Ancient Jewish sages understood wisdom as a "skill in living." Wisdom for them was an approach to life, a way of looking at the world, and a quest for meaning and purpose in the relationships with God and fellow human beings. Some of history's most enduring collections of ancient wisdom are included in the Hebrew Bible (i.e., Old Testament) books of Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Wisdom perspectives are also found in the Song of Songs and many of the Psalms. Sometimes joyful and exultant, at other times cynical and fatalistic, the ancient sages wrestled with the ups and downs of life, and grappled with them rationally from the perspective of experience and community wisdom. This course investigates the genre of wisdom literature - its style, language, and historical and theological backgrounds - and explores the pluriformity of the biblical heritage.