In Sirach and Its Contexts an international cohort of experts analyze this second-century BCE Jewish text in its various literary, historical, philosophical, textual, and political contexts. Humanistic in approach, these essays elicit an ancient tradition’s teachings about human wisdom and flourishing.

Now available from SBL Press Thirteen essays, some in German and others in English, tackle the complicated history of textual transmission of Sirach. This book presents the proceedings of an international conference held in 2014 in Eichstaett, Germany on the text of Ben Sira within its historical contexts.Contributors include James K. Aitken, Pierre-Maurice Bogaert, Franz Böhmisch, Anthony J. Forte SJ, Jan Joosten, Otto Kaiser, Siegfried Kreuzer, Jean-Sébastien Rey, Werner Urbanz, Knut Usener, Oda Wischmeyer, Markus Witte, Benjamin G. Wright, and Burkard M. Zapff. Features: A sociocultural and theological history of Sirach Philological and textual problems of the Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions Translation strategies based on Greek, Syriac, and Latin text traditions and related hermeneutical questions

"An emerging field of study that explores the Hispanic minority in the United States, Latino Studies is enriched by an interdisciplinary perspective. Historians, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, demographers, linguists, as well as religion, ethnicity, and culture scholars, among others, bring a varied, multifaceted approach to the understanding of a people whose roots are all over the Americas and whose permanent home is north of the Rio Grande. Oxford Bibliographies in Latino Studies offers an authoritative, trustworthy, and up-to-date intellectual map to this ever-changing discipline."--Editorial page.

The Book of Ben Sira comes to us in a bewildering variety of ancient textual forms. Each version shows how the book was received and interpreted in a new situation and by another community of readers. The present volume contains studies by some of the best specialists in this field of research. Each of the ancient text forms of Ben Sira—Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, and Latin—is studied in its proper context and analysed in regard to what explains the typical changes it contains.

The Lost Book of Sirach! One might ask, why read this book? Well, maybe because you are curious about who Sirach was, what his book is about or why it is considered lost. Maybe you just need a distraction on a plane or during a long car ride. Or, maybe you believe this book to be a mystical book from the past or a book about a treasure of sorts and this interests you; then you may be very close to the truth. Let me satisfy a bit more of your curiosity- This book holds the mystical and wise writings from a very learned family that lived over 2,100 years ago. A person ironically named Jesus (who was the son of a man called Eleazar who was the son of a man named Sirach) translated the Book of Sirach in about 132 BC. His grandfather Sirach wrote the original version around 175 to 200 BC! The Book of Sirach is rich in knowledge, experience, and true wisdom, and speaks very succinctly about life as it existed at that time in surprising detail. It focuses on relationships between God and man, man and woman, and parent and child. Also, it speaks to friendships, foes, relatives, and strangers. It covers nearly every possible relationship and issue, like poverty and wealth and moral codes, very much like the issues we struggle with today. The book written here, entwined with the resurrection of the original Book of Sirach, also contains a rather daring translation or interpretation of sorts. The author has attempted to convert the language, situations, and metaphors documented over 2,100 years ago into similar social interactions and experiences of today in order to help apply the original book's gifts and wisdom into our daily lives. In addition to the author's efforts of reflection/interpretation, he has also included within this book the original text. This allows the reader a side-by-side comparison of the original and the reflection so nothing is lost from the journey started roughly 2,200 years ago to today. The Lost Book of Sirach is a gift, a gift to you and generations to come. A gift that, if read and applied, can change the face of this nation and this world by solving many of our ills. Please join the author in reading and sharing this book so it will never again hold the title of "lost"!

The apocryphal/deuterocanonical Wisdom of Ben Sira, written towards the beginning of the second century BCE, speaks more about friendship than any other book of the Hebrew Bible. Revising his 1996 doctoral dissertation for the Catholic University of America, Corley describes the seven major pericopes in which the sage, probably Yeshua ben Eleazar ben Sira, treats friendship. He also places the treatise in the historical and political context of second-temple Israel. Distributed by the Society of Biblical Literature. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR