The second section illustrates earlier stages in the literary productions and ideals of the exponents of wisdom. Each proverb is confined to two lines, antithetical in form if we except a few in which synonymous parallelism occurs. The utilitarianism of the compiler of this section is often over emphasized : it contains, on the contrary, sentiments which antici pate some of the highest ideals expressed in the New Testament and to which the latter owe their literary form (e.g., X. 12 cf. Cor. xiii. 7, I Pet. iv. 3, James v. 20; xiv. 31; xvii. 5, cf. Matt. xxv.
45; xx. I I, cf. Matt. vii. 16; xx. 22, cf. Matt. v. 39, Rom. xii. 17, 19, etc.). It reflects, moreover at times the "prophetic" revolt against the hollowness of merely external sacrificial worship (xv. 8, xxi. 3) cf. the emphasis on the national virtue demanded by Amos (xiv. 34) and on inner purity (xx. 9) and on the omniscience of Jehovah (xv. 3, II). Thus, in date, the section shows no trace of the developments of religious, theological and philosophical thought for which the latter post-exilic Judaism was responsible; on the other hand, along with much which might be the product of any period, it presupposes, at least in the above respects, the very latest products of pre-exilic piety.
The third section bears the title "words of the wise." Its contents are presented to the reader in a strophic form, forming a miniature discourse, and having four lines to a strophe, as in the newly deciphered Egyptian "Teaching of Amenophis." It is the remarkable similarity of the section to this latter book which has especially concentrated atten tion upon it since 1924. The similarity between the two continues, with certain exceptions, throughout a considerable portion of the section and creates a problem which is scarcely solved by the theory that both reflect gnomic sayings which were common to all nations of the orient. Indeed so close is the relationship that it is possible to emend with a fair degree of certainty, on the basis of the Egyptian tradition, passages in which the Hebrew text is manifestly corrupt : thus "excellent things" (xxii. 2o) without any change in the consonantal text, should be read as "thirty (sayings)," the exact number of the "chapters" into which The Teaching of Amenophis is divided. It would appear unlikely that the Egyptian sage borrowed from the Hebrew, and we are there fore compelled to suppose that either a copy of the Egyptian book penetrated into Palestine and its contents gradually became "Hebraised," its Egyptian theology slowly yielding to that of the Hebrews and proverbs from other sources gradually attaching themselves to it; or a Hebrew sage, visiting or living in Egypt, became acquainted with it, expurgated its Egyptian polytheism and made it acceptable to those who saw in Jehovah the only God who ruled every department of life. Either of these alternatives can best be visualised as happening in pre-exilic rather than late post exilic days, but to dogmatise as to the exact date, whether the reign of Hezekiah, the early years of the exile or otherwise is to substitute guesswork for reason. An outstanding one among the
many sayings common to the Hebrew and Egyptian gnomic writers occurs in the next section (xxiv.
an appendix to the present one) as well as already in the preceding one (xx. 22) : it is the earliest extant form of "the golden rule," later extolled by Hillel and Jesus, which is thus proved to be in its origins Egyptian rather than Hebrew or Jewish.
The fifth section, attributed traditionally to Hezekiah's scribes (xxv. r), contains, like the second section, chiefly short independent proverbial aphorisms; but it has some of two or more verses in length, and advances from the consideration of worldly matters in chs.
to matters of more specifically religious import in chs. xxviii., xxix., i where the observance of "the law" in particular is emphasized, and prophecy is specified as a sine qua non of popular self-restraint (xxix. 18). In spite of the presence in this section of proverbs which occur elsewhere, it contains several of considerable interest. It reflects a somewhat hostile attitude to the monarchical form of government, but attempts to deflect criticism from the person of the king to his courtiers. Whether "the king" is a native Jewish ruler, Davidic or Maccabaean, or a Ptolemaic or Seleucid over lord, or merely figures impersonally in a set of proverbs of in ternational vogue cannot be decided : consequently it gives no real help in fixing the date of the section. In at least two respects this collection provided the inspiration for practical and ethical advice too often supposed to have originated in Christian circles, namely xxv. 7 which evidently inspired Luke xiv. 8-11, and xxv. 21 which is quoted in Rom. xii. 20.
The sixth section has the cryptic and not very convincing title "The words of Agur, the son of Jakeh, of Massa (R. V. mg.)," followed by a line which has defied all efforts to translate it. This, like xxxi. 1, though a frank confes sion by the Jewish sages that they were prepared to welcome aphorisms of foreign origin, and having done so, openly to ascribe them to a foreign author, really throws no light upon the origins and background of the present section. It would appear to date from a period when problems of theology and philosophy were being discussed ad nauseam and to emanate from an author who found little comfort, but much disturbance of faith in speculations of this nature. Consequently confessing his own limitations of intellect (v. 2 seq.), he plaintively asks who in point of fact has ever penetrated into the supra-mundane sphere to return with a knowledge adequate to justify him in propounding such riddles (v. 4). And so he takes refuge in the revealed "word" of God and utters a warning against human endeavours to supplement it or detract from it in self-confidence or insolence. He ends by point ing out the shortcomings of his generation (vv. 5-14). It is the answer of a religious obscurantist rather than, as is too commonly supposed, of a pious agnostic.