Proverbs and Wisdom Books of the Ancient Near East: The Factual History of a Literary Form

Abstract

For many decades it has been customary to make detailed comparisons between the contents of the book of Proverbs within the Old Testament and the various broadly similar writings from the neighbouring and related cultures of the ancient Near East. 1 Likewise, much has been said of the 'international' character of ancient Near-Eastern wisdom as represented in both biblical and non-biblical compositions. However, no systematic study has ever been made of the basic forms of wisdom books (as distinct from individual proverbs, maxims, etc.) either inside or outside the Old Testament, in order to establish a proper factual history of wisdom works in general or of that particular group of writings to which the constituent compositions of the book of Proverbs belong. What is here proposed for the first time is a real (as opposed to imaginary) "Formgeschichte"-real, because based directly upon the observable series of actual books of 'instructional' wisdom (including those within Proverbs) that straddle three millennia of the history and civilization of the ancient biblical world. * Delivered at Tyndale House, Cambridge, 16th July, 1976. This paper is excerpted from materials long intended for use in a larger work, prospects for the completion and publication of which are bleak in the extreme; regrettably, therefore, presentation here is necessarily much condensed. 1 At random, cf. (e.g.) D. C. Simpson, JEA 12 (1926) 232-9; R. Β. Y. Scott, Proverbs (Anchor Bible, 1965) xviiiff., xlff. ; W. McKane, Proverbs (Old Testament Library, 1970) 1-208 passim; among many others.