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Wisdom and Dialogue in the Ancient Near East

Wisdom and Dialogue in the Ancient Near East WISDOM AND DIALOGUE IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST SARA J. DENNING-BOLLE Introduction The search for Wisdom occupied the ancient mind as much as our own, if not more. The attempt to unravel the mysteries of the world and to comprehend the will of the gods, inseparable from those mysteries, many times proved fruitless. Ancient sages offered "answers" to questions about mortality or the afflictions of the righteous man that often do not appear to us to be answers at all. Witness the theophany in Job 38-40: where we would expect God's s speech to answer the arguments presented in the preceding chapters, we get instead a magnificent oration on the creator; the basic problems do not seem explicity addressed. How can man understand what God wants, how can man be wise before the Divine? In the Babylonian "Theodicy," the friend asserts: "The divine mind, like the center of the heavens, is remote; knowledge of it is difficult; people at large do not know it" (256-257). And again, in Job 27 we find: "But wisdom, where can it be found? Where is the place of understanding? Man knows not its abode. 'Tis not found in the land of the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Numen Brill

Wisdom and Dialogue in the Ancient Near East

Numen , Volume 34 (2): 214 – Jan 1, 1987

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1987 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0029-5973
eISSN
1568-5276
DOI
10.1163/156852787X00038
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

WISDOM AND DIALOGUE IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST SARA J. DENNING-BOLLE Introduction The search for Wisdom occupied the ancient mind as much as our own, if not more. The attempt to unravel the mysteries of the world and to comprehend the will of the gods, inseparable from those mysteries, many times proved fruitless. Ancient sages offered "answers" to questions about mortality or the afflictions of the righteous man that often do not appear to us to be answers at all. Witness the theophany in Job 38-40: where we would expect God's s speech to answer the arguments presented in the preceding chapters, we get instead a magnificent oration on the creator; the basic problems do not seem explicity addressed. How can man understand what God wants, how can man be wise before the Divine? In the Babylonian "Theodicy," the friend asserts: "The divine mind, like the center of the heavens, is remote; knowledge of it is difficult; people at large do not know it" (256-257). And again, in Job 27 we find: "But wisdom, where can it be found? Where is the place of understanding? Man knows not its abode. 'Tis not found in the land of the

Journal

NumenBrill

Published: Jan 1, 1987

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