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 PrintableVersion Opening up ProverbsTopical wisdomOPENING UP PROVERBS It’s always beneficial to read Proverbs and so I looked forward to reviewing this exposition. This not a commentary in the usual sense of verse by verse explanation although it claims to be so. The author wisely and helpfully decided to examine the first nine chapters and chapter 31 as expositions and then deal with the rest of the book topically. The topics chosen are work, finances, words, bringing up children and leadership. Unusually, the topic of ‘the fool’, a major theme of Proverbs, was dealt with in the section on raising children. The author’s justification of this is that ‘foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child’ (22.15a). This was a too limiting treatment of both topics. His background notes and introduction to the book are brief and helpful, particularly his explanation that proverbs are maxims, not promises. This helps to reconcile the painful reality of rebellious kids of believing parents with (22.6). The author has a strong belief in the sovereignty of God, and helpfully takes us to Jesus in much of his application. Jim Newheiser is American and uses the NASB. The NIV or ESV would be better translations for an English readership and would save the need to explain NASB words (see p.20). Whilst I benefited from much of his application, in places it was too American and too narrow. This is particularly true of the good wife section. There are also times when he uses Proverbs as a platform for his own ideas. On p.115 he drifted off the topic of work and put a paragraph on Communism, an unnecessary political comment, unsubstantiated from Proverbs. Whilst there is much that is helpful in this book, it lacks the freshness, discipline and insight of Kidner. Daphne Ross,
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