Abstract
The historical identity of the נכריה/אשה זרה in Proverbs 7 has been a vexing quandary in modern biblical scholarship. Although many proposals have been offered, there is, as of yet, no critical consensus. My aim is not to settle the matter once and for all, but to approach the problem from a different angle. This article offers a fresh reading of Proverbs 7.1-27 in order to shift attention away from who the Foreign Woman might be historically to how her foreignness is constructed ideologically. Specifically, the argument draws on kinesthetic theory to reexamine the pedagogical use of sensory data to enhance persuasion. As we shall see, the father deploys a visceral narrative that transmits the ethnicized and gendered otherness of the Foreign Woman in sensory fashion (e.g. aural, gustative, tactile, visual, olfactory). This pedagogical tactic functions as a strategic form of kinesthetic empathy that subconsciously inscribes social and religious boundary markers in the sensorium. In this way, the father’s instruction encodes an ethnic sensory that is neurologically wired, so to speak, to perceive Lady Wisdom as more appealing than the seductions of the Foreign Woman. By drawing attention to the didactic strategy of shaping wisdom in the sensorium, this kinesthetic reading highlights the critical role of sensory perception in mediating ideologies of difference.
1. Introduction
The elusive figure of the נכריה/אשה זרה in Prov 7.1-27 continues to intrigue and confound biblical scholars. Traditional historical criticism has expended considerable effort to determine her historical identity. Is the נכריה/אשה זרה, inter alia, a prostitute, 1 a fertility cult devotee, 2 a goddess, 3 a symbol for foreign wisdom, 4 a foreign married adulteress, 5 or an adulteress Israelite wife? 6 Despite the number of proposals, there is no consensus on the identity of נכריה/אשה זרה in modern scholarship. As varied as these suggestions are, however, there is an underlying moral dimension scholars commonly agree on—the woman is an adulteress. A fundamental reason for her foreignness, therefore, is her marital unfaithfulness. This emphasis on the woman’s sexual indiscretions is reflected in the liberties taken by English Bible glosses of אשה זרה (Prov 7.5): ‘loose woman’ (NRSV), ‘forbidden woman’ (ESV), ‘adulteress’ (NIV), ‘immoral woman’ (NKJV), ‘someone else’s wife’ (CEV)—all of which stand in sharp contrast to the straightforward rendering of the Septuagint: γυναικὸς ἀλλοτρίας (LXX). 7
Recent scholarship has questioned the undue moral emphasis of the conventional reading by identifying the patriarchal premise on which it is based. For example, Claudia Camp decouples the binary opposition that the conventional reading uncritically assumes between Woman Wisdom and the Foreign Woman, while Gale Yee challenges the problematic implications of gender and sexuality inherent in such reconstructions. 8 Similarly, Nancy Nam Hoon Tan takes issue with the way in which the identity of the Foreign Woman is conventionally rendered in non-ethnic terms. In what is arguably the most comprehensive study of the Foreign Woman to date, Tan argues that the foreignness of the Foreign Woman consists primarily in her ethnic otherness as a non-Israelite outsider. 9 Not only is rendering אשה זרה as a married adulteress a misreading of the Hebrew (כי אין האיש בביתו [‘the man is not in his house’ Prov 7.19]), it also misconstrues her characterization in Prov 7.1-27. 10 These alternative readings by Camp, Yee, and Tan provide an important counterpoint to the conventional interpretation in which the foreignness of the woman is overdetermined by her alleged marital infidelity.
This article offers additional support in favor of the view that the Foreign Woman is in fact a non-Israelite foreigner. However, instead of establishing the parameters of her ethnic identity on historical grounds, I examine sensory clues in Prov 7.1-27 to draw attention to how the figure of the נכריה/אשה זרה is constructed ideologically. My broader aim in doing so is to draw greater attention to the didactic strategies at work in the father’s instructions. 11 Recent scholarship has rightly accented the protreptic and paraenetic aims embedded in the literary macrostructure of Proverbs 1-9. 12 Another important but often overlooked technique is the use of sensory appeal. 13 To throw light on this process, I draw on the insights of kinesthetic theory to reexamine Prov 7.1-27. A kinesthetic reading departs from previous approaches by pursuing a different line of inquiry: How is the foreignness of the נכריה/אשה זרה encoded in sensory terms? Moreover, what is conveyed in and rendered by the sensory faculties of the auditor? 14 To develop an answer to these questions, the following argument utilizes kinesthetic empathy as a lens to reexamine the pedagogical use of sensory data to enhance persuasion.
As we shall see, the father deploys a visceral narrative that transmits the ethnic and gendered otherness of the Foreign Woman in sensory fashion (e.g. aural, gustative, tactile, visual, olfactory). This pedagogical tactic functions as a strategic form of kinesthetic persuasion that subconsciously inscribes social and religious boundary markers in the sensorium. In this way, the father’s instruction encodes an ethnic sensory that is neurologically wired, so to speak, to perceive Lady Wisdom as more appealing than the seductions of the Foreign Woman. To develop my reading, I begin with a brief working definition of kinesthetic empathy and examine three kinesthetic clues (visual, sensory, spatial) in Proverbs 7 that elucidate this strategy at work.
2. Defining kinesthetic empathy
A theory of kinesthetic empathy was popularized in the 1930s by dance critic, John Martin.
15
Kinesthetic empathy refers to a contagious feeling, emotion, or sensation that is mediated in the very act of performance between performer and spectator. More precisely, kinesthetic empathy isolates the sensory experience of the spectator who is an active participant. Martin offers a pithy example as illustration: ‘Hills roll and mountains rise, though they are perfectly stationary; the rolling and the rising are activities in us when we look at them’.
16
Accordingly, the human body possesses an intrinsic articulateness that is intercepted by and processed through the sensory faculties. Susan Leigh Foster identifies the bodily and sensory exchange that occurs between performer and spectator as the neurological perception of action, which translates into an ‘inner mimicry’ of what is seen.
17
She writes, [T]he viewer, on witnessing the dancing body, is inspired to feel equivalent kinesthetic sensations. This process … is grounded in a fundamental physical reactivity to all events: we pucker when we witness someone tasting a lemon, and when they yawn or cry we feel similar impulses.
18
Kinesthetic empathy illumines the physical and physiological interactions implicit in performance. Sensory information is implicitly channeled from performer to spectator, linking perception and body, sight and experience. Yet, the transmission of this information is pre-linguistic or extra-linguistic, being independent of verbal communication, and is instead made possible by the sensory faculties. Kinesthetic empathy, then, vicariously imparts a sensory experience and epistemology: it is both a way of knowing and a way of showing.
3. Altered mode of instruction: visualizing foreignness
A kinesthetic turn in Proverbs 7 can be detected in the altered mode of instruction in v. 6. This shift is observable both grammatically and structurally. Proverbs 7 is typically divided into three sections: the father’s instructions in vv. 1-5, dramatic narration about the Foreign Woman in vv. 6-23, and concluding exhortations in vv. 24-27.
19
In the first section, the father states his instruction in the conventional form of proverbial sayings: בני שמר אמרי ומצותי תצפן אתך שמר מצותי וחיה ותורתי כאישון עיניך קשרם על אצבעתיך כתבם על לוח לבך (Prov 7.1-3, MT) My child, keep my words and store up my commandments with you. Keep my commandments and live. Keep my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers write them on the tablet of your heart. (Prov 7.1-3, NRSV)
The emphasis on visual perception is hinted at in v. 2. Literally, the father’s exhortation is to view his teachings ‘as the pupil of your eyes’ (כאישון עיניך).
20
Here, the mode of communication is consistent with previous instructions regarding the Foreign Woman. In Prov 5.1-3, for example, the father issues a warning against the seductive speech of the Foreign Woman in a similar mode: בני לחכמתי הקשיבה לתבונתי הט־אזנך לשמר מזמות ודעת שפתיך ינצרו כי נפת תטפנה שפתי זרה וחלק משמן הכה (Prov 5.1-3, MT) My child, be attentive to my wisdom incline your ear to my understanding, so that you may hold on to prudence and your lips may guard knowledge. For the lips of a loose woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil. (Prov 5.1-3, NRSV)
Returning to Prov 7.6, however, the father no longer conveys instruction in the form of warnings and commandments as indicated by the use of the masculine singular imperatives in vv. 1-5 (שמר, v. 1; וחיה, v. 2; קשרם, v. 3, etc.). Instead, there is a shift from deductive to inductive instruction as indicated by the use of the first person (נשקפתי, v. 6; וארא, אבינה v. 7). 21 This shift is noteworthy because of the visual dimension it introduces. What follows in vv. 6-23 is depicted from a new vantage point.
The visual shift at v. 6 continues into the following narrative in several ways. Two specific points may be mentioned. First, the asymmetrical pattern of vv. 6-7 accents the optical dimension of these verses. In vv. 6-7, the first two cola (A and B) stand in parallel; however, the third colon (C) disrupts the pattern:
This asymmetrical pattern accents the third elements; placed together, the C colon of vv. 6-7 creates a graphic visual. If the A-B cola of v. 6 highlight the visual means (בחלון, v. 6 || וארא, v. 7; אשנבי, v. 6 || אבינה, v. 7), then the A-B cola of v. 7 focus on the visual object (בפתאים, בבנים, v. 7). Juxtaposed in this way, the C colon of v. 7 specifies what comes into view: נער חסר לב. Based on this analysis of the parallelism, vv. 6-7 may be paraphrased in the following way: (A) Through the window of my house, I saw among the simple; (B) Through my lattice, I noticed among the youth; and (C) a senseless young man. What is visually highlighed is a young man who lacks sense.
The visual dimension of vv. 6-7 culminates in v. 10, the first moment when the Foreign Woman makes her entrance. Her arrival is announced in a striking way: וְהִנֵּ֣ה אִ֭שָּׁה לִקְרָאת֑וֹ שִׁ֥ית ז֜וֹנָ֗ה וּנְצֻ֥רַת לֵֽב. The הנה noun clause in v. 10 expresses vividness in recounting a past event, similar to the historical present, emphasizing what is to follow. This noun clause is further supported by the particle הנה, which marks participant perspective. A suitable translation would be, ‘All of a sudden, she greets him’. 22 The visual quality of the narrative is heightened by the description of how the woman is dressed: שית זונה ונצרת לב. She is visually marked as an ethnic woman, a strange woman, a nasty woman. It is as if the Foreign Woman, hitherto unseen, approaches the son in this very moment.
Beginning the story in this way appeals to the sensory faculties in several ways. First, by speaking in the first person, the father’s mode of instruction transforms from that of teacher to narrator. Consequently, the subject position of the implied reader undergoes a similar transformation from son to spectator. In this way, the son is not only made to see what the father sees but also how and from where the father sees. Second, the visual nature of the ensuing narrative intensifies the sense of moral urgency. No longer does the father offer instruction in the realm of abstract propositions allowing the son to remain detached. By visualizing a dramatic encounter that comes to a climax, the son is placed in the midst of a moral dilemma to see the Foreign Woman for himself. The primary pedagogical strategy is the cultivation of desire. Stewart explains, The way in which the book of Proverbs patterns desire cannot be fully understood apart from how its function is realized through poetic form. It does not issue staid descriptions of desirable objects, but it appeals to the breadth of the student’s senses, prompting not only cognitive analysis of various desires but also sensory perception as a means of evaluation.
23
By sensing what the young man failed to sense, the son will be better equipped and know how to respond should he find himself in a similar situation.
4. Aesthetic description: perceiving foreignness
Another dimension of the kinesthetic strategy at work in Proverbs 7 can be seen from the sensory-rich description of the Foreign Woman’s physical body. Prior to Proverbs 7, the father has issued three warnings against the Foreign Woman, specifically against the seductive power of her speech (Prov 2.16; 5.3, 20). But the narrative in Proverbs 7 extends beyond her words and opens up to a vivid description of her physical shape and appearance.
There are at least four references to the Foreign Woman’s body in Proverbs 7. (1) Her figure first comes into view in v. 10: והנה אשה לקראתו שית זונה ונצרת לב (‘All of a sudden, she greets him dressed like a prostitute’). The point here is not necessarily that she is a prostitute—a subject of considerable debate—but rather how she is clothed. 24 Whether this means she is wearing a veil that covers her face (as in Gen 38.14 where Tamar takes off her widow’s clothes and disguises herself with a veil) to conceal her identity, or she is scantily clad, her very appearance is revealing. Her clothing is indicative of her character, of what lies underneath. She is dressed for the part. (2) A variety of references describe other limbs; in v. 11, her feet (רגליה) are not at home. (3) Verse 13 highlights her face (פניה). (4) In v. 21, she purses her lips (שפתיה). (5) V. 27 contains a possible double entendre in the word ‘house’ (הבית) as a reference to the ‘womb’—a euphemism for the vagina. If so, v. 27 frames the man’s fate in the terms of the woman’s anatomy. Her vagina is the opening to Sheol (cf. Prov 5.5, ‘Her legs go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol [רגליה ירדות מות שאול צעדיה יתמכו]’).
The importance of these anatomical references are twofold. First and foremost, her body serves as a communicative vehicle that precedes her seductive speech. The way she clothes her body reflects something about her character. On the one hand, her physical appearance sends the message that she is attractive and available; on the other hand, her physical appearance also suggests that she is coy and deceptive. These nuances are conveyed by the last phrase that follows in v. 10—the Foreign Woman is literally ‘guarded of sense’ (לב ונצרת) in contrast to the ‘senseless man’ (נער חסר לב, v. 7). Similarly, her feet also say something about her character: she is loud and wayward, obnoxious and rebellious. She is prone to depart from paths and norms of society. In v. 13, her face says it all: she is shameless, impudent, and ‘devoid of proper human sensibilities’. 25 These various parts of her body, including what she does with her mouth (v. 21), are integral to her persuasion.
Second, these anatomical descriptions are rich with sensory details. The descriptions invoke all of the senses—sight, smell, taste, touch, sound—creating a sensory experience of the Foreign Woman: we see her risqué clothing (והנה אשה לקראתו שית זונה ונצרת לב, v. 10); we hear her footsteps (המיה היא וסררת בביתה לא ישכנו רגליה, v. 11); we feel her touch as she grabs a hold of the young man (והחזיקה בו ונשקה־לו, v. 13a); we watch as she purses her lips to kiss the young man (העזה פניה ותאמר לו, v. 13b); we listen to her voice (זבחי שלמים עלי היום שלמתי נדרי, v. 14 26 ); we see the colorful Egyptian linens that cover her couch (מרבדים רבדתי רשיע חטבות אטון מצרים, v. 16); and we smell her bed that is perfumed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon (נפתי משכבי מר אהלים וקנםון, v. 17). By mediating these differences via the sensory faculties, the father inculcates a heightened sensory awareness of the Foreign Woman. Even the seductive speech of the Foreign Woman is highlighted in physiological terms: her mouth drips with honey (Prov 5.3); her tongue is smooth (Prov 6.24); and she has smooth lips (Prov 7.21). The Foreign Woman’s greatest assets are her mouth, tongue, and lips. To guard against them, the father admonishes his pupil in corporeal terms: ‘Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart’ (Prov 7.2). The father’s instructions, then, are to fight fire with fire—to create greater kinesthetic empathy with Lady Wisdom rather than the Foreign Woman.
5. Physical movement: spatializing foreignness
The third and final dimension of kinesthetic empathy occurs through the spatial movement that develops throughout Prov 7.6-23. Strong sensual overtones are present in vv. 1-5 and anticipate the conclusion in vv. 24-27. Lady Wisdom and the Foreign Woman are juxtaposed by way of a sexual innuendo: becoming acquainted with wisdom—as with an intimate friend (מודע, Prov 7.4) 27 —is one way to maintain proper distance from the Foreign Woman (Prov 7.4-5). 28
The sense of movement begins in v. 8 when a young man devoid of sense is seen passing by on the street, taking the road to her house. Not only is the man on the wrong path, but he is also out at the wrong time in the dead of night (Prov 7.9). The sense of movement picks up in vv. 10-12 as the man is confronted by the Foreign Woman. In v. 10, she comes out of her house to meet the young man. In v. 11, she is described as lewd, loud-mouthed, and mobile—as stressed in v. 12 with the particle פעם: ‘Now in the street; now in the squares’. She appears here and she appears there; she is everywhere but home. She runs circles around the young man.
The sense of movement is also seen in her speech to the young man in vv. 14-20. By opening her mouth, she telegraphs not only where she has been (e.g. in the cult offering her sacrifices and making her vows), but also where they will be going (e.g. to her couch covered with Egyptian linen and her bed covered with perfume). The vivid description of her bed in vv. 16-17 is fraught with sexual overtones and has an ominous connotation of a burial scene. 29 In v. 18, she issues an explicit invitation (דדים) to the young man: ‘Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; let us delight ourselves with love’ (לכה נרוה דדים עד הבקר נתעלסה באהבים). In vv. 19-20, she tells the young man that the man of the house is not at home; he has gone on a long journey. In vv. 21-23, we are spared the details, but the sense of physical movement continues: ‘With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him’ (v. 21).
Three images are used to describe what happens to the body of the man: he is like an ox led to the slaughter, a stag toward the trap until an arrow pierces its entrails, and a bird rushing into a snare lacking awareness (ולא ידע, v. 23) of its impending doom. The consequences for the young man’s senselessness—‘it is in his life’ (כי בנפשו הוא, v. 23) 30 —is contained within his action. Literally, v. 23 says that these metaphors bring the narrative to a climactic end. Moreover, the Foreign Woman’s movements spatially depict how things will end. The story moves from the time of darkness until the light of morning—from the street corner of the Foreign Woman’s house to inside her bedroom; from the height of a window to the depths of Sheol. Thus, the father’s final words in v. 25 circle back to the metaphor of where the path leads: ‘Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths’. Finally, v. 27 culminates the sense of movement: ‘Her vagina (ביתה) opens to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death’.
6. Conclusion
The historical identity of the נכריה/אשה זרה in Proverbs 7 has been a vexing quandary in modern biblical scholarship. This article has approached the problem surrounding her identity from a new angle. Rather than offering another proposal to ascertain the historical identity of the Foreign Woman, my goal was to highlight the didactic and kinesthetic strategies at work in the father’s instructions.
From a pedagogical standpoint, the shift in the mode of instruction is brilliant. Beginning at verse 6, the father is transformed from a teacher to narrator who choreographs an intimate rendezvous between the Foreign Woman and a senseless man. The father stages their encounter as a way of appealing to the senses of taste, touch, sight, and sound as an aesthetic strategy to deter his pupil from disobedience. The father is not merely interested in giving step-by-step instructions or black-and-white principles. His goal is more profound than imparting intellectual information to his son; he seeks moral transformation. In this transition to the first person, the son is transported from the realm of abstract propositions and commandments into a moral drama that begins to unfold. The abrupt change of scenery, moreover, prevents the son from remaining emotionally distant or morally detached. In this way, Proverbs 7 is a vivid example of sensory appeal enhancing moral instruction.
Yet there is also an important ideological dimension here at work as well. In the story that unfolds, the sights, sounds, and smells—all that is apprehended by the senses—is mediated to see, sense, and spatialize foreignness. In the symbolic universe of Proverbs, the female body becomes a discursive site for the construction and contestation of patriarchal values. Moral codes and social boundaries are inscribed in the body of the Foreign Woman. Whether the story is based on an actual experience is beside the point. The relevant point is that her identity is not real but imagined. Ultimately, then, this kinesthetic reading of Proverbs 7 highlights the critical role of sensory perception in maintaining religious and social boundary markers. By highlighting the role of the sensorium in constructing and codifying ideologies of difference, this reading of Proverbs 7 can be seen as confirming a theoretical axiom of critical ethnic and racial studies: ethnic difference is a social, even sensory, construct.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Philip Yoo and Mark McEntire for helpful feedback. All remaining errors are my own.
1.
Karel van der Toorn, ‘Female Prostitution in Payment of Vows in Ancient Israel’, JBL, 108.2 (1989), pp. 193-205.
2.
Gustav Boström, Proverbiastudien: Die Weisheit und das fremde Weib in Sprüche (LUÅ N.F. Avd.1, 30, 3; 1935), pp. 103-55; Duane A. Garrett, ‘Votive Prostitution Again: A Comparison of Proverbs 7:13-14 and 21:28-29’, JBL, 109.4 (1990), pp. 681-82; Leo Purdue, Proverbs (2000), p. 133.
3.
Tova Forti, ‘The Isha Zara in Proverbs 1-9- Allegory And Allegorization’, Hebrew Studies 48 (2007), pp. 89-100. Richard J. Clifford, Proverbs: A Commentary (OTL; 1999).
4.
Johann Cook, ‘‘Išāh Zārāh (Proverbs 1-9 Septuagint): A Metaphor for Foreign Wisdom?’ ZAW, 106.3 (1994), pp. 458-76. For an overview of the history of scholarship of Proverbs 7, see: Nancy Tan, The ‘Foreignness’ of the Foreign Woman in Proverbs 1-9: A Study of the Origin and Development of a Biblical Motif (2008), pp. 3-12; Michael V. Fox, Proverbs 1-9: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (2000), pp. 252-58.
5.
Joseph Blenkinsopp, ‘The Social Context of the “Outsider Woman” in Proverbs 1-9’, Biblica 72.4 (1991), pp. 457-73; Nili Shupak, Where Can Wisdom be Found? The Sage’s Language in the Bible and in Ancient Egyptian Literature (1993).
6.
Gail C. Streete, The Strange Woman: Power and Sex in the Bible (1997).
7.
For the Foreign Woman in the Septuagint, see: Cook, ‘Išāh Zārāh’, pp. 458-76; Michael V. Fox, ‘The Strange Woman in Septuagint Proverbs’, JNSL, 22.2 (1996), pp. 31-44; Nancy Nam Hoon Tan, ‘Where Is Foreign Wisdom to be Found in Septuagint Proverbs?’ CBQ, 70.4 (2008), pp. 699-708.
8.
Claudia V. Camp, Wise, Strange, and Holy: The Strange Woman and the Making of the Bible (2000), pp. 72-93; Claudia V. Camp, Wisdom and the Feminine in the Book of Proverbs, p. 117; Gerlinde Baumann, ‘“Zukunft Feministischer Spiritualität’ Oder ‘Werbefigur Des Patriarchats”: Die Bedeutung Der Weisheitsgestalt in Prov 1-9 Für Die Feministisch-Theologische Diskussion’, in Von Der Wurzel Getragen: Christlich-Feministische Exegese in Auseinandersetzung Mit Antijudaismus (1996), pp. 135-52; Gale A. Yee, ‘“I Have Perfumed My Bed With Myrrh” The Foreign Woman (‘Iššâ Zārâ) in Proverbs 1-9’, JSOT, 13.43 (1989), pp. 53-68.
9.
Following Camp, Yee, Murphy, and others, Tan reads the Foreign Woman in Proverbs 1-9 as a single composite character. Moreover, when the two terms נכריה/אשה זרה are used together (Prov 2.16; 7.5), there is an even stronger case to be made for defining foreignness in terms of ethnic difference. See: Tan, The ‘Foreignness’ of the Foreign Woman, pp. 1-43, 165.
10.
With reference to Prov 7.19, Tan notes the oddity of the construction האיש בביתו and suggests that the marital status of the Foreign Woman is a point of ambiguity: ‘Contrary to some commentators who think that it is because the term reflects the emotional distance of the couple, it seems more likely that she is trying to avoid admitting whether she has a husband or not, hence, her marital status is not least explicit, and it can hardly be about adultery per se’ (‘Foreignness’ of the Foreign Woman, p. 99). Pace, Nili Shupak, ‘Female Imagery In Proverbs 1-9 In The Light Of Egyptian Sources’, VT, 61.2 (2011), pp. 310-23, here 313: ‘… [T]he Strange Woman is married and an adulteress’. Herbert Marbury prefers a more literal rendering of אשה זרה, locating the Foreign Woman as an unmarried foreigner in the social milieu of exogamy in Persian Yehud. See ‘The Strange Woman in Persian Yehud: A Reading of Proverbs 7’ in Jon L. Berquist, ed., Approaching Yehud: New Approaches to the Study of the Persian Period (2007), pp. 167-82.
11.
On this point, what Scott C. Jones says is instructive: ‘While it is essential to examine the nature or identity of the vehicle by which the father teaches the son (bênî, v. 1) his instruction, it is perhaps more incisive to understand how the father utilizes that vehicle and shapes it to impress upon the son an intentional picture of both the real seduction and the real danger of the adulteress’ lascivious advance’. (‘Wisdom’s Pedagogy: A Comparison of Proverbs Vii and 4Q184’, VT, 53.1 (2003), pp. 65-80, here 67).
12.
In addition to Yee and Jones, cited above, who highlights the pedagogical and rhetorical strategies of the father’s instruction, see also Markus Saur, ‘Die Literarische Funktion Und Die Theologische Intention Der Weisheitsreden Des Sprüchebuches’, Vetus Testamentum 61.3 (2011), pp. 447-60; Michael V. Fox, ‘The Pedagogy of Proverbs 2’, JBL, 113.2 (1994), pp. 233-43; Raymond C. Van Leeuwen, ‘Liminality and Worldview in Proverbs 1-9’, Semeia 50 (1990), pp. 111-44; Carol Newsom, ‘Women and the Discourse of Patriarchal Wisdom: A Study of Proverbs 1-9’, in Gender and Difference in Ancient Israel (Peggy L. Day, ed.; 1989), pp. 142-60; Glenn D. Pemberton, ‘The Rhetoric Of The Father In Proverbs 1-9’, JSOT, 30.1 (2005), pp. 63-82. For further discussion of the didactic strategies employed within Proverbs 1-9, see Anne W. Stewart, Poetic Ethics in Proverbs: Wisdom Literature and the Shaping of the Moral Self (2016), pp. 43-60.
13.
Paying attention to the role of sensory perception in Proverbs 7 is not a novel approach. In the history of scholarship, the sensory nature of Proverbs 7 has been highlighted most prominently in medieval Jewish commentaries. See Julia Schwartzman, ‘Gender Concepts of Medieval Jewish Thinkers and The Book of Proverbs’, JSQ, 7.3 (2000), pp. 183-202. Cf. Fox, Proverbs 1-9, p. 242. For an excellent introduction to sensory appeal and biblical interpretation, see Yael Avrahami, The Senses of Scripture: Sensory Perception in the Hebrew Bible (2012).
14.
There are numerous examples of kinesthetic empathy in the book of Proverbs: aural (Prov 4.1; 5.7; 7.24; 17.4; 19.20) and gustative (Prov 1.31; 9.17; 13.2; 18.21; 20.17; 24.13-14), to name a few. Avrahami provides a helpful overview of kinesthetic patterns and phrases related to walking and sensory perception (The Senses of Scripture, pp. 75-83). For recent readings that utilize sensory perception in Proverbs, see Greg Schmidt Goering, ‘Honey and Wormwood: Taste and Embodiment of Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs’, in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 5.1 (2016), pp. 23-41; ‘Attentive Ears and Forward-Looking Eyes: Disciplining the Senses and Forming the Self in the Book of Proverbs’, Journal of Jewish Studies, 66.2 (2015), pp. 242-64. For other examples in the Hebrew Bible, see Nicole L. Tilford, ‘When People Have Gods: Sensory Mimicry and Divine Agency in the Book of Job’, in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 5.1 (2016), pp. 42-58; Willie Wessels, ‘Prophetic Sensing of Yahweh’s Word’, Hervormde Teologiese Studies 71.3 (2015), pp. 1-9.
15.
The term kinesthetics is derivative of two Greek words: to move or set in motion (κινέω) and to perceive or apprehend by the senses (αἰςθάνομαι). H. G. Liddell and R. Scott, An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, 7th rev. ed., pp. 433, 23. For a broader history of this term, see Susan Leigh Foster, ‘Movement’s Contagion: The Kinesthetic Impact of Performance’, in The Cambridge Companion to Performance Studies (Tracy Davis, ed.; 2008), pp. 46-59.
16.
John Martin, Introduction to the Dance, quoted in Foster, ‘Kinesthetic Empathies and the Politics of Compassion’, in Critical Theory and Performance (Janelle G. Reinelt and Joseph R. Roach, eds.; 2007), p. 245.
17.
Foster, ‘Movement’s Contagion’, p. 48.
18.
Foster, ‘Movement’s Contagion’, p. 48.
19.
Bruce Waltke, The Book of Proverbs Chapters 1-15 (2004), p. 367. Cf. Fox, Proverbs 1-9, p. 251.
20.
Fox renders this phrase literally ‘as the pupil of your eyes’ with the following justification: ‘As the organ of sight, it is the physical medium of knowledge, alongside the ear’ (Proverbs 1-9, p. 239). To underscore the centrality of one’s vision as worthy of protection, Stewart prefers the translation ‘sparkle of your eyes’ (Poetic Ethics in Proverbs, p. 155).
21.
By contrast, the Septuagint uses the third person implying that the Foreign Woman is the observer: ὃν ἂν ἴδῃ τῶν ἀφρόνων τέκνων νεανίαν ἐνδεῆ φρενῶν, παραπορευόμενον παρὰ γωνίαν ἐν διόδοις οἴκων αὐτῆς (Prov 7.7-8 [LXX]). Other examples of the use of the first person in the Wisdom genre are Qohelet, Psalm 37, and Job’s soliloquy in chapter 3. See Leo G. Purdue, Wisdom & Creation: The Theology of the Wisdom Literature (1994), pp. 198-202.
22.
The NRSV translation of v. 10 understates the emphatic nature of the Hebrew: ‘Then a woman comes toward him’.
23.
Stewart, Poetic Ethics in Proverbs, p. 147.
24.
Shupak, ‘Female Imagery in Proverbs 1-9’, p. 312.
25.
Fox, Proverbs 1-9, p. 245.
26.
Yee, ‘I Have Perfumed My Bed With Myrrh’, pp. 61-62.
27.
On the erotic language used of wisdom in v. 4, see: Jones, ‘Wisdom’s Pedagogy’, pp. 69-70.
28.
This is exactly how Wisdom is described in Pro 1.20-21, as Yee points out: ‘It is the father’s technique to depict the foreign woman and Wisdom by the same terminology… For the father, the greatest seduction to evil consists in inviting the foolish with the same words that summon one to good’ (‘I Have Perfumed My Bed With Myrrh’, p. 121).
29.
Robert H. O’Connell, ‘Proverbs 7:16-17: A Case of Fatal Deception in a “Woman and the Window” Type-Scene’, VT, 41.2 (1991), pp. 235-41, here, 238.
30.
This is Michael L. Baris’ rendering of the phrase: ‘Iniquities Ensnare the Wicked: The Ethical Theory of Proverbs 1-9’, HS, 56 (2015), pp. 129-44, here 141.