A Polyglot Edition of the Book of Ben Sira with a Synopsis of the Hebrew Manuscripts

Incorporating contributions by Ingrid Krammer, Stefan C. Reif, Friedrich V. Reiterer and Aho Shemunkasho

Edited by R. Egger-Wenzel

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Extent: 979 pages

Publisher: Peeters Publishers

Subjects: Biblical Studies, Classical Studies, Jewish Studies

Series: Contributions to Biblical Exegesis & Theology

Series volume number: 101

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(July 2022)

ISBN: 9789042943650

Price: $313.00

In stock

PDF (Published)

(July 2022)

ISBN: 9789042943667

Price: $313.00

In Jerusalem of the early second century, a Jewish teacher, later widely, and simply, known as Ben Sira, wrote, in contemporary Hebrew, a collection of proverbs designed to advise his co-religionists how to express and maintain their Jewishness and values in the face of a dominant Hellenistic culture. His proverbs were later translated into Greek by his grandson. Because the early Church, but not Rabbinic Judaism, included the book in its scriptural canon, the original Hebrew gradually gave way to the Greek, Latin and Syriac versions and was virtually lost in the late medieval and early modern periods. The late nineteenth-century discoveries from the Cairo Genizah restored Hebrew versions of much of the book. Academic use of Ben Sira’s work is now greatly facilitated by this scientific polyglot of all four versions, originally planned and initiated by Friedrich V. Reiterer at the University of Salzburg, and now brought to fruition by the painstaking scholarly efforts of Renate Egger-Wenzel, who has also provided a text edition of the Hebrew manuscripts and a guide to the project and to the volume.

  • Edited by R. Egger-Wenzel