Description: Is there evidence for a distinct wisdom tradition in ancient Israel? Mark R. Sneed redefines the wisdom literature as a loosely cohering collection of books that educated scribal apprentices in moral instruction. Sneed discusses the data for scribal culture and pedagogy in the ancient Near East, suggesting that wisdom literature was meant to complement, not to compete with, other modes of literature in the Hebrew Bible. The result is a surprising new picture of the authors and tradents of the wisdom literature. Maps and illustrations included
Brief description:
Mark R. Sneed is professor of Bible at Lubbock Christian University in Lubbock, Texas. He is the author of The Politics of Pessimism in Ecclesiastes: A Social-Scientific Perspective (2012) and the editor of Concepts of Class in Ancient Israel (1999).