In the essays of this volume, Markus Witte focuses on text-critical and literary-historical problems of the book of Ben Sira, portrays its different theologies and determines its position in the context of the early Jewish wisdom.

The book of Ben Sira, written in Hebrew in Jerusalem in the early 2nd century BCE, translated to Greek in Alexandria in the late 2nd century BCE, gives a powerful synthesis and transformation of sapiential, cultic, juridical and historiographical-prophetical traditions of ancient Judaism. The great differences between the Hebrew, Greek, Syriac and Latin versions of the book of Ben Sira challenge the exegesis and the history of the biblical canon in a special way. In the essays of this volume, Markus Witte focuses on text-critical and literary-historical problems of the book of Ben Sira, portrays its different theologies and determines its position in the context of the early Jewish wisdom literature. Other early Jewish writings, especially the Wisdom of Solomon, are also considered concerning their own anthropological, ethical and theological conceptions.

Autorentext
Geboren 1964; Studium der Ev. Theologie, Judaistik und Semitischen Philologie; 1993 Promotion; 1997 Habilitation; 2001-09 Professor für Altes Testament an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/M.; Professor für Literaturgeschichte und Theologie des Alten Testaments an der Theologischen Fakultät an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.