Texts and Contexts of the Book of Sirach / Texte und Kontexte des Sirachbuches ed. by Gerhard Karner, Frank Ueberschaer, and Burkard M. Zapff

Abstract

Reviewed by: Texts and Contexts of the Book of Sirach / Texte und Kontexte des Sirachbuches ed. by Gerhard Karner, Frank Ueberschaer, and Burkard M. Zapff A. Jordan Schmidt gerhard karner, frank ueberschaer, and burkard m. zapff (eds.), Texts and Contexts of the Book of Sirach / Texte und Kontexte des Sirachbuches (SCS 66; Atlanta: SBL Press, 2017). Pg. viii + 333. Paper $70.95. This volume consists of fourteen studies that were originally presented at a congress held at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in 2014, the purpose of which was to explore the textual traditions of the Book of Sirach as well as the historical milieu of their transmission and development. The studies are Markus Witte, “Key Aspects and Themes in Recent Scholarship on the Book of Ben Sira”; Siegfried Kreuzer, “Der soziokulturelle Hintergrund des Sirachbuches”; Otto Kaiser, “Jesus Sirach: Ein jüdischer Weisheitslehrer in hellenistischer Zeit”; Oda Wischmeyer, “Die Konstruktion von Kultur im Sirachbuch”; Jean-Sébastien Rey, “Scribal Practices in the Ben Sira Hebrew Manuscript A and Codico-logical Remarks”; James K. Aitken, “The Literary and Linguistic Subtlety of the Greek [End Page 554] Version of Sirach”; Knut Usener, “Das Griechisch des Jesus Sirach”; Benjamin G. Wright, “Sirach 10:1–18: Some Observations on the Work of the Translator”; Jan Joosten, “Language and Textual History of Syriac Ben Sira”; Franz Böhmisch, “Die Vorlage der syrischen Sirachübersetzung und die gereimte hebräische Paraphrase zu Ben Sira aus der Ben-Ezra-Geniza”; Burkard M. Zapff, “Einige hermeneutische Beobachtungen zur syrischen Version des Sirach”; Pierre-Maurice Bogaert, OSB, “Der lateinische Text des Ecclesiasticus: Von Philipp Thielmann bis zu Walter Thiele”; Anthony J. Forte, SJ, “Plerique codices, nonnulli codices: Ambrose’s Biblical Text; The Case of Ben Sirach and the Canticum Canticorum”; Werner Urbanz, “Sir 51,1–12: Anhang oder Knotenpunkt?” Witte provides a welcome update (through the year 2014) to previous surveys of Sirach scholarship that helpfully identifies issues of consensus and ongoing disagreement. This survey is particularly useful for its concentration on European, and especially German, scholarship. Kreuzer investigates Hellenistic city culture as a major aspect of the sociocultural background of the Book of Sirach. He considers the importance of the city and its governing institutions in various matters, such as achieving military aims, disseminating culture, and building collective identity, especially through education. He provides a few illustrative examples of the apparent influence of Hellenistic city culture on the Book of Sirach. Kaiser begins his study by considering the references to travel in the Book of Sirach, arguing that they reflect Ben Sira’s activity as a scribe in the Seleucid administration of Judea. On this basis, he surmises that Ben Sira knew Greek and that he was familiar with various forms of Greek literature. Kaiser suggests that this reconstruction of Ben Sira’s education explains the presence of various proverbs and themes in Sirach that have parallels in Greek literature and philosophy. In revisiting her book-length study, Die Kultur des Buches Jesus Sirach (BZNW 77; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1995), Wischmeyer updates her discussion of the concept of culture and its place in the interpretation of Sirach. She first examines various understandings of culture that have been operative in Sirach scholarship over the past three decades and then explores the value of cultural and literary theory for understanding the Book of Sirach not only as a source of data about ancient Jewish culture but also as a cultural achievement, that is, as a literary work that actively constructs a pedagogical-elitist culture among Ben Sira’s students. Rey examines some of the material aspects of manuscript A of Hebrew Ben Sira, such as its Babylonian accentuation, ketiv-qere readings, and vocalization marks. He concludes that these features are evidence of a process of sacralization of the book, and that manuscript A was likely either copied or commissioned by Rabbi Shabbetai, a surmise that itself is suggestive of the importance of the Book of Ben Sira in Rabbanite (as opposed to only Karaite) circles in the eleventh to twelfth centuries c.e. Aitken analyzes several features of the Greek translation of Sirach and concludes that they demonstrate Greek Sirach’s translational complexity as well as its literary...