Selected Ethical Issues and Moral Demands from Old Testatment And Yoruba Wisdom Traditions: Lessons For The Exegetes

ABSTRACT: Wisdom is an international phenomenon from the ancient world and it is gleaned from reflectionsfrom daily human experience. Since Judeo-Christian wisdom texts gained prominence above some otherreligious wisdom texts, wisdom from other traditions have not received any meaningful attention or regarded asbeing inferior. Therefore, this study focused on the selected ethical demands and morals issues through thelenses of wisdom both in ancient Israel and Yoruba society. Using the theory of universality of wisdom amongnations, it probed the international nature of wisdom, unravelled contextual, domestic, social, cultural, religious,interpersonal and international relevance of wisdom among ancient Israel and the Yoruba in guiding mankindand preventing human race from falling into cosmic human chaos and moral disaster. Using interview approachto gather selected Yoruba proverbs for this purpose, they were juxtaposed along with the ancient Israelitewisdom. Findings revealed that though ancient Israel was credited for wise sayings and gained such prominencethrough her Wisdom Literature, especially, Psalms and Proverbs, the Yoruba Wisdom Traditions are equallyloaded with many ethical issues and moral guides, which are also similar to the ancient Israelite wisdomtradition. It recommended that the exegetes of the Israelite Wisdom Literature should also use the YorubaWisdom Tradition to enhance their hermeneutic delivery for the Africans for better understanding of theChristian wisdom literature and better Christian living.