The Wisdom of the Aramaic Book of Ahiqar : : Unravelling a Discourse of Uncertainty and Distress / / Seth Bledsoe.

• Superior document: Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism ; 199
• VerfasserIn: Bledsoe, Seth,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden;, Boston : : BRILL,, 2022.
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism ; 199.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

This book offers fresh readings of the Aramaic book of Ahiqar, an oft underappreciated ancient wisdom text. In undertaking a comprehensive literary analysis, incorporating both the drama and the sayings together, Bledsoe shows that Ahiqar's didactic impulse is founded on a sense of uncertainty...

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 Identifying the Gaps in Ahiqar Scholarship
• 2 Responding to the Gaps in Ahiqar Scholarship
• 3 Outline of This Study
• 1 Locating Ahiqar
• Materiality, Language and Intertextuality
• 1.1 Ahiqar In Situ: Material Aspects
• 1.2 Ahiqar In Lingua: Linguistic and Scribal Aspects
• 1.3 Ahiqar In Litteris: Legacy, Literary Milieu, and Intertextuality
• 1.4 Conclusion: The Elephantine Instruction of Ahiqar
• 2 Unraveling Ahiqar
• Narratology and Discourse in the Story of Ahiqar
• 2.1 Plot Tensions & Resolutions: Unraveling the Structural Threads of the Story
• 2.2 Actants, Voices, and the Narrator/Audience Complexity: A Narratological Reading of Ahiqar
• 2.3 Summary of Literary Analysis of Narrative
• 2.4 Finishing the Story: The Missing End and the Later Witnesses
• 3 Delineating Ahiqar
• Structure and Style in the Sayings of Ahiqar
• 3.1 Sayings-Types, Structures, and Stylistic Devices
• 3.2 Coherence, Context, and Compositional Units: A Theory of Reading and Meaning
• 3.3 Summary of Sayings
• 4 Cultivating an Ethic of Caution
• Practical Instruction and the Dangers of Speech
• 4.1 The Synchrony of Proper Speech
• 4.2 Cultivating a Cautious Attitude
• 4.3 The Pragmatic Value of Contentment and Humility
• 4.4 Conclusion
• 5 Wisdom from Below
• Financial Instruction and Social Status
• 5.1 Loans and Other Financial Matters
• 5.2 Poverty and Wealth
• 5.3 Labor and Servitude
• 5.4 Wisdom from Below: Synthesis, Story, and Rhetorical Effect
• 6 Constructing and Contesting Social Domains
• The Familial Discourse of Loyalty and Reciprocity
• 6.1 The Double-Sided Domains of Family and Friendship
• 6.2 The Estranged Brother and the Familial Foreigner
• 6.3 Authority & Hierarchy: A Competition for Favor
• 6.4 Conclusion: Constructing and Contesting "Ahiqar" at Elephantine
• 7 Many Are the Stars
• Humanity, the Gods and Speculative Wisdom
• 7.1 Humanity
• 7.2 The Gods
• 7.3 At the Intersection of Humanity and the Gods: The King in Ahiqar
• 7.4 Conclusion
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index.