The Influence of the Concept of Happiness of the Archaic Greek Poetry on the Jewish Wisdom Literature after the Babylonian Captivity
Keywords:
Wisdom Literature, Greek Archaic Poetry, JudaismAbstract
This paper presents a comparison of aspects of the concept of happiness in Greek Archaic Poetry with the Jewish Wisdom Literature after the Babylonian captivity, in order to establish the relationship between both. In order to do so, it analyzes the tension between the conventional and the subversive wisdom in the two literatures, paying particular attention to seven dimensions related to happiness: moderation, self-knowledge, control of the passions, respect for one’s own limits, avoiding to offer a surety for a debtor, and finally, health. The predominant strand of Jewish wisdom literature is the one expressed in the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom and Psalms of Solomon. But the books of Job and Ecclesiastes require explanation because of their affiliation to the apothegms of a subversive wisdom that is unusual in Jewish circles. The conclusion that this strand originated from contact with the Greeks has two explanatory advantages: it gives some support to the assumption so common among historians of Judaism that the processes of the Hellenization of Israel began well before the third century, a period generally referred to as the epoch of the unleashing of such processes, and proposes a provisional solution to the mysterious incursion of a non-customary strand in the Jewish Wisdom Literature.
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