Sage and Anti-Sage: Proverbs and Qohelet

Abstract

This chapter describes (1) how the Biblical book of Proverbs constructs the sage as one who recognizes the divinely ordained patterns by which the world runs and expresses them in patterned language spoken by dramatized figures; (2) how the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes, or Qohelet, deconstructs sagacity as an illusion and the sage as delusional, since no patterns hold and no one knows the deity's mind other than by the human condition, which is to be off-balance and anxious; and (3) how, in Mikhail Bakhtin's terms, Qohelet effects a dialogical relationship with Proverbs, mimicking its linguistic forms, mocking its dramatized speakers, and contradicting its ideas in prose.