ABSTRACT

Erman’s remark (1924) that a decent wisdom book was destroyed when it was absorbed into the book of Proverbs coheres well with the scholarly consensus that Proverbs is a clumsy accretion of ill-digested material. Most scholars believe that the book is a lightly edited, rather random collection of collections, although some have detected elements of organization within its sections. Heim, for instance, argues for the existence of clusters within the ‘Proverbs of Solomon’ collection. Skehan’s belief that the entire book is a unified structure portraying the temple of Solomon represents a unique dissenting voice.