Jesus the Sage: The Pilgrimage of Wisdom

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Summary: EXCELLENT LOOK AT CONTINUITY OF SAGE IN OLD & NEW TESTAMENTS
Review: Ben Witherington III has contributed a marvelous work to the study of one of the key, yet obscure leadership roles in Scripture. While we often think of kings, priests, and prophets in the Old Testament, this book gives the reader some very convincing proof of the sage's crucial role in leading and influencing society. With great skill (and tremendous footnotes!) the author weaves the sage's role from Old Testament, through the inter-testamental period, and climaxes with the picture of Jesus as Sage. But he doesn't stop there and adds several New Testament persons to the list of those we can consider "sage." For anyone looking to deeply study the role of sage and the nature of divine wisdom would spend their money wisely in getting this book.

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Summary: This book says more about Wisdom than it does about Jesus
Review: This book by Ben Witherington III is a useful study of the Jewish semi-divine, semi-spiritual concept of Wisdom which, at its greatest, was conceived of as a hypostatization of God himself. But I'm not at all sure that it tells us anything at all about Jesus. The best Witherington could claim, it seems to me, is that this book relates the Jewish concept of Wisdom TO Jesus. And as a study with that aim it does the job fairly well. It covers vast ground, from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes from the Hebrew Bible, through the extracanonical Jewish texts of Ben Sira and that known as the Wisdom of Solomon, and on to New Testment Wisdom in the shape of Q, James and the Gospels of Matthew and John (not forgetting Paul of course!). Yet only chapter 4 is really anything to do with Jesus himself. Now maybe I am being harsh, maybe that's not what this book is meant to be about and maybe I'm looking for (a Jesus of) history when Witherington wants to be more theological, relating Wisdom in its various historical guises and then addressing the "Sage Jesus" he sees to that. But this book is not about Jesus as an historical person. It is a theology of Wisdom. As such, it is a useful book to have if one is interested by such things. It is not overly useful if one wants a study of Jesus as an historical person.

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