lden time." Many of these ancient maxims still survive. The
best-known is that which bears the title "The Wisdom of Ptah-hotep." The
desire to preserve and transmit the results of practical experience is the
common motive that underlies the work of the wise. It is that which
inspires the teachers of all ages. The ancients were keenly alive to the
importance of instruction and training. All that is significant in the
civilizations of the past is, in a sense, the result of this teaching
motif.

In early Israel there were many men and women famous for their ability to
give wise counsel. In his stormy career Joab, David's valiant commander,
frequently profited by the counsel of certain wise women (Sections
LIII:8-11 LIX:35). David's friend Hushai, by his wily counsel at the time
of Absalom's rebellion, saved the king's life. The narrative in II Samuel
declares that the counsel of Ahithophel was esteemed almost as highly as
the divine oracle. For his keen insight and acute decisions, as well as
for his witty utterances, Solomon gained a reputation which made him in
the thought of later generations the father of all wisdom literature. In
a significant passage found in Jeremiah 18:18 the three classes of
Israel's teachers are brought into sharp contrast. In urging that the
prophet be put to death his foes declared: "Teaching will not perish from
the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet."
From references in Isaiah and Jeremiah it is evident that before the final
destruction of the Hebrew state the counsel of the wise was chiefly
political and secular, and often not in accord with the higher ideals of
the great pre-exilic prophets.

IV. Their Prominence in the Greek Period. The transformation of the wise
into religious as well as secular teachers apparently came after the
destruction of Jerusalem. It was the result of a variety of forces which
have already been studied. The destruction of the Hebrew state and the
resulting prominence of the individual led the wise to turn their
attention from questions of political to those of personal import. The
result is that the word "Israel" is found nowhere in the book of Proverbs.
The teachings there found are both individual and universal and apply to
Gentile as well as Jew, to the present as well as the past. The gradual
disappearance of the prophets during the latter part of the Persian
period, and the fact that the priests ever devoted themselves more and