Would you like to read more dimdim?................. "By the 1960s there was a virtual consensus among scholars in support of the priority of Wisdom of Amenemope and its influence on Proverbs. [39] For example, John A. Wilson declared in the mid-20th century: "We believe that there is a direct connection between these two pieces of wisdom literature, and that Amen-em-Opet was the ancestor text. The secondary nature of the Hebrew seems established." [40]
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Many study Bibles and commentaries followed suit, including the Jerusalem Bible, [41] introductions to the Old Testament by Pfeiffer [42] and Eissfeldt, [43] and others. The translators of the Catholic New American Bible, reflecting and extending this agreement, even went so far as to emend the obscure Hebrew text of Proverbs 22:19 (traditionally translated as "I have made known to you this day, even to you") to read "I make known to you the words of Amen-em-OpeBiblical parallels[ edit]Though all extant copies of Amenemope are of a later date, the work is thought to have been composed in the Ramesside Period, during which the tribes of Israel first became a unified nation. [1]
Egyptian influence on Israel and Judah was particularly strong in the reigns of Solomon and Hezekiah during Egypt's Third Intermediate Period; [19] as a result, "Hebrew literature is permeated with concepts and figures derived from the didactic treatises of Egypt", [20] with Amenemope often cited as the foremost example. [1] [21]
Even in his first brief publication of excerpts from Amenemope in 1922, Budge noted its obvious resemblance to the biblical wisdom books. [22] He amplified these comments in his 1923 and 1924 publications, observing that the religiously based morality of Amenemope "closely resembles" the precepts of the Hebrew Bible, and adducing specific parallels between Amenemope and texts in Proverbs, Psalms, and Deuteronomy. [23] Others soon followed his lead.
Erman's position[ edit]The most notable of these was Adolf Erman, "the Dean of all Egyptologists", [24] who in 1924 published an extensive list of correspondences between the texts of Amenemope and the biblical Book of Proverbs, with the bulk of them concentrated in Proverbs 22:17-23:11. [25] It was Erman who used Amenemope to emend a difficult reading in the text of Proverbs 22:20, where the Hebrew word shilshom ("three days ago") appeared to be a copyist's error that could be meaningfully translated only with difficulty. Erman pointed out that substituting the similar word sheloshim ("thirty") not only made good sense in context, but yielded the following close parallel between the two texts, with the now-restored "thirty sayings" in Proverbs 22:20 corresponding exactly to the thirty numbered chapters in Amenemope:. [1] [26] [27]
(Proverbs 22:20): "Have I not written for you thirty sayings of counsel and knowledge?" (ESV)
(Amenemope, ch. 30, line 539): "Look to these thirty chapters; they inform, they educate." [28]
Erman also argued that this correspondence demonstrated that the Hebrew text had been influenced by the Egyptian instead of the other way around, since the Egyptian text of Amenemope explicitly enumerates thirty chapters whereas the Hebrew text of Proverbs does not have such clear-cut divisions, and would therefore be more likely to lose the original meaning during copying. [29] Since Erman's time there has been a near consensus among scholars that there exists a literary connection between the two works, although the direction of influence remains contentious even today. The majority has concluded that Proverbs 22:17-23:10 was dependent on Amenemope; a minority is split between viewing the Hebrew text as the original inspiration for Amenemope and viewing both works as dependent on a now lost Semitic source. [1] [30]
The majority position[ edit]A major factor in determining the direction of influence is the date at which Amenemope was composed. At one time the mid-1st millennium BC was put forward as a likely date for the composition of Amenemope, [31] which gave some support to the argument for the priority of Proverbs. However, Jaroslav Cerný, whose authority on New Kingdom paleography was so great that his conclusions were considered "unquestionable", [32] dated the fragmentary Amenemope text on the Cairo 1840 ostracon to the late 21st dynasty. [33] Since a 21st-dynasty date inevitably makes Amenemope chronologically prior to the earliest possible date for Proverbs, this would definitively establish the priority of Amenemope over Proverbs and make influence in the other direction impossible. [34]
Other evidence for Egyptian priority includes:
- the demonstrably native Egyptian character of the genre, themes, and vocabulary of Amenemope; [37]
- the discovery of the editorial and structural mechanisms by which the Egyptian original was adapted by the biblical author. [38]
By the 1960s there was a virtual consensus among scholars in support of the priority of Amenemope and its influence on Proverbs. [39] For example, John A. Wilson declared in the mid-20th century: "[W]e believe that there is a direct connection between these two pieces of wisdom literature, and that Amen-em-Opet was the ancestor text. The secondary nature of the Hebrew seems established." [40] Many study Bibles and commentaries followed suit, including the Jerusalem Bible, [41] introductions to the Old Testament by Pfeiffer [42] and Eissfeldt, [43] and others. The translators of the Catholic New American Bible, reflecting and extending this agreement, even went so far as to emend the obscure Hebrew text of Proverbs 22:19 (traditionally translated as "I have made known to you this day, even to you") to read "I make known to you the words of Amen-em-Ope." [44]
The minority response[ edit] R. N. Whybray, who at one point supported the majority position, changed sides during the 1990s and cast doubt on the relationship between Amenemope and Proverbs, while still acknowledging certain affinities. He argued, in part, that only some of the topics in the Egyptian text can be found in Proverbs 22:17-24:22 and that their sequence differs. [45] J. A. Emerton [46] and Nili Shupak [47] have subsequently argued strongly against Whybray's conclusions. John Ruffle takes a more conservative approach: "The connection so casually assumed is often very superficial, rarely more than similarity of subject matter, often quite differently treated and does not survive detailed examination. I believe it can merit no more definite verdict than 'not proven' and that it certainly does not exist to the extent that is often assumed", and "The parallels that I have drawn between [the ueuetlatolli of the Aztecs], (recorded by Bernardino de Sahagun in the 1500s) and ancient Near Eastern wisdom are in no way exhaustive, but the fact that they can be produced so easily underlines what should be obvious anyway, that such precepts and images are universally acceptable and hence that similar passages may occur in Proverbs and Amenemope simply by coincidence." [48]
Comparison of texts[ edit]A number of passages in the Instruction of Amenemope have been compared with the Book of Proverbs, including:
(Proverbs 22:17-18):"Incline thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, And apply thine heart to my doctrine; For it is pleasant if thou keep them in thy belly, that they may be established together upon thy lips"
(Amenemope, ch. 1):"Give thine ear, and hear what I say, And apply thine heart to apprehend; It is good for thee to place them in thine heart, let them rest in the casket of thy belly; That they may act as a peg upon thy tongue" [49]
(Proverbs 22:22):"Rob not the poor, for he is poor, neither oppress (or crush) the lowly in the gate."
(Amenemope, ch. 2):"Beware of robbing the poor, and oppressing the afflicted." [49]
(Proverbs 22:24-5): "Do not befriend the man of anger, Nor go with a wrathful man, Lest thou learn his ways and take a snare for thy soul."
(Amenemope, ch. 10): "Associate not with a passionate man, Nor approach him for conversation; Leap not to cleave to such an one; That terror carry thee not away." [49]
(Proverbs 22:29):"[if you] You see a man quick in his work, before kings will he stand, before cravens, he will not stand."
(Amenemope, ch. 30):"A scribe who is skillful in his business findeth worthy to be a courtier" [49]
(Proverbs 23:1):"When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, Consider diligently what is before thee; And put a knife to thy throat, If thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are breads of falsehood."
(Amenemope, ch. 23): "Eat not bread in the presence of a ruler, And lunge not forward(?) with thy mouth before a governor(?). When thou art replenished with that to which thou has no right, It is only a delight to thy spittle. Look upon the dish that is before thee, And let that (alone) supply thy need." [49] (see above)
(Proverbs 23:4-5):"Toil not to become rich, And cease from dishonest gain; For wealth maketh to itself wings, Like an eagle that flieth heavenwards"
(Amenemope, ch. 7):"Toil not after riches; If stolen goods are brought to thee, they remain not over night with thee. They have made themselves wings like geese. And have flown into the heavens." [49]
(Proverbs 14:7):"Speak not in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words"
(Amenemope, ch. 21):"Empty not thine inmost soul to everyone, nor spoil (thereby) thine influence" [49]
(Proverbs 23:10): "Remove not the widows landmark; And enter not into the field of the fatherless."
(Amenemope, ch. 6): "Remove not the landmark from the bounds of the field...and violate not the widows boundary" [49]
(Proverbs 23:12):"Apply thine heart unto instruction and thine ears to the words of knowledge"
(Amenemope, ch. 1):"Give thine ears, hear the words that are said, give thine heart to interpret them." [49]
See also[ edit]Notes[ edit]
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j Lichtheim 1976, 146-149.^ Jump up to: a b Williams 1978, 131-137.^ Jump up to: a b c Weeks 1994, 168-169. Jump up ^ Washington 1994. Jump up ^ Ray 1997, 17-29. Jump up ^ Lichtheim 1973, 61-80. Jump up ^ Wilson 1951, 289-309. Jump up ^ "Studies in Comparative Religion", General editor, E. C Messenger, Essay by A. Mallon S. J, vol 2/5, p. 16-17, Catholic Truth Society, 1934 Jump up ^ Budge 1920, 1:337. Jump up ^ Budge 1923, 18-19; Posener 1945, 112. Jump up ^ Renouf 1888, 5-10. Jump up ^ Usick 2006, 15. Jump up ^ Budge 1922. Jump up ^ Budge 1923. Jump up ^ Budge 1924. Jump up ^ British Museum Web Site (www.britishmuseum.org) Jump up ^ Black 2002, 212-293. Jump up ^ Black 2002, 266 Jump up ^ Williams 1971, 271-276. Jump up ^ Williams 1971, 276-277. Jump up ^ Williams 1971, 277-282. Jump up ^ Budge 1922, 445. Jump up ^ Budge 1923, 12n2, 13n1; Budge 1924, 104-107, 118-119. Jump up ^ Mercer 1926, 238. Jump up ^ Erman 1924, 86-93. Jump up ^ Erman 1924, 88-90. Jump up ^ Black 2002, 303-307. Jump up ^ Lichtheim 1976, 162. Jump up ^ Mertz 1978, 317-318. Jump up ^ Overland 1996, 276-278. Jump up ^ See, for example, Lange 1925, 13-14. Jump up ^ Ruffle 1995, 296. Jump up ^ Williams 1961, 106. Jump up ^ Overland 1996, 277-278. Jump up ^ Gardiner 1942, 70. Jump up ^ Lichtheim 1976, 135; Williams 1961, 106; Quack 1994, 13, 61-62, 84-85, 149, 202, 279. Jump up ^ Williams 1961, 100-106. Jump up ^ Overland 1996; Bryce 1979; Fox 2008. Jump up ^ Shupak 2005, 203. Jump up ^ Wilson 1951, 303n45. Jump up ^ Jones 1966, 932. Jump up ^ Pfeiffer 1948, 647-648. Jump up ^ Eissfeldt 1965, 474-475 Jump up ^ Textual Notes 1970, 392; Boadt 1989, 644-645, 664-668. See also the web site of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: [1] Jump up ^ Whybray Proverbs 1995, 78-84; Whybray Composition 1994, 132-145; Whybray "Structure" 1994. Jump up ^ Emerton 2001. Jump up ^ Shupak 2005. Jump up ^ John Ruffle, " The Teaching of Amenemope and its Connection with the Book of Proverbs," Tyndale Bulletin 28 (1977): 29-68. The Tyndale Biblical Archaeology Lecture, 1975.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i "The Legacy of Egypt", S. R. K. Glanville, contributor W. O. E Oesterley, p. 246-248, Oxford, 1942
References[ edit]- Black, James Roger. " The Instruction of Amenemope: A Critical Edition and Commentary—Prolegomenon and Prologue" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2002).
- Boadt, Lawrence E. "Proverbs," in Dianne Bergant and Robert J. Karris, eds. The Collegeville Bible Commentary: Based on the New American Bible with Revised New Testament (Liturgical Press, 1989), 644-674. ISBN 0-8146-1484-1
- Bryce, Glendon E. A Legacy of Wisdom: the Egyptian Contribution to the Wisdom of Israel (Bucknell University Press, 1979) ISBN 0-8387-1576-1
- Budge, E. A. Wallis. By Nile and Tigris, a Narrative of Journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on behalf of the British Museum between the Years 1886 and 1913, 2 vols. (London: J. Murray, 1920).
- Budge, E. A. Wallis. "The Precepts of Life by Amen-em-Apt, the Son of Ka-Nekht," Recueil d'études égyptologiques dédiées à la mémoire de Jean-François Champollion à l'occasion du centenaire de la lettre à M. Dacier relative à l'alphabet des hiéroglyphes phonétiques (Paris: E. Champion, 1922), 431-446.
- Budge, E. A. Wallis. Facsimiles of Egyptian Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum, with Descriptions, Summaries of Contents, etc., 2nd series (London: British Museum. Dept. of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, 1923), 5-6, 9-19, 41-51, plates I-XIV.
- Budge, E. A. Wallis. Teaching of Amen-Em-Apt, Son of Kanekht (London, 1924; reprinted Kessinger Publishing, 2003), ISBN 0-7661-4811-4.
- Eissfeldt, Otto. The Old Testament: An Introduction (tr. by P. R. Ackroyd; Harper & Row, 1965).
- Emerton, J. A. "The Teaching of Amenemope and Proverbs XXII 17-XXIV 22: Further Reflections on a Long-standing Problem," Vetus Testamentum 51 (2001), 431-465.
- Erman, Adolf. "Eine ägyptische Quelle der 'Sprüche Salomos'," Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 15 (1924), 86-93, pl. VI-VII.
- Fox, Michael V. "The formation of Proverbs 22:17-23:11," Die Welt des Orients 38 (2008), 22-37.
- Gardiner, Alan H. "Writing and Literature," in S. R. K. Glanville, The Legacy of Egypt (Oxford, 1942).
- Jones, Alexander, ed. The Jerusalem Bible (Doubleday, 1966).
- Lange, H. O. Das Weisheitsbuch des Amenemope, aus dem Papyrus 10,474 des British museum, Danske videnskabornes selskab, Historisk-filologiske meddelelser 11, 2 (København: A.F. Høst & søn, 1925).
- Laisney, Vincent Pierre-Michel. L’Enseignement d'Amenemope, Studia Pohl 16 (Pontifical Biblical Institute, 2007).
- Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms (University of California Press, 1973), 61-80.
- Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume II: The New Kingdom (University of California Press, 1976), 146-163, ISBN 0-520-03615-8.
- Mercer, Samuel A. B. "A New-Found Book of Proverbs," Anglican Theological Review 8 (1926), 237-244.
- Mertz, Barbara. Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs (Dodd, Mead, & Co., 1978).
- Overland, Paul. "Structure in The Wisdom of Amenemope and Proverbs," in J. E. Coleson and V. H. Matthews, eds., Go to the Land I Will Show You: Studies in Honor of Dwight W. Young (Eisenbrauns, 1996), 275-291. ISBN 0-931464-91-9
- Pfeiffer, Robert H. Introduction to the Old Testament (Harper & Brothers, 1948).
- Posener, Georges. "One More Duplicate of the Hood Papyrus," Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 31 (1945), 112.
- Quack, Joachim Friedrich. Die Lehren des Ani: Ein neuägyptischer Weisheitstext in seinem kulturellen Umfeld, OBO 141 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994).
- Ray, J. D. "Egyptian Wisdom Literature," in John Day, et al., Wisdom in Ancient Israel" (Cambridge University Press, 1997), 17-29, ISBN 0-521-62489-4.
- Renouf, Peter le Page. " The Thematic Vowel in Egyptian," Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology 11 (1888).
- Ruffle, John. "The Teaching of Amenemope and its Connexion with the Book of Proverbs" (M.A. Thesis, University of Liverpool, 1964).
- Ruffle, John. "The Teaching of Amenemope and its Connection with the Book of Proverbs," in Roy B. Zuck, ed., Learning from the Sages; Studies on the Book of Proverbs (Baker Books, 1995), 293-331.
- Shupak, Nili. The Instruction of Amenemope and Proverbs 22:17-24:22 from the Perspective of Contemporary Research," in R. L. Troxel, K. G. Friebel, and D. R. Magary, eds., Seeking Out the Wisdom of the Ancients: Essays Offered to Honor Michael V. Fox on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday (Eisenbrauns, 2005), 203-217. ISBN 1-57506-105-8
- Textual Notes on the New American Bible (St. Anthony's Guild, 1970).
- Usick, Patricia. " Review of The Letters of Peter le Page Renouf (1822-1897)", British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan 5 (2006), 13-16.
- Washington, Harold C. Wealth and Poverty in the Instruction of Amenemope and the Hebrew Proverbs, SBL Dissertation Series 142 (Scholars Press, 1994).
- Weeks, Stuart. Early Israelite Wisdom (Clarendon Press, 1994), 168-169.
- Whybray, Roger Norman. The Book of Proverbs: A Survey of Modern Study (Brill, 1995). ISBN 90-04-10374-0
- Whybray, Roger Norman. The Composition of the Book of Proverbs (JSOT Press, 1994).
- Whybray, Roger Norman. "The Structure and Composition of Proverbs 22:17-24:22," in S. E. Porter, P. Joyce, and D. E. Orton, eds., Crossing the Boundaries: Essays in Biblical Interpretation in Honour of Michael D. Golder (Brill, 1994), 83-96.
- Williams, Ronald J. "The Alleged Semitic Original of the Wisdom of Amenemope," Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 47 (1961), 100-106.
- Williams, Ronald J. "Egypt and Israel"," in J. R. Harris, The Legacy of Egypt, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1971), 257-290.
- Williams, Ronald J. "Piety and Ethics in the Ramessid Age," Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 8 (1978), 131-137.
- Wilson, John A. The Culture of Ancient Egypt (originally The Burden of Egypt; University of Chicago Press, 1951). ISBN 978-0-226-90152-7
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