Book of Ben Sira in Hebrew

bĕ-rēʾšît, “With ‘Wisdom,’” in Genesis 1.1 (MT)

“…15.14, “God created humankind from the beginning” (Gk: αὐτὸς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐποίσεν ἄνθρωπον; Heb: אלהים מבראשׁית‎ ברא אדם‎). See Vattioni (1968:77) and Beentjes (2006:44, 52, 142) for variants and corrections in the different Hebrew copies (the one given here is MS A; MS B reads הוא מראש ברא אדם‎, but in the margin has מבראשׁית‎ א]ל[הי]ם]‎) and for the Syriac ( ʾlhʾ mn bršyt brʾ bny ʾnšʾ ). The use of מבראשׁית‎, with doubled preposition (prefixed/infixed בּ־‎ and prefixed -מן‎), in the Hebrew version is odd and may be an indication that the term is frozen, if not actually a cipher, even at this point.…”

Going Vertical with Love Thy Neighbor: Exegetical Use of Scripture in Leviticus 19.18b

“…Mesha says he killed people of Israel “m[e]n and boys and women and g[ir]ls” ( g[b]rn wgrn wgbrt w[gr]t ) line 14 (Green 2010:104); line 16 (Aḥituv 2008:392, 393, 394). While the term “cub” (גּוּר) only appears of animals in scripture (Aḥituv 2008:409), a suggested reading of Sir 41.5 sees it metaphorically of “children of the wicked” (נ[ורי ר]שׁע) (“I גּוּר” HALOT 1:185; but see Beentjes 2006:115)—in LXX as “children of sinners” (τέκνα ἁμαρτωλῶν). For summaries of evidence relating to residing foreigners in scripture, see Driver 1906:126, 165; Sarna 1991:137–38.…”

Friendship according to a Biblical document from the Hellenistic period

“…It was not until 1896 that parts of that Hebrew text were discovered and till now about 70% of the original has been recovered. 6 It was the Greek translation which was done by Ben Sira's grandson in Alexandria in 132 BCE that became the authoritative text which till this very day underlies all official Bible translations. In this article, therefore, we will use the recently published new English translation of the Book of Ben Sira.…”