An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 128: In Which We Descend to Fortune Cookie Wisdom and Child Abuse (Proverbs 11-15)

Proverbs 11-15
In Which We Descend to Fortune Cookie Wisdom and Child Abuse.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Proverbs 11

“A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.”

It seems strange that God should be worried about weights and measures, although I recall that Leviticus had a fair bit to say on the subject. But I guess this is less about trading standards specifically and more to do with fair dealings generally, and I think it’s hard to argue with that sentiment. There’s a mercantile edge later on with verse 26 “He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it”. Note, “selleth”, not “giveth away”. So Proverbs sees nothing wrong with turning a profit, only with hoarding.

This chapter is much like the last, where each verse compares a righteous person with a wicked person. Sometimes this gives truisms like verse 10 “When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting”. Sometimes it is wishful thinking on the relative fates, that doesn’t give much clue about what to actually do, or not do, to be considered righteous, such as verse 6 “The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness.”

There is, however, some concrete instruction on the path to righteousness to be gleaned from these proverbs though, and it is the expected mix of probity, honesty, humility and self respect, as opposed to lying, cheating and generally bulling around like a prize wazzock – the representation of the wicked is so broad as to almost be a straw man, really. I noticed the appearance of the phrase “inherit the wind”, used as a title for a play about a schoolteacher tried under Tennessee state law for teaching evolution. There’s a good film version with Spencer Tracy – if you like To Kill A Mockingbird it has similar resonances, but with more courtroom drama and fewer childhood experiences.

Proverbs 12

“A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.”

The good vs. wicked theme continues in this chapter, which is largely concerned with matters of truth vs. lies, and sloth vs. industry, although it does skip around into other territories such as animal cruelty and how a well-behaved woman reflects on her husband. I didn’t get verse 9 “He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than he that honoureth himself, and lacketh bread” – you’d think that would be the other way around, better to have self-respect and no material possessions than be an obnoxious rich man. This also seems to be contradicted by verse 14 “A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth: and the recompence of a man's hands shall be rendered unto him”, i.e. if all you have is your own good word then that is enough.

See, this is what I meant about proverbs and aphorisms. You can’t trust them to be consistent.

Proverbs 13

“He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.”

Quite a few ways of saying “shut up and listen” in this chapter, and a few verses thrown in to the mix that say how riches don’t necessarily bring happiness, wisdom and/or righteousness. As with the previous chapters, there are also quite a few verses that merely tell of the fates of good and evil people (note, though, that all rewards and punishments are implied to be within the person’s lifetime; no afterlife here). The expression “fountain of life” is used, possibly the origin of that concept. And also verse 26, giving carte blanche to sadistic teachers and parents; “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes”. We could charitably say that the verse is metaphorical, the “rod” is merely chastisement or punishment of some non-violent kind (Proverbs often repeats the idea that a wise person accepts “rebuke” or “chastisement” – we would probably say “feedback” these days). Maybe the writer does believe that the best way to teach a child is to cause it pain and fright – the concept that, perhaps, this is not the most constructive method to teach children, or animals, is a relatively new one to Western society. It’s a very good, and very notorious, example of my point about proverbs being used to support the prejudices of the speaker, rather than some kind of immutable law of physics.

Proverbs 14

“Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.”

Gosh, thanks. Looks like Marcus Aurelius took over writing duties there, what a miserable thing to write. And how does that gibe with the sentiments expressed in Psalms about making a joyful noise unto the Lord?

This chapter is a very mixed bag, and although it tries to continue the style of the previous chapters, comparing “A wise man will …., while a fool …”, it manages to mix in a whole load of different comparisons, some of which aren’t opposites at all. Some don’t make sense “Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox”. What’s that supposed to mean? You can have a clean house or you can have a successful dairy business? That’s fortune cookie wisdom.

Verses 20 and 21 even contradict themselves. “The poor is hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich hath many friends” – that doesn’t sound very charitable to me. But then “He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth: but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he”. So everyone hates the poor, but if you’re one of them, you’re a sinner. I suppose the two kind of follow on from each other, but it’s an odd way of putting it.

Lest it seem that all of this chapter is dross, verse 27 “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death” has an unusual profundity amidst the truisms, and is probably one of those concepts seized upon by Jesus for his version of the theology – a hint at the concept of “life eternal” through a submission to God and the root concepts of two new religions.

Proverbs 15

“A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.”

In other words, “Speak Softly and Carry a Beagle”, as Theodore Roosevelt put it, by way of Sally Brown. A lot of the sayings here are just re-hashes of those that have already been given. “A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother” – this one’s been done, and there’s a lot of variants of the same theme about wise people knowing when to shut up and listen, or to accept criticism. Here’s mine: Book of Proverbs, you needed better editing.

Verse 16 “Better is little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble therewith” – now here’s the way around that I would have expected from Ch12, V9, and verse 17 gives the same sentiment as well – better to have nothing but be righteous/religious than to have lots and be selfish/foolish etc.  About the only other thing of note in this chapter is that some of the verses mention “hell” as a punishment or fate for the wicked, something that has not been given so far in this book; what that might entail is not spelled out. Either it was expected that the reader would know, or perhaps this is a translational artefact from a Hebrew word that implied punishment of some kind.