Wisdom Literature in Mesopotamia and Israel (Society of Biblical Literature Syumposium)

133 Pages·2007·1.42 MB·English

by  Clifford

WISDOM LITERATURE
IN MESOPOTAMIA AND ISRAEL
Society of Biblical Literature
Symposium Series
Christopher R. Matthews, Editor
Number 36
WISDOM LITERATURE
IN MESOPOTAMIA AND ISRAEL
edited by
Richard J. Clifford
WISDOM LITERATURE
IN MESOPOTAMIA AND ISRAEL
edited by
Richard J. Clifford
Society of Biblical Literature
Atlanta
WISDOM LITERATURE
IN MESOPOTAMIA AND ISRAEL
Copyright © 2007 by the Society of Biblical Literature
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wisdom literature in Mesopotamia and Israel / edited by Richard J.
Clifford.
p. cm. — (Society of Biblical Literature symposium series ; no.
36)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-58983-219-0 (paper binding : alk. paper)
1. Wisdom literature—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2.
Assyro-Babylonian literature—History and criticism. I. Clifford, Richard
J.
BS1455.W563 2007a
223'.06—dc22
2007024579
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, recycled paper
conforming to ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) and ISO 9706:1994
standards for paper permanence.
Table of Contents
Abbreviations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Introduction
Richard J. Clifford. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Part One: The Context of Wisdom in Mesopotamia
1. The Social and Intellectual Setting of Babylonian Wisdom Literature
Paul-Alain Beaulieu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Why Wisdom Became a Secret: On Wisdom as a Written Genre
Karel van der Toorn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Part Two: Studies in Babylonian Wisdom Texts
3. An Allusion to the Šamaš Hymn in The Dialogue of Pessimism
Victor Avigdor Hurowitz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4. The Wisdom of Šūpê-amēlī—A Deathbed Debate between
a Father and Son
Victor Avigdor Hurowitz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Part Three: Comparisons of Mesopotamian and
Biblical Texts and Motifs
5. Sages with a Sense of Humor: The Babylonian Dialogue
between the Master and His Servant and the Book of Qoheleth
Edward L. Greenstein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
v
vi Table of Contents
6. Cosmos, Temple, House: Building and Wisdom in
Mesopotamia and Israel
Raymond C. Van Leeuwen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Part Four: Biblical Wisdom Literature
7. Beginnings, Endings, and Life’s Necessities in Biblical Wisdom
James L. Crenshaw. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Index of Ancient Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Index of Modern Authors Cited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Abbreviations
AB Anchor Bible
ABL Assyrian and Babylonian Letters Belonging to the
Kouyunjik Collections of the British Museum. Edited by
R. F. Harper. 14 vols. Chicago, 1892–1914.
ABRL Anchor Bible Reference Library
AfO Archiv für Orientforschung
AfOB Archiv für Orientforschung: Beiheft
AHw Akkadisches Handwörterbuch.W.von Soden. 3 vols.
Wiesbaden, 1965–81
ANEP The Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Tes-
tament. Edited by J. B. Pritchard. 2nd ed. Princeton,
1969
ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament.
Edited by J. B. Pritchard; 3rd ed. Princeton, 1969
AnBib Analecta biblica
AnOr Analecta Orientalia
AnSt Anatolian Studies
AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament
AOS American Oriental Series
ARAB Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia.Daniel David
Luckenbill. 2 vols. Chicago, 1926–1927
ARI Assyrian Royal Inscriptions. A. K. Grayson. 2 vols.
Records of the Ancient Near East. Wiesbaden, 1972–
1976.
ATD Altes Testament Deutsch
AuOr Aula Orientalis
AuOrSup Aula Orientalis Supplementa
BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
BETL Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium
BK Biblischer Kommentar
BN Biblische Notizen
vii
viii Abbreviations
BWL Babylonian Wisdom Literature. W. G. Lambert.Oxford,
1960
BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wis-
senschaft
BZNW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wis-
senschaft
CAD The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the
University of Chicago.Chicago, 1956-
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
CBQMS Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series
COS The Context of Scripture. Edited by W. W. Hall. 3 vols.
Leiden, 1997–2002
CRRAI Comptes rendus, Rencontre Assyriologique Interna-
tionale
CTJ Calvin Theological Journal
DDD Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. 2nd ed.
Edited by K.van der Toorn, B. Becking, and P. W. van
der Horst. Leiden, 1999
ETCSL Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
(http://www-etcsl. orient. ox. ac. uk/)
FAT Forschungen zum Alten Testament
FOTL Forms of Old the Testament Literature
HALOT Koehler, L, W. Baumgartner, and J. J. Stamm, The
Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament.
Translated and edited under the supervision of M. E. J.
Richardson. 4 vols. Leiden, 1994–1999
HAT Handbuch zum Alten Testament
HBT Horizons in Biblical Theology
ICC International Critical Commentary
IOS Israel Oriental Studies
JANESCU Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society of Columbia
University
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies
JQR Jewish Quarterly Review
JQRSupp Jewish Quarterly Review: Supplement Series
JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament
JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supple-
ment Series
KTU Die keilalphabetischen Texte aus Ugarit. Edited by M.
Dietrich, O. Loretz, and J. Sanmartín.AOAT 24/1.