AGE AS CORRELATE OF WISDOM IN ISRAELITE AND YORUBA WISDOM TRADITIONS

Abstract

The relationship between chronological age and wisdom has been preserved in Israelite and Yoruba wisdom traditions. Previous studies on Israelite and Yoruba wisdom traditions focused on their origin, development, attributes, purpose and sources. However, the similarities between Yoruba understanding of wisdom and age, and that of Israelite literary traditions have not been adequately explored. The perspectives of wisdom and age in Yoruba and Israelite traditions were compared with a view to identifying the divergence and convergence in the two traditions.

Adamo’s African Cultural Hermeneutics, which relates biblical texts to the African context, provided the framework. Hokmah (Books of Ecclesiastes, Proverbs and Job), referred to as Israelite wisdom literature, and 30 purposively selected Yoruba wisdom proverbs were the primary data. Biblical texts were subjected to exegetical analysis while Yoruba proverbs were transliterated. Historical-critical method was utilised in the interpretation of both Hokmah and the selected Yoruba proverbs.

The correlation between age and wisdom is theological in Israelite wisdom literature, but communal in traditional Yoruba sociocultural setting. In Israelite wisdom literature, wisdom is generated in a rabbi-pupil relationship grounded in the fear of God (Proverbs. 1:7 and 15:33), while in Yoruba tradition it is generated within the ambit of family down to the entire community. Israelite wisdom tradition situates elderly wisdom within chronological and sapiental framework, but Yoruba tradition extends it to the assemblage of ancestral forces and spiritual agents operative in the life of a young person. Israelite wisdom literature provides three plausible arenas where sages work - the home, school and court, but Yoruba sages work only in the home and court. Israelites do not have the youth among the rabbi, but the Yoruba often accommodate and incorporate young people with 0ye (insight) into the council of elders and courts of the Oba. The two traditions consider wisdom as product of experience, sacrosanct in recognising an elder. While Israelite wisdom tradition says wisdom is with the aged and understanding in the length of days (Job 12:12), Yoruba tradition confirms that ‘b’-m[d3 bq lqs[ b7 zgbz, k0 l4 lqk87sz b7 zgbz’ (if a child has as many cloths as the elder, he cannot have as many rags). Both traditions, however, affirm that the accumulation of experience does not automatically activate wisdom in adulthood. Israelite wisdom tradition confirms that great men are not always wise; wisdom could also be found in the youths (Job 32: 9; Ecclesiastes.4:13).Yoruba tradition also establishes that ‘zgbz 0 k’[gb-n’ (age does not define wisdom) and that ‘[m[d3 gb-n zgbz gb-n la fi dq Il2]If2’ (the collective wisdom of the aged and young led to the founding of Ife). Wisdom depends on the individual’s ability to integrate life experiences in a reflective manner, which is not determined by age.

Age is not the sole determinant of wisdom in Israelite and Yoruba wisdom traditions; the integration of experience and reflection is paramount. The virtuous qualities in youths and elders should be harnessed for the benefit of society.