The Wisdom of Proverbs, Job & Ecclesiastes by Derek Kidner Book Reflection and Review!

Do you resonate more with Proverbs, Job or Ecclesiastes?

Derek Kidner’s book “The Wisdom of Proverbs, Job & Ecclesiastes” is an introduction to wisdom literature in the Old Testament, and the academic discussions that surround the wisdom books. He works his way through the three books one-by-one: first introducing them, and then reflecting on the issues of the day regarding each book. Kidner was a solidly Evangelical Old Testament scholar in a context where that was a rare find, so keep that name in the back of your mind as you come into contact with other works of his.

What I really appreciated about this book was the way that Kidner showed how each of the other wisdom books (Job and Ecclesiastes) filled out the general baseline of wisdom found in Proverbs. Where one might be tempted to view any of the books out of context and unevenly, he weaved the three together as an organic whole. Job reminds Proverbs that sometimes the blameless face tragedy. Ecclesiastes points out that all the wisdom in the world does not change the fact that we are all going to die one day. Altogether, the three books paint a holistic picture of wise living in a fallen world.

Reader, be aware that Kidner spends significant portions of this book describing how each of the wisdom books are viewed in scholarship that is contemporary to his writing. For a more strictly popular-level approach to a wisdom book, “How to Read Proverbs” by Tremper Longman III is a great introduction to the book of Proverbs and wisdom literature more broadly. The chapters of this book that serve as introductions to Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes are top notch!

I would recommend this book to anyone who desires to learn more about the Wisdom literature books of the Old Testament!