Ibolya Balla

The Book of Ben Sira, the longest Jewish wisdom book, is a combination of wisdom poems about a personified female wisdom figure, and of teachings on everyday issues including marriage, family life, self-control, desires, and sexual promiscuity. Its author demonstrates an anxiety regarding matters of sexuality in the discussions of social relations, including marriage, family life, and in warnings against sexual wrongdoing. This study examines all teachings concerning sexuality in the context of family relations and gender issues with a special regard to the differences between the Hebrew original text of the book and its Greek translation.

Ben Sira on Family, Gender, and Sexuality

Géza G. Xeravits

József Zsengellér

The volume contains papers read at the International Conference of the ISDCL, held in Budapest in 2015. The contributors explore various aspects of worship as reflected in the literature of Judaism from the Second Temple period to Late Antiquity. The volume provides a fresh reading of various crucial issues especially within Old Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Rabbinic literature, Gnostic traditions, and the emerging synagogue. The papers analyse texts and artefacts that reveal how various groups of Judaism understood the concept of worship—a pre-eminent form of expressing religious identity and interpreting fundamental traditions.

Ibolya Balla

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