"With All Your Soul Fear the Lord" (Sir. 7:27)

In past decades the Book of Ben Sira, also known as Ecclesiasticus, has attracted a great deal of scholarly attention, both in its different Hebrew and Greek versions, as well as in its Syriac and Latin form. This volume opens with a quick overview of two much discussed topics. Is Ben Sira supposed to be a priest? And in what way does Ben Sira correlate Wisdom and Torah? It is followed by a section in which specific passages are studied. It contains texts relating to Lady Wisdom, the Patriarchs, Elijah, Ben Sira’s rereading of the primeval narratives. The next part is an inquiry into Ben Sira’s use of books from the Hebrew Bible in process of formation and his view of some major theological notions from Deuteronomistic heritage. The last section covers topics such as apocalypticism, friendship, Philo and Ben Sira, Augustine’s sermons on Ben Sira, and a striking type of intertextuality discovered in this writing.