Original Hebrew of a Portion of Ecclesiasticus
9781465573759
pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
IN editing the recently discovered Hebrew fragments of the book of Ben Sira, we have limited our aim to presenting the original text with as little delay as possible, and at the same time giving in a convenient form the materials for further study. A full commentary, as well as a detailed comparison of the versions, must be left for the future. We shall therefore not discuss the author’s full name, or the date of his composition or of the Greek and Syriac translations 1. For the literature on these points the reader is referred to Schürer’s admirable work on 'The History of the Jewish People in the time of Jesus Christ 2.' In what follows we shall confine ourselves to some remarks on what is known, from Jewish sources, of Ben Sira and his writings.
