Wisdom literature

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wisdom literature is the a genre of literature common in the Ancient Near East. This genre is characterized by praise of God, often in poetic form, and by sayings of wisdom intended to teach about God and about virtue.

The most famous examples of wisdom literature are found in the Bible. The following Biblical books are classified as wisdom literature:

• Job
• Psalms
• Proverbs
• Ecclesiastes
• Song of Songs (also known as Song of Solomon)
• Wisdom (also known as Wisdom of Solomon)
• Sirach (also known as Ben Sira or Ecclesiasticus)

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 an early adaptation of Near Eastern wisdom literature.