Table 4- The Rhetoric of Subset II: The Calls to Remember and Obey

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remember and obey? The rhetor responds with negative imperatives supported by both

positive and negative pathetic arguments. The specific rhetorical problem behind 4:20-

27 is more difficult to discern but may be the son's complacency or lack of

appreciation for the value of the father's 'wisdom. Here, the proof consists of three

positive imperatives with positive pathetic arguments. Thus, while all of these lectures

set forth a common proposition and use imperatives + motive clauses to remind the

son of the father's teaching, each one employs a different rhetorical strategy.

Rhetorical analysis also reveals variety in the third subset of lectures (see Table

5). The propositions of these lectures are remarkably similar. Each speech makes an

initial appeal for the son to accept the father's teaching, elaborates or makes an initial

argument for this appeal, and introduces the specific problem of the strange or foreign

woman. Thus, unlike the other two subsets, the rhetorical problem reflected in these

texts seems stable, namely, the danger of illicit sexual relations. Again, however, the

rhetorical strategies within these three lectures differ significantly. 5:1-23 employs

multivalent imagery and sets forth negative (the son must not go near the strange

woman) and positive (the son must stay with his wife) arguments. 6:20-35 integrates

two proofs, namely, the high cost of adultery and the certain payment for adultery.

Finally, the proof of 7:1-27 consists of an emotionally packed drama of seduction.

Thus, each lecture of the third subset employs a different rhetorical strategy to warn

the son against illicit sexual relations.

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What is the significance of three distinct subsets of lectures, each containing

speeches with diverse rhetorical strategies? Put simply, what best accounts for the

rhetoric of the father in Proverbs 1-9? One might contend that the father's rhetoric is

the result of happenstance. The editor collected three different types of

lectures/instructions that coincidentally contained different rhetorical strategies. I shall

maintain, however, that another hypothesis offers a more viable explanation. The

editor or author of the ten lectures had both rhetorical sensitivity and the goal of

rhetorical education.

First, it seems reasonable to credit: the editor or author of the ten lectures with

keen rhetorical sensitivity.⁴ What distinguishes these speeches from one another is

their rhetoric: three distinct subsets of lectures with diverse members, ten speeches

with ten different rhetorical strategies. These chapters constitute a striking rhetorical

anthology that seems less likely to be the fortuitous result of haphazard collecting than

the product of careful rhetorical discernment and selection. Granted, as Kennedy

claims, there is no evidence (yet) of the conceptualization of rhetorical theory in

ancient Israel.⁵ This dissertation proposes, however, that the remarkable collection of

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the collection of an editor. The diverse rhetorical situations envisioned by the speeches (e.g.,

sometimes ethos is a problem, other times not), does seem to favor multiple authorship. Thus,

henceforth, I tentatively refer to the ten lectures as an anthology collected by an editor.

preconceptual. Although, as in the Homeric poems, there are many speeches and examples of

oral and written literary forms, there is no passage which analyzes the nature, purpose, and

forms of speech."

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lectures in Proverbs 1-9 does present evidence for self-conscious rhetorical reflection

Second, if the collection of ten lectures in Proverbs 1-9 is the result of

rhetorical sensitivity, what editorial purpose(s) lay beneath this collection? In other

words, why compile these three subsets with diverse members? One may posit at least

two reasons. First, the three problems addressed by the lectures may have been such

pressing concerns that, in the editor's opinion, each issue required not one, but several

different speeches. Thus, the editor presents four different calls to apprenticeship,

three calls to remember and obey, and three warnings against illicit sexual relations,

each with different arguments. Second, this collection may be the result of an attempt

to provide rhetorical models for different rhetorical needs or situations. For example,

the first subset provides four diverse examples of how a rhetor may gain the attention

and receptivity of his audience. Similarly, the second subset of lectures contains three

different ways of reminding an audience of disparate teaching and urging their

compliance. The third subset also furnishes three model speeches that develop a

single theme. In other words, the collection of ten lectures in Proverbs 1-9 may serve

the purpose of rhetorical education by providing exemplary speeches for basic types of

rhetoric and rhetorical problems.

Although new, this hypothesis of the lectures functioning in rhetorical

education is consistent with a long standing theory regarding the compositional history

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biblical Judaism." Also against Kennedy, see Crenshaw, "Wisdom and Authority," 10-29.

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of Proverbs 1-9. A number of scholars, most recently Fox, have argued persuasively

were later added.⁷ Thus, many scholars acknowledge that the ten lectures originally

constituted a "Book of Ten Discourses”⁸ that was used in an educational setting as 1) a

practice text for writing, and 2) moral indoctrination.⁹ To be sure, some object to this

historical reconstruction, primarily because of the thematic repetitiveness and apparent

redundancy in the speeches. As Whybray asserts, "It is extremely unlikely that there

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⁷ Fox ("Ideas of Wisdom," 615-616) distinguishes two major strata in Proverbs 1-9,

namely, ten lectures and five interludes (1:20-33, 3:13-20, 6:1-19, 8:1-36, and 9:1-18) and

argues that the interludes are a later stratum inserted into the series of lectures. Fox explains

his method:

conceptual, literary, and linguistic - of material that clearly belongs to one strata.

Then we ask whether the other material fits this profile. To be sure, a single author

can introduce variety in a unified work, but at some point the differences become

prominent enough to indicate diverse origins, and that is the case here. The interludes

and the lectures differ in their conceptual and literary characteristics. Linguistic

differences (other than those determined by theme) are not evident. (616)
Thus, Fox identifies five conceptual or literary differences between the lectures and the

interludes that demonstrate that the interludes are a later stratum. 1) The concept of wisdom in

the lectures (it resides within people) is different from wisdom in the interludes (it transcends

the human mind). 2) The consistent literary schema of the lectures is disturbed by the five

dissimilar interludes. 3) Although the lectures were written by the same author,

inconsistencies in the interludes suggest that they were not written by a single author. 4) The

interludes cohere as a group, not only in their concept of personified wisdom, but in some

unusual motifs. 5) The interludes appear to be outgrowths of the lectures. Thus, "we can

picture the process of growth as a series of insertions by scribes learning from and building on

the lectures rather than as a compilation and reorganization of unrelated texts by a redactor"

(618). See also, Whybray, Wisdom in Proverbs, 51.
⁸ Whybray, Wisdom in Proverbs, 51. More recently, Whybray has rejected his earlier

claim that the lectures constituted a book. See below.

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however, resolves this lacuna in the hypothesis and proposes a third purpose for the

collection. Why would an editor select or collect these seemingly redundant lectures?

Put simply, the editor selected these speeches on the basis of their rhetorical type and

strategy. As the foregoing rhetorical analysis has demonstrated, these speeches may

appear repetitive, but they are rhetorically diverse. Thus, this dissertation posits

another purpose for the Book of the Ten Lectures, namely, teaching students basic

rhetorical strategies and forms.

At first glance, the present order of the ten lectures appears to stand against my

hypothesis that the lectures served as a handbook for rhetorical education. Proverbs 1-

9 begins with two calls to apprenticeship (1:8-19 and 2:1-22), continues with two calls

to remember and obey (3:1-12 and 3:21-35), takes up two additional calls to

apprenticeship (4:1-9 and 4:10-19), and concludes with a final call to remember and

obey (4:20-27) before presenting the three warnings against illicit sexual relations (5:1-

23, 6:20-35, and 7:1-27). Thus, while the editor does set apart the members of the

third subset, the first two subsets are intermingled. This lack of distinct order,

however, is typical of ancient Near Eastern instructional literature. As Lang has

pointed out, Egyptian Instructions are loose collections of materials without unified

redactional plans.¹¹ The lack of clear redactional ordering of the lectures, therefore, is

characteristic of the genre.

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¹⁰ Whybray, The Composition of the Book of Proverbs, 28.

¹¹ Lang, Die weisheitliche Lehrrede, 28,100.

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presence of formal rhetorical interests in ancient Israel, but that the initial collection of

these lectures formed a book devised, in part, to serve the purposes of rhetorical

education. This hypothesis is congruent with the present scholarly consensus

regarding the compositional history of Proverbs 1-9 and, in my opinion, best accounts

for the remarkable collection of different types of lectures in these chapters.

The goal of this dissertation has been to present a sustained rhetorical analysis

of the ten lectures and, thus, fill a lacuna in present scholarship. The hypotheses of

self-conscious rhetorical thought in ancient Israel and the ten lectures as a rhetorical

handbook are only a tentative attempt to account for the data revealed by my rhetorical

analyses. Further research is required to confirm both of these hypotheses and

consider their broader implications for our understanding of rhetoric in ancient Israel.

To begin, sustained rhetorical analyses of other biblical texts promises to

further our understanding of rhetoric in ancient Israel. Such study is already finding

good results in the work of such scholars as Gitay¹² and Fox,¹³ but modern scholars are

only standing at the threshold of this investigation. Research into education in ancient

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Linguisticae 14 (Bonn: Linguistica Biblica, 1981); "Jonah: The Prophecy of Antirhetoric," in

Fortunate the Eyes That See, ed. by A. Beck, et al. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 197-206;

"Psalm 1 and the Rhetoric of Religious Argumentation, " in Literary Structure and Rhetorical

(Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1996), 232-240.

Proverbs 2," 233-243; "Ideas of Wisdom in Proverbs 1-9," 613-633.

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Israel also needs to be pursued, but with a greater awareness of rhetoric.¹⁴ Put simply,

speak persuasively?

In addition to these general fields of inquiry, further investigation of three

specific topics may make a direct contribution to our understanding of the father's

rhetoric in Proverbs 1-9. First, rhetorical education in ancient Greece and Rome

included not only theoretical handbooks, but collections of sample speeches, the

Progymnasmata. The Progymnasmata provided patterns for students to follow in the

composition of their own speeches.¹⁵ Might the Book of the Ten Lectures be

analogous to ancient Greco-Roman Progymnasmata? This question merits careful

study. To be sure, the analogy may be far from exact and culturally limited, but

comparative study of the ten lectures and the Progymnasmata seems a promising route

for exploring rhetorical consciousness and education in ancient Israel.

Second, in his most recent monograph, Comparative Rhetoric, Kennedy has

proposed that a text similar in both form and content to The Book of the Ten Lectures,

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¹⁴ Cf. Weeks' (Early Israelite Wisdom, 159) claim that "Thus, for all the sayings about the

importance of speech, there is no instruction on how to speak well; nor, for that matter, is

there even any description of what constitutes 'righteousness'. Proverbs moralizes, and

encourages its readers to pursue certain ideals or patterns of behaviour, but assumes that they

will know about them already. Nobody seeking rhetorical skill, a precise knowledge of

etiquette, or almost any practical ability, would turn to the wisdom literature, which is at best

sporadically helpful in such matters." If accepted, the hypothesis presented above, namely,

that The Book of the Ten Lectures functioned as a rhetorical handbook, overturns Week's

negative conclusion.
¹⁵ On the collection and use of model speeches in ancient Greece and Rome, see D.L.

Clark, Rhetoric in Greco-Roman Education (New York: Columbia University Press, 1957):

144-212.

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handbook."¹⁶ Kennedy's claim for Ptahhotep is based on its explicit concerns for

eloquent speech ("instructing the ignorant in knowledge and in the standard of

excellent discourse"), a concern that McKane also has identified in other Egyptian

Instructions, such as Merikare, Duauf, and Onchsheshonqy.¹⁷ Thus, it appears possible

that at least some of the ancient Near Eastern Instruction literature may have served as

rhetorical handbooks. This possibility deserves further investigation. Scholars widely

acknowledge that ancient Near Eastern, especially Egyptian, Instruction literature

directly influenced Proverbs. Hence, if some or many non-biblical Instruction texts

functioned as rhetorical handbooks, might the Book of the Ten Lectures have served

the same purpose in ancient Israel?

Third, the editor(s) responsible for the present form of Proverbs 1-9 may have,

in fact, acknowledged the rhetorical intentions of the Book of the Ten Lectures. The

crucial evidence in this matter is the meaning of the Hebrew noun Hqal,. Studies of

Hql do occur in scholarly literature.¹⁸ Further study is required, however, in view of

the possible rhetorical goals of the ten lectures revealed by this dissertation. For

example, Hql occurs six times in the book of Proverbs (1:5, 4:2, 7:21, 9:9, 16:21,

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unrestrained speech, but not rhetorical craftsmanship. See McKane's discussion of the

Egyptian Instructions of Ani (92) and Amenemope (104), the Babylonian Counsels of Wisdom