The older section starting in chapter 10 had probably been much more re-
garded as a collection of commonsense folk wisdom and pithy sayings. But
the additions — such as “the Lordcreated [Wisdom] at the beginning”
(8:22) and she was beside him “When he established the heavens...,when
he made firm the skies above” (8:27-30) — helped transform the collection
so that one could seek and “find the knowledge of God” (2:5). The not-
excessively pious Qohelet may have gained scriptural status once the more
traditional appendix, urging the reader to “fear God and keep his com-
mandments” (Eccl. 12:9-14) was added. The same status may have been
gained for the book of Esther with the addition of the institution of the
feast of Purim (Esth. 9:18-32).
Third, hermeneutical innovation also contributed to sacralization.
The Song of Songs, which like the Psalms originated as human literature,
was sublimated through a hermeneutical lens into a meditation on God’s
love for Israel.
The book of Daniel also provides an interesting example. There was a
growing cycle of Danielic materials, which perhaps drew on the righteous
figure of Dan(i)el, laconically mentioned in Ezek. 14:14, 20, and which at-
tached his name to traditions such as the anonymous Jewish healer in the
Prayer of Nabonidus (4Q242). The cycle (1) achieved the form of a small
literary collection of wisdom tales during the Persian period (Daniel 2–6);
(2) developed into a larger collection due to the persecution of Anti-
ochus IV (Daniel 1–12) and yet a larger collection with the Additions (1–
14); and (3) continued to emerge in the form of other Pseudo-Daniel tradi-
tions (4Q243-245). Out of that developing cycle, the collections of chapters
1–12 and of 1–14 were accepted by different communities as Scripture,
though not the earlier or later materials.
Other factors that may also have contributed to the recognition of Is-
rael’s literature as divinely authored Scripture were the increasing antiq-
uity of a work, the educational or liturgical settings in which this literature
was proclaimed to be speaking in the name of God or articulating the will
of God, and the “resignification” or adaptability of the texts to the current
community’s ongoing life, whereby they could readily identify their situa-
tion with one in which God had favored Israel in the past.
Religious leaders and pious people sincerely trying to understand and
articulate the divine will produced the religious classics of Israel. As gener-
ation after generation pondered their religious traditions in light of their
current historical, political, and social reality, in one sense, the wordabout
God became the wordofGod. The communities continued to hear it re-126eugene ulrichEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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