Proverbs and the Two Greatest Commandments —

Although King Solomon had a God-given wisdom that was unmatched by anyone (1 Kings 4:30-31), he was not the only wiseman of the ancient east. In fact, Babylon, Egypt, and Edom (among others) were all known for their wise sages. Edom was founded by Jacob’s brother Esau and seems to be where the events of Job took place. Even Job’s friend Eliphaz (who thought himself wise) apparently hailed from Teman which was “an important city in Edom, southeast of the Dead Sea, near the later city of Petra.” , Also, Solomon and the Jews were not the only ones who produced wisdom literature. As a matter of fact, we have examples from both Babylon and Egypt that are quite similar to the Biblical Proverbs.
As Bible commentator Sid Buzzell points out, in Babylon and Egypt’s wisdom literature “several works are collections of proverbs or include at least some proverbial sayings….Samples of Babylonian wisdom literature that includes proverbs are Counsels of Wisdom (ca. 1500-1000 B.C.), Akkadian Proverbs (ca. 1800-1600 B.C.); and The Words of Ahiqar (700-400 B.C.)….Examples from Egypt are The Instruction of the Vizier Ptah-Hotep (ca. 2450 B.C.), with advice on how to be a successful state official; The Instruction of Amen-em-Het (ca. 2000 B.C.), a father’s words to his son about how people he had favored disappointed him; The Instruction of Amen-em-Ope (ca. 1300-900 B.C.), a king’s teachings to his son about life, using some words similar to those in Proverbs (e.g., “Listen, my son,” “path of life,” “the way”). The fact that some sayings in The Instruction of Amen-em-Ope parallel parts of Proverbs (e.g., Prov. 22:17-24:22) has raised the question of whether Proverbs borrowed from this Egyptian writing, or the Egyptian writer borrowed from Proverbs, or whether both wrote independently about common concerns.”
Writing about this issue, Bible scholar David L. Adams explains that while it is true that “many of the ideas and themes in the book of Proverbs also appear in other, especially Egyptian, wisdom writings. This should not be understood to mean that Israel’s sages borrowed such ideas wholesale from the didactic literature of the surrounding cultures;