Proverbs by Alice Ogden Bellis (review)

Alice Ogden Bellis provides a careful structural analysis and commentary on the Book of Proverbs for the Wisdom Commentary series, which applies feminist scholarship to biblical texts for readers in academic and pastoral settings. While this commentary represents a “gender-sensitive” (p. xli) reading of Proverbs, B. comments equally on the whole of Proverbs, and not only on those passages more relevant to feminist concerns. She views the book as a perpetually relevant, “carefully crafted, structured composition” that is not “the conservative book of bromides that it is often thought to be” (p. 273). B. thus adopts a refreshingly positive view of Proverbs, while engaging difficulties the text presents to modern feminist readers.

Bellis views Proverbs as relevant for every audience. Acknowledging the young male audience for which the book is likely to have been originally composed, B. argues that a reader’s encounter with any text often requires him or her to adopt the persona of a protagonist, even if the protagonist is a different sex, and so on (pp. xlviii, 272). This temporary adoption need not be seen as a violation of principles or a participation in sexism. Similarly, the language of Proverbs can be updated by readers to reflect their respective situations. For example, “[t]oday the strange woman [of Proverbs 2, 5, and 7 . . .] may be seen as a sexual predator or pedophile, and these come in more than one gender, though tend to be male” (p. xlix-l).

A characteristic of B.’s presentation is the proposal that the later editors of Proverbs intentionally framed the book with texts such as Proverbs 1–9 and 31 at least in part to qualify the negative statements concerning women. This is accomplished by the presentation of two ideal women, personified Wisdom and the Strong Wife, as well as the teaching of Lemuel’s mother (pp. liii, 95, 269–70). While Proverbs 1–9 may present its own issues in this regard (pp. 6–7), overall, B. sees the very positive images of women as offsetting the teachings on, for example, contentious wives (Prov 19:13; 21:9, 19; 25:24; 27:15). B. provides a balanced commentary that acknowledges the negative statements about women/wives but explores the limitations of these statements, how the final editors sought to qualify them, and the similar statements regarding men.

One of the main features of this commentary is B.’s structural analysis, which she applies to the individual units she identifies as well as to the macro-structure of Proverbs. B. identifies units thematically and lexically. For example, Prov 11:1–14 is unified by the theme of the security of the just and the insecurity of the wicked, which is stated explicitly in the central verses (11:7–8). Some units are longer and some shorter (as in 14:1–3). She presents her structuring of the book tentatively but nevertheless demonstrates a coherence whereby each saying has an identifiable context. She seeks to present Proverbs as no haphazard collection of sayings, and she succeeds.

The book begins with an introduction, after which the commentary is divided according to the five parts of Proverbs delineated here. Part 1 comments on Proverbs 1–9; part 2, on 10:1–22:16; part 3, on 22:17–29:27; part 4, on 30:1–31:9; and part 5, on 31:10–31. With other commentators, B. sees parts 1 and 5 framing the whole book by the likeness between personified Wisdom and the Strong Wife. She further sees parts 2–4b as balanced by part 4c, which comprises the teachings of Lemuel’s mother (31:1–9), and she bases this on the fact that the teachings in parts 2–4b are given largely as instructions from fathers, while part 4c constitutes instructions from a mother. The viability of this view of a concentric structure of Proverbs depends in part on taking a large swath of sayings (10:1–30:33) as being balanced by a relatively small teaching spanning only...