$39.95

How did the ancient Israelites view friendship? Our best source is the Wisdom of Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus), written in Jerusalem in the early second century B.C.E. Corley's work is the first in-depth study in English of Ben Sira's teaching on friendship, setting Ben Sira's thought in the context of earlier Hebrew, Greek, and Egyptian writings on friendship. Working with the medieval Hebrew manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah, the volume provides a thorough elucidation of Ben Sira's seven main poems on friendship, and then summarizes the sage's theology of friendship.

Jeremy Corley is Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Ushaw College, Durham, England.

Brown Judaic Studies
320 pages
2002
Code: 140316