PROVERB prŏv’ ərb (מָשָׁל֒, H5442, meaning pithy saying, e.g., Eccl. 12:9; parable, Num 24:3ff.: prob. from a root meaning to be like, to represent; חִידָה, H2648, meaning riddle, dark or perplexing saying, question, Judg 14:12ff., tr. “proverb” only once—Hab 2:6 KJV, “taunt” in RSV; ταροιμία, meaning proverb in 2 Pet 2:22, figure in John 16:25, 29; παραβολή, G4130, meaning proverb in Luke 4:23, parable in the synoptics; type, figure in Heb 9:9; 11:19). A proverb is a terse expression of some generally acknowledged truth or experience.

1. Universal extent of proverbs. Sententious sayings or proverbs are common to all peoples and undoubtedly antedate written language. Not only the OT and NT, but many other ancient literatures, e.g., Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greek, contain proverbs. From the Icelanders to the Chinese, and from the ancient Hebrews to the modern Russians, proverbs have been part of everyday language.

2. Varieties of proverbs. Two main classes of proverbs are folk and literary proverbs. In the former, some succinct saying (the origin of which has been long forgotten) impressed itself so forcibly upon the common consciousness that it entered ordinary usage as the anonymous voice of the people. In the latter, which are sometimes called “gnomes,” a writer or speaker distilled into a maxim a keen observation or statement of truth in an esp. memorable way. Within these two classes, proverbs are of various kinds. Some are deliberately perplexing and stimulate thought by their riddlelike quality. Others are essentially condensed parables, whereas still others (extra-Biblical) may be called anti-proverbs, or lying proverbs, in that they distort the truth. Others have a satiric or ironic twist.

3. Didactic function of proverbs. That proverbs have a didactic function is undeniable. Among primitive peoples, they help transmit the wisdom of the years and are thus a source of practical, moral, and political guidance. The influence of proverbs in highly civilized cultures is by no means negligible. They exert a quiet and often unrecognized influence upon standards of life; and, in the hands of skilled writers or speakers, are an effective means of driving ideas home. Indeed, proverbs continue to be a living force even in the most sophisticated societies.

4. Proverbs in the Bible. In Scripture, proverbs have an important place; both folk and literary proverbs are found in it. The ancient Heb. mind, being essentially intuitive rather than formally logical, had an affinity for the proverbial. The basic Heb. word for “proverb,” מָשָׁל֒, H5442, is used also for “parable.” Inherent in the term is the characteristic element of the proverb—viz., its being essentially a similitude; a proverb is often a brief parable, which is capable of expansion. The other Heb. word for “proverb,” חִידָה, H2648, (“riddle,” or “dark saying”) points to the characteristic of the proverb to arouse the hearer’s or reader’s curiosity and help him sharpen his wits. Many of the OT proverbs, particularly those in the Book of Proverbs, follow the parallelism distinctive of Heb. poetry.

The NT words for “proverb” are παραβολή, G4130, and παροιμία, G4231. The former occurs frequently in the synoptics as the regular word for Jesus’ parabolic teaching and is tr. “parable,” except in Luke 4:23, where it is tr. “proverb” (KJV and RSV), and in Mark 4:30, where it is tr. “comparison” (KJV) but “parable” (RSV). In Hebrews 9:9 and 11:19 (RSV), it means “figure.” As for παροιμία, G4231, (John 16:25, 29), where KJV has “proverb,” it should be “figure”; in 2 Peter 2:22, it means “proverb” (KJV and RSV).

Proverbs occur throughout most of the Bible. Except for those compiled in the Book of Proverbs, the number of instances in the OT and NT where sententious sayings are explicitly identified as proverbial is not large. Nonetheless, the occurrence of genuinely proverbial material, not specifically identified, is considerable. Although there are ancient collections of proverbs outside the Bible and antedating the OT (e.g., the Egyp. compilation, “Precepts of Ptah-hotep,” c. 2500 b.c.), the OT Book of Proverbs stands above them all. (See Book of Proverbs.)

5. OT “labeled” proverbs. Illustrative of the occasional OT proverb (מָשָׁל֒, H5442) labeled as such is 1 Samuel 10:11, 12:

And when all who knew him before saw how he prophesied with the prophets, the people said to one another, “What has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?”....Therefore it became a proverb, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

(The passage is significant as showing how a saying became a proverb.) Another example of a “labeled” proverb occurs in David’s address to Saul after sparing his life in En-gedi, when he explicitly quoted a proverb: “As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness’; but my hand shall not be against you” (1 Sam 24:13). One of the best known OT proverbs is Ezekiel 18:1, 2:

The word of the Lord came to me again: “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?” (Cf. Jer 31:29, 30.)

6. OT “action” proverbs. To the young men in Timnah Samson propounded this חִידָה, H2648: “‘Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet.’ And they could not in three days tell what the riddle was” (cf. Judg 14:12-14). Samson drew the “riddle” out of his own experience of finding a honeycomb in the carcass of a lion he had slain. The immediate relation of this riddle to life exemplifies the distinguishing element of what might be called the “action” proverb. Some dramatic action or awful calamity or sin can make a man or even a nation “a proverb,” or “a taunt, and a curse” (cf. Jer 24:9). Thus an individual or a whole people might become a proverb personified. Deuteronomy 28:15f., 37 is a classic example of the “action” proverb applied to a nation:

But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field....and you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away.

An individual illustration of the “action” proverb concerns Saul (1 Sam 19:24): “And he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel, and lay naked all that day and all that night. Hence it is said, ‘Is Saul also among the prophets?’” Psalm 69:10, 11 is another example of this kind of proverb: “When I humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword [proverb] to them.”

7. The NT: Jesus’ use of proverbs. In the NT, the proverbial mode of expression reaches its height in the words of Jesus. The greatest of all teachers, He is the incomparable master of the proverb both in its strict sense and in its expanded form as parable. At the beginning of His public ministry He made use of a current proverb in His sermon in the Nazareth synagogue: “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself...’” (Luke 4:23). On some other occasions Jesus quoted proverbs current in His time (e.g., Matt 24:28). Many of His sayings are so packed with wisdom and pointed in expression that they have entered into common speech. Thus, much of the Sermon on the Mount has become proverbial, as in common parlance one speaks of “going the second mile,” or “turning the other cheek,” or “taking no thought for the morrow”; or when one uses as maxims such words as, “Judge not that you be not judged,” or “By their fruits you shall know them.” What is true of the Sermon on the Mount applies, though perhaps in not quite so concentrated a manner, to many others of Jesus’ words. Consider sayings like these: “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick” (Matt 9:12 KJV), or the saying about new wine and old bottles (9:17), or that about straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel (23:24), or the one depicting the camel and the needle’s eye (Luke 18:25). John’s gospel, as well as the synoptics, contain words of Jesus that have become proverbial—“night comes, when no man can work” (John 9:4); “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (15:13). Certainly James A. Kelso is right in saying, “In the sphere of religion the proverbial sayings of Jesus have exercised the widest and most pervasive influence of any group of proverbs” (article on “Proverbs,” HERE). Indeed the words of Jesus provide the richest mine of profoundly spiritual proverbs in world lit. And it may be true that in proportion to their total number—more of His recorded words have entered the common heritage of proverbial sayings than those of any other figure of the past.

8. Apostolic use of proverbs. Proverbs occur elsewhere in the NT, although not so frequently as in the gospels. Paul’s reference to heaping coals of fire (Rom 12:20) is certainly proverbial (cf. Prov 25:21, 22), as is 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Bad company ruins good morals,” an aphorism of the Gr. poet Menander. Such words of the apostle, “If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” (1 Cor 14:8 KJV), and “To the pure all things are pure,” (Titus 1:15a) have become proverbial. His dual quotation of Epimenides of Crete and Aratus of Cilicia in his sermon on Mars Hill (Acts 17:28) may represent the use of poetical statements so familiar as to be proverbial. The same might be said of his quotation of the line of Epimenides in Titus 1:12.

As might be expected, the Epistle of James, in which one of Jesus’ brothers writes in a manner as that of the Sermon on the Mount, contains words of proverbial nature. Among these are such expressions as “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22) and “faith without works is dead” (2:20 KJV).

Peter’s word, “Love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet 4:8) is one of the most familiar Biblical proverbs, and in 2 Peter 2:22, he concludes his scathing denunciation of false teachers by referring to two maxims, the first being from Proverbs 26:11, although the source of the second is unknown. It is significant that Peter introduces this reference by calling it “the true proverb.”

9. Distortion of proverbs. Sometimes long usage changes a proverb from its original meaning, not always to its improvement. Proverbs drawn from Scripture are not exempt from this distortion. Habakkuk 2:2 KJV, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it,” is so often turned into “that he that runs may read” as almost to elevate the misquotation to proverbial status. Paul’s statement (1 Tim 6:10 KJV), “The love of money is the root of all evil,” has been shortened to “Money is the root of all evil,” thereby radically altering the meaning. And Jesus’ words in John 8:32 KJV, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” are applied proverbially to truth in general—philosophical, scientific, historical, etc.—whereas the context (cf. v. 36, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”) shows that His reference was to Himself as the truth (cf. John 14:6). Biblical proverbs, therefore, are not to be used carelessly, but they should be verified in their original context.

Bibliography D. Erasmus, Adagiorum Chiliades Quatuor (1520; English tr. DeWitt T. Starnes, 1956); W. C. Trench, Lessons in Proverbs (1853); G. B. Levi, Gnomic Literature in the Bible and Apocrypha (1910); J. B. Whiting, “The Origin of the Proverb,” Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, vol. 13, 47-80; A. Taylor, “An Introductory Bibliography for the Study of Proverbs,” Modern Philology, vol. 30, 195-210; A. Taylor, The Proverb and an Index to the Proverb (1962); S. G. Champion, Racial Proverbs: The Eleven Religions and Their Proverbial Lore, cf. especially xxxviii-xciv (1963); M. M. Phillips, The ‘Adages’ of Erasmus, A Study with Translations cf. esp., “IV, Christianity in the Adages” (1964), 25-34.