Ebook: Numerical Sayings in the Old Testament: A Form-critical Study

One of the recent accomplishments of Biblical scholarship is the systematic and detailed description of the oral and literary patterns found in the Old Testament. It was Hermann Gunkel (1862-1932) who initiated the form-critical method, thereby adding to the exegetical tools of Biblical scholarship an instrument which proves to be an effective help in the interpretation of the Old Testament. Many new insights into the profile and character of Biblical texts have been made possible, and history as well as setting in life of almost all oral and literary patterns occurring in the Old Testament have been described. The standard introductions to the Old Testament bear witness to this and, at the same time, offer in concise form the results of form-critical research.
The present study is devoted to an oral and literary pattern which does not occur frequently in the Old Testament but which nevertheless deserves attention and detailed investigation: the numerical saying. The most familiar examples of this genre occur in the thirtieth chapter of the Book of Proverbs, where a collection of five numerical sayings is found (xxx 15-31).