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Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2017

Singers of Wisdom: Hymnody and

Pedagogy in Ben Sira and the Second

Temple Period

David A. Skelton

Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact lib-ir@fsu.edu

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

SINGERS OF WISDOM: HYMNODY AND PEDAGOGY

IN BEN SIRA AND THE SECOND TEMPLE PERIOD

By

DAVID A. SKELTON

A Dissertation submitted to the

Department of Religion

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

2017
ii David Skelton defended this dissertation on June 12, 2017.

The members of the supervisory committee were:

Matthew Goff

Professor Directing Dissertation

Charles Brewer

University Representative

David Levenson

Committee Member

Nicole Kelley

Committee Member

The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements. iii

For Sarah

And For My Three Boys, Emmett, Ian, and Atticus

iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have two people to thank for my love for Ben Sira and his book: Mark W. Hamilton from Abilene Christian University in West Texas and Pancratius Beentjes from Tilburg University in the Netherlands who produced a wonderful edition of the Hebrew manuscripts of Ben Sira. In my final semester of Hebrew course work with Mark at ACU, he utilized Beentjes's edition in order to challenge advanced Hebrew students to read unfamiliar and unvocalized texts. I would later write a paper for that course on kingship and Ben Sira, which Mark encouraged me to present at a conference as well as submit to an academic journal. This became my first publication and was the impetus for my Master's thesis on Ben Sira under Mark's supervision.

Ben Sira now had a firm hold on me.

My interest in connecting hymnody in Ben Sira to the Dead Sea Scrolls came about due to the influence of Matthew Goff. During his lectures on 4QInstruction, in particular, he demonstrated the value of placing Ben Sira and the scrolls in conversation and encouraged me to write a paper on the Cave 11 Psalms Scroll and Ben Sira, which became the impetus for this dissertation. He also directed me to Harkins and Newsom's work on the Hodayot, which are foundational for how I interpret hymnody and identity. As a teacher, Dr. Goff has a great ability to get at the center of each issue, which is a perception he brought over in advising my dissertation. His interest and enthusiasm were infectious and motivated me to pursue this topic further. Dr. Goff has provided valuable feedback and guidance throughout each stage of my career at Florida State, and we consider him and Diane to be both mentors and friends. Other members of my advisory committee have also played a critical role in the development of this project and myself as a scholar. Dr. Kelley directed me to Pierre Hadot and v has always forced me to go beyond textuality and utilize critical theory. She has also reminded me that, at times, it is important to not take oneself too seriously. As a fellow Okie, Dr. Levenson and I have always had a special bond, and as a scholar I admire the ease with which he reads Josephus and Cicero alongside the Misnah, Talmud, and Syriac writers. My attempt to utilize Greco-Roman models to elucidate Hebrew texts from the Second Temple period in this work is indirectly a product of Dr. Levenson's scholarly example. I also would like to express my gratitude to Charles Brewer for agreeing to be the external reader on my committee. Various organizations and individuals have been invaluable to the completion of this dissertation. Most importantly, I have the sincerest gratitude for Reinhard Kratz who volunteered Through his guidance, I received a Fulbright fellowship, and he has put me in touch with many resources during my time here. I am also grateful to the Fulbright committee for accepting my proposal and helping fund this project as well as the Graduate School at Florida State who provided me with an International Dissertation Semester Research Fellowship for the entire helped me gain access to several other resources in Germany and throughout Europe. Out of these resources, the Ben Sira manuscripts from Cairo Genizah collection have been the most precious, and I am grateful to Ben Outhwaite, Melonie Schmierer-Lee, Holly Pines, and the staff of the Manuscript Reading Room at Cambridge University Library for providing me access to these materials during my time at Cambridge. In this regard, I must also thank Jean-Sébastien Rey for sharing with me his digital collection of Ben Sira manuscripts, some of which are more readable than the digital images provided by the libraries that own them. Outside of Cambridge University, other individuals and institutions gave me permission to use their images. I am vi grateful in particular to Yael Barschak of Israel Antiquities Authority, Joseph Greene with the Harvard Semitic Museum, Leonardo Pajarola with the Bibel+Orient Museum, Tom Devries with Eerdmans, John Franklin, Lise Manniche, and Zeʾev Meshel. Much of the comparative work I did between the scrolls and Ben Sira would not have been possible without access to the database was thrilled to have all the Septuagint evidence available to me at the Septuaginta Unternehmen, which Felix Albrecht graciously provided. I am indebted as well to the workers on the Scripta Qumranica Electronica project, in particular Peter Portzig and Bronson Brown-Devost. Peter helped me gain a better understanding of scroll reconstruction and assisted with many German bureaucratic questions. Bronson was my sounding board for much of my Mesopotamian section. He provided helpful suggestions and proofread much of my transliterations. Getting to know him and his family has been a source of pure joy. This work is also better because of the Halle. I was thrilled when Reinhard Kratz insisted I present my research at the former and Frank Ueberschaer invited me to the latter. Both parties challenged me to rethink how I was presenting my data and forced me to clarify terms where before they were quite ambiguous. Finally, I am thankful to Trevor Thompson for pointing me in the direction of music archaeology and Allen Romano to Greek song culture in the archaic period. All errors in this dissertation are, of course, my own. Lastly, I would be nothing without the support of my family. My three boys keep me grounded and force me to join the real world. Most importantly, my wife, Sarah, has been my anchor since I was eighteen years old and will continue to be for years to come. She has supported this crazy dream of mine for years, but now I can finally say, "Yo Sarah, we did it!" vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. ix

List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................x

List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................... xiii

Abstract ..........................................................................................................................................xv

CHAPTER ONE: WISDOM THROUGH SONG: HYMNODY AND PEDAGOGY IN THE

BOOK OF SIRACH ........................................................................................................................1

1.1 Ben Sira and His Times .........................................................................................................2

1.2 The Textual Tradition ...........................................................................................................6

1.2.1 Hebrew .............................................................................................................................7

1.2.2 Greek ..............................................................................................................................10

1.2.3 Syriac .............................................................................................................................11

1.2.4 Latin and Other Versions ...............................................................................................14

1.3 The Core Issue .....................................................................................................................16

1.4 Approaches to Hymnody and Ben Sira ...............................................................................18

1.4.1 The Textual Function of Hymns in Sirach ....................................................................18

1.4.2 Hymnody and Ben Sira's Pedagogy ..............................................................................22

1.4.3 Terminological and Genre Considerations ....................................................................26

. 1.5 Thesis ...................................................................................................................................30

1.6 Scope and Methodology ......................................................................................................32

CHAPTER TWO: SINGERS OF WISDOM IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND GRECO-

ROMAN WORLD .........................................................................................................................38

2.1 Mesopotamia .......................................................................................................................40

2.1.1 Musicians in General .....................................................................................................40

2.1.2 Music in Scribal Education ............................................................................................46

2.1.3 Musical Notation Texts ..................................................................................................53

2.1.4 Objections and Rebuttals to Scribal Training in Music .................................................55

2.2 Egypt ...................................................................................................................................61

2.2.1 Musicians in General .....................................................................................................61

2.2.2 Music in Scribal Education ............................................................................................67

2.3 Classical and Hellenistic Greece .........................................................................................73

2.3.1 Music in the Gymnasium and Symposium ....................................................................73

2.3.2 Music in Philosophical Schools .....................................................................................83

2.4 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................86

CHAPTER THREE: SINGERS OF WISDOM IN ISRAEL AND THE SECOND TEMPLE

PERIOD .........................................................................................................................................90

3.1 Music Education in Ancient Israel ......................................................................................94

3.1.1 Archaeological Evidence ...............................................................................................94

viii

3.1.2 Textual Evidence .........................................................................................................112

3.1.3 Excursus: Did Schools Exist in ancient Israel and Judea? ..........................................126

3.2 Wisdom as Song in the Hebrew Bible ..............................................................................129

3.2.1 Solomon the Singer ......................................................................................................130

3.2.2 "Wisdom Psalms" and the Dead Sea Scrolls ...............................................................133

3.3 Education and Song in the Dead Sea Scrolls ....................................................................142

3.3.1 The Maskil ...................................................................................................................143

3.3.2 The Hodayot as Liturgical Instruction .........................................................................156

3.3.3 Singing and Sectarianism in the Dead Sea Scrolls ......................................................161

3.4 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................164

CHAPTER FOUR: BEN SIRA AS A SINGER OF WISDOM ..................................................167

4.1 Scribal Piety, Scribal Song: Sir 38:24-39:35 .....................................................................169

4.1.1 Scribal Wisdom as Piety ..............................................................................................178

4.1.2 Scribal Wisdom as Song Creation ...............................................................................184

4.1.3 The Scribal Singer and the Maskil ...............................................................................188

4.1.4 Other Qumran Sapiential Songs ..................................................................................191

4.1.5 Scribal Training in Song ..............................................................................................194

4.1.6 Sir 36:16-31 as a School Exercise ...............................................................................199

4.2 Only the Wise Can Sing: Sir 14:20-15:10 ........................................................................202

4.2.1 The Purpose and Allocation of Praise .........................................................................205

4.2.2 The Anchoring of Praise in Creation and Election ......................................................208

4.3 Ben Sira and the Proper Use of the Voice .........................................................................213

4.4 Singers, Sages, and Prophets: Sir 24:1-34 .........................................................................218

4.5 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................235

CHAPTER FIVE: SINGING TEACHERS, SINGING STUDENTS .........................................237

5.1 Hymn to Creation: Pedagogy and Composition in Sir 42:15-43:33 .................................238

5.1.1 The Invitation to Praise ................................................................................................249

5.1.2 Parallels Between Sir 42:15-43:33 and the Dead Sea Scrolls .....................................250

5.1.3 Ben Sira's Hymn to Creation and the Composition of the Book ...............................252

5.2 From Composition to Reception: Praise of the Ancestors as Oral Performance ..............257

5.3 Singing Students and Sirach's "Appendixes" ...................................................................265

5.4 Ben Sira as a Singer in Jewish Tradition ...........................................................................273

5.5 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................276

CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION: DID BEN SIRA SING IN CLASS? ......................................279

BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................290

BIOGRAPICAL SKETCH ..........................................................................................................341

ix

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The Encomium Model and the Praise of the Ancestors ..............................................259

Table 2: Shared Terms Between the Hymn of Divine Names and the Amidah. ........................271 x

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure: 1 5th Dynasty tomb of Nenkheftka. Source: H. Hickmann, "La chironomie dans

l'Egypte pharaonique" .................................................................................................63

Figure 2: 5

th Dynasty tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. Source: Lise Manniche, Music

and Musicians in Ancient Egypt (1991) .......................................................................63

Figure 3: 12th Dynasty tomb of Khnumhotep II, Beni Hassan. Source, Newberry, Beni Hasan I

(1893), pl. XXXI ..........................................................................................................64

Figure 4: A priest giving lessons in sistrum and handclapping. Tomb of Khesuwer at Kom el- Hisn. Lise Manniche, Source: Music and Musicians in Ancient Egypt (1991) ...........64 Figure 5: Tomb of Djeserkaresoneb. Source: Lise Manniche, Music and Musicians in Ancient

Egypt (1991) .................................................................................................................64

Figure 6: Blind harpist. From the tomb of Paitenemheb at Saqqara 18th Dynasty. Source: Lise Manniche, Music and Musicians in Ancient Egypt (1991) ..........................................71 Figure 7: Blind musicians from Tomb of Meryre el-Amarna. Source: Lise Manniche, Music and

Musicians in Ancient Egypt (1991) ..............................................................................71

Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei (1932), pl. 136 ................................................77

Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei (1932), pl. 136 ................................................78

Figure 10: Clay Rattles from Beth Shemesh, Iron Age I. Photo: Yael Yolovich. Courtesy of

Israel Antiquities Authority .........................................................................................95

Figure 11: Bells from Gush Halav, Byzantine. Photo: Clara Amit, Courtesy of Israel Antiquities

Authority ......................................................................................................................95

Figure 12: Terracotta plaque figurine (Type 1), 10th-9th cent. BCE, Taanach. © Foundation

BIBLE+ORIENT, Fribourg Switzerland .....................................................................98

Figure 13: Two other Type I figurines from Beth Shean. Photos Meidad Suchowolski, Courtesyquotesdbs_dbs29.pdfusesText_35

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