Counsels of Wisdom is a piece of
Babylonia
Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...
n
wisdom literature
Wisdom literature is a genre of literature common in the ancient Near East. It consists of statements by sages and the wise that offer teachings about divinity and virtue. Although this genre uses techniques of traditional oral storytelling, i ...
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
Franz "Frans" Marius Theodor de Liagre Böhl (Vienna, Austria, 16 August 1882 – Milsbeek or Nijmegen, the Netherlands, 16 November 1976) was a Dutch professor of Assyriology and Hebrew language, Hebrew. Milsbeek is mentioned as his place of ...
placed it in the
First Dynasty,
but Lambert believes it should be dated to the
Kassite period
The Kassites () were a people of the ancient Near East. They controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire from until (Chronology of the ancient Near East#Variant Middle Bronze Age chronologies, short chronology).
The Kassi ...
. 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
__NOTOC__
The Instructions of Shuruppak (or, ''Instructions of Å uruppak son of Ubara-tutu'') are a significant example of Sumerian wisdom literature. Wisdom literature, intended to teach proper piety, inculcate virtue, and preserve community s ...
,
Counsels of a Pessimist, and th
Hymn to Šamaš. Together these works were an ancient
genre
Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...
. Similarities have been noticed with the
Book of Proverbs
The Book of Proverbs (, ; , ; , "Proverbs (of Solomon)") is a book in the third section (called Ketuvim) of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)/the Christian Old Testament. It is traditionally ascribed to King Solomon and his students. When translated into ...
, 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
The ''Story of Aḥiqar'', also known as the ''Words of Aḥiqar'', is a story first attested to in Imperial Aramaic from the fifth century BCE on papyri from Elephantine, Egypt, that circulated widely in the Middle and the Near East.Christa Mà ...
''.
Kindness to Evildoers
Biblical scholar John Nolland sees a passage in the ''Counsels of Wisdom'' as a possible precursor to
Jesus
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
' command to "
love your enemies
Matthew 5:44, the forty-fourth verse in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament, also found in Luke 6:27–36, is part of the Sermon on the Mount. This is the second verse of the final antithesis, which concerns the comma ...
": "Do not return evil to the man who disputes with you; requite with kindness your evil-doer... smile on your adversary."
See also
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Akkadian literature
Akkadian literature is the ancient literature written in the East Semitic languages, East Semitic Akkadian language (Assyrian people, Assyrian and Babylonian language, Babylonian dialects) in Mesopotamia (Akkadian Empire, Akkadian, Assyria and Bab ...
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Wisdom literature
Wisdom literature is a genre of literature common in the ancient Near East. It consists of statements by sages and the wise that offer teachings about divinity and virtue. Although this genre uses techniques of traditional oral storytelling, i ...
Notes
References
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Further reading
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External links
II.3 Counsels of WisdomCritical edition and translation of the text (electronic Babylonian Library).
Counsels of Wisdom(SAT translation).
{{Authority control
Akkadian literature
Ancient Near East wisdom literature
First Babylonian Empire
Kassites
2nd-millennium BC literature