Before the Church · c. 1900 BC
The Dispute Between a Man and His Soul
Anonymous
What it is
A man weary of life argues with his own soul about whether to die. Death is before me today, he says, like the scent of myrrh, like the clearing of the sky, like a man's longing to see his house again after years in captivity. The soul argues back and finally agrees to stay with him.
Why it lasted
The oldest surviving argument about whether life is worth living, and the closest ancient companion to Job and Ecclesiastes — a man in dispute with himself rather than with God, and given no answer from outside.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
Read next