So the topic might be pursued, and from Midrash and Talmud might be drawn examples in plenty, both references to the ancient proverbs and quotations of new ones—words of wit and humour, of prudence and fine idealism—applied to all manner of human intercourse, and witnessing abundantly that in Israel Wisdom was still known of her children. Space must be found for just these three observations on married life:
Whose wife dies in his lifetime, the world becomes dark for him (C. 55)[96].
He who loves his wife as himself and honours her more than himself ... it is of him the Scripture saith “Thou shalt know that thy tent is in peace” (C. 55).
And, lastly, this gentle and subtle saying:—
If thy wife be short, bend down and whisper to her (C. 55).
If Wisdom is an influence at all, it is always an intimate influence working in homes and individual consciences as well as in street and market-place, so that besides noting the frequent mention of proverbs in the literature, consideration should also be paid to the vigour of Jewish morality in the Christian era. Perhaps the simplest and most human point at which to test the matter briefly will be the ethic of the Jewish home. Dispossessed of their native land and scattered to a thousand different cities, the Jews were compelled to work out their own salvation under great and increasing difficulties.[97] God, says a significant Talmudic comment, dwells in a pure and loving home; and no one, aware of the evils that were rampant in the decaying paganism of the Græco-Roman Empire and persisted, still powerful though not unrebuked, in the slowly developing society of nominally Christian Europe, would deny that the isolated and often harassed communities of the Jews did their utmost to make that noble saying a reality, maintaining with amazing courage and pertinacity a splendid ideal of family and communal existence. A discussion of the topic in the Jewish Encyclopædia concludes with the following affirmation: “Throughout these centuries of persecution and migration the moral atmosphere of the Jewish home was rarely contaminated, and it became a bulwark of moral and social strength, impregnable by reason of the religious spirit which permeated it.” And in elucidation of what was involved in the persecution referred to let this one grim statement speak: From the sixteenth century, and earlier, regulations were enforced compelling the Jews of numerous large cities to reside in certain confined areas, “ghettos.” Nevertheless the dreadful overcrowding to which this led resulted in no serious moral evils: “The purity of the Jewish home-life was a constant antidote to the poisonous suggestions of life in slums, and it was even able to resist the terrible squalor and unhealthiness which prevailed in the miserable and infamous Roman ghetto, where at one time as many as 10,000 inhabitants were herded into a space less than a square kilometre. In the poorer streets of this ghetto several families occupied one and the same room. The sufferings of the Jews in that hell upon earth were not diminished by the yearly overflowing of the Tiber which made the Roman ghetto a dismal and a plague-stricken swamp.”[98]
Of course many things worked together to sustain the morality of the Jewish people—the long-suffering of the Psalmists, the golden promises of the mighty Prophets, and the strength of the ancient Law. But surely also that store of homely, yet stirring and challenging, proverbs which the Wise-men had created, may claim a real share in the magnificent result? And if, quite rightly, it be insisted that the Law, with its fascination of hallowed customs and manifold spiritual suggestions, played the all-important part, then in reply we may still enter the plea that, as Ben Sirach had felt and said, for the Jew the Law was Wisdom and Wisdom had become the Law.
III
In the third place, the words of the Wise were given an honoured place in the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ. To some that may be an unexpected statement. It is well-known that Jesus was intimately familiar with the doctrine of the Prophets, and many have perceived how conscious He was of all that is admirable in the Law, the spiritual essence of which He fulfilled. But, though His interest in the Wise is seldom noted, it is no less true that He had considered deeply and sympathetically the idea of the Divine Wisdom, and was familiar with the famous proverbs that sought to apply its guidance alike to the greatest and the least of our affairs. Just how often a memory of Wisdom is traceable in the recorded words of Jesus cannot be determined with certainty. Verbatim allusions are rare, perhaps because the ideas of the Wise and their more memorable sayings had become so familiar in our Lord’s time as to be common ground between hearer and teacher, so that often it was only the point made by the Wise that was hinted at, or caught up and given some new turn and emphasis. But echoes from the thoughts and images of the proverbs are so frequent in the Gospels that together they furnish ample evidence of His having known and valued the ancient treasury of Wisdom. The evidence is, of course, cumulative, and its strength must not be judged by the following few illustrations.[99]
No fewer than seven of the eight Beatitudes (Matt. 53ff) recall proverbs of the Wise; what had been, as it were, a seed of thought in the proverb finding ripe expression in the Beatitude. For instance, Blessed are the poor (i.e., humble) in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, said Jesus—Better, said the Wise, is it to be of a lowly spirit with the poor, than to divide the spoil with the proud (Pr. 1619). With Jesus’ condemnation of mischievous talk, Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement; for by thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned (Matt. 1236, 37), compare Pr. 1820, 21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof (also Pr. 132, 154, 2123, etc.). With the teaching, Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth ... but in heaven, compare Pr. 114, 28, 1516, 168, etc. Give us this day our daily bread seems to echo Pr. 308: Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is needful for me. In the command for generous dealing, Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away (Matt. 542), there is perhaps a precise reminiscence of Pr. 328: Say not unto thy neighbour, “Go and come again” when thou hast it with thee (cp. also Pr. 1917 with Matt. 2540); and again when Jesus encouraged His disciples saying Be not anxious how or what ye shall speak.... For it is not ye that speak but the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you (Matt. 1019, 20), perhaps the very words of Pr. 161 were in His memory: The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord?