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Sirach and Its Contexts
The Pursuit of Wisdom and Human Flourishing
Series: - Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, Volume: 196
In Sirach and Its Contexts an international cohort of experts on the book of Sirach locate this second-century BCE Jewish wisdom text in its various contexts: literary, historical, philosophical, textual, cultural, and political. First compiled by a Jewish sage around 185 BCE, this instruction enjoyed a vibrant ongoing reception history through the middle ages up to the present, resulting in a multiform textual tradition as it has been written, rewritten, transmitted, and studied. Sirach was not composed as a book in the modern sense but rather as an ongoing stream of tradition. Heretofore studied largely in confessional settings as part of the Deuterocanonical literature, this volume brings together essays that take a broadly humanistic approach, in order to understand what an ancient wisdom text can teach us about the pursuit of wisdom and human flourishing.
Samuel L. Adams, Ph.D. (2006), Yale University, is the McNair Chair in Biblical Studies at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. He has published monographs on ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature and economics in the biblical world. He is currently writing a commentary on Ben Sira for the Anchor Yale Bible series. He edits the journal Interpretation.
Greg Schmidt Goering, Th.D. (2006), Harvard Divinity School, is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He researches ancient Jewish wisdom literature and is the author of Wisdom’s Root Revealed: Ben Sira and the Election of Israel (Brill, 2009).
Matthew Goff, Ph.D. (2003), University of Chicago, is a Professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at Florida State University. His most recent publication is a volume co-edited with Samuel Adams, the Wiley Blackwell Companion to Wisdom Literature (2020).
Greg Schmidt Goering, Th.D. (2006), Harvard Divinity School, is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He researches ancient Jewish wisdom literature and is the author of Wisdom’s Root Revealed: Ben Sira and the Election of Israel (Brill, 2009).
Matthew Goff, Ph.D. (2003), University of Chicago, is a Professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at Florida State University. His most recent publication is a volume co-edited with Samuel Adams, the Wiley Blackwell Companion to Wisdom Literature (2020).
"[E]l presente volumen resulta indispensable para todos los estudiosos y estudiosas del Sirácida, puesto que muestra con toda claridad por donde va la investigación actual y cuáles son los retos para el futuro." Nuria Calduch-Benages, Gregorianum 103, no. 3 (2022)
List of Illustrations, Figures and Tables
Abbreviations
1 Introduction: Sirach and Its Contexts
Greg Schmidt Goering
2 Wisdom as Genre and as Tradition in the Book of Sirach
John J. Collins
3 Wisdom in Transmission: Rethinking Sirach and Proverbs
Jacqueline Vayntrub
4 Appearance versus Reality and the Personification of Wisdom: Sirach’s Place in the Early Jewish Sapiential Tradition
Bradley C. Gregory
5 Ben Sira’s Tour of the Cosmos: Sir 42:15–43:33 as Ekphrastic Wisdom
A. Jordan Schmidt
6 Sirach MS C Revisited
Frank Ueberschaer
7 Vav and Yod in the Hebrew Manuscripts A and B of Sirach
Eric D. Reymond
8 Doublets in the Hebrew Manuscript B of Sirach
Jean-Sébastien Rey
9 Where Is Ezra? Ben Sira’s Surprising Omission and the Selective Presentation in the Praise of the Ancestors
Samuel L. Adams
10 Sages as Singers in Sirach and the Second Temple Period
David A. Skelton
11 Sirach and Imperial History: A Reassessment
James K. Aitken
12 Ben Sira’s Pseudo-Pseudepigraphy: Idealizations from Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages
Benjamin G. Wright III and Eva Mroczek
13 The Act of Reading Ben Sira as a Generative Context for Jewish Liturgical Poetry and the Book of Ben Sira Itself
Matthew Goff
14 Ben Sira in Ethiopia: The Andǝmta Commentary on Sirach 1 and 24
Yonatan Binyam
Index of Ancient Sources
Index of Modern Authors
Abbreviations
1 Introduction: Sirach and Its Contexts
Greg Schmidt Goering
Part 1: The Wisdom of Ben Sira: Contexts, Categories, and Approaches
2 Wisdom as Genre and as Tradition in the Book of Sirach
John J. Collins
3 Wisdom in Transmission: Rethinking Sirach and Proverbs
Jacqueline Vayntrub
4 Appearance versus Reality and the Personification of Wisdom: Sirach’s Place in the Early Jewish Sapiential Tradition
Bradley C. Gregory
5 Ben Sira’s Tour of the Cosmos: Sir 42:15–43:33 as Ekphrastic Wisdom
A. Jordan Schmidt
Part 2: The Hebrew Manuscripts of Sirach: Diversity, Continuity, and Transmission
6 Sirach MS C Revisited
Frank Ueberschaer
7 Vav and Yod in the Hebrew Manuscripts A and B of Sirach
Eric D. Reymond
8 Doublets in the Hebrew Manuscript B of Sirach
Jean-Sébastien Rey
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
Samuel L. Adams
10 Sages as Singers in Sirach and the Second Temple Period
David A. Skelton
11 Sirach and Imperial History: A Reassessment
James K. Aitken
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
Benjamin G. Wright III and Eva Mroczek
13 The Act of Reading Ben Sira as a Generative Context for Jewish Liturgical Poetry and the Book of Ben Sira Itself
Matthew Goff
14 Ben Sira in Ethiopia: The Andǝmta Commentary on Sirach 1 and 24
Yonatan Binyam
Index of Ancient Sources
Index of Modern Authors
All interested in the book of Sirach, ancient Jewish wisdom literature, Second Temple Judaism, and scholarly approaches to the study of these subjects.