Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 48:1 (Spring 1986)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

WTJ 48:1 (Spring 1986) p. 183

Book Reviews

Robert L. Alden: Proverbs: A Commentary on an Ancient Book of Timeless Advice. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983. 222. $12.95.

Dr. Alden, professor of OT at Denver Seminary, who received his M.Div. degree at Westminster Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. degree from Hebrew Union College, aims to “expand the proverbs in order to add flesh to their bones, and thus to reconstitute the highly concentrated medicine that they are.” Furthermore, the commentary “seeks to offer suggestions on the many faceted applications that they have to everyday living” (p. 9).

He lays out his work into two parts: a succinct introduction (pp. 9-16) and a verse by verse commentary on Proverbs, which he analyzes into seven parts. In the introduction he treats “outline authorship and dale,” “purpose,” theology canon text background,” and “bibliography.”

Regarding authorship and date he rightly concluded, “to say that Solomon authored the book is an oversimplification.” Regarding “theology” he helpfully notes that a distinction between religious language in the book is artificial. Rather, “it seems much more appropriate to believe that the collector of these proverbs integrated theology into daily life” (p. 13). He supports Proverbs’ place in the canon, despite some rabbinic objections, by the twenty quotations or allusions from Proverbs in the NT. He also rightly looks to Egypt for the historical background of the Proverbs.

Occasionally he offers his reader a somewhat helpful analysis of the text, as in his treatment of 1:8–19, where he notes, “verses 10 to 15 are an extended protasis, a hypothetical situation…in verse 10 and ending at verse 14 wit the apodosis, either an outcome or imperative based on what has preceded” (p. 25). (I think it would be more accurate to say that vv 11–14 epexegete the protasis of v 10a, and v 15 develops the apodosis of v 10b.) He also occasionally gives his reader word studies, treatment of Hebrew grammar, and background. The abiding value of the work, however, will be his application of the material.

The commentary also has weaknesses. In his treatment of purpose he does not consider the book’s own statement of its purpose (1:2–6). In spite of his fine statement regarding the theo...