4 - Foreign Semitic influence on the wisdom of Israel and its appropriation in the book of Proverbs

Summary

Semitic influence on the wisdom of Israel generally

Ever since the discovery that the Egyptian Instruction of Amenemope has remarkable parallels with Prov. xxii 17–xxiii 11, as well as other parts of Proverbs, the kinship of Israel's wisdom with that of the ancient near east has been recognized. Interestingly, the Old Testament itself recognizes that the Egyptians were noted for their wisdom and that this was not something confined to Israel. ‘Solomon's wisdom’, we read, ‘surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt’ (1 Kings v 10 [iv 30]). In the light of the kinship of Israel's wisdom with that of Egypt already noted, this verse would lead one to suspect that Israel was also dependent on the wisdom of the people of the east, i.e. the Semitic people who inhabited Transjordan. Explicit acknowledgement of something like this is frankly given in Prov. xxx 1 and xxxi 1, which claim to be imparting respectively ‘The words of Agur son of Jakeh of Massa’ and ‘The words of Lemuel, king of Massa, which his mother taught him’, Massa being in north-west Arabia (Gen. xxv 14; 1 Chron. i 30). Contrast the way in which Proverbs quietly appropriates the Egyptian wisdom of Amenemope without acknowledgement. However, unlike the wealth of attention bestowed on Israel's indebtedness to Egyptian wisdom, less attention has been paid to Israel's dependence on Semitic wisdom. Admittedly our sources of information on this subject are much more limited, but it is worth assessing what evidence we have.