This book refutes three traditional hypotheses which have dominated Old Testament scholarship this century: the claim that there were schools in ancient Israel; that in these schools a professional class of 'wise men' taught; and that their teaching consisted of the moral standards of the civil service.Professor Golka disputes the claim of Old Testament scholarship that biblical proverbs were literary works of art, much influenced by the civilisations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. By comparing biblical proverbs to those of tribal societies of Africa, he concludes that the proverbs of the Hebrew Bible derive from a tribal society - that of the Israel of the period of the Judges.In this ground-breaking work, Friedemann Golka reveals the extent to which the sources and results of social anthropology can be used in Old Testament scholarship to make significant new findings.