THE "BETTER"-PROVERB (TOB-SPRUCH), RHETORICAL CRITICISM, AND QOHELETH

ORM-CRITICAL investigation of proverbial material can be identified in its origins with O. Eissfeldt's 1913 investigation of the Mashall in which he recognized that no one Gattung could comprehend the diversity of such forms within the OT. His enquiry led him to posit two main divisions-the Volkssprichwort which he located in a popular context, and a more artistic and developed form which he termed Spottlied. In the following year, 1914, W. Baumgartner,2 without any apparent reference to Eissfeldt's work, directed his attention to a form-critical study of Ben Sira. Likewise impressed by the variety of dress in which the Mashal appeared, he suggested the categories of Mahnung and Vergleich, the latter supporting a further division which he called the Komparation. It is within this last category that Baumgartner placed what he termed the "Better"-proverb and in so doing became the first to isolate the form qua form. In 1923, E. A. Wallis Budge3 added to his published hieratic papyri the "Admonitions of Amenemapt, the Son of Kanekht," in which several "Better" forms were encountered.4 With the addition of a footnote which suggested a