BEN SIRA. (Alpha-Beita de-Ben Sira). Sententiae Morales Ben Syrae. ff. (32). * AND: Sepher Tuviah / Tobias Hebraice. ff. (24)

(APOCRYPHA)

Paulus Fagius

Isny

1542

Together, two works in one volume. Titles in Hebrew and Latin. Aramaic and Hebrew texts with Latin translation. Extensive Latin marginalia

Vinograd, Isny 11 and 15; Habermann, Fagius 14; Mehlman 1867; not in Adams

Differing versions of the Alphabet of Ben Sira have been published. This, the first Latin edition, consists of twenty-two alphabetically arranged Aramaic aphorisms. After each aphorism there follows a Commentary by Uziel (supposedly Ben Sira's son) or Joseph ben Uziel (supposedly Ben Sira's grandson). Scholars are hard-presssed to place this pseudepigraphic work within some historical context. (The Alphabet of Ben Sira is not to be confused with the authentic book of Ben Sira by Jesus ben Sira, one of the works of the Apocrypha, cited on occasion in the Talmud.) Prof. Joseph Dan believed that the work was composed in the East during the Geonic period. See A.M. Haberman, Chadashim Gam Yeshanim (1975), p.108, no. 2; Joseph Dan, Mechkar Chadash al Sippurei Ben-Sira," Kiryath Sepher (1984-85) pp. 294-97; and EJ, Vol. IV, cols. 548-49. The Book of Tobias is one of the books of the Apocrypha, which though certainly Jewish in origin, did not enjoy canonical status in the Hebrew Bible, but was relegated by Jewish tradition to the realm of the Sepharim Chitzonim (literally, “external books” or non-sacred literature). The books of the Apocrypha were authored in the Hellenistic period of the Second Temple. Since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, fragments of the original Hebrew texts have become available, confirming their source in Eretz Israel. These are two of fifteen Hebrew books to issue from Fagius’ press at Isny between the years 1540-42. According to Habermann, the two books were printed as one. See Habermann, “HaMadpis Paulus Fagius Vesiphrei Beith Defuso” in: idem, Perakim BeToldoth HaMadpisim Ha’Ivrim (1978), pp. 149-66