Wisdom literature

Wisdom literature is a genre of literature common in the ancient

Near East. It consists of statements by sages and the wise that offer
teachings about divinity and virtue. Although this genre uses
techniques of traditional oral storytelling, it was disseminated in
written form.

The earliest known wisdom literature dates back to the middle of

the 3rd millennium BC, originating from ancient Mesopotamia and
Egypt. These regions continued to produce wisdom literature over
the subsequent two and a half millennia. Wisdom literature from
Jewish, Greek, Chinese, and Indian cultures started appearing
around the middle of the 1st millennium BC. In the 1st millennium
AD, Egyptian-Greek wisdom literature emerged, some elements of
which were later incorporated into Islamic thought.

Much of wisdom literature can be broadly categorized into two

types - conservative "positive wisdom" and critical "negative Tablet of the Dialogue between a
wisdom" or "vanity literature":[1][2][3][4][5] Man and His God, c. 19th–17th
centuries BC, Louvre Museum
Conservative Positive Wisdom - Pragmatic, real-world
advice about proper behavior and actions,[2] attaining
success in life,[3][4] living a good and fulfilling life,[4] etc.. Examples of this genre include:
Proverbs, The Instructions of Suruppak, and first part of Sima Milka.[4]
Critical Negative Wisdom (AKA "Vanity Literature" or "Wisdom in Protest") - A more
pessimistic outlook, frequently expressing skepticism about the scope of human
achievements, highlighting the inevitability of mortality,[2] advocating the rejection of all
material gains,[5] and expressing the carpe diem view that, since nothing has intrinsic value
(vanity theme) and all will come to an end (memento mori theme), therefore one should just
enjoy life to the fullest while they can (carpe diem theme).[3][4] Examples of this genre
include: Qohelet, The Ballad of Early Rulers, Enlil and Namzitarra, the second part of Sima
Milka (the son's response),[4] and Nig-Nam Nu-Kal ("Nothing is of Value").[5]

Another common genre is existential works that deal with the relationship between man and God, divine
reward and punishment, theodicy, the problem of evil, and why bad things happen to good people. The
protagonist is a "just sufferer" - a good person beset by tragedy, who tries to understand his lot in life. The
most well known example is the Book of job, however it was preceded by, and likely based on, earlier
Mesopotamian works such as The Babylonian Theodicy (sometimes called The Babylonian Job), Ludlul
bēl nēmeqi ("I Will Praise the Lord of Wisdom" or "The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer"), Dialogue
between a Man and His God, and the Sumerian Man and His God.[5]
The literary genre of mirrors for princes, which has a long history in Islamic and Western Renaissance
literature, is a secular cognate of wisdom literature. In classical antiquity, the didactic poetry of Hesiod,
particularly his Works and Days, was regarded as a source of knowledge similar to the wisdom literature of
Egypt, Babylonia and Israel. Pre-Islamic poetry is replete with many poems of wisdom, including the
poetry of Zuhayr bin Abī Sūlmā (520–609).

Ancient Mesopotamian literature

The wisdom literature from Sumeria and Babylonia is among the most ancient in the world, with the
Sumerian documents dating back to the third millennium BC and the Babylonian dating to the second
millennium BC. Many of the extant texts uncovered at Nippur are as ancient as the 18th century BC. Most
of these texts are wisdom in the form of dialogues or hymns, such as the Hymn to Enlil, the All-Beneficent
from ancient Sumer.[6]

Proverbs were particularly popular among the Sumerians, with many fables and anecdotes therein, such as
the Debate Between Winter and Summer, which Assyriologist Samuel Noah Kramer has noted as
paralleling the story of Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis (Genesis 4:1–16 (https://mechon-mamre.org/
p/pt/pt0104.htm#1))[7] and the form of disputation is similar to that between Job and his friends in the Book
of Job (written c. 6th century BC).[8]

My lord, I have reflected within my reins, [...] in [my] heart. I do not know what sin I have
committed. Have I [eaten] a very evil forbidden fruit? Does brother look down on brother? —
Dialogue between a Man and His God, c. 19th–16th centuries BC[9]

Several other ancient Mesopotamian texts parallel the Book of Job, including the Sumerian Man and his
God (remade by the Old Babylonians into Dialogue between a Man and His God, c. 19th–16th centuries
BC) and the Akkadian text, The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer;[10] the latter text concerns a man who has
been faithful his whole life and yet suffers unjustly until he is ultimately delivered from his afflictions.[11]
The ancient poem known as the Babylonian Theodicy from 17th to 10th centuries BC also features a
dialogue between a sufferer and his friend on the unrighteousness of the world.[12]

The 5th-century BC Aramaic story Words of Ahikar is full of sayings and proverbs, many similar to local
Babylonian and Persian aphorisms as well as passages similar to parts of the Book of Proverbs and others to
the deuterocanonical Wisdom of Sirach.[13]

Notable examples

Instructions of Shuruppak[14] (mid-3rd millennium BC, Sumeria): The oldest/earliest known wisdom
literature,[5][15][1] as well as one of the longest-lived,[5] and most widely disseminated in Mesopotamia.[16]
It presents advice from a father (Shuruppak) to his son (Ziusudra) on various aspects of life, from personal
conduct to social relations. The Instructions contain precepts that reflect those later included in the Ten
Commandments,[17] and other sayings that are reflected in the biblical Book of Proverbs.[14]

The Counsels of Wisdom (AKA "Teachings of the Sages"): A 150 line compilation of Sumerian and
Akkadian proverbs that cover a variety of topics, including ethical conduct and wisdom. Specific topics
include: what kind of company to keep, conflict avoidance and diffusion, importance of propriety in
speech, the reward of personal piety, etc..[18]
The Instructions of Ur-Ninurta (early-2nd millennium BC): Includes two wisdom sections - “the
instructions of the god” and “the instructions of the farmer”. The “instructions of the god” recommend
proper religious and moral behavior by contrasting the reward of the god‐fearing with the punishment of
the disobedient. The “instructions of the farmer” include agricultural advice.[1] The text ends with short
expressions of humility and submission.[19][20]

Instructions of Shupe‐Ameli (AKA: "S(h)ima Milka" or "Hear the Advice"): A father provides his son
with conservative "Positive Wisdom" (to work with friends, avoid bad company, not desire other men's
wives, etc.); however, the son counters with critical "Negative Wisdom" commonly found in the "Vanity
Literature" or "Wisdom in Protest" genre of wisdom literature (it is all pointless since you will die).[2][5]

Nig-Nam Nu-Kal ("Nothing is of Value"): A number of short Sumerian that celebrate life with the repeated
refrain "Nothing is of worth, but life itself is sweet".[5]

Ancient Egyptian literature

In ancient Egyptian literature, wisdom literature belonged to the sebayt ("teaching") genre which flourished
during the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and became canonical during the New Kingdom. Notable works of
this genre include the Instructions of Kagemni, The Maxims of Ptahhotep, the Instructions of Amenemhat,
the Loyalist Teaching. Hymns such as A Prayer to Re-Har-akhti (c. 1230 BC) feature the confession of
sins and appeal for mercy:

Do not punish me for my numerous sins, [for] I am one who knows not his own self, I am a
man without sense. I spend the day following after my [own] mouth, like a cow after grass.[21]

Much of the surviving wisdom literature of ancient Egypt was concerned with the afterlife. Some of these
take the form of dialogues, such as The Debate Between a Man and his Soul from 20th–18th centuries BC,
which features a man from the Middle Kingdom lamenting about life as he speaks with his ba.[22] Other
texts display a variety of views concerning life after death, including the rationalist skeptical The
Immortality of Writers and the Harper's Songs, the latter of which oscillates between hopeful confidence
and reasonable doubt.[23]

Hermetic tradition

The Corpus Hermeticum is a piece of Egyptian-Greek wisdom literature in the form of a dialogue between
Hermes Trismegistus and a disciple. The majority of the text date to the 1st–4th century AD, though the
original materials the texts may be older;[24] recent scholarship confirms that the syncretic nature of
Hermeticism arose during the times of Roman Egypt, but the contents of the tradition parallel the older
wisdom literature of Ancient Egypt, suggesting origins during the Pharaonic Age.[25][26] The Hermetic
texts of the Egyptians mostly dealt with summoning spirits, animating statues, Babylonian astrology, and
the then-new practice of alchemy; additional mystical subjects include divine oneness, purification of the
soul, and rebirth through the enlightenment of the mind.[27]

Islamic Hermeticism

The wisdom literature of Egyptian Hermeticism ended up as part of Islamic tradition, with his writings
considered by the Abbasids as sacred inheritance from the Prophets and Hermes himself as the ancestor of
the Prophet Muhammad. In the version of the Hermetic texts kept by the Ikhwan al-Safa, Hermes
Trismegistus is identified as the ancient prophet Idris; according to their tradition, Idris traveled from Egypt
into heaven and Eden, bringing the Black Stone back to earth when he landed in India.[28] The star-
worshipping sect known as the Sabians of Harran also believed that their doctrine descended from Hermes
Trismegistus.[29]

Biblical wisdom literature and Jewish texts

The most famous examples of wisdom literature are found in the
Bible.[30][31] Wisdom[a] is a central topic in the Sapiential Books
[b], i.e., Proverbs, Psalms, Job, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Book

of Wisdom, Wisdom of Sirach, and to some extent Baruch. Not all

the Psalms are usually regarded as belonging to the Wisdom
tradition.[34] Others such as Epistle of Aristeas, Pseudo-Phocylides
and 4 Maccabees are also considered sapiential.

The later Sayings of the Fathers, or Pirkei Avot in the Talmud

follows in the tradition of wisdom literature, focusing more on
Torah study as a means for achieving a reward, rather than studying
wisdom for its own sake.[35]

Other traditions
Works and Days by Hesiod (c. 750–650 BC) and
Illuminated manuscript depicting Job,
Hávamál from Old Norse texts (c. 1200) have both been
his friends, and the leviathan, Mount
analyzed in terms of the oral transmission of wisdom
Athos, c. 1300
literature to other cultures.[36]
Subhashita , a genre of Sanskrit literature is another
predominant form of wisdom poetry. Several thousands verses covering wide range of ethics
and righteousness have been written and compiled in anthologies called Subhashitani by
various authors through ancient and mediaeval period in India.[37]
Analects were a collection of aphorisms of the ancient Chinese philisopher Confucius.

See also
Apophthegmata Patrum
Conduct book
Dialogue of Pessimism
Ludlul bēl nēmeqi
Eastern philosophy
Nasîhat
Musar literature
Proverb
Sage writing
Sebayt
Self-help
Teaching stories
The Triads of Ireland, and the Welsh Triads
 Sophia (wisdom)
Sophia (Gnosticism)
Wisdom (personification)

Notes
a. The Greek noun sophia (σοφῐ́ᾱ, sophíā) is the translation of "wisdom" in the Greek
Septuagint for Hebrew Ḥokmot (‫חכמות‬, khakhamút)
b. In Judaism, the Books of Wisdom other than the Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach are
regarded as part of the Ketuvim or "Writings", while Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach are not
considered part of the biblical canon. Similarly, in Christianity, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Song
of Songs and Ecclesiastes are included in the Old Testament by all traditions, while Wisdom
and Sirach are regarded in some traditions as deuterocanonical works which are placed in
the Apocrypha within the Lutheran and Anglican Bible translations.[32][33]

References
1. Samet, Nili (2020). "Mesopotamian Wisdom". The Wiley Blackwell companion to wisdom
literature (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349028589). Wiley Blackwell. pp. 328–
348. ISBN 9781119158257.
2. Clarke, Michael (2019). Achilles Beside Gilgamesh: Mortality and Wisdom in Early Epic
Poetry (https://books.google.com/books?id=tG3CDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA55). Cambridge
University Press. pp. 55–56. ISBN 978-1-108-48178-6.
3. Hilber, John W. (2019). Boda, Mark J.; Meek, Russell L.; Osborne, William R. (eds.). Riddles
and Revelations: Explorations into the Relationship between Wisdom and Prophecy in the
Hebrew Bible (https://books.google.com/books?id=k4hoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA57).
Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-567-67165-3.
4. Cohen, Yoram (2013). Wisdom from the Late Bronze Age (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=VTVXAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA14). Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 978-1-58983-754-6.
5. Cohen, Yoram; Wasserman, Nathan (2021). "Mesopotamian Wisdom Literature" (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=JHAWEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA126). In Kynes, Will (ed.). The Oxford
Handbook of Wisdom and the Bible. Oxford University Press. pp. 125–131. ISBN 978-0-19-
066128-1.
6. Bullock, C. Hassell (2007). An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books (https://books.
google.com/books?id=QSGZbt7isfQC). Moody Publishers. ISBN 978-1575674506.
7. Samuel Noah Kramer (1961). Sumerian mythology: a study of spiritual and literary
achievement in the third millennium B.C. (https://books.google.com/books?id=t16tDOHZLLE
C&pg=PA72) Forgotten Books. pp. 72–. ISBN 978-1605060491. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
8. Leo G. Perdue (1991). Wisdom in revolt: metaphorical theology in the Book of Job (https://bo
oks.google.com/books?id=d_KDSNlwvRYC&pg=PA79). Continuum International
Publishing Group. pp. 79–. ISBN 978-1850752837. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
9. "A Dialogue Between a Man and His God [CDLI Wiki]" (http://cdli.ox.ac.uk/wiki/doku.php?id=
dialogue_between_a_man_and_his_god). cdli.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
10. Hartley, John E. (1988). The Book of Job (https://books.google.com/books?id=f-m5GnRjDck
C). Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0802825285.
11. John L. McKenzie, (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684819139)Dictionary of the Bible, Simon
& Schuster, 1965 p. 440.
12. John Gwyn Griffiths (1991). The Divine Verdict: A Study of Divine Judgement in the Ancient
Religions (https://books.google.com/books?id=QDbjjKglE1kC&q=Babylonian+Theodicy&pg
=PA35). Brill. ISBN 9004092315.
13. W. C. Kaiser, Kr., 'Ahikar uh-hi’kahr', in The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, ed. by
Merrill C. Tenney, rev. edn by Moisés Silva, 5 vols (Zondervan, 2009), s.v.
14. "The Instructions of Shuruppag: Translation" (https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section5/tr561.htm).
etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk. Oxford University.
15. Samet, Nili (4 May 2023). "Instructions of Shuruppak: The World's Oldest Instruction
Collection" (https://books.google.com/books?id=CT6yEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA216). In Cogan,
Mordechai; Dell, Katharine J.; Glatt-Gilad, David A. (eds.). Human Interaction with the
Natural World in Wisdom Literature and Beyond: Essays in Honour of Tova L. Forti.
Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 216–229. ISBN 978-0-567-70121-3.
16. Dell, Katherine J.; Millar, Suzanna R.; Keefer, Arthur Jan (9 June 2022). The Cambridge
Companion to Biblical Wisdom Literature (https://books.google.com/books?id=mNx0EAAAQ
BAJ&pg=PA348). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-66581-0.
17. The Schoyen Collection website (https://www.schoyencollection.com/literature-collection/su
merian-literature-collection/shuruppak-ms-2788) notes, from a Neo-Sumerian tablet of ca.
1900–1700 BCE: line 50: Do not curse with powerful means (3rd Commandment); line 28:
Do not kill (6th Commandment); lines 33–34: Do not laugh with or sit alone in a chamber
with a girl that is married (7th Commandment); lines 28–31: Do not steal or commit robbery
(8th Commandment); and line 36: Do not spit out lies (9th Commandment).
18. Lenzi, Alan (10 January 2020). An Introduction to Akkadian Literature: Contexts and Content
(https://books.google.com/books?id=cpmYEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA180). Penn State University
Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-1-64602-032-4.
19. Radner, Karen; Moeller, Nadine; Potts, Daniel T. (2022). The Oxford History of the Ancient
Near East: From the end of the third millennium BC to the fall of Babylon (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=qMBqEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA226). Oxford University Press. p. 226. ISBN 978-
0-19-068757-1.
20. Dell, Katherine J.; Millar, Suzanna R.; Keefer, Arthur Jan (2022). The Cambridge Companion
to Biblical Wisdom Literature (https://books.google.com/books?id=wbhtEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA
377). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-48316-2.
21. Bullock, C. Hassell (2007). An Introduction to the Old Testament Poetic Books (https://books.
google.com/books?id=QSGZbt7isfQC). Moody Publishers. ISBN 978-1575674506.
22. James P. Allen, The Debate between a Man and His Soul: A Masterpiece of Ancient
Egyptian Literature (https://books.google.com/books?id=SlW0CAAAQBAJ&q=The+ancient+
Egyptian+soul) Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. ISBN 978-9004193031
23. "Ancient Egyptian Literature Volume 1: The Old and Middle Kingdom", Miriam
Lichtheim,University of California, 1975, ISBN 0520028996
24. Copenhaver, Brian P. (1995). "Introduction". Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and
the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation, with Notes and Introduction (https://books.
google.com/books?id=OVZP6b9cqLkC). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-
0521425438. "Scholars generally locate the theoretical Hermetica, 100 to 300 CE; most
would put C.H. I toward the beginning of that time. [...] [I]t should be noted that Jean-Pierre
Mahe accepts a second-century limit only for the individual texts as they stand, pointing out
that the materials on which they are based may come from the first century CE or even
earlier. [...] To find theoretical Hermetic writings in Egypt, in Coptic [...] was a stunning
challenge to the older view, whose major champion was Father Festugiere, that the
Hermetica could be entirely understood in a post-Platonic Greek context."
25. Fowden, Garth, The Egyptian Hermes : a historical approach to the late pagan mind
(Cambridge/New York : Cambridge University Press), 1986
26. Jean-Pierre Mahé, "Preliminary Remarks on the Demotic "Book of Thoth" and the Greek
Hermetica" Vigiliae Christianae 50.4 (1996:353–363) pp. 358f.
27. "Stages of Ascension in Hermetic Rebirth" (http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/Merkur.html).
Esoteric.msu.edu. Retrieved 2015-06-25.
28. Prophets in the Quran: An Introduction to the Quran and Muslim Exegesis, p. 46. Wheeler,
Brannon. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2002
29. Stapleton, Henry E.; Azo, R.F.; Hidayat Husain, M. (1927). "Chemistry in Iraq and Persia in
the Tenth Century A.D." (http://www.southasiaarchive.com/Content/sarf.100203/231270)
Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. VIII (6): 317–418. OCLC 706947607 (https://www.
worldcat.org/oclc/706947607). pp. 398–403.
30. Crenshaw, James L. "The Wisdom Literature", in Knight, Douglas A. and Tucker, Gene M.
(eds), The Hebrew Bible and Its Modern Interpreters (1985).
31. Anderson, Bernhard W. (1967). "The Beginning of Widom – Israels Wisdom literature". The
Living World of the Old Testament (https://books.google.com/books?id=X2sOAQAAIAAJ).
Longmans. pp. 570ff. ISBN 978-0582489080.
32. Comay, Joan; Brownrigg, Ronald (1993). Who's Who in the Bible: The Old Testament and
the Apocrypha, The New Testament. New York: Wing Books. pp. Old Testament, 355–356.
ISBN 0-517-32170-X.
33. Geisler, Norman L.; MacKenzie, Ralph E. (1995). Roman Catholics and Evangelicals:
Agreements and Differences. Baker Publishing Group. p. 171. ISBN 978-0801038754.
"Lutherans and Anglicans used it only for ethical / devotional matters but did not consider it
authoritative in matters of faith."
34. Estes, D. J., Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Publishing Group, 2005), p. 141 (https://books.google.com/books?id=H4ARZdgdyAMC&pg=
PA141).
35. Adams, Samuel L.; Goff, Matthew (2020). Wiley Blackwell Companion to Wisdom Literature
(https://books.google.com/books?id=1lbSDwAAQBAJ). John Wiley & Sons. pp. 369–371.
ISBN 978-1119158271. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
36. Canevaro, Lilah Grace (2014). "Hesiod and Hávamál: Transitions and the Transmission of
Wisdom" (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/576695/summary). Oral Tradition. 29 (1): 99–126.
doi:10.1353/ort.2014.0003 (https://doi.org/10.1353%2Fort.2014.0003). ISSN 1542-4308 (http
s://www.worldcat.org/issn/1542-4308). S2CID 162916393 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/C
orpusID:162916393). Retrieved 23 December 2021.
37. Narayan Ram Acharya. Subhashita Ratna Bhandagara (http://archive.org/details/Subhashita
RatnaBhandagara) (in Sanskrit). sanskritebooks.org/.

Bibliography
Estes, Daniel J. (2010). Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms. ISBN 978-
0801038884.
Crenshaw, James L. (2010). Old Testament Wisdom: An Introduction. ISBN 978-
0664234591.
Murphy, R. E. (2002). The Tree of Life: An Exploration of Biblical Wisdom Literature.
ISBN 0802839657.
 Toy, Crawford Howell (1911). "Wisdom Literature"  (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Ency
clop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Wisdom_Literature). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28
(11th ed.).

External links
Media related to Wisdom literature at Wikimedia Commons

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