Gibberish?

Updated by: 
Shiran Shevah
Research notes: 
SHS/not checked/13/04/2018
Reference type: 
Book section
Author(s): 
Reymond, Eric D.
year: 
2018
Full title: 

Gibberish?

Journal / Book Title || Series Title: 
Figures who Shape Scriptures, Scriptures that Shape Figures: Essays in Honour of Benjamin G. Wright III
Issue / Series Volume: 
40
Series Title: 
Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies
Editor(s): 
Géza G. Xeravits
Greg Schmidt Goering
Place of Publication: 
Berlin/New York
Publisher: 
De Gruyter
Pages: 
164-177
Work type: 
Essay/Monograph
Abstract: 

Although the second colon of Sir 4:14 is often described as gibberish, one can in fact make sense of the letters and postulate a reading that accords with various orthographic tendencies in the Hebrew Ben Sira manuscript commonly labelled Ms A (T-S 12.863). The new assessment of the orthography and spelling suggests the contextually relevant sense “and God is with those who desire her.” The frequent description of the colon as non-sense derives, in part, from a reliance on printed editions of the text (by contrast to its form in the manuscript) as well as on a tendency to avoid looking for the sense of the words in the manuscript at hand in favor of postulating an “original” text.

Primary Texts: Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha: 
Composition / Author: 
Ben Sira
Passage: 
4:14
URL: 
https://www.degruyter.com/view/books/9783110596373/9783110596373-011/9783110596373-011.xml
Label: 
23/04/2018
Record number: 
103 561