Múdrosť a múdry: O poznaní a nepoznaní
Wisdom and the Sage: On Knowing and Not Knowing

Summary/Abstract: Contemporary researchers have cast considerable light on the limits of ancient knowledge imposed from outside the human intellect. As for obstacles to learning from within, modern interpreters have yet to give an adequate analysis of students' resistance, despite translations of Sumerian and Egyptian scribal texts and corresponding comments in Sirach. A constant complaint runs through these school texts that some students resisted all effort to educate them. Also, a section in Sirach dealing with difficulties confronting teachers and students demonstrates the extent of affinities between Egyptian and Israelite wisdom literature. Ben Sira concentrates on irksome aspects of learning, using images from agricultural labor and recalling the desirable season of harvest. In trying to understand why so many obstacles stand between learner and a desired goal, Ben Sira suggests that knowledge plays a game of hide and seek, testing students to determine whether or not they deserve any reward. The paper offers the answer to the question: “Did biblical scholars think of knowledge as an achievement or a gift?”

• Details
• Contents