Sirach and Its Contexts: The Pursuit of Wisdom and Human Flourishing

Description

In Sirach and Its Contexts an international cohort of experts analyze this second-century BCE Jewish text in its various literary, historical, philosophical, textual, and political contexts. Humanistic in approach, these essays elicit an ancient tradition’s teachings about human wisdom and flourishing. Sirach and Its Contexts: The Pursuit of Wisdom and Human Flourishing Contents List of Illustrations, Figures and Tables Abbreviation 1 Introduction: Sirach and Its Contexts 1.1 The Context of the Humanities 1.2 Historical, Literary, and Linguistic Contexts 1.3 Contemporary Contexts for Interpretation Bibliography Part 1: The Wisdom of Ben Sira: Contexts, Categories, and Approaches 2 Wisdom as Genre and as Tradition in the Book of Sirach 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Genre 2.2.1 Prototype Theory 2.3 A Sapiential Worldview? 2.4 Sirach 2.4.1 Was Ben Sira Distinctive in His Time? 2.4.2 Is Genre Important for Understanding Sirach? 2.5 Conclusion Bibliography 3 Wisdom in Transmission: Rethinking Sirach and Proverbs 3.1 The Developmental Framework in the Study of Biblical Wisdom 3.2 Ben Sira and Proverbs in the Developmental Framework 3.3 Beyond Proverbs as a Paradigmatic Text 3.4 Wisdom in Transmission 3.5 Transmission as Survival: Ancient Near Eastern Background Bibliography 4 Appearance versus Reality and the Personification of Wisdom: Sirach’s Place in the Early Jewish Sapiential Tradition 4.1 Introduction: Appearance versus Reality in Proverbs 4.2 Appearance versus Reality in Other Second Temple Wisdom Texts 4.2.1 Is Wisdom Accessible or Inaccessible for Ben Sira? 4.3 Appearance versus Reality and the Personification of Wisdom in Ben Sira 4.4 Summary and Conclusions Bibliography 5 Ben Sira’s Tour of the Cosmos: Sir 42:15–43:33 as Ekphrastic Wisdom 5.1 Ancient Definitions of Ekphrasis, Epistemology, and Language 5.2 The Hymn to the Creator as an Ekphrasis 5.3 Comparable Features of Ancient Ekphrases and Ben Sira’s “Ekphrasis” 5.4 The Goals of Ben Sira’s Hymn & Ekphrasis Bibliography Part 2: The Hebrew Manuscripts of Sirach: Diversity, Continuity, and Transmission 6 Sirach MS C Revisited Bibliography 7 Vav and Yod in the Hebrew Manuscripts A and B of Sirach 7.1 Graphic Similarities between Vav and Yod 7.2 Confusion of Vav and Yod, General Comments 7.3 Confusion between Vav and Yod in MS A 7.4 Confusion between Vav and Yod in MS B 7.5 Conclusion Bibliography 8 Doublets in the Hebrew Manuscript B of Sirach 8.1 Introduction 8.2 State of Research 8.3 What Is a Doublet? 8.4 Doublets as Scribal Collation of Textual Variants 8.4.1 Doublets in B Missing in A: Sir 11:4 8.4.2 A Complex Case Between A and B: Sir 11:6 8.4.3 Another Doublet of B Missing in A but Represented in a Rabbinic Quotation: Sir 16:4 8.4.4 Doublet Attested to in More than One Hebrew Manuscript: Sir 32[35]:16 (MSS B, E, and F) 8.4.5 Divergent Doublets Attested in MSS B and in MSS E and F: Sir 32[35]:18 8.4.6 Sir 35:26—When the Scribe Explains His Own Doublet 8.5 Doublet as Literary Creation: Sir 4:3–4a—When Textual Variations Imply Stylistic Improvement 8.6 The Doublet in Sir 31:16—When Scribes Retrovert from the Syriac Translation into Hebrew 8.7 Conclusion Bibliography Part 3: Sages and Their Contexts: Hellenism, Hymns, and Pedagogy 9 Where Is Ezra? Ben Sira’s Surprising Omission and the Selective Presentation in the Praise of the Ancestors 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Earlier Proposals 9.3 A Possible Solution 9.4 Conclusions Bibliography 10 Sages as Singers in Sirach and the Second Temple Period 10.1 Sirach 39:15 and Ben Sira’s Pedagogy 10.2 Singing as Pedagogy in Antiquity 10.3 The Pedagogical Value of Song Bibliography 11 Sirach and Imperial History: A Reassessment 11.1 Ben Sira in Historical Perspective 11.2 Colonialism and Postcolonialism 11.3 The Evidence 11.4 Imperial Administration in Sir 9:17–10:18 11.4.1 Historical Reconstructions 11.4.2 The Ideology of Rule 11.4.3 Social Reality in Sirach 11.5 Conclusion Bibliography Part 4: The Reception of the Book and Figure of Ben Sira in Antiquity and the Middle Ages 12 Ben Sira’s Pseudo-Pseudepigraphy: Idealizations from Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages 12.1 Ben Sira, Authorship, and Pseudepigraphy 12.1.1 Excursus: Sir 50:27 and Ben Sira’s Use of the First Person 12.2 Onymity as a Development within the History of Pseudepigraphy 12.3 “Ben Sira” among the “Famous Men” 12.4 Ben Sira’s Success: The Reception of the Revealed Name 12.5 Conclusion Bibliography 13 The Act of Reading Ben Sira as a Generative Context for Jewish Liturgical Poetry and the Book of Ben Sira Itself 13.1 Introduction 13.2 Evaluating Ben Sira as a Source for Jewish Liturgical Poetry 13.3 Understanding the Relationship between Emet Mah Nehedar and Sir 50:5–10 13.4 The Hymn of Divine Names and the Amidah 13.5 Conclusion Bibliography 14 Ben Sira in Ethiopia: The Andəmta Commentary on Sirach 1 and 24 14.1 Introduction 14.2 History of Scholarship on the Andəmta Corpus 14.3 Introduction to the Andəmta of Sirach 14.3.1 Chapter One 14.3.2 Chapter Twenty-Four 14.4 Conclusion Bibliography Index of Ancient Sources Index of Modern Authors