Wisdom and Covenant : Revisiting Zimmerli

Should you turn to Choon-Leong Seow's staff profile on the Princeton Seminary website you will find a brief precis of his view on the idiosyncratic nature of Wisdom literature (WL) when compared to the rest of the OT. The website tells us that 'The Old Testament's wisdom literature holds a particular interest for [Seow], in part because he r(qards it as distinctive for the complete absence of the main themes found elsewhere in the Old Testament.'1 Seow's perspective is certainly not uncommon amongst scholars working in the field of the OT Wisdom Literature. The common suggestion is that OT Wisdom rejects the motifs which are central to the T orab, Prophets and, indeed, other books within the Writings. In particular it is often mooted that the central themes of salvation history, cult and covenant are absent held in Nantwich, UK. The theme of the conference was 'covenant' and this paper seeks to address the question of whether or not the Old Testament's Wisdom literature rejects the theme of covenant as some scholars suggest.