52 .S25 2024 | DDC 223/.706—dc23/eng/20231122

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023040039

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations labeled NJPS are from the New Jewish Publication Society Version © 1985 by The Jewish Publication Society. All rights reserved.

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Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction

PART 1 The Case for Proverbs as Virtue-Oriented Moral Discourse

1. The Undervaluing of Proverbs’ Moral Worth: The Role of Biblical Studies and Modern Ethics

2. The Prologue as Hermeneutical Key: Categories of Virtues and Figurative Language

3. The Anthropology of Proverbs: The Nature and Happiness of Human Beings

4. Proverbs’ Way of Life: The Priority of Moral Agents over Right Acts

5. The Training of Desire for a Life of Flourishing in Proverbs

6. Desire, Knowledge, and Goodness: Beyond Wise and Just, Foolish and Wicked

7. The Centrality of Social Virtues for Flourishing

8. Practical Wisdom in Proverbs

9. The Efficacy and Limitations of Practical Wisdom in Proverbs

PART 2 The Implications of Proverbs as Virtue-Oriented Moral Discourse

10. Proverbs’ Virtue Ethics beyond Proverbs? The Shared Moral Discourse of Proverbs and Amos

11. A Virtue-Ethics Approach to Cosmogony in Proverbs (Part 1): Reconsidering the Interpretive History of Natural Law, the Orders of Creation, and Empiricism in Proverbs

12. A Virtue-Ethics Approach to Cosmogony in Proverbs (Part 2): Reading Proverbs 8:22–31 as a Test Case

13. Wisdom as Practice (Part 1): Overview of Biblical Concepts and MacIntyrian Terms

14. Wisdom as Practice (Part 2): How MacIntyrian Practice Informs ...

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About The Moral Vision of Proverbs: A Virtue-Oriented Approach to Wisdom

This major statement on Proverbs as virtue ethics provides a critical, Christian approach to a text laden with interpretive challenges for modern readers.

Wisdom literature is an unfamiliar genre to modern readers and presents many interpretive challenges. In this major new work, respected wisdom scholar Timothy Sandoval argues that the book of Proverbs, though difficult to access for some, provides a coherent moral vision for human flourishing.

The approach Sandoval argues for in The Moral Vision of Proverbs is that of virtue ethics, or character ethics, particularly that which emerges from the classical tradition of Aristotle. Sandoval engages with specialists in this ethical tradition as well as biblical scholars to make his case that Proverbs is an ancient, virtue-oriented moral discourse.

This comprehensive critical study of Proverbs analyzes the book’s major topics and strives to discern the moral and philosophical presuppositions and logic of its rhetoric, all the while engaging past and present interpretive approaches. Authored by a Christian scholar, this text will be of great interest to students of the Old Testament, biblical scholars, and Christian ethicists and moral theologians.

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Table of Contents