Common knowledge

One has to admit that there is not much in the information offered by Proverbs that we could not find in, say, Egyptian or Babylonian literature. As I see it, the main difference is not in the book but around the book. It is its embeddedness in Old Testament literature, its allusions to and echoes of typical biblical topics and thoughts which make it characteristically different from other ancient Near Eastern literature.—Toward an Interpretation of the Book of Proverbs, page 67