Details

Subject(s)

• Sex role—Biblical teaching [Browse]
• Bible Apocrypha Ecclesiasticus—Criticism, interpretation, etc [Browse]

Series

• Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft ; 453. [More in this series]
• Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft ; band 453

Subseries of

Beiheft zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft

Summary note

Gender in the Book of Ben Sira is a semantic analysis and, also, an investigation of hermeneutical pathways for performing such an analysis. A comparison of possible Greek and Hebrew gender taxonomies precedes the extensive delineation of the target-category, gender. The delineation includes invisible influences in the Book of Ben Sira such as the author's choices of genre and his situation as a member of a colonized group within a Hellenistic empire. When the Book of Ben Sira's genre-constrained invectives against women and male fools are excluded, the remaining expectations for women and for men are mostly equivalent, in terms of a pious life lived according to Torah. However, Ben Sira says nothing about distinctions at the level of how "living according to Torah" would differ for the two groups. His book presents an Edenic ideal of marriage through allusions to Genesis 1 to 4, and a substantial overlap of erotic discourse for the female figures of Wisdom and the "intelligent wife" creates tropes similar to those of the Song of Songs. In addition, Ben Sira's colonial status affects what he says and how he says it; by writing in Hebrew, he could craft the Greek genres of encomium and invective to carry multiple levels of meaning that subvert Hellenistic/Greek claims to cultural superiority.

Notes

Description based upon print version of record.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Source of description

Description based on print version record.

Language note

English

Contents

• Gender and taxonomies
• Gender and impersonal speech
• Divine female(s)
• Human females
• Human female, biblical females
• The discourse of gender in the book of Ben Sira.

Show 3 more Contents items

Other format(s)

Issued also in print.

ISBN

3-11-033089-X

OCLC

• 862939237
• 868917088
• 881296503

Doi

• 10.1515/9783110330892

Statement on language in description

Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...