Common sense doesn’t have an expiration date. It doesn’t have national boundaries either. So, while the Book of Proverbs was written in ancient Israel, it shares much in common with the proverbs of neighboring countries. Its wisdom is international.
The Bible showcases the internationalism of Solomon’s wisdom in 1 Kings 4:29-34. According to verse 30, “Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.” And according to verse 34, others recognized the superiority of Solomon’s wisdom. “Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.”
Throughout biblical history, the little nation of Israel often found itself at the mercy of the two superpowers that surrounded it: Egypt and Mesopotamia (“the East”). Early in its history, Israel escaped from slavery in the former, only to be exiled to the latter centuries afterward. But in Solomon’s day, Israel was independent of both superpowers, and its king’s wisdom reigned supreme.
And yet, Solomon’s wisdom (and that of Proverbs’ other authors) is very similar to the wisdom of Mesopotamia and Egypt in both form and content. In How to Read Proverbs, Tremper Longman quotes some of those similarities.[1] Consider just a few, from Proverbs and the Egyptian Amenemope Instruction:
Do not exploit the poor because they are poor
and do not crush the needy in court…. (Prov. 22:22)
Guard yourself from robbing the poor
From being violent to the weak. (Amenemope IV, 4-5)
Do you see a man skilled in his work?
He will serve before kings;
he will not serve before obscure men. (Prov. 22:29)
As for the scribe who is experienced in his office
He will find himself worthy to be a courtier. (Amenemope XXVII, 16-17)
Do not move an ancient boundary stone
or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
for their Defender is strong;
he will take up their case against you. (Prov. 23:10-11)
Do not remove the boundary stone of the cultivated land.
Nor throw down the boundary of the widow. (Amenemope VII, 12)
How do you feel about these similarities? Are you shocked that biblical wisdom and Egyptian wisdom say the same kind of things in the same kind of way? Does the lack of originality dull the luster of the Bible for you? It shouldn’t. After all, if God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1), and if he created humanity in his image (Gen. 1:26), why would we be surprised if his Israelite image and his Egyptian image happen to agree? Shouldn’t we expect that they would agree?
God’s creativity and imagination put the common in common sense.
Copyright © 2007 by George P. Wood
[1] Tremper Longman III, How to Read Proverbs (Downers Grove, IL: 2002), 61-78.
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