Wisdom literature is a genre of literature common in the Ancient Near East. This genre is characterized by sayings of wisdom intended to teach about divinity and about virtue. The key principle of wisdom literature is that while techniques of traditional story-telling are used, books also presume to offer insight and wisdom about nature and reality.
The most famous examples of wisdom literature are found in the Bible. The following Biblical books are classified as wisdom literature:
- Book of Job
- Psalms
- Proverbs
- Ecclesiastes
- Song of Songs
- Wisdom (also known as Wisdom of Solomon)
- Sirach (also known as Ben Sira or Ecclesiasticus)
(Wisdom and Sirach are deuterocanonical books, placed in the Apocrypha by Protestant Bible translations.) The genre of mirror-of-princes writings, which has a long history in Islamic and Western Renaissance literature, represents a secular cognate of biblical wisdom literature. Within Classical Antiquity, the advice poetry of Hesiod, particularly his Works and Days has been seen as a like-genre to Near Eastern wisdom literature.
Read more about Wisdom Literature: Ancient Egyptian Literature, Biblical Wisdom Literature, Contrast With Greek Thought
Famous quotes containing the words wisdom and/or literature:
“Oblivion here thy wisdom is,
Thy thrift, the sleep of cares;
For a proud idleness like this
Crowns all thy mean affairs.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I did toy with the idea of doing a cook-book.... The recipes were to be the routine ones: how to make dry toast, instant coffee, hearts of lettuce and brownies. But as an added attraction, at no extra charge, my idea was to put a fried egg on the cover. I think a lot of people who hate literature but love fried eggs would buy it if the price was right.”
—Groucho Marx (1895–1977)