(no subject)

[dreamer_easy]

Do not frequent a law court,
Do not loiter where there is a dispute,
For in the dispute they will have you as a testifier,
Then you will be made their witness
And they will bring you to a lawsuit not your own to affirm.
When confronted with a dispute, go your way; pay no attention to it.
Should it be a dispute of your own, extinguish the flame!
Disputes are a covered pit,
A strong wall that scares away its foes.
They remember what a man forgets and lay the accusation.
Do not return evil to the man who disputes with you;
Requite with kindness your evil-doer,
Maintain justice to your enemy,
Smile on your adversary.

The Babylonian "Counsels of Wisdom", c. 1500 BCE. From W.G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford University Press, 1960.

Comments

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

Do not return evil to the man who disputes with you;
Requite with kindness your evil-doer,
Maintain justice to your enemy,
Smile on your adversary.

That sounds familiar...
Any chance a certain carpenter's son would have read these?

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

Which goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same...

IT'S

[outsdr.livejournal.com]

like the prelude to a Monty Python song ...

"Never be rude to an Arab..."

[tide-and-time.livejournal.com]

You know... the odd thing is that sounds almost precisely like an Odu Ifa in the Yoruba Ifa practices from Nigeria.... makes me wonder about the origins of certain systems of practice....

Peace,
David

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Wisdom literature across the Ancient Near East has a lot of similarities, so yeah, people in Jesus's time would probably have heard similar advice.