AMEN-EM-OPE. – Egyptian high official, son of Kanccht, resident in Persepolis, who lived, according to A. Erman, H. O. Lange, and R. Griffith, around 1000 B.C. To “the youngest of his sons,” Hor-em-machem, a priest in the temple of Min, he addressed a gnomic book distinguished by the nobility of its moral-religious doctrine. The Wisdom of A. arouses the greatest interest because of its similarity to the collection of Proverbs (v.) 22:17–24:22; the indisputable affinity seems due not to derivation, but to dependence on a common source.
Thus P. Dhorme, in Revue Biblique, 38 (1929), pp. 622–624, and H. Duesberg, who admit a common source for the two collections of sayings, without being able to determine whether this source was Hebrew or Egyptian. Almost all the “critics” (cf. A. Mallon), however, following A. Erman, maintain the dependence of Proverbs on A. Nor are those lacking who consider A.’s dependence on Proverbs possible: R. O. Kevin, The Wisdom of Amen-em-ape and its possible dependence upon the Hebrew Book of Proverbs, in Journal of the Soc. of Oriental Research, 14 (1930), pp. 115–57.
The text, written in hieratic script (551 lines in 27 columns), is found in papyrus no. 10474 of the British Museum. The work is divided into 30 chapters (called “houses”) and constitutes a complete whole. First published by Sir E. A. W. Budge (v.) in 1923, it was translated into various languages, and into Latin by A. Mallon.
blica, 8 (1927), pp. 3–30; G. Lambert, De fortibus aegyptiacis Librorum Sapientialium, in Verbum Domini, 71 (1931), pp. 121–28; E. Suys, La théologie d'A., in Miscellanea Biblica, II, Rome 1934, pp. 3–36; H. Duesberg, Les Scribes inspirés, I, Paris 1938, pp. 64 sq., 83–123, 459–74; A. Brunet, La sagesse d'A., in Sciences ecclésiastiques, 1 (1948), pp. 19–40.