Shared Stylistic Patterns in the Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiqar and Hebrew Wisdom

Abstract

The evidence we present here leads to the inescapable conclusion that the Aramaic proverbs of Ahiqar embody the rhetorical patterns and stylistic devices that constitute the literary legacy of the ancient Near East. Moreover, careful attention to the rhetorical patterns employed in a given aphorism is vital to uncovering the precise meaning of the aphorism. In addition, as we show, identification of the rhetorical pattern of a given aphorism frequently enables one to make the correct choice among the various suggestions that have been offered to fill in the lacunae in the damaged portions of the Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiqar recovered from Elephantine. In other words, the identification and analysis of the rhetorical patterns in the Proverbs of Ahiqar is not ancillary to the study of the corpus but central to the determination of the content and message of the wisdom of Ahiqar.

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