Counsels of Wisdom

Counsels of Wisdom is a piece of Babylonian wisdom literature written in Akkadian[1] containing moral exhortations.[2] It is composed primarily of two-line units,[3] without sections.[4] A translation of extant portions of the text was published in Lambert 1996. Existing manuscripts are fragmentary, but the original was estimated to be about 160 lines.[2]

Date of authorship

Scholars disagree on the date of the work. Gemser and Bohl placed it in the First Dynasty,[5] but Lambert believes it should be dated to the Kassite period.[6] The work is attested primarily by a stone tablet written in Late Babylonian script.[6]

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.[2] 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 (See Shamash). Together these works were an ancient genre.[6] Similarities have been noticed with the Book of Proverbs, but no literary dependence has been found.[7] 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.[2]

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."[8]

Notes

Kitchen 1977, p. 114.
Lambert 1996, p. 96.
Kitchen 1977, p. 88.
Kitchen 1977, p. 86.
Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux. VIII (670). {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
Lambert 1996, p. 97.
Whybray, R.N. (2009). Wisdom in Proverbs: The Concept of Wisdom in Proverbs 1-9. Studies in Biblical Theology, First Series. Wipf & Stock Publishers. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-60899-019-1. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
Nolland, John. The Gospel of Matthew: a commentary on the Greek text. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005 pg. 267

References

Barré, Michael L. (1981). ""Fear of God" and the World View of Wisdom". Biblical Theology Bulletin. SAGE Publications. 11 (2): 41–43. doi:10.1177/014610798101100203. S2CID 170183050.
Kitchen, Kenneth A. (1977). "Proverbs and wisdom books of the ancient Near East: the factual history of a literary form" (PDF). Tyndale Bulletin. 28: 69–114. doi:10.53751/001c.30617. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 May 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
Lambert, Wilfred G. (1996). Babylonian Wisdom Literature. Eisenbrauns. p. 96–107. ISBN 978-0-931464-94-2. Retrieved 16 April 2017.

External links

II.3 Counsels of Wisdom Critical edition and translation of the text (electronic Babylonian Library).
Counsels of Wisdom (SAT translation).

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[FOOTNOTEKitchen1977114-1] Kitchen 1977, p. 114.

[FOOTNOTELambert199696-2] Lambert 1996, p. 96.

[FOOTNOTEKitchen197788-3] Kitchen 1977, p. 88.

[FOOTNOTEKitchen197786-4] Kitchen 1977, p. 86.

[5] Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux. VIII (670). {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

[FOOTNOTELambert199697-6] Lambert 1996, p. 97.

[Whybray_2009_p._51-7] Whybray, R.N. (2009). Wisdom in Proverbs: The Concept of Wisdom in Proverbs 1-9. Studies in Biblical Theology, First Series. Wipf & Stock Publishers. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-60899-019-1. Retrieved 16 April 2017.

[8] Nolland, John. The Gospel of Matthew: a commentary on the Greek text. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005 pg. 267