The Lord by Wisdom Founded the Earth

Creation and Covenant in Old Testament Theology

Katharine J. Dell

Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction

1 Creation and Wisdom in Scholarly Assessment

2 Creation in Wisdom Texts: Proverbs and Ecclesiastes

3 Creation in Wisdom Texts: Job

4 A Wisdom Lens on Two Creation Accounts: Genesis 1–3 and Psalm 104

5 The Dialogue between Creation and Covenant: Genesis 9

6 Creation and Covenant in Cosmic Dialogue

7 Wisdom and Covenant in Relationship

Conclusion

In Proverbs, wisdom is personified as a woman who is with God at the creation of the world, delighting in what God has made. In Job, God appears in theophany and describes the wonders of the earth and heavens. There are thus revealed detailed descriptions of God’s work in creation in the wisdom literature. Key themes that emerge from these passages are the foundation of the earth, its division from the heavens and the waters, God’s provision of all of nature as well as human and animal life, God’s relationship to the world, and the ethics and morality of our human response. There is also a wealth of covenant language that includes creation and links up with wisdom texts as well. This is epitomized in Noah’s covenant with God and the sign of the rainbow.

In The Lord by Wisdom Founded the Earth, Katharine J. Dell illuminates the Old Testament theological themes of creation and covenant, interpreting them through the lens of wisdom. Dell shifts attention from the Genesis accounts of creation to allow for a fresh reading from texts in Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes She subsequently assesses Genesis and certain “creation” Psalms for similarities and differences. This approach allows the creation theme to be prioritized in new ways and then brought into dialogue with covenant ideas, leading to a reconsideration of Genesis 9, with its profound image of the rainbow as a sign within creation of the covenant between God and the world, and various prophetic texts—passages wherein the close symbiosis of covenant with creation has been overlooked. Furthermore, a “cosmic covenant” emerges over time, a covenant of peace that will characterize the eschatological age, as found in some later prophetic literature.

Dell contends that wisdom literature is often misrepresented for its lack of reference to covenant, demonstrating key relations through intertextual parallels from the Psalms and Deuteronomy. The figure of Wisdom in Proverbs 3 and 8, in the emphases on relationship and communication, anticipates the ultimate merging of themes of wisdom, creation, covenant, and torah in later apocryphal texts. Likewise, Dell also suggests that Solomon emerges as the canonical figurehead of wisdom’s “covenant” with humanity and the world.

ISBN 978-1-4813-1704-7

$54.99 | Hardback

252 pages

6 x 9

October 1, 2023

ISBN 978-1-4813-1873-0

$59.99 | Hardback

208 pages

8 x 10

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“In this fresh approach to Qohelet, philosopher Menachem Fisch and scholar-artist Debra Band radically re-vision a text whose interpretation was ’settled.’ Through exciting exposition that ranges from the history of rabbinical thought to analytical philosophy to the pain of personal loss, and illumined by Band’s glowing paintings, the authors return us to the original Hebrew word on which Qohelet pivots: hevel When hevel is not read ’figuratively’ but is restored to its literal meaning as ’vapor’ or ’mist,’ an unexpected theology is revealed.”

KIMBERLEY C. PATTON, Professor of the Comparative and Historical Study of Religion, Harvard Divinity School

Qohelet

Searching for a Life Worth Living Debra Band and Menachem Fisch

How to live a life of wisdom and fulfillment in a far-from-perfect world? Philosopher Menachem Fisch and artist Debra Band together probe Qohelet’s inquiry into the value of life “under the sun” in this brilliant work—the first illuminated manuscript of the entire biblical text, the first philosophical analysis tracing the coherent path of this biblical thinker’s full argument. Whereas modern readers influenced by the famous declaration “vanity, vanity, all is vanity” from the 1611 King James Bible have commonly understood that Qohelet found only futility and hopelessness in human life, Fisch restores the literal meaning, “vapor,” to Qohelet’s key word, hevel, with implications that reveal Qohelet’s path to wisdom and even serenity. Through linguistic precision and careful unfolding of the book’s philosophical argument, Fisch uncovers Qohelet’s twin concerns: life is short, and situated as we are, far below the heavens, we can never be assured of comprehending our world, or understanding divine will and intent. He reveals Qohelet’s understanding that since we can never fully predict or understand our fortunes or the heritage we leave behind us, the best we can do is to live our lives fully, relating to others attentively, always aware of the limits of human life.

In her glowing, immersive, and discursive illuminated paintings of the entire text, Band imagines Qohelet’s teachings, employing the grandest of palaces, the Alhambra, as the central metaphor for the beauty and impermanence of human life and accomplishments. She fills its halls and gardens with often surprising imagery, symbolism, and related poetry, creating a visual midrash that reveals the relationship of Qohelet’s thought to other biblical texts and Jewish lore and its reverberations across the centuries and cultures of Western civilization, from ancient Israel to today’s America. Each illuminated page is complemented by lucid commentary explaining its full meaning. Renowned scholars Ellen F. Davis and Moshe Halbertal crown the work with a penetrating foreword and preface.

DEBRA BAND draws upon her love of both the manuscript arts and the Jewish textual tradition in her acclaimed illuminated manuscripts. Her paintings have been widely exhibited across the United States and Canada. She resides in Potomac, Maryland, with her husband, Michael Diamond, MD, and menagerie.

MENACHEM FISCH is Joseph and Ceil Mazer Professor Emeritus of History and Philosophy of Science at Tel Aviv University, TAU codirector of the Frankfurt–Tel Aviv Center for Religious and Interreligious Studies, and senior fellow of the Goethe University Frankfurt’s Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften.

“Illuminated manuscripts have a rich tradition to which this gem adds creatively. Not only does Debra Band’s exquisite micrography, calligraphy, and artwork invite us to marinate in and meditate on Qohelet’s suggestive composition, Menachem Fisch adds a unique and penetrating philosophical analysis. This work takes us from the ancient world of the Bible through medieval traditions of illumination and into a reading of Qohelet as a harbinger of post-modern thinking.”

PETER A. PETTIT, Teaching Pastor, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Davenport, Iowa

“A feast for the eyes, the mind, and the heart.”

RABBI SHAI HELD

“A biblical, philosophical, artistic, and (ultimately) theological account.”

—TOM GREGGS

“An exquisite combination of pictorial imagination with abstract reflections.”

—MOSHE IDEL

“

Qohelet is like no other in offering two Jewish perspectives, a philosopher’s and an artist’s.”

—JOHN GOLDINGAY

“An important contribution to philosophical theology.”

—HINDY NAJMAN

“These two religious Jews let Qohelet speak from the Jewish canon.”

—ELLEN T. CHARRY

“Inventive, probing, and thought-provoking.”

—JON D. LEVENSON

“Debra Band’s illuminations and commentary beautifully complement Fisch’s meditation in Qohelet.”

—DAVID NOVAK

“A wonderful display of art interpreting the written word.”

—LAURA KRUGER

“What a rereading of this fascinating scripture!“

—DAVID F. FORD

ISBN 978-1-4813-2091-7

$44.99 | Paper

432 pages

6 x 9

March 15, 2024

1 b&w illus., 1 map, 30 b&w photos