Counsels of Wisdom explained
Counsels of Wisdom is a piece of Babylonian wisdom literature written in Akkadian containing moral exhortations. It is composed primarily of two-line units, without sections. A translation of extant portions of the text was published in . Existing manuscripts are fragmentary, but the original was estimated to be about 160 lines.
Date of authorship
Scholars disagree on the date of the work. Gemser and Frans de Liagre Böhl placed it in the First Dynasty,[1] but Lambert believes it should be dated to the Kassite period. The work is attested primarily by a stone tablet written in Late Babylonian script.
Comparison with other wisdom literature
The text is addressed to "my son", which may be a physical son, a student, a successor, or a trope of the genre, as it is in later wisdom literature. Scholars have observed several pieces of ancient wisdom literature to be similar, including the Instructions of Shuruppak, Counsels of a Pessimist, and the Hymn to Šamaš . Together these works were an ancient genre. Similarities have been noticed with the Book of Proverbs, but no literary dependence has been found. The Counsels of Wisdom is believed to have been somewhat popular in its time, since fragments of this passage are quoted in other extant works. The work may have influenced the Wisdom of Ahiqar.
Kindness to Evildoers
Biblical scholar John Nolland sees a passage in the Counsels of Wisdom as a possible precursor to Jesus' command to "love your enemies": "Do not return evil to the man who disputes with you; requite with kindness your evil-doer... smile on your adversary."
See also
References
Further reading
- Begg . Christopher T. . Duggan . Michael W. . Hieke . Thomas . The Ancient Near East: Texts, Traditions, etc . Old Testament Abstracts . 45 . 2 . 2022 . 2639-2003 . 10.1353/ota.2022.0054 . 346–382.
- Book: Clifford, R.J. . 2011 . The wisdom literature . Abingdon Press . Interpreting Biblical Texts . 978-1-4267-5001-4 . 11.
- Book: Cohen, Yoram . 2013 . Wisdom from the late Bronze Age . SBL Press . Writings from the ancient world . 978-1-58983-754-6 .
- Denning-Bolle . Sara J. . 1987 . Wisdom and Dialogue in the Ancient Near East . Numen . 34 . 2 . 0029-5973 . 10.1163/156852787X00038 . 3270085 . 214–234.
- Book: Lenzi, Alan . 2018 . 'Counsels of Wisdom' as 'white-collar' wisdom in first millennium ancient Mesopotamia . 60–69 . Oshima . Takayoshi M. . Teaching morality in antiquity: Wisdom texts, oral traditions, and images . Orientalische Religionen in der Antike . 29 . Tübingen . Mohr Siebeck . 978-3-16-156480-2 . 10.1628/978-3-16-156481-9 . 1869-0513 . Academia.edu.
- Lenzi . Alan . 2021 . Counsels of Wisdom: An ancient Babylonian instruction for scribal students . Religion Compass . 15 . 3 . 1749-8171 . 10.1111/rec3.12390.
- Book: Greenfield, Jonas C. . 2001 . The Wisdom of Aḥiqar . 334–343 . 10.1163/9789004532014_038 . Paul . Shalom M. . Stone . Michael E. . Pinnick . Avital . 'Al Kanfei Yonah . Collected Studies of Jonas C. Greenfield on Semitic Philology . 1 . Leiden . Brill . 978-90-04-53201-4.
- Book: Perdue, L.G. . 2008 . The sword and the stylus: An introduction to wisdom in the age of empires . Eerdmans Publishing Company . 978-0-8028-6245-7 . 7.
- Martins . Ivo Ricardo dos Santos . 2017 . Liminality and the social functions of Akkadian Wisdom Literature (ca. 1200–458 BCE) . M.A. . Leiden University . Academia.edu.
- Book: Martins, Ivo Ricardo dos Santos . 13 August 2024 . Reframing wisdom through liminality in Akkadian literature . 10.4324/9781003485094-2 . De Martin . Sara . Furlan . Anna Lucia . Wisdom Discourse in the Ancient World . London . Routledge . 978-1-03-277858-7 . 21-27 .
External links
Notes and References
- Böhl . Frans Marius Theodor de Liagre . 1942 . De zonnegod als de beschermer der nooddruftigen . The sun god as the protector of the poor . nl . Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux . 8 . 665-680, at p. 670 . Leiden . Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Gezelschap . 0075-2118 . 643516029 .