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The Acrostic Poem in Sirach 51:13–30

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Patrick W. Skehan
Patrick W. Skehan
Affiliation:
Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. 20017
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Extract

Since the publication of a first century A.D. witness to the first half of this composition, found in 11Q Pssa, col. 21, lines 11–17, it has seemed to the present writer that a textual study of the whole poem is called for which, among other things, will reappraise its relationship to the book of Sirach, to which it regularly forms an appendix. The text as given here is necessarily to some extent reconstruction, primarily in the second half (of which only the last two words are preserved at the beginning of IIQ Pssa, col. 22). It is hoped that the notes given below to the individual lines of the poem will both identify and explain the elements of reconstruction, along with the medieval Hebrew evidence and that of the versions. The translation provided has as its primary purpose to show in small compass how the Hebrew text is being read and understood; it is approximately the rendering contained in the New American Bible (Paterson, N.J., and elsewhere, 1970).

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 64 , Issue 2-3 , July 1971 , pp. 387 - 400
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1971

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References

1 Sanders, J. A., The Psalms Scroll of Qumrân Cave II (Discoveries in the Judaean Desert of Jordan, IV; Oxford, Clarendon, 1965), 42Google Scholar, 79–85; also Sanders, J. A., The Dead Sea Psalms Scroll (Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell, 1967), 74–75Google Scholar, 112–117. The piece is reproduced on p. 389 below, from Palestine Archaeological Museum photograph 43.788.

2 In offering this study as a memorial to Paul W. Lapp, the writer is mindful that Ecclus. 44:1–15 was chosen as a first reading at the memorial service for Prof. Lapp at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary on April 30, 1970.

3 Vattioni, F., Ecclesiastico (Naples, 1968Google Scholar), though not entirely satisfactory, does give the bulk of the significant evidence in Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, and Latin between one set of covers and in a manageable arrangement; also earlier bibliography. Further bibliography on Sirach in Lella, A. A. Di, The Hebrew Text of Sirach (The Hague, 1966Google Scholar).

4 In Sir., occurs in 11:2; 16:1; 42:12; 43:1,9,18.

5 In Sir. 7:10, 14 the Greek supplies a pronoun to go with , though there is no suffix in the original; see also 39:5–6. For the use of after , compare 2 Chr. 32:20.

6 A plural reference to parents or teachers, as in Prov. 5:13; Ps. 119:99, has no support from the present context.

7 A less likely original reading would be Iesawteh, “to its voice.” The suffixes refer to yulpānā’ in the Syriac of 15d.

8 Note the late (again v. 28 in Cairo B) as against , 15d.

9 owe this observation originally to J. Strugnell.

10 The Greek here, έν ποιήσει λιμοή (or, μου) is also meaningless; Ziecler's conjecture νόνου (so already Fritzsche) does not bring us to a reading compatible with 11Q. The Syriac seems to reflect cf. Ps. 102:25. The 11Q reading is probably influenced by in 19f. In igcd again, the Cairo Hebrew is a retroversion from the Syriac.

11 Or if the translator or his source was endeavoring to respect the acrostic; but the treatment of 20a in the Greek suggests that this was not the case, see the discussion above.

12 In addition to the nature of the strokes themselves, the spacing is good for tau followed by ḥeth, whereas shin followed by resh comes closer to it in this scribe's practice; compare on the plate the spacings in , col. 21, line 8 and in , col. 21, line 12.

13 Sefer ben Sira ha-šalem (Jerusalem, 1953), 3Google Scholar, 5.

14 D. W. Thomas, A Note on Ecclus. 51, 21c, JTS N.S. 20(1969), 225–26, rewrites to , on the assumption that is the original verb. The biblical background would then be in Isa. 16:11 . This is the source of the verb in Cairo B; but it is the Syriac which is primary, and is to be explained as above. The combination is cited in another sense by Jastrow, M., Dictionary of the Targumim … (1903 and reprints), 647Google Scholar, from T. Yerushalmi Baba Mezia X, 12c, of the collapse of a house.

15 Cairo A, our one witness, reads . Compare the following colon, and Prov. 4:13, where , again a synonym for , takes feminine agreement.

16 The ending with 2Q 18; Cairo A has .

17 Bickell, G., Ein alphabetisches Lied Jesus Sirach's, Zeitschrijt für katholische Theologie 6(1882), 319–33Google Scholar, reconstructs with here; see 328. For this use of pe, compare Pss. 25, 34; for an explanation, based on the name aleph, see Cath. Bibl. Quarterly 23(1961), 127.

18 The text of this piece has few difficulties. The lines in square brackets, vs. 18, 23–24, 26, 34 are lacking in the medieval Hebrew (which is here otherwise authentic text) and have been supplied from the Greek. Parts of the endings of vs. 20–31 are preserved in th e fragmentary stichometric copy 2Q 18, see M. Baiixet et al., Les “Petites Grottes” de Qumrân (Discoveries in the Judaean Desert of Jordan, III; Oxford, Clarendon, 1962), Textes, pp. 75–77; Planches, xv. What remains there is marked off by closing brackets only. The vertical spacing in the fragment requires there a number of lines equal to those of the Greek. For the words ending vs. 24, 25, the indications of the Greek and the balance with vs. 29, 30 have been take n as normative.