@fredsbend The alternative option is to take Proverbs and all the other books of the Bible - including several apocryphal books - into account and take wisdom from them, individually and separately.
Then, one may take a holistic view of the Bible and possibly find the overarching theme of the works.
If I remember correctly from the Sparknotes guide to the Bible, which seems to take the Protestant outlook, Sparknotes would say that one overarching theme is the series of covenants between God and Israel.
@Anonymous Generally, most theologies consider other texts before making conclusions, but the nature of the original questions was "doesn't this Proverb contradict this doctrine?" So the answer could have simply been "Not if you believe that particular doctrine."
But the Proverbs themselves are not meant to serve an "holistic" purpose. It is in the very definition of a proverb: thefreedictionary.com/proverb
A short saying meant to speak to you about how you live your life. The shorthand for a parable.
