Wisdom in Israel and in ANE Wisdom Literature

Programme

This unit seeks to provide a forum for the exploration of current and emerging approaches to and methodologies in the study of Wisdom Literature. The primary focus is on Biblical wisdom - Proverbs, Job, Qoheleth/Ecclesiastes, and the Wisdom Psalms, as well as Qumran wisdom texts and Deutero-Canonical works such as Ben Sira and the Wisdom of Solomon. The secondary focus is on wisdom literature from elsewhere in the Ancient Near East, insofar as these bear on our understanding of biblical wisdom texts. Our unit will hold two sessions each year, one of invited papers and the other of offered papers.

Keywords:

Wisdom, Proverbs, Ancient Near Eastern Wisdom, Job, Ecclesiastes, Sirach, Proverbs, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom at Qumran

Chairs

Katharine Dell
University of Cambridge

Tova Forti
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev 

Syracuse 2023

Paper proposals are welcome on the topic of Wisdom, mind and body.  This session will focus on any wisdom texts that relate to psychological or psychosomatic issues – e.g. state of mind, emotions, health, sensibility.  Appropriate would-be questions such as how body, mind and spirit link together in the thought of individual books or in the thought of the wisdom corpus as a whole.  The range of texts would include the biblical wisdom books, DSS and ANE material.

Invited Papers:  

Wisdom, mind and body in relation to the teaching and learning process and context

This unit is interested in the relationship between psychological and psychosomatic issues in relation to emotions, state of mind etc. but in relation to the teaching process, to teaching and learning, to teachability, to receptive learning and its processes and to the didactic context as a whole as it seeks to form character.