Ok, readers—all four of you (according to Google Analytics), whoever you are.
I want some feedback.
I wrote the following for the Bible Reading Program being put out for high school students by BJU Press. This is part of my introduction to Proverbs, and I need help coming up with a good example for the bolded section below. If you are so inclined, please leave a comment with a suggestion!
“So what are proverbs? More importantly, what were proverbs as the ancient Israelite king Solomon understood them almost a thousand years before Christ? Proverbs are not ironclad promises of what is universally true but wise statements about what is generally true. “Generally true” means that there are exceptions—but this does not mean that the Bible contains errors! This is obvious if you will simply take a look at Proverbs XX:XX.”
I was going to suggest Proverbs 26:4-5 (“Answer not a fool…”; “Answer a fool…”), but I was persuaded enough by the LXX’s different renderings of “according to” and by Waltke’s NICOT comments that I decided I couldn’t rely on those verses as a good example of what I’m trying to say. But I still think it’s true.
Can you think of an example?
N.B. I here express my debt to Randy Jaeggli for his definition of “proverb,” which I largely cribbed because it has stuck in my mind all these years.