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Sirach
The Book of Sirach (), also known as The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, The Wisdom of Jesus son of Eleazar, or Ecclesiasticus (), is a Jewish literary work originally written in Biblical Hebrew. The longest extant wisdom book from antiquity, it consists of ethical teachings, written approximately between 196 and 175 BCE by Yeshua ben Eleazar ben Sira (Ben Sira), a Hellenistic Jewish scribe of the Second Temple period. Ben Sira's grandson translated the text into Koine Greek and added a prologue sometime around 117 BCE. The prologue is generally considered to be the earliest witness to a tripartite canon of the books of the Hebrew Bible and thus the date of the text is the subject of intense scrutiny by biblical scholars, since it has implications for the development of the Hebrew Bible canon. Although the Book of Sirach is not included in the Hebrew Bible, and therefore not considered scripture in Judaism, it is included in the Septuagint and the Old Testament of the Cat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Sira
Ben Sira or Joshua ben Sirach (; ) was a Hellenistic Jewish scribe, sage, and allegorist from Seleucid-controlled Jerusalem of the Second Temple period. He is the author of the Book of Sirach, also known as "Ecclesiasticus". Ben Sirach wrote his work in Hebrew, possibly in Alexandria in the Ptolemaic Kingdom c. 180–175 BCE, where he is thought to have established a school. While Ben Sira is sometimes claimed to be a contemporary of Simeon the Just, it is more likely that his contemporary was High Priest Simon II (219–199 BCE) and this is due to confusion with his father, Joshua. A medieval text, the '' Alphabet of Sirach'', was falsely attributed to him. Name In the Koine Greek text of the ''Book of Sirach'', the author's father is called "Jesus the son of Sirach of Jerusalem". Jesus is the Anglicized form of the Greek name , the equivalent of the Aramaic form borrowed from late Biblical Hebrew ''Yeshua'', derived from the older Masoretic Hebrew ''Yehoshua''. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon II (High Priest)
Simon II was a High Priest of Israel during the Second Temple period. He was the son of Onias II, and was probably succeeded by Onias III. There are two main sources that discuss Simon II: the Book of Sirach (also known as Ecclesiasticus) and possibly 3 Maccabees. Based on the Book of Sirach, Simon II was active at some point in the 190s BCE. If the reference to a High Priest Simon in 3 Maccabees is to the same person, then he was also active as High Priest in the 210s BCE as well. John J. Collins estimates his reign as 219–196 BCE for example, while Elias Bickerman suggests only that he served . He was possibly the same person as Simon the Just, although the historian Josephus thought this referred to Simon I instead. Primary sources The records of High Priests during the Ptolemaic and early Seleucid eras of Judea are sparse – the main source that gives a list of them is Josephus's '' Jewish Antiquities'' Book XII. According to it, Onias II, son of Simon I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Development Of The Hebrew Bible Canon
There is no scholarly consensus as to when the biblical canon, canon of the Hebrew Bible (or ''Tanakh'') was fixed. Rabbinic Judaism recognizes the twenty-four books of the Masoretic Text (five books of the Torah, eight books of the Nevi'im, and eleven books of the Ketuvim) as the authoritative version of the ''Tanakh''. Of these books, the Book of Daniel of Ketuvim has the most recent final date of composition (Book of Daniel#Vision of the kings of north and south (chapters 10–12), chapters 10–12 were written sometime between 168 and 164 BCE). The canon was therefore fixed at some time after this date. Some scholars argue that it was fixed during the Hasmonean dynasty (140–40 BCE),Philip R. Davies in : "With many other scholars, I conclude that the fixing of a canonical list was almost certainly the achievement of the Hasmonean dynasty." while others argue it was not fixed until the second century CE or even later. The book of 2 Maccabees, itself not a part of the Jewish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Septuagint
The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek title derives from the story recorded in the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates that "the laws of the Jews" were translated into Koine Greek, the Greek language at the request of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 BC) by seventy-two Hebrew sofer, translators—six from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.Megillah (Talmud), Tractate Megillah 9](9a)/ref>Soferim (Talmud), Tractate Soferim 1](1:7-8)/ref> Textual criticism, Biblical scholars agree that the Torah, first five books of the Hebrew Bible were translated from Biblical Hebrew into Koine Greek by Jews living in the Ptolemaic Kingdom, centred on the History of the Jews in Alexandria, large community in Alexandria, probably in the early or middle part of the 3rd century BC. The remainin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biblical Apocrypha
The Biblical apocrypha () denotes the collection of ancient books, some of which are believed by some to be of doubtful origin, thought to have been written some time between 200 BC and 100 AD. The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches include some or all of the same texts within the body of their version of the Old Testament, with Catholics terming them deuterocanonical books. Traditional 80-book Protestant Bibles include fourteen books in an intertestamental section between the Old Testament and New Testament called the Apocrypha, deeming these useful for instruction, but non-canonical. Reflecting this view, the lectionaries of the Lutheran Churches and Anglican Communion include readings from the Apocrypha. Acceptance Some of the Biblical apocrypha were in the canon accepted by the earliest ecumenical councils. It was in Luther's Bible of 1534 that the Apocrypha was first published as a separate intertestamental section. The preface to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wisdom Literature
Wisdom literature is a genre of literature common in the ancient Near East. It consists of statements by sages and the wise that offer teachings about divinity and virtue. Although this genre uses techniques of traditional oral storytelling, it was disseminated in written form. The earliest known wisdom literature dates back to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, originating from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. These regions continued to produce wisdom literature over the subsequent two and a half millennia. Wisdom literature from Jewish, Greek, Chinese, and Indian cultures started appearing around the middle of the 1st millennium BC. In the 1st millennium AD, Egyptian-Greek wisdom literature emerged, some elements of which were later incorporated into Islamic thought. Much of wisdom literature can be broadly categorized into two types – conservative "positive wisdom" and critical "negative wisdom" or "vanity literature": * Conservative Positive Wisdom – Pragmatic, r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Israelites. The second division of Christian Bibles is the New Testament, written in Koine Greek. The Old Testament consists of many distinct books by various authors produced over a period of centuries. Christians traditionally divide the Old Testament into four sections: the first five books or Pentateuch (which corresponds to the Jewish Torah); the history books telling the history of the Israelites, from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon; the poetic and wisdom literature, which explore themes of human experience, morality, and divine justice; and the books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God. The Old Testament canon differs among Christian denominations. The Ea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hellenistic Judaism
Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Hellenistic culture and religion. Until the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellenistic Judaism were Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria (modern-day Turkey), the two main Greek urban settlements of the Middle East and North Africa, both founded in the end of the 4th century BCE in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great. Hellenistic Judaism also existed in Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period, where there was a conflict between Hellenizers and traditionalists. The major literary product of the contact between Second Temple Judaism and Hellenistic culture is the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible from Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic to Koine Greek, specifically, Jewish Koine Greek. Mentionable are also the philosophic and ethical treatises of Philo and the historiographical works of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Temple Period
The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and ended with the First Jewish–Roman War and the Roman siege of Jerusalem. In 587/586 BCE, the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered the Kingdom of Judah; the Judeans lost their independence upon the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, during which the First Temple was destroyed. After the Babylonians annexed Judah as a province, part of the subjugated populace was exiled to Babylon. This exilic period lasted for nearly five decades, ending after the Neo-Babylonian Empire itself was conquered by the Achaemenid Persian Empire, which annexed Babylonian territorial possessions after the fall of Babylon. Soon after the conquest, Persian king Cyrus the Great issued a proclamation known as the Edict of Cyrus, encoura ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" . '' Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; ; or ), also known in Hebrew as (; ), is the canonical collection of scriptures, comprising the Torah (the five Books of Moses), the Nevi'im (the Books of the Prophets), and the [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Jewish Encyclopedia
''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the history, culture, and state of Judaism up to the early 20th century. The encyclopedia's managing editor was Isidore Singer and the editorial board was chaired by Isaac K. Funk and Frank H. Vizetelly. The work's scholarship is still highly regarded. The American Jewish Archives deemed it "the most monumental Jewish scientific work of modern times", and Rabbi Joshua L. Segal said "for events prior to 1900, it is considered to offer a level of scholarship superior to either of the more recent Jewish encyclopedias written in English." It was originally published in 12 volumes between 1901 and 1906 by Funk & Wagnalls of New York, and reprinted in the 1960s by KTAV Publishing House. It is now in the public domain. Conception a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jason (High Priest)
Jason (Hebrew: Yason, יאסון; Greek: Ἰάσων, Iásōn) was the High Priest of Israel from around 175 BCE to 171 BCE during the Second Temple period of Judaism. He was of the Oniad family and was brother to Onias III, his predecessor as High Priest. Josephus records that his name was originally Jesus or Joshua (Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ Yēshua`) before he changed it. Jason's tenure came during a turbulent period, and ancient sources such as the book of 2 Maccabees are hostile to him as a moderate Hellenizer, even if he was not as extreme as his successor. The new king of the Seleucid Empire which ruled Judea at the time, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, apparently started to auction off the position of High Priest to the highest bidder: whoever offered the most yearly tribute from the Temple in Jerusalem to the Seleucid government in Antioch could have it. It is unknown to what extent such corruption was simply an accusation by Jason's enemies and how much was real. Regardles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
