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JiSeong James Kwon. Wisdom Discourse and Torah in Second Temple Judaism : Challenging the integration paradigm. Atlanta, GA : SBL Press, 2025.

Abstract

"Did wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible develop over time from secular to religious, as many early modern scholars believed? Did it develop in reaction to historical events or out of conflict with other traditions, including Torah? In Wisdom Discourse and Torah in Second Temple Judaism, JiSeong James Kwon moves beyond this impasse by applying a discourse-critical method to intertextual readings of Proverbs, Ben Sira, the Wisdom of Solomon, Baruch, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Deuteronomy. Kwon's study reveals that wisdom literature maintained an independent identity and theological orientation distinct from the legal traditions of the Torah. Rather than wisdom being subsumed into legal material, Jewish intellectual production remained pluralistic in form, genre, and theological orientation throughout the Persian and Hellenistic periods." --

Contents

Introduction: Wisdom and Torah in Second Temple Judaism -- Part 1: Wisdom discourse and Torah in Proverbs and Ben Sira -- Wisdom and Torah in Proverbs -- Wisdom and Torah in Ben Sira -- Wisdom discourse and Proverbs in Ben Sira -- Part 2: Wisdom discourse and Torah in the Wisdom of Solomon, Baruch, and Qumran texts -- Wisdom and Torah in Qumran wisdom texts -- Part 3: Wisdom discourse and Torah in legal texts -- Wisdom and Torah in post-Deuteronomistic Deuteronomy.