1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910463822403321

Autore

Ellis Teresa Ann

Titolo

Gender in the book of Ben Sira : divine wisdom, erotic poetry, and the Garden of Eden / / Teresa Ann Ellis

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Boston : , : de Gruyter, , [2013]

©2013

ISBN

3-11-033089-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (304 p.)

Collana

Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft ; ; band 453

Disciplina

229.406

Soggetti

Sex role - Biblical teaching

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Gender and taxonomies -- Gender and impersonal speech -- Divine female(s) -- Human females -- Human female, biblical females -- The discourse of gender in the book of Ben Sira.

Sommario/riassunto

Gender in the Book of Ben Sira is a semantic analysis and, also, an investigation of hermeneutical pathways for performing such an analysis. A comparison of possible Greek and Hebrew gender taxonomies precedes the extensive delineation of the target-category, gender. The delineation includes invisible influences in the Book of Ben Sira such as the author's choices of genre and his situation as a member of a colonized group within a Hellenistic empire. When the Book of Ben Sira's genre-constrained invectives against women and male fools are excluded, the remaining expectations for women and for men are mostly equivalent, in terms of a pious life lived according to Torah. However, Ben Sira says nothing about distinctions at the level of how "living according to Torah" would differ for the two groups. His book presents an Edenic ideal of marriage through allusions to Genesis 1 to 4, and a substantial overlap of erotic discourse for the female figures of Wisdom and the "intelligent wife" creates tropes similar to those of the Song of Songs. In addition, Ben Sira's colonial status affects what he says and how he says it; by writing in Hebrew, he could craft the Greek genres of encomium and invective to carry multiple



levels of meaning that subvert Hellenistic/Greek claims to cultural superiority.