The Qumran Psalms Scroll Debate and Ben Sira: Considering the Evidence of Textual Reuse in Sir 43:11–19
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This study explores whether Ben Sira’s textual use of the Psalms may shed light on the Qumran Psalms Scroll debate. It is proposed that Ben Sira’s quotations of Psalms 104, 147, and 148 in Sir 43:11–19 could point us to which Psalter Ben Sira may have used, since these three psalms are found in close proximity to each other in 11QPsa and 4QPsd. Doing so will allow us to better gauge Ben Sira’s relationship to 11QPsa. Issues such as the 364-day calendar, Sir 51:13–30, and pluriformity are considered. This article finds that the debate is still open as to which Psalter Ben Sira used, either proposal equally remaining possible at this stage, needing more analysis from the rest of Ben Sira’s text. Remarkably the examples and analysis do not yield anything yet to positively disqualify the 11QPsa-Psalter from being used by Ben Sira.
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9
Pancratius C. Beentjes, “Inverted Quotations in the Bible: A Neglected Stylistic Pattern,” Bib 63:4 (1982): 506–23; Sharon Lea Mattila, “Ben Sira and the Stoics: A Reexamination of the Evidence,” jbl 119:3 (2000): 473–501.
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10
Pancratius C. Beentjes, “Ben Sira 44:19–23—The Patriarchs: Text, Tradition, Theology,” in Studies in the Book of Ben Sira: Papers of the Third International Conference on the Deuterocanonical Books, Shime’on Centre, Pápa, Hungary, 18–20 May, 2006 (eds. József Zsengellér and Géza G. Xeravits; Leiden: Brill, 2008), 216.
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13
Sidnie White Crawford, Rewriting Scripture in Second Temple Times (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008). Jonathan G. Campbell, The Use of Scripture in the Damascus Document 1–8, 19–20 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1995).
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14
Jocelyn Penny Small, Wax Tablets of the Mind: Cognitive Studies of Memory and Literacy in Classical Antiquity (London: Routledge, 1997). See forthcoming study: Lindsey Arielle Askin, ‘What Did Ben Sira’s Bible and Desk Look Like?’ in University of St Andrews Symposium for Biblical and Early Christian Studies 2014: Readers and Their Texts (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming).
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17
John F.A. Sawyer, “Was Jeshua Ben Sira a Priest?,” in Proceedings of the Eighth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Div. A (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1982), 65–71; Saul M. Olyan, “Ben Sira’s Relationship to the Priesthood,” htr 80:3 (1987): 261–86.
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20
Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001); Eugene Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible (Grand Rapids; Leiden: Eerdmans; Brill, 1999); Eugene Ulrich, The Biblical Qumran Scrolls: Transcriptions and Textual Variants (Leiden: Brill, 2010); Magne Sæbø, “From Pluriformity to Uniformity: The Emergence of the Massoretic [sic] Text,” in On the Way to Canon: Creative Tradition History in the Old Testament (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), 36–46; George J. Brooke, “E Pluribus Unum: Textual Variety and Definitive Interpretation in the Qumran Scrolls,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls in Their Historical Context (ed. Timothy H. Lim; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000), 107–22.
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22
Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible, 199–120.
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23
A.S. van der Woude, ‘Pluriformity and Uniformity: Reflections on the Transmission of the Text of the Old Testament’ in Sacred History and Sacred Texts in Early Judaism (eds. J.N. Bremmer and Florentino García Martinez; Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1992), 163–68 (151–69).
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27
Peter W. Flint, “Unrolling the Dead Sea Psalms Scrolls,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms (ed. William P. Brown; New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 234–36.
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35
Flint, Psalms Scrolls, 192–93; 198–99; 210. See also Ben-Dov and Saulnier, “Qumran Calendars,” 149–56.
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37
Ibid., 3; 31–33; 165–67.
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45
Ibid., 140.
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Ibid., 493.
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Ibid., 149–56; 159–60.
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The Qumran Psalms Scroll Debate and Ben Sira: Considering the Evidence of Textual Reuse in Sir 43:11–19
In: Dead Sea DiscoveriesSearch for other papers by Lindsey A. Askin in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
This study explores whether Ben Sira’s textual use of the Psalms may shed light on the Qumran Psalms Scroll debate. It is proposed that Ben Sira’s quotations of Psalms 104, 147, and 148 in Sir 43:11–19 could point us to which Psalter Ben Sira may have used, since these three psalms are found in close proximity to each other in 11QPsa and 4QPsd. Doing so will allow us to better gauge Ben Sira’s relationship to 11QPsa. Issues such as the 364-day calendar, Sir 51:13–30, and pluriformity are considered. This article finds that the debate is still open as to which Psalter Ben Sira used, either proposal equally remaining possible at this stage, needing more analysis from the rest of Ben Sira’s text. Remarkably the examples and analysis do not yield anything yet to positively disqualify the 11QPsa-Psalter from being used by Ben Sira.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 452 | 75 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 204 | 5 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 87 | 12 | 0 |
