Listen to the Wisdom of God: A Rhetorical-Relational Analysis of Proverbs 8:4-36 in the Septuagint

Proverbs 8:4-36, the speech of personified wisdom, is arguably the most discussed text in the book of Proverbs. Biblical scholars generally interpret the Hebrew text of this passage as that Proverbs 8:4-36 is the self-praise of wisdom, which explains the significance, origin, and authority of wisdom. However, this major view may not necessarily stand when the Greek text of Proverbs 8:4-36 in Septuagint is examined. The translation of Proverbs is highly paraphrastic. The Greek text of this passage may express a different focus from the Hebrew text. In addition, the linguistic features of Proverbs 8:4-36, especially its rhetorical structure, that are essential for the appropriate interpretation of this passage have not been fully assessed in the current biblical scholarship. This paper conducts conduct a rhetorical-relational analysis based on Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) to identify the core section of Proverbs 8:4-36 in Septuagint, namely the most important message conveyed in this passage. This method provides a framework to assess the linguistic features of the biblical text and may offer new insights into the existing research of Proverbs 8:4-36. According to the rhetorical-relational analysis in this paper, I argue that Proverbs 8:4-36 is an appeal, the key message of which is to listen to the wisdom. Those statements explaining the significance, origin, and authority of wisdom are supporting information used to justify the appeal of listening to wisdom.