Note 16 — Chapter II · The Proverbs of the Jews

i.e., any subsequent changes were of a minor character, introduced occasionally by some scribe or copyist. The year 200 B.C. may reasonably be taken as the lower limit of date, partly because Proverbs has features (notably its attitude to the Mosaic Law) which suggest that it was finished earlier than Ecclesiasticus, a work composed about 190 B.C. This argument, though strong, is not conclusive; but in any case the peaceful, comfortable, tone which pervades Proverbs indicates that it is not later than the years of persecution preceding the Maccabean revolt in 167 B.C.