Ancient text
Instruction of Amenemope
A text for line-by-line reading, with transliteration, translation, and resources.
Thirty-chapter Egyptian wisdom instruction preserved on a British Museum papyrus and scribal exercises; compared with Proverbs 22:17–23:11.
Metadata
These are descriptive fields, not conclusions.
- Edition
- 2
Text
The Instruction of Amenemope is an Egyptian admonitory work framed as a scribe’s counsel to his son. Its conclusion mentions thirty chapters. Its fullest surviving copy, British Museum papyrus EAEnkiMesopotamian deity associated with deep fresh water, wisdom and Eridu, known as Ea in Akkadian tradition. The earliest preserved written mention does not date his cult’s origin or identify Ubaid Eridu’s deity.Glossary · Click to read the explanation 10474, is dated palaeographically to the seventh century BCE; later writing exercises include Met ostracon 26.3.165. Scholars commonly propose an earlier composition. A dense group of parallels with Proverbs 22:17–23:11 supports literary contact but does not prove translation of the whole biblical book or identify a transmission route. [4][5][6][7]
References and notes
- Selected sections of the 10-page rehosted translation read closely, including the prologue, chapters 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 11, 23 and 30. Other pages sampled but the complete translation was not read line by line; no independent hieratic collation. Paraphrase rather than reproduce long passages from the modern copyrighted translation. Miriam Lichtheim translation in The Context of Scripture; PDF pp. 1–4, 9–10, prologue, chapters 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 11, 23 and 30, with selected intermediate passages Return to the text ↑
- Full object metadata and bibliographic fields read. The catalogue's palaeographic date under Psamtik I and reported Theban-West find were checked; no claim to have inspected or read each Egyptian manuscript line. A linked Egyptian text view was inaccessible. Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae, papyrus BM EA 10474 catalogue Return to the text ↑
- Entire short collection catalogue, archaeological context, dating and public-domain image statement read; photo identified on Wikimedia Commons as the Met institutional CC0 image. The hieratic signs were not deciphered independently. Metropolitan Museum of Art, ostracon 26.3.165 Return to the text ↑
- Full web article including comparison table, argument about Egyptian school exercises, 22:20 ketiv and bibliography read. Its proposed school technique and 'day before yesterday' interpretation are presented as Schipper's argument, not settled fact. Cited books and papers were not thereby counted as read. Bernd U. Schipper, Proverbs in Egyptian Scribal Style (2026), full article, comparison table and notes Return to the text ↑
Research history
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Cite this record
IL Archive, «Instruction of Amenemope», Edition 2, https://ilarchive.com/en/texts/instruction-of-amenemope