This set of varied and stimulating papers, by an international group of younger as well as senior scholars, examines the manner in which peoplehood was understood by the Jewish communities of the Second Temple period and by the religious traditions that emerged from those communities and later flourished in Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. The Hebrew and Greek terms for "people" and "nation" and the name "Israel" are closely analyzed, especially in forays into wisdom literature, Jewish apologetic and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and their uses are related to geographical, political and theological developments, as well as statehood, authority and rulership in the Persian world, Hasmonean times and Ptolemaic Egypt. Especially interesting are the carefully argued and documented suggestions about how Jewish peoplehood expressed itself with regard to charitable behavior, pagan deities, and marital regulations. Those interested in the history of cultural and theological tensions will be intrigued by the studies centered on how the opponents of Jews behaved towards "the people of God", how Hellenistic Jewish culture located the Jews on the Roman rather than on the Greek side, and how early Christian discourse saw the mission among the peoples and interpreted earlier sources accordingly. The idea of the Jewish "way of life" is seen to have influenced the writer of the longer Greek version of Esther and works of fiction are shown to have had important historical data within them. Modern social theory also has its say here in a careful consideration of Cognitive theory of ethnicity and the dynamic of ethnic boundary-making.

This volume contains essays by some of the leading scholars in the study of the Jewish religious ideas in the Second Temple period, that led up to the development of early forms of Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. Close attention is paid to the cosmological ideas to be found in the Ancient Near East and in the Hebrew Bible and to the manner in which the translators of the Hebrew Bible into Greek reflected the creativity with which Judaism engaged Hellenistic ideas about the cosmos and the creation. The concepts of heaven and divine power, human mortality, the forces of nature, combat myths, and the philosophy of wisdom, as they occur in 2 Maccabees, Ben Sira, Wisdom of Solomon and Tobit, are carefully analysed and compared with Greek and Roman world-views. There are also critical examinations of Dead Sea scroll texts, early Jewish prayers and Hebrew liturgical poetry and how they these adopt, adapt and alter earlier ideas. The editors have included appreciations of two major figures who played important roles in the study of the Second Temple period and in the history and development of the ISDCL, namely, Otto Kaiser and Alexander Di Lella, who died recently and are greatly missed by those in the field.

Given the recent interest in the emotions presupposed in early religious literature, it has been thought useful to examine in this volume how the Jews and early Christians expressed their feelings within the prayers recorded in some of their literature. Specialists in their fields from academic institutions around the world have analysed important texts relating to this overall theme and to what is revealed with regard to such diverse topics as relations with God, exegesis, education, prophecy, linguistic expression, feminism, happiness, grief, cult, suicide, non-Jews, Hellenism, Qumran and Jerusalem. The texts discussed are in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic and are important for a scientific understanding of how Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity developed their approaches to worship, to the construction of their theology and to the feelings that lay behind their religious ideas and practices. The articles contribute significantly to an historical understanding of how Jews maintained their earlier traditions but also came to terms with the ideology of the dominant Hellenistic culture that surrounded them.

Although our human emotions greatly influence our lives, there have been few studies of emotions in biblical texts. Hence the 2010 meeting of the International Society for the Study of Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature in Salzburg (Austria) was devoted to the topic of Emotions, Feelings, and Affects within Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature . This pioneering volume arising from the conference includes medical, musical, philosophical, historical, archaeological, literary, and theological studies of emotions, with a major focus on biblical and related texts."

The discovery of Hebrew manuscripts of Ben Sira in the Cairo Genizah has shaped and transformed the interpretation of the book. It is argued here that a proper appreciation of the manuscripts themselves is also essential for understanding this ancient work. Since their discovery 120 years ago and subsequent identification of leaves, attention has been directed to the interpretation of the ancient book, the Wisdom of Ben Sira. Serious consideration should also be given to the Hebrew manuscripts themselves and their particular contributions to understanding the language and transmission of the book. The surprising appearance of a work that was preserved by Christians and denounced by some Rabbis raises questions over the preservation of the book. At the same time, diversity among the manuscripts means that exegesis has to be built on an appreciation of the individual manuscripts. The contributors examine the manuscripts in this light, examining their discovery, the codicology and reception of the manuscripts within rabbinic and medieval Judaism, and the light they throw on the Hebrew language and poetic techniques. The book is essential reading for those working on Ben Sira, the reception of the deuterocanon, and Medieval Hebrew manuscripts.

The essays in this compendium examine Late-Biblical writings dating from the Hellenistic period that relate to religion and society. A focus is placed on threat scenarios and on the drawing of differences to the Hellenistic environment and the question of identity for believers during the pre-Christian centuries.

As a commemorative gift for the 65th birthday celebration of the Salzburgian Old Testament scholar Friedrich V. Reiterer, whose research on Biblical wisdom literature has been devoted primarily to the book of Ben Sira, his colleagues and students presented him with this bouquet of studies related to Professor Reiterer s areas of interest. In addition to Ben Sira, these studies examine the part played by Wisdom in subsequent Late-Biblical texts, and in intertestamental and New Testament texts."

The volume presents a collection of the studies produced by the exegetist Friedrich V. Reiterer (Salzburg) from his many years of intensive work on The Wisdom of Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus). The individual studies have been revised and the numbering of the passages brought in line with the "ZAhlsynopse zum Buch Ben Sira" (Colometric Synopsis of the Wisdom of Ben Sira) edited by Reiterer in 2002.

Because of different versions in Hebrew and Greek manuscripts pertaining to Ben Sira, the text editions in common use partly conform to the Greek text, but some of them restore the original organization or use a new enumeration. The intention behind this synoptic enumeration is to dispel the confusion caused by differing enumerations. The synopsis is based on a reconceptualized multilingual text edition (Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, and Latin) with continuous numbering that essentially adopts and complements the Greek text in accordance with Ziegler's classic edition. This book integrates Greek editions (Ziegler, Swete, and Rahlfs), the Hebrew editions (Sefer, Beentjes), the Syriac edition (de Largarde, Mossul, Ambrosianus, Calduch-Benages, and Liesen, Peshitta-Institut in Leiden), the Latin edition (Rome and Stuttgart), the standard translation, the revised Luther text, the New Revised English Standard Version, and Sauer/JSHRZ.

Die Rede von Gott im Buch Ben Sira wird vor alt- und neutestamentlichem Hintergrund beleuchtet. Der Tagungsband enthalt sowohl ubergreifende als auch exegetische Einzeluntersuchungen zur Thematik. Ein Ausblick auf die judische Wirkungsgeschichte rundet das Bild ab. Der Anhang bietet neben Einzeluntersuchungen auch diverse Berichte im Zusammenhang des Buches Ben Sira und eine Corrigendaliste zur Textausgabe von P.C. Beentjes.