I have been tagged by Ken Brown for the latest meme that has been making the rounds (courtesy of Kevin Scull).  So, here is my top 5 list of most influential primary documents.

Here are the rules:

1. List the 5 primary sources that have most affected your scholarship, thoughts about antiquity, and/or understanding of the NT/OT.
2. Books from the Bible are off limits unless you really want to list one, I certainly will not chastise you for it.
3. Finally, choose individual works if you can.  This will be more interesting than listing the entire corpus of Cicero as one of your choices.

My list is entirely related to wisdom and scribal activity, which seems fitting given my research interests.

1. Wisdom of Ben Sirach (some may consider this a violation of rules, but it is too important not to make my list). (Wisdom of Solomon could/should also be on my list, but I will limit myself to one Deuterocanonical book)
2. Wisdom of Amen-em-opet
3. The Instructions of Shuruppak
4. The Instruction of Ani
5. In Praise of Learned Scribes

I am not sure who hasn’t been tagged at this point, but I Brooke (providing his temporary blogging sabbatical is over), Calvin (providing he is finished his paper on the prologue of John), Daniel and Tonya, and Jim Getz you are it!