In our seventh episode on Wisdom in the Old Testament, we start to think about how we should read the proverbs found throughout the book of Proverbs. We explore the way in which a common modern way of thinking about morality gets in the way of letting Proverbs speak to us today, and suggest a more helpful alternative that connects morality, wisdom, and the many mundane choices we make daily.

In our sixth episode on Wisdom in the Old Testament, we close off our journey through Proverbs 1–9 by considering the two figures of Woman Wisdom and Woman Folly. Who are they, and how do they relate to the characters we encountered in the previous episode?

In our fifth episode on Wisdom in the Old Testament, we continue our journey through Proverbs 1–9 and think about two of the characters we see there: the evil men and the foreign woman. We discuss some of the translational difficulties with these terms, as well as the post-exilic backdrop that informs them.

In our fourth episode on Wisdom in the Old Testament, we start our journey in Proverbs by looking at what the opening chapters say about wisdom, and how it relates to Torah and fear of the Lord.

In our third episode on Wisdom in the Old Testament, we delve into what it means to fear God. Unsatisfied with the typical explanations, we give an account of fear in general before looking at how this works itself out in our relationship with God for our good.

In our second episode on Wisdom in the Old Testament, we take a look at the figure of Solomon and the way wisdom is portrayed in his story. We see that the standard way of thinking about Solomon’s story doesn’t actually fit very well with the biblical story, and consider what this then means for the relationship between wisdom and the fear of the Lord.

In this first episode of our new podcast, we question whether “Wisdom Literature” is a helpful category when it comes to exploring what the Old Testament has to say about wisdom, and then outline the path we'll take in future episodes.