T. R. Hobbs

The Cultural Life Setting of the Proverbs

Biblical Studies & Commentaries

“John Pilch has provided the reader with an excellent study of the biblical book of Proverbs in its ancient Mediterranean cultural setting. The necessity of this approach is to avoid the common fault in Biblical studies of the imposition of modern western cultural values on the ancient text. As he and his colleagues have often done, Pilch offers a clearly written guide to the process of reading the text and listening to it as its original hearers would have done. To this end he provides a superb commentary on the Proverbs, accompanied by a glossary of the cultural values reconstructed from the ancient Mediterranean world. The results are refreshing and innovative, and this volume would be a primary reference work for students of the Bible in general and of the proverbial tradition in particular.”