Voëls van eenderse vere? Oor die Israelitiese en Egiptiese wysbeid en voelsimhole

Abstract

Birds of a feather? Ancient Israelite and Egyptian wisdom and bird symbols
Ordinary Bible readers are not always aware that sections of the Old Testament contain material that agrees (almost verbally) with other documents of the ancient Near East. One of these sections is Proverbs 22: 17-24:22. The publication of papyri containing the Egyptian wisdom book "Wisdom of Amen-em-ope" in 1923 made this evident. This article takes a brief look at the history of wisdom research since 1923, and gives a positive reply to the question whether ancient Israelite wisdom and Egyptian wisdom are similar. This answer, however, impinges on the reformed doctrine of Scripture. Georg Fohrer has emphasized this almost three decades ago but in South Africa we are still struggling to come to terms with this.