Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/907

Rh P R O P R O 883 a belief. These grounds are partly the form of the proverbs and partly the nature of their contents compared with the other collec tions. In form the collection consists exclusively of distichs, and in large parts of antithetical distichs. But, though the distich may be the oldest form of proverb, the inference can hardly be drawn that all distichs are ancient ; the distich continued the prevailing type at all times, being still largely used by Sirach, and all that we are entitled to say is that some distichs are older than any proverbs that have another form. But many of the antitheti cal distichs for which a high antiquity is claimed are probably comparatively modern. Their literary style is too finished and elaborate to possess a high antiquity. There is an abstractness in them, and an artificial balance of member against member and word against word which suggests high literary culture and long use of the arts of the proverbialist. Further the extremely pro miscuous nature of the collection, the repetitions in it, and the frequent occurrence of proverbs which are but modifications of others are proofs that it contains elements belonging to very different periods. The conjecture that Solomon himself put forth any collection of his proverbs has little to support it. At all events neither this whole collection nor any part of it in its present shape can have come from the hand of one who was the author of any great number of the proverbs contained in it. Nor can its present confusion be sufficiently explained by supposing with Ewald that an original ancient and orderly collection has suffered mutilation and fallen into disorder through repeated transcription and strong interpolation. Tlint collections of pro verbs were particularly liable to interpolation appears from the Septuagint, but the incoherence of our present code is such that it must have characterized it from the beginning. When we find one proverb repeated verbally (xiv. 12 = xvi. 25), a number of others having the first member identical but differing in the second, and again a number more differing in the first member but identical in the second, we are led to infer that many of the proverbs before coming into the collection had a long history of oral transmission and currency, during which they underwent great changes, that like defaced coins they were thrown into the mint and came forth with a new image and superscription to circulate again among men, and that the code as a whole has been drawn largely from oral sources. While many of the maxims in such a code may be very ancient, the collection as a whole may be pretty late. Judged by contents, there is nothing in it that might not belong to the prophetic age or which would compel us to bring it in its present form below the exile. Some references in this collection, e.g., those to kings, when compared with similar allusions in Hezekiah s code, are thought to reflect an earlier and a happier time. The king is spoken of in a complimentary way, while in Hezekiah s collection the evils of corrupt government are bewailed and the misera contribuens plebs comes to the front. But the argument that proverbs in praise of a wise monarch must have originated under wise monarchs and conversely is not particularly strong ; if the men of Hezekiah had felt the force of it they would scarcely have set a number of equivocal references to kings at the head of a collec tion formed under the auspices of that exemplary monarch. The history of the monarchy of Israel, both north and south, was suffi ciently chequered to give the people experience of every kind of rule. Solomon himself was not a model prince, and neither in his nor his successor s days were the people unfamiliar with oppressive exactions. The references to rulers in all the collections are general reflexions from which historical conclusions can hardly be drawn ; in xix. 10 the rise of a slave to rule over princes is spoken of, a thing unknown in Israel ; and similar general allusions to rulers occur both in Ecclesiastes and in Sirach (Ecclus. vii. 4 sq.). 1 4. There is nothing in the contents of the small collections xxii. 17-xxiv. 34 to suggest a date lower than the exile (cf. xxiv. 21). On the other hand the despair of attaining to the knowledge of God expressed in ch. xxx. reminds us of Job xxviii. and Ecclesiastes, and the passage may belong to the post-exile period. The warning against adding to the words of God (xxx. 6) might also suggest the existence of canonical writings. The section is marked by peculi arities of language and manner. If the names Agur and Lemuel be real the passage might belong to a time when Israel and the tribes towards the south began to coalesce. The alphabetical poem with which the book is closed is probably not early, though there is little in it to suggest any precise age. Ezek. xxvii. 17 compared with xxxi. 16, 24 perhaps shows that in the time of this prophet Judah did not yet engage in the kind of manufactures mentioned in the poem. The general heading i. 1-7 must be preface to at least i.-xxii. 16; it may extend to xxiv., or to xxix., or to the end of the book. Its relation to i. 8-ix. is of importance in reference to the date of the collection x.-xxii. On the one hand it is probable that the 1 The statement of Ewald that the article is rarer in this collection than in that of Hezekiah is not supported by the facts ; on the other hand the anticipative Arama3an suffix, not found in xxv. sq., is com mon to the two other large codes, i.-ix. and x.-xxii. preface comprises ver. 7, &quot; The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.&quot; Some such general aphorism was necessary to clinch the statement regarding the uses of the proverbial literature. On the other hand the passage i. 8-ix. could scarcely have begun abruptly, &quot; My son, &c. &quot; The general aphorism both closes the preface and introduces what follows. If this be the case the author of the preface is also author of i. 8-ix., and undoubtedly the preface agrees in style with these chapters. He is certainly also the editor of x.-xxii. It is possible that he was also the collector of the proverbs in this code. In any case this important collection would be anterior to the exile, though it is not likely that the collection was made long before the destruction of Jerusalem. The agree ment, however, between the style of the preface and that of the first nine chapters is supposed by others to be due to imitation on the part of the author of the preface. This is possible, though less natural. On such a supposition, however, the preface would be younger in date than i. 8-ix., and the conclusion as to the age of x.-xxii. would fall to the ground. This collection in that case might be later than i.-ix. and contain proverbs of the post-exile period. The preface refers to &quot;the words of the wise,&quot; and it is probable that it extends to xxiv. Whether the author of the pre face and editor of i.-xxiv. added also xxv,-xxix. is uncertain; the word &quot;also&quot; (xxv. 1) implies that this independent code was added when x.-xxii. had already received a place in the general collection. The Septuagint version exhibits great variety of reading, and has many additions and also remarkable omissions. The additions are usually of little worth, though with exceptions, as the word &quot; not &quot; in v. 16. Critically the omissions are of more interest than the insertions. This version transfers xxx. 1-14 to a place after xxiv. 22 ; then follows the remainder of chap. xxiv. After this comes xxx. 15-xxxi. 9, then the code xxv.-xxix., and finally xxxi. 10-31. The objects of this transposition are not apparent ; but the effect of the changes here and elsewhere has been to obliterate all traces of other than Solomonic authorship from the book, and possibly this was intended. Literature. Important commentaries are those of Schultens, M. Stuart, Ewald, Hitzig, Delitzsch, Bertheau (Exeg. Handb.,lsted.; 2d ed. by Nowack). Valuable on the text is Lacarde, Anmerkungen zur Griech. Uebersetzung der Proverbien- also Deyserinck. Krit. Scholien (reprint from Theol. Tijds., 1883.) Works on the Wisdom are Bruch, Weisheitslehre der Hebrder ; Hooykaas, Geschiedenis der Be.oefening ran de Vijsheid onder de Hebreen ; Oehler, Grundziige der Alttest. Weisheit. The literature is fully given in Lange s Comm., and the introductions; see especially the valuable section in Kuenen s Hist. Krit. Onderzoek. There is a special treatise on xxx. -xxxi. 9 by Miihlau. (A. B. D.) PROVIDENCE, a city of the United States, one of the capitals of the State of Rhode Island (the other being Newport), and the seat of justice of Providence county, is situated in 41 49 22&quot; N. lat. and 71 24 48&quot; W. long., Plan of Providence. at the head of Narragansett Bay, on both banks of Pro vidence River, and with Seekonk River on its eastern boundary. A nearly circular sheet of water known as the Cove lies in the heart of the city at the junction of river and estuaries. The total area of Providence is 14 76 square miles. On the east side the ground rises to a