Two critical approaches to the book will be discussed. The one not taken by this author is the liberal approach and the other, which is held by this author, is the conservative approach. Liberals take the evolutionary approach to Proverbs. That is, the late model. In so doing they deny most, if not all, proverbs as ascribed to Solomon as his. They date the writing to be around 800 BC. To refute this we point to Date and Authorship.
Conservatives say the style of Proverbs agrees with Ugaritic epics. There are at least forty word parallels between Proverbs and these epics. One such is I Aqht I,1:13 when compared to Proverbs 27.2. The liberals also say that the author of Proverbs copied from The Wisdom of Amenemope. However, recent studies prove this to be reversed.
