Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] Ben Sira's name

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Ben Sira's name
  • Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2006 01:23:04 +0000

On 11/19/06, Peter Kirk wrote:

I wonder if the Syriac 'SYR' here might be more original than the Hebrew
SYR'. 'ASYR of course means "captive" and might imply that the author's
grandfather had been a captive in Babylon. The link with "thorn" is
interesting, but the priestly surname you mention is not SYR but QWC, so
why the change?

In the Talmuds he is called at times Ben Sira and at times Bar Sira. The
Talmud Yerushalmi calls him "br syrh" (Hagigah 2:1). It is possible then
that his original name (and perhaps the book originally) was Aramaic, and
hence the shift from Hebrew qwc to Aramaic syr or perhaps it is just a
different family name along the same lines as qwc. Segal suggests the
initial Alef is a vowel letter as is "normal" in Syriac and Aramaic, and that
this was later interpreted as "captive".

Yitzhak Sapir



  • [b-hebrew] Ben Sira's name, Yitzhak Sapir, 11/19/2006

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page