text · B0024
Sefer Mishlei ספר משלי
Shlomo's wisdom sayings — but the book itself tells you who published it: "These too are the proverbs of Shlomo, which the men of Chizkiyah king of Yehudah copied" (Mishlei 25:1). The baraita of Bava Batra generalizes that verse's picture to the whole book: Chizkiyah and his colleagues wrote Mishlei down, some two and a half centuries after Shlomo spoke it. It is the clearest biblical warrant for the baraita's editorial sense of "wrote."
I. Who
- Hebrew
- ספר משלי
- Also known as
- Mishlei, Proverbs, Book of Proverbs
- Era
- bible
II. When
- Traditional
- spoken by Shlomo; committed to writing by Chizkiyah and his colleagues, c. 3199–3228 AM, per Bava Batra 15a
- Academic
- an anthology of wisdom collections; compilation dated from the monarchy into the Persian period
- Duration
- ≈29 years
- Precision
- approximate
IV. What
- Language
- Biblical Hebrew
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Chizkiyah and his colleagues wrote Yeshayahu, Mishlei, Shir HaShirim, and Kohelet" (חזקיה וסיעתו כתבו ימש״ק) — the baraita of Bava Batra. Rashi notes the book's own verse about the men of Chizkiyah as the basis, and that Chizkiyah's making the people occupy themselves with Torah caused the work to be called by his name. | rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| The book attests its own transmission: "These too are the proverbs of Shlomo, which the men of Chizkiyah king of Yehudah copied (העתיקו)" — composition in one era, committing-to-writing in another, stated by Scripture itself. | biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| Timeline placement 3199–3228 AM, Chizkiyah's reign — the writing date, not the composition date; Shlomo's era (c. 2924–2964 AM) is when the material was spoken. The span is schematic. | tradition reconstruction | ★★★☆☆ |