Sirach and the Judaic Doctrine of Creation

Burton, Keith Wayne (1987) Sirach and the Judaic Doctrine of Creation. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The objective of this thesis was to consider the measure of formative influence from the Judaic doctrine of creation upon Sir. Textual sources and methodology have been crucial in our research. Sir Hebrew fragments, various Greek MSS, rendering Sir in full, and the Latin Vulgate edition provided the sources for a comparative study with creation tradition in the HB and LXX. The method of investigation has been text criticism from a contextual basis. Our comparative study traced all major creation material in the OT according to the BH order: Gn 1-11, DI, Pss, Wisdom Literature and Early Apocalyptic. This was followed by a chapter containing an exegesis of all the major creation passages within Sir. In an eighth chapter, the purpose of creation tradition in Sir was considered under, "Schema In Sir". Findings from this study raised three important conclusions. First, the long standing claims, from OT scholarship, that Sirach depended largely on Wisdom Literature and the Psalms to formulate his document must be questioned. The major formative influences in theology, form and creation language would appear to be Gn 1-11 and DI. Secondly, there is a substantial measure of creation faith in Sir. Thirdly, by using the doctrine of creation, Sirach developed a schema throughout his book, which gave it both form and authority.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Divinity, Judaic studies, Religion, Theology
• Date of Award: 1987
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1987-76651
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 19 Nov 2019 13:58
• Last Modified: 19 Nov 2019 13:58
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/76651