Book Review: God’s Wisdom in Proverbs

Several months back I responded to an offer on the Pyromaniacs Blog to receive an early edition copy of Dan Phillips’ book God’s Wisdom in Proverbs, in order to act as an endorser. Given that my own book had yet to even be released, I realized that offering up my services as an endorser was a bit presumptuous, but Dan nevertheless graciously accepted and sent me a copy of the manuscript. I am uncertain as to whether or not my endorsement was actually used in the book’s print edition (it is not on the publisher’s page), but I am not concerned about that, knowing myself to be an exceptionally small fish in an ever-increasingly large pond. I had really just hoped he would say yes to my offer so I could get an early look at this resource on one of my favorite books of the Bible, written by one of my favorite online writers. In an unexpected but fortunate twist for me, Dan also agreed to endorse my book at the last minute, which was a humbling and encouraging experience for me.

After reading the book, I offered the following endorsement:

God’s Wisdom in Proverbs is a valuable resource for anybody who wants to study or teach the book of Proverbs. Dan Phillips does not merely spoon feed the meaning of each individual verse to the reader but instead lays a foundation upon which one can effectively interpret the book on his own. This book will now be the first work I turn to the next time I have the privilege of teaching the book of Proverbs.

Naturally, I agree with myself in the above endorsement. Allow me to elaborate for a bit as to why.

This book is not a commentary on Proverbs per se. As I note above, it will not be the most effective source for somebody looking for a quick interpretation of an individual verse, such as might be found in a study Bible. I think this is a good thing. Proverbs is a unique portion of the Bible, and as such requires a certain level of familiarity with the genre and composition of the book to interpret it properly. Dan Phillips will help you to understand the book as a whole so that you can read it for yourself. This, in the end, is far more effective than merely having a quick reference guide to Proverbs (basically, the “Teach a man to fish…” principle).

But this is not to say that there are not plenty of opportunities to receive help on individual passages. Over and over again different texts from Proverbs are brought into play and their meanings are drawn out, showing the reader how the principles Dan espouses for interpreting Proverbs work themselves out on a practical level. There is even an entire appendix related to the interpretation of Proverbs 22:6, drawing an interesting conclusion on how this verse ought to be applied.

On a personal note, this manuscript came into my possession just as I was finishing up leading my Bible study group at church through a brief series on the book of Proverbs. I do wish it had entered my life a bit earlier, as I might have avoided certain pitfalls in my presentation. For example, though I myself favor the Solomonic authorship of Proverbs, I have often presented authorship and other introductory issues as being matters of little practical importance for Proverbs. Dan blows this faulty assumption to bits, showing how Solomon’s authorship of the whole book (his argument in favor of this is quite nuanced and convincing) is an important factor in bringing out the full meaning of Proverbs.

As my own personal ministry lately has included more opportunities to practice biblical counseling, I am interested in keeping God’s Wisdom in Proverbs on my shelf as a resource not only for students of Scripture, but for counselors and counselees as well. In particular, the chapters on marriage and child-rearing will be able to serve as excellent resources in counseling those who are having difficulties in those areas.

One other area I want to address concerns this book’s use of biblical Hebrew. The Hebrew text is used throughout the book, but not in a heavy-handed way which would cause those who lack knowledge of biblical Hebrew to find it unhelpful. Dan often includes a literal English translation of Hebrew phrasings as well–even if it makes the syntax choppy and awkward–so that readers without knowledge of Hebrew can see how he draws his conclusions. The use of Hebrew in this book will probably inspire you to want to learn how to read the Hebrew text for yourself, as it is often the key factor in Dan’s interpretation of any given text.

If you are looking to better understand the book of Proverbs, you will definitely want to pick up this book. If you act quickly (by October 1), you can get it half off from Kress Biblical Resources. From the publisher’s site: “Pre-order using coupon code PLXUF10LALPY6 and you will receive a 50% discount (this coupon can also be used to get 50% off the selling price of many of the other titles on the website as well)!”