Innovations in Hebrew Poetry: Parallelisms and the Poems of Sirach

by Eric D Reymond

Overview

Although scholars point to similarities between Sirach and the book of Proverbs and sometimes characterize Ben Sira's relationship to biblical poetry as one of imitation (often unsuccessful imitation), this study considers the innovative and unique aspects of Sirach poetry, especially its use of parallelism, and demonstrates that Ben Sira does not rely exclusively on Proverbs or any other biblical book as a model. Innovations in Hebrew Poetry provides detailed readings and philological analysis for the nine poems in the Masada scroll, and general observations on many other Sirach and biblical poems complement the analysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589831155
Publisher:	Society of Biblical Literature
Publication date:	03/01/2004
Series:	Studies in Biblical Literature
Pages:	188
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	1 - 17 Years

Table of Contents

	List of Tables	ix
	Acknowledgments	xi
	List of Abbreviations	xiii
1.	Introduction	1
2.	Past Research	3
3.	Methodology	11
	Limitation of the Corpus	11
	Poem Boundaries	11
	Sense Unit Boundaries	12
	The Verse	14
	Textual Criticism	14
	Quantitative Analysis	16
	Parallelism: A Definition	17
	Charts of Parallelism	20
4.	Specific Poems and Analysis	25
	Text and Translation of 40:11-17	27
	Outline and Interpretation of Poem	29
	Text and Translation of 40:18-27	32
	Outline and Interpretation of Poem	34
	Text and Translation of 40:28-30	37
	Outline and Interpretation of Poem	38
	Text and Translation of 41:1-4	39
	Outline and Interpretation of Poem	41
	Text and Translation of 41:5-13	43
	Outline and Interpretation of Poem	45
	Text and Translation of 41:14b-15	48
	Text and Translation of the Instruction on Shame (41:14a-42:8)	49
	Outline and Interpretation of Poem	54
	Text and Translation of 42:9-14	56
	Outline and Interpretation of Poem	58
	Text and Translation of the Hymn to the Creator (42:15-43:33)	60
	Outline and Interpretation of Poem	69
	Text and Translation of the Prelude to the Praise of the Ancestors (44:1-15)	78
	Outline and Interpretation of Poem	81
5.	General Qualities of Sirach Poetry	85
	Quantitative Analysis	85
	Summary for Masada Poems	85
	O'Connor's Clauses, Constituents, and Units	86
	Comparison to Other Sirach Poems	88
	Comparison to Biblical Poems	88
	Semantic/Repetitive Analysis	89
	Summary for Masada Poems	89
	Comparison to Other Sirach Poems	95
	Comparison to Biblical Poems	97
	Grammatical Analysis	101
	Summary for Masada Poems	101
	Comparison to Other Sirach Poems	106
	Comparison to Biblical Poems	108
	Phonetic Analysis	110
	Summary for Masada Poems	110
	Comparison to Other Sirach Poems	111
	Comparison to Biblical Poems	111
6.	Effects of Ben Sira's Poetry	113
7.	Conclusion	137
	Appendix	139
	Bibliography	151
	Scripture Index	161
	Author Index	169