Dynamics of Charity and Reciprocity in the Book of Sirach
by Stephen Arden Long
Paperback (Published)
(December 2023)
ISBN: 9783161623844
9.09 x 6.06 inches
Price: $124.00
In stock
Stephen Long examines the theological interpretation of the relationship between charity and reciprocity in the wisdom-instruction of the second century BCE Jewish sage, Joshua Ben Sira. Gift exchange with God is understood to enable generous action towards fellow humans.
In this study, Stephen Long explores the role of reciprocity and gift exchange in the wisdom-instruction of Ben Sira, contextualizing the sage’s prescriptions in relation to comparative data from Greco-Roman antiquity and his own teaching on “charity”. While tangible human returns are the normal expectation in response to acts of generosity, Ben Sira is seen to have inflected this cultural expectation in a uniquely Jewish and theological manner. First, sacrifice is understood as a “gift” for the deity, a gift which the God of Israel will “repay”; second, acts of both ordinary, “self-interested” generosity as well as more “altruistic” acts are brought within the ambit of “sacrifice”. Ben Sira appears to think that he thereby followed the lead of prior, pentateuchal tradition, and drew out implications of a theology of creation whereby the cosmos is so ordered that every “need” is – or should be – met “at the right time”. Thus, Long elucidates a second century BCE sage’s theological construal of the relation between charity and reciprocity.
- By (author) Stephen Arden Long
Other Titles in this Series
Kronerben der Weisheit
Gott, Konig und Frommer in der didaktischen Literatur Agyptens und Israels
Volume 20
Das Amosbuch als epische Erzahlung im dramatischen Modus
Ein Beitrag zu den synchronen Lesarten der Prophetenbucher
Volume 141
Prophetic Polyphony
Allusion Criticism of Isa 41,8-16.17-20; 43,1-7; 44,1-5 in a Dialogical Approach
Volume 113
The Translation Style of Old Greek Habakkuk
Methodological Advancement in Interpretative Studies of the Septuagint
Volume 86
Scribal Culture and Intertextuality
Literary and Historical Relationships between Job and Deutero-Isaiah
Stammevolk – Staatsvolk – Gottesvolk?
Studien zur Verwendung des Israel-Namens im Alten Testament
Volume 68
Identitat und Bedeutung der Gruppen im masoretischen Estherbuch
Einfuhrung in eine gruppenorientierte Hermeneutik
Volume 158
Images of Exile in the Prophetic Literature
Copenhagen Conference Proceedings 7-10 May 2017
Volume 103
The Vision in Job 4 and Its Role in the Book
Reframing the Development of the Joban Dialogues. Studies of the Sofja Kovalevskaja Research Group on Early Jewish Monotheism. Vol. IV
Volume 75
Intertextualitat und die Entstehung des Psalters
Methodische Reflexionen - Theologiegeschichtliche Perspektiven
Volume 114
The Formation of the ‘Book’ of Psalms
Reconsidering the Transmission and Canonization of Psalmody in Light of Material Culture and the Poetics of Anthologies
Volume 88
The Composition of Genesis 37
Incoherence and Meaning in the Exposition of the Joseph Story
Volume 95
Yahwistic Diversity and the Hebrew Bible
Tracing Perspectives of Group Identity from Judah, Samaria, and the Diaspora in Biblical Traditions
Medien im antiken Palastina
Materielle Kommunikation und Medialitat als Thema der Palastinaarchaologie
Volume 10
Reforging History in the Persian Era Editing of the Twelve
The Significance of the Motifs of the Divine Warrior, Chaoskampf, and Theophany for Shaping the Book of the Twelve
Volume 159
Similar Books
‘For You I Study, For You I Work, For You I Live, For You I Am Ready To Even Give My Life’
Essays in Honour of Francis (Frank) J Moloney, SDB
A Late Antique Harrowing of Hell and Its Medieval Reception
Eusebius of Alexandria's Sermons 15 and 17 (CPG 5524; 5526) and their Latin Rewritings
Volume 99
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Fear, Fear of God, God-Fearers
Philological and Historical Perspectives on the World of Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Late Antique villae in the Balkans (3rd–7th c. AD): Current Research Questions and Perspectives
HAEMUS Companion to the Late Antique Balkans 1
Volume 4
Legal Visuality
Exegesis, Ambiguity, and Dissimulation of the Donation of Constantine in the Early Modern Period
Liturgia semper reformanda
Adaptations and accommodations in the liturgy in light of canon 838 of the Code of Canon Law
Lobbying for Equality
Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Equality during the French Revolution
Nurturing the Elite
Representations of Drinking, Eating, and Religious Vessels in Palmyrene Funerary Iconography
Volume 13
Pre-Christian Religions, Rituals, and Beliefs in Central and Northern Europe
Interdisciplinary Investigations
Volume 5
