Book Review: Johannes Marböck. Weisheit und Frömmigkeit: Studien zur alttestamentlichen Literatur der Spätzeit

Abstract

"Johannes Marböck is one of the best known experts of the early Jewish sapiential literature. His research covers especially those writings that belong to the deuterocanonical corpus of the Old Testament. This volume collects his essays previously published between 1996 and 2004 in various scholarly media. 2. The first part of the volume contains 12 papers, dealing with the main topic of Marböck’s research, the Book of Ben Sira. These contributions are different in genre; the reader finds encyclopaedic articles, Forschungsgeschichte, essays on specific pericopae, and even a book review. The contributions of this first part include “Zur Einführung — Neuere Studien und Hilfsmittel zur Arbeit am Sirachbuch” (pp. 11-13); “Sirach/Sirachbuch” (pp. 15-29, an encyclopaedic treatment of Ben Sira, published originally in TRE, vol. 31); “Structure and Redaction History of the Book of Ben Sira — Review and Prospects” (pp. 31-45); “Kohelet und Sirach — Eine vielschichtige Beziehung” (pp. 79-103). These essays treat basic questions of the book, with special emphasis on the history of its formation and the traditions in its background. The following contributions are about various passages of Ben Sira: “Text und Übersetzung — Horizonte einer Auslegung im Prolog zum griechischen Sirachbuch” (pp.47-63: on the prologue written by Ben Sira’s grandson); “Ein Weiser an einer Wende — Jesus Sirach — Buch, Person und Botschaft. Versuch einer Gesamtschau” (pp. 65-78: on 38:24-39:11); “Gefährdung und Bewährung — Kontexte zur Freundschaftsperikope Sir 22,19-26” (pp. 105-20); “Jesaja in Sirach 48,15-25 — Zur Prophetenverständnis in der Späten Weisheit” (pp. 121-35); “Der Hohepriester Simon in Sir 50 — Ein Beitrag zur Bedeutung von Priestertum und Kult in Sirachbuch” (pp. 155-68), an essay, which is supplemented by “Rezension zu: Mulder, Otto, Simon the High Priest in Sirach 50” (pp. 169-72). Finally, this part of the volume contains two contributions focusing on theological topics and Weltanschauung of Ben Sira: “Apokalyptische Traditionen im Sirachbuch?” (pp. 137-53); and “Gerechtigkeit Gottes und Leben nach dem Sirachbuch — Ein Antwortversuch in seinem Kontext” (pp. 173-97)."(pg 1)