Wisdom Discourse in the Ancient World

This book moves beyond the debate on wisdom literature, ongoing in biblical studies, to demonstrate the productivity of wisdom as a literary category. Featuring work by scholars of Egyptology, classics, biblical and Near Eastern studies, it offers fresh perspectives on what makes a text wisdom.

This interdisciplinary volume widens the scope of the investigation into wisdom literature, chronologically, geographically, and methodologically. Readers are given insights into how the label wisdom contributes to our understanding of diverse literary forms across time periods and cultural contexts. In the volumes introduction, the editors consider wisdom as a discourse, shifting the focus from the debate on whether wisdom literature is a genre to the properties of the texts, namely exploring what makes a text wisdom. This offers a methodological backdrop against which the diverse approaches of the single authors productively coexist. The chapters examine texts that are the products of different ancient cultures, with several of them bridging diverse cultural, social, and chronological contexts. By sampling how different methodologies interact both within individual interpretative efforts and in wider attempts to understand cross-cultural literary phenomena, this volume also contributes new perspectives to the scholarship on ancient literary genres.

Wisdom Discourse in the Ancient World will interest both students and scholars of the ancient Near East, Egyptology, classical studies, biblical studies, and theology and religious studies, particularly those working on wisdom literature in antiquity. It will also appeal to readers with an interest in comparative approaches and genre studies more broadly.