Wisdom's Root Revealed

Wisdom's Root Revealed
Author: Greg Schmidt Goering
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2009
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004165797

This monograph interprets the theme of election in the book of Sirach. Previous scholarship has often understood Ben Sira s worldview to be dualistic, and has approached the sage's correlation of Wisdom and Torah as either a nationalization of Wisdom or a universalization of Torah. By probing Ben Sira s ideas about election, this book suggests that Ben Sira does not collapse the traditional sapiential dichotomy wisdom/folly into a dualistic worldview, and that his understanding of the relation between Wisdom and Torah proves to be far more subtle than previous interpretations have allowed. The study demonstrates that the concept of election enables a profitable discussion of the relation of Wisdom and Torah in the thought of this pivotal Second Temple sage.

Wisdom, Cosmos, and Cultus in the Book of Sirach

Wisdom, Cosmos, and Cultus in the Book of Sirach
Author: A. Jordan Schmidt
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 520
Release: 2019-03-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110600226

Despite the attention that has already been paid to the theme of creation in the book of Sirach, scholarship has yet to provide a comprehensive analysis of Ben Sira's instruction regarding the cosmic order and its role in the divine bestowal of wisdom upon human beings. This book, which consists of two parts, fills a lacuna in scholarship by offering such an analysis. The first part of this study examines Ben Sira's three main treatments of the created world, thus providing a comprehensive description and synthesis of Ben Sira's doctrine concerning the created order of the cosmos. The second part of this work analyzes the place of human beings in general, and the Jewish people in particular, within the cosmic order. This second part includes an analysis of the role of the created order in Ben Sira's wisdom instruction in 1:1-10 and 24:1-34 as well as an elucidation of the way in which his treatments of various kinds of people—civic leaders, wives, doctors, manual laborers, scribes, and cultic personnel—are integral to Ben Sira's doctrine of creation. This study demonstrates that the created order is a fundamental category that Ben Sira relies upon in articulating his instructions about wisdom and wise behavior.

Theology and Anthropology in the Book of Sirach

Theology and Anthropology in the Book of Sirach
Author: Bonifatia Gesche
Publisher: SBL Press
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2020-09-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0884144240

New research on Sirach for scholars and students The present volume of English and German essays includes the proceedings of an international conference held in Eichstaett, Germany, in 2017. Themes of creation, emotions, life, death, wisdom, knowledge, the individual and society, family, gender, mercy, justice, and freedom are but a few of the topics that contributors explore in this new collection. Essays explore the rich intertextual connections between Sirach and other biblical texts. Features: Attention to theological distinctions presented in the Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions of the book of Sirach Examination of the reception of Sirach in the New Testament and the early modern era English abstracts for German-language essays and German abstracts for English-language essays

Foreign Nations in the Wisdom of Ben Sira

Foreign Nations in the Wisdom of Ben Sira
Author: Marko Marttila
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2012-01-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110270110

Ben Sira lived in an era when Hellenistic influences continued to spread in Palestine. The supreme political power was in the hands of foreign rulers. Under these circumstances it is no wonder that Ben Sira discusses the position of foreign nations in several passages. The tone varies due to the given context. This study demonstrates that Ben Sira’s relationship to foreign nations is best defined as “balanced”, as his attitude is neither thoroughly hostile nor that of uncritically embracing Gentiles. On the basis of certain passages, one can get the impression that even the foreigners could be recipients of the Torah. On the other hand, some nations were regarded by earlier biblical authors as archenemies of Israel, and these anti-elect people caused also Ben Sira’s anger to be provoked. Ben Sira was deeply rooted in Judaism but this did not prevent him from being open toward foreign influences as far as they were compatible with his religious and cultural heritage.

Canonicity, Setting, Wisdom in the Deuterocanonicals

Canonicity, Setting, Wisdom in the Deuterocanonicals
Author: Géza G. Xeravits
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2014-09-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110367238

The volume publishes papers read at the tenth International Conference on the Deuterocanonical Books, Budapest, 2013. The authors explore various aspects of this literature, with pre-eminent emphasis on their relation to diverse early Jewish texts and traditions; their reactions on Hellenism; and the way they treated as a canonical collection within their history of interpretation.

Figures who Shape Scriptures, Scriptures that Shape Figures

Figures who Shape Scriptures, Scriptures that Shape Figures
Author: Géza G. Xeravits
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2018-02-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110593092

The papers of the volume investigate how authoritative figures in the Second Temple Period and beyond contributed to forming the Scriptures of Judaism, as well as how these Scriptures shaped ideal figures as authoritative in Early Judaism. The topic of the volume thus reflects Ben Wright’s research, who—especially with his work on Ben Sira, on the Letter of Aristeas, and on various problems of authority in Early Jewish texts—creatively contributed to the study of the formation of Scriptures, and to the understanding of the figures behind these texts.

Wisdom and Torah

Wisdom and Torah
Author: Bernd Schipper
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2013-10-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004257365

A proper assessment of the manifold relationships that obtain between “wisdom” and “Torah” in the Second Temple Period has fascinated generations of interpreters. The essays of the present collection seek to understand this key relationship by focusing attention on specific instances of the reception of “Torah” in Wisdom literature and the shaping of Torah by wisdom. Taking the concepts of wisdom and torah in the various literary strata of the book of Deuteronomy as a point of departure, the remainder of the book examines the relationship between wisdom and Torah in Wisdom literature of the Second Temple period, including Proverbs, Qohelet, Ps 19 and 119, Baruch, Ben Sira, Wisdom, sapiential and rewritten scriptural texts from Qumran, and the Wisdom of Solomon.

Teacher of the Nations

Teacher of the Nations
Author: Devin L. White
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2017-11-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110538172

This study examines educational motifs in 1 Corinthians 1-4 in order to answer a question fundamental to the interpretation of 1 Corinthians: Do the opening chapters of 1 Corinthians contain a Pauline apology or a Pauline censure? The author argues that Paul characterizes the Corinthian community as an ancient school, a characterization Paul exploits both to defend himself as a good teacher and to censure the Corinthians as poor students.

Apocalyptic Sheep and Goats in Matthew and 1 Enoch

Apocalyptic Sheep and Goats in Matthew and 1 Enoch
Author: Elekosi F. Lafitaga
Publisher: SBL Press
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2022-03-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0884145484

An alternative understanding of apocalyptic eschatology in the Gospel of Matthew Matthew’s eschatological imageries of judgment are often identified as apocalyptic and referred to as Matthew’s apocalyptic discourses. In this volume Elekosi F. Lafitaga reexamines Matthew’s vision of the sheep and goats in the judgment of the nations, which are often interpreted as metaphors for the saved and the condemned. Lafitaga views these images in the wider context of the rhetoric of apocalyptic communication stretching back to Matthew 3. This broader context reveals that the vision of Matthew 25 serves to exhort Israel in the here and now according to the torah, with salvation for Israel involving an indispensable responsibility to love and serve humanity. Central to Lafitaga’s analysis is the highly probable scenario that the material in Matthew is dependent on the Book of Dreams (1 Enoch 83–90).