Wisdom literature

• Job (Job job )
• Psalms
• Proverbs (Proverbs )
• Kohelet (Ecclesiastes )
• Canticles
• Wisdom (Catholic and Greek Orthodox)
• Sirach ( Ecclesiasticus ) (Catholic and Greek Orthodox)
• Prayer of Manasseh (Greek Orthodox)

Name after the ÖVBE. Pseudepigrapha the Septuagint are in italics.

The biblical books of Job, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Song of Songs, the Book of Wisdom and some psalms are attributed to the so-called wisdom literature. An example of the Egyptian wisdom literature is the collection of sayings of Ptahhotep (ca. 2450 BC), for the Nordic wisdom literature of the poem Hávamál from the Edda.

A distinction between saying wisdom (Proverbs ) and speculative wisdom ( Ecclesiastes, Job ). Proverb wisdom generalized aware - in the speculative wisdom is more about the individual person, their engagement with the question of meaning, the suffering and the relationship with God.

Especially in the second half of the second millennium BC we find sapiential poetry in Ugarit, Emar and other West Syrian cultural centers, this genre in Syria is likely to be much older and can be dated to the beginning of the second millennium. The lack of textual sources can be a review date not to.