EARLY WISDOM GOSPELS 33
0 people, to you I call out
and raise my voice to all the living.
You the simple, learn prudence;
acquire intelligence, you the foolish.
Listen, for I have noble things to say,
and from my lips will come what is right.
Choose my instruction instead of silver,
knowledge rather than choice gold.
Wisdom is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire compares with her.
1 wisdom live with prudence
and possess knowledge and discretion.
The lord brought me forth
as the first of his works,
the first of his acts of old.
Ages ago I was set up,
at the beginning before the world began.
I was at his side like a master worker
and was filled with delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his whole world
and delighting in his people.
(Proverbs 8:4-6,10-12, 22-23, 30-31)This ancient wisdom, which provided ideas of how people might live with
insight, virtue, and happiness, proved to be compelling, and wisdom sayings
were communicated both by word of mouth and in written form. In the an-
cient world, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greco-Roman, and Jewish books of
wisdom were compiled and circulated widely. The wisdom literature of an-
cient Egypt and Mesopotamia dates back to the second and third millennia
BCE with collections of wisdom sayings by sages such as Amenemhat, Amen-
emope, Ptahhotep, Shuruppak, and Ahikar. The Cynic sayings from Greco-
Roman times were collected in textbooks called Progymnasmata. These
sayings were called chreiai, "useful sayings," and they were judged useful for
rhetorical instruction and for the conduct of life. The Progymnasmata were