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Scribes, Sages, and Seers: The Sage in the Eastern Mediterranean World

Scribes, Sages, and Seers: The Sage in the Eastern Mediterranean World 442 Review of Books / Journalftr the Study ofJudaism 40 (2009) 366-456 Scribes, Sages, and Seers: The Sage in the Eastern Mediterranean World. Edited by Leo G. Perdue. (Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 219). Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008. Pp. viii, 344. Hardback. € 89.90. ISBN 978-3-525-53083-2. This collection of essays brings into a single volume a number of comprehensive studies concerning the social character of the wise in the ancient Near East. The thesis of this collection is that the sapientialliterature of the ancient Near East views the sages, scribes, and seers as social groups of educated men and women with identifiable linguistic and rhetorical features, world views, and sets of vir- tues. Insupportable is the contention that the wise were a group of aristocratic intelligentsia who discussed moral and theological issues at leisure. Apart from the introduction, the book discusses sages, scribes, and seers in ancient Egypt (Schneider), in ancient Mesopotamia (Alster; Hurowirz), in Ugarit and Syria (Marquez Rowe), in First Temple Israel (Dell), in Second Temple Judah (Schmid; Oeming; Kratz; Seow; Reiterer), in the Greek and Roman Empires (Kolarcik;Bedenbender; Lange), and the transition to rabbinic Judaism (Sternberger). This collection of essays-with no exception written by international experts-- is a good mixture; on the one hand, it offers general overviews of specific regions and cultures, whereas, on the other hand, it has quite a few essays that focus on specific documents, specifically from the Hebrew and Greek Bible. The book has an index of biblical texts, an index to pseudepigrapha, non- biblical, ancient literature, an author index, and a list of abbreviations. However, I experienced at least a dozen abbreviations that have not been included into the list. And moreover, it is a real pity that an index of Akkadian, Egyptian, Hebrew, and Aramaic technical terms is lacking, so that the book's function as a reference work is considerably hampered. In the introduction (1-34), Perdue emphasizes "that the wisdom tradition can- not be understood apart from the larger social history of the cultures in which it took root and flourished ... " (1). This approach is systematically elaborated in the essays that follow. The content of all contributions stands in direct opposition to idealism, which has dominated most research concerning biblical wisdom litera- ture for the past century and considered the teachings of the sages as eternal thoughts to be true. The Introduction, starting with Israel and Judah, then describing Egypt and Mesopotamia, runs counter to the sequence of the subsequent essays. Biblical scholars should keep in mind that, strictly speaking, the notion "wisdom" not only is a "misnomer as applied to Babylonian literature" (W G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford 1960, 1), but also applies to several corpora of texts from other ancient Near Eastern civilizations, such as Egypt and Ugarit. Pancratius C. Beentjes University of Til burg © Koninklijke Brill NY, Leiden. 2009 DOl: 1O.1163/157006309X443873 http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal for the Study of Judaism Brill

Scribes, Sages, and Seers: The Sage in the Eastern Mediterranean World

Beentjes, Pancratius
Journal for the Study of Judaism , Volume 40 (3): 442 – Jan 1, 2009
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2009 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0047-2212
eISSN
1570-0631
DOI
10.1163/157006309X443873
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

442 Review of Books / Journalftr the Study ofJudaism 40 (2009) 366-456 Scribes, Sages, and Seers: The Sage in the Eastern Mediterranean World. Edited by Leo G. Perdue. (Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 219). Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008. Pp. viii, 344. Hardback. € 89.90. ISBN 978-3-525-53083-2. This collection of essays brings into a single volume a number of comprehensive studies concerning the social character of the wise in the ancient Near East. The thesis of this collection is that the sapientialliterature of the ancient Near East views the sages, scribes, and seers as social groups of educated men and women with identifiable linguistic and rhetorical features, world views, and sets of vir- tues. Insupportable is the contention that the wise were a group of aristocratic intelligentsia who discussed moral and theological issues at leisure. Apart from the introduction, the book discusses sages, scribes, and seers in ancient Egypt (Schneider), in ancient Mesopotamia (Alster; Hurowirz), in Ugarit and Syria (Marquez Rowe), in First Temple Israel (Dell), in Second Temple Judah (Schmid; Oeming; Kratz; Seow; Reiterer), in the Greek and Roman Empires (Kolarcik;Bedenbender; Lange), and the transition to rabbinic Judaism (Sternberger). This collection of essays-with no exception written by international experts-- is a good mixture; on the one hand, it offers general overviews of specific regions and cultures, whereas, on the other hand, it has quite a few essays that focus on specific documents, specifically from the Hebrew and Greek Bible. The book has an index of biblical texts, an index to pseudepigrapha, non- biblical, ancient literature, an author index, and a list of abbreviations. However, I experienced at least a dozen abbreviations that have not been included into the list. And moreover, it is a real pity that an index of Akkadian, Egyptian, Hebrew, and Aramaic technical terms is lacking, so that the book's function as a reference work is considerably hampered. In the introduction (1-34), Perdue emphasizes "that the wisdom tradition can- not be understood apart from the larger social history of the cultures in which it took root and flourished ... " (1). This approach is systematically elaborated in the essays that follow. The content of all contributions stands in direct opposition to idealism, which has dominated most research concerning biblical wisdom litera- ture for the past century and considered the teachings of the sages as eternal thoughts to be true. The Introduction, starting with Israel and Judah, then describing Egypt and Mesopotamia, runs counter to the sequence of the subsequent essays. Biblical scholars should keep in mind that, strictly speaking, the notion "wisdom" not only is a "misnomer as applied to Babylonian literature" (W G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford 1960, 1), but also applies to several corpora of texts from other ancient Near Eastern civilizations, such as Egypt and Ugarit. Pancratius C. Beentjes University of Til burg © Koninklijke Brill NY, Leiden. 2009 DOl: 1O.1163/157006309X443873

Journal

Journal for the Study of Judaism – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2009

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