Following his father David, King Solomon, wrote the vast majority of the book of Proverbs. Unlike the Psalms, Solomon asks not God for forgiveness for his actions but instead gives wisdom to his own son, Rehoboam. Like the Psalms, however, Solomon discusses ethics and God’s sanctions in history.

Interestingly, what is known as “the intro” to Proverbs is nine chapters long, despite the book being only 31 chapters in total. In this, Solomon provides an overall view of his goal: wise moral instruction. Solomon was widely regarded as an extremely wise man in Israel, so Proverbs presents the battle between wisdom and foolishness, righteousness and sin, which compete for the affections of men. Solomon uses analogies to illustrate these conflicts. One such example is people in a public space fighting over competing ideas. Portraying “wisdom” as a woman, she tries to turn wise “simpletons” who are not just people leading simple lives but they are foolish due to their regular sin. “A wise woman builds her home, but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands. Those who follow the right path fear the Lord; those who take the wrong path despise him. A fool’s proud talk becomes a rod that beats him, but the words of the wise keep them safe.”

While urging his son to practice wisdom, Solomon says that wisdom is ignored by the people and also uses real-life examples of temptation. For instance, he tells his Rehoboam that thieves will entice him to join their evil ways, but he must avoid them and pursue righteousness. “Do not be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them. For their heart desires violence, and their lips speak of troublemaking.” 

Throughout the Psalms, a myriad of different themes are shown, but there are five fundamentals which are used throughout the whole book. They are: sovereignty, hierarchy, law, sanctions, and future. They could also be written as: God, man, ethics, causation, and time, or sovereignty, representation, law, sanctions, and inheritance. Used extensively in other forms of literature, many societies base their institutions off of these five fundamental points. 

Sovereignty is discussed in the Psalms to display God’s rule over all of creation and David’s faithful worship of God. In Psalm (18: 1-3), “I will Love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverance,” it proclaims David’s love of God. Continuing on: “The earth shook and trembled, the foundations of the hills were moved because he was wrought and smoke went up out of his nostrils,” this displays God’s power over his creation.

Similar to the book of Genesis, hierarchy is explained in the Psalms. “The kings and rulers set themselves against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bonds asunder. The Lord shall have them in derision. Be wise of ye kings, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord. Blessed are they that put their trust in the Lord.” Therefore, God is the supreme ruler of the earth and his anointed are second, and he also warns earthly kings and rulers to serve the Lord. 

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord.” Ruling in terms of law, God obliges men to follow the Law of the Lord and not to partake in evil acts and follow evil men. 

Sanctions are God’s punishments for setting yourself against God or against righteous men. God brings both positive and negative sanctions. “The ungodly are like chaff which the wind driveth away. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. The foolish shall not stand in their sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.”

“The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup: Thou maintainest my cup.” Time and the future are used to show the inheritance that men who keep God’s law will get. 

Inspired by Socrates, Plato was an extremely influential classical Greek philosopher. He lived in Athens from 427-347 BC, and wrote philosophy solely in the form of dialogues, many of which involved Socrates as a character. Interestingly, we get much of the information on Socrates from these dialogues, but it is debated how true this information is because of the fact that Plato based the character off of Socrates personality but didn’t actually tell us about his life. 

One of Plato’s most forward questions was wanting to learn the essence and form of different things. An example of this might be, what makes a dog a dog? Because some are small, some are big, and they are different in many ways. In other words, whatever an individual thing shares in common with something that shares its name, is its form. Like Socrates, Plato was concerned with questions of morals and believed that philosophers were only people who tried to find the forms of things. Continuing, he stated that forms are unchanging and eternal, and what is perfect and true. 

Remarkably, Plato established the first academy in Athens and offered the first detailed formation in Western thought of themes that would persist and be developed further by later philosophers. He believed that the “good life” was the true development of man’s personality as a rational and moral being, the right cultivation of his soul, and the general harmonious well-being of life. However, Plato did oppose atheism, relativism, hedonism, and materialism. 

His most famous work “The Republic” was of course a dialogue involving Socrates, where he raised the question: “What is Justice?” it should be pursued regardless of its consequences, even if it means you are punished for being a good person. Plato asserted that the soul has three parts: rational, courageous, and spirited or appetitive. Rational is the highest element of the soul, and is portrayed as a charioteer, with the spirited and appetitive elements as horses. The spirited element is the natural ally of reason, though shared by animals. Appetitive is a friend of riot and insolence. The spirited horse is good and loves honor and temperance, but the appetitive horse is bad, unruly, and follows passion. After this discussion, Plato asserted that the ideal state should be modeled after the ideal soul.