Academic literature on the topic 'Instruction of Amenemope'

The Instruction of Amenemope and the book of Deuteronomy share a common conviction about the nature and intent of parental teaching. This commonality is marked by basic lexical analogues, as well as three conceptual analogues from the broader contexts of the two compositions. Consequently, this study provides further evidence for the claim that Deuteronomy evinces wisdom influence.

Since the mid-twentieth century, scholars have highlighted the similarities between the book of Proverbs and wisdom texts from ancient Egypt, the most recognized being “The Instruction of Amenemope” (ca. 1100 bce). Consequently, some have asserted that this relationship points toward a likely Egyptian provenance and origin of biblical concepts like the Tree of Life in Proverbs 3:17–18; 11:30; 13:12; 15:4. Recognizing the undisputable contact with ancient Egypt, the present work argues through the method of comparative study that the Tree of Life in the book of Proverbs should not be interpreted with an ideological antecedent of a divine tree goddess in the New Kingdom period of ancient Egypt.

The editorial history of the book Hosea It is the suggestion of this essay that the book of Hosea, was supplied with an introduction and ending by an editor from the wisdom circles. This thesis is based on the fact that Hosea 1: 2a and 14: 10 correspond remarkably with the introductions and endings of Egyptian wisdom instructions (for instance that of Amenemopet). The absence of this kind of introductions and endings in other books of the Old Testament leads to the conclusion that the prophecies of Hosea found their way to Judah in the form of a complete book.

This thesis examines the textual traditions of two Late Egyptian wisdom texts: the Instruction of Amenemope and the Instruction of Ani. It hypothesises the scribal process of copying through text-critical techniques, and from the perspective of ‘Material Philology’. It does not attempt to create a stemma codicum or to reconstruct an Urtext, but considers the possible role of dictation and visual copying, in transmission, and how significant variations between manuscripts arose. The incidence of obvious textual corruption is not high, ‘aural’ error is not significantly more frequent than visual error. Since aural errors can occur even in copying visually, visual copying is determined to be the more likely method of transmission. Copying errors are found to occur slightly more frequently toward the bottom of each page in p. Boulaq IV, suggesting that this manuscript was copied a page at a time. Several manuscripts have been corrected by their copyists, demonstrating attempts to produce a comprehensible text. Textual variations between manuscripts are not to be explained simply as the results of corruption, and do not provide a more ‘original’ text. Some variations are attempts to ‘update’ grammar and vocabulary to a more contemporary idiom, but this was not systematic in any of the manuscripts. The most systematic example of this is the consistent replacement of Hr with r in p. Boulaq IV, where Hr has been used in an abstract, non-locational sense. This is part of a broader trend in Egyptian from the end of the New Kingdom onward. Textual variation between the manuscripts is seen as part of a copying culture in which the copyist plays an active role in redacting the text in their manuscript, where literary texts are personal rather than published copies. The rubrication of the Instruction of Amenemope appears to be connected closely to the text’s division into chapters. The structure of the Instruction of Ani is less strictly represented by its format, and the rubrication of its manuscripts appears to follow their contemporary practice. P. Deir el-Medina 1 appears to be rubricated at regular intervals, when the text shifts topic. The post-Ramesside copies are rubricated less regularly, and not always according to clear principles, but this is related to the decline in rubrication at this period. The orthography of p. Boulaq IV has been much discussed in the past. Many of the peculiarities of this are the result of the use of late Ramesside group-writings, and of plural strokes and fixed determinatives as ‘word-ending groups’ updating orthography, and not corruption. The thesis concludes that the process of transmission seen in these texts demonstrate the personal and individual nature of copying in Egypt.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Princeton Theological Seminary, 1992.<br>Abstract of thesis bound in. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 311-344).