Proverbs, Book of

Proverbs, Book Of the 20th book of the Old Test., according to the arrangement of the English Bible, where it is placed between the Psalms and Ecclesiastes, doubtless from its presumed relation to the other works of Solomon; and in the Hebrew Bible it likewise follows the Psalms as part of the Kethubim, or Hagiographa. In the German MSS. of the Hebrew Old Test. the Proverbs are placed between the Psalms and Job, while in the Spanish MSS., which follow the Masorah, the order is Psalms, Job, Proverbs. This latter is the order observed in the Alexandrian MS. of the Sept. Melito, following another Greek MS., arranges the Hagiographa thus: Psalms. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Job, as in the list made out by the Council of Laodicea; and the same order is given by Origen, except that the book of Job is separated from the others by the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel. But our present arrangement existed in the time of Jerome (see Prtf. in Libr. Regum, iii: "Tertius ordo ἁγιόγραφα possidet. Et primus liber incipit ab Job. Secundus a David....' Tertius est Solomon. tres libros habens: Proverbia, quae illi parabolas, id est Masaloth appellant: Ecclesiastes, id est,'Coeleth: Canticum Canticorum, quem titulo Sir Asirim prmnotant"). In the Peshito Syriac, Job is placed before Joshua, while Proverbs and Ecclesiastes follow the Psalms, and are separated from the Son Song Songs by the book of Ruth. Gregory of Nazianzum, apparently from the exigencies of his verse, arranges the writings of Solomon in this order: Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Proverbs. Pseudo Epiphanius places Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. and Song of Songs between the 1st and 2d books of Kings and the minor prophets. The following article treats of the book both from an internal and an external point of view. See BIBLE.

I. Title. — As in the Pentateuch, the book of Proverbs takes its Hebrew title from its opening words — מַשׁלֵי, שׁלֹמֹה, or מַשׁלֵי, mishly, simply. From this are directly derived the titles it bears in the Sept. παροιμίαι, Σαλομῶντος) and Vulgate (Libel Proverbiorum, quem Hebraei "Misle" cappellant), and the name by which it is universally known in English. Another title, perlalps more appropriate to the book as a whole, is derived from its chief subject, "Wisdom." In the Tosaphoth to Baba Bathra (fol. 14 b), we find Proverbs and Ecclesiastes combined under the name סֵפֶר חָכמָה, "the book of wisdom," and this title appears to have passed thence into the early Church. Clemens Roman. (Lj. ad Coo-. i, 57) when quoting i, 23-31 says, οὕτως λέγει ἡ πανάρετος σοφία, a name which, according to Eusebius (H. E. 4:22), was adopted by Hegesippus. Irenteus, and "the whole band of the ancients," following the unwritten Jewish tradition, and by Clem. Alex. (Strom. ii, § 22). It is styled by Gregory Naz. (Orat. xi) παιδαγωγικὴ σοφία, and by Dion. Alex. σοφὴ βίβλος. In the catalogue of canonical books compiled by Melito of Sardis preserved by Eusebius (H. E. 4:26), we find Παρ. Σαλομ. ἡ καὶ Σοφία, a name which, as well as Sopientia, is of frequent occurrence in the early fathers (see Cotelerius in Clem. Rom. l.c.; Vales. ad Euseb. l.c.), though by no means restricted to the book of Proverbs, being equally used. as Cotelerius proves, of ' Ecclesiasticus" and "The Wisdom of Solomon," a circumstance from which some confusion has arisen.