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of text given detailed attention; other passages are shortened or even omitted altogether.

      Pseudo-Philo makes clear that obedience to the law is always rewarded and breaches of the law are always punished. This strict moral causality does not, however, mean that the people of Israel must live in constant fear of being rejected by their God. Rather, a further concern of the author conveys hope to his readers: all sins will be acknowledged and punished by God, but they will not bring an end to the covenant.

      Joseph and Aseneth,³³ which bears features of the Hellenistic novel, contains a narrative solution to the problem found in the biblical Joseph novella: the son of Jacob marries the daughter of an Egyptian priest (cf. Gen 41:45–49), and gives a detailed account of how the latter converts to the God of Israel.

      The earliest text witnesses are Syriac manuscripts from the 6^th century CE; the oldest extant Greek manuscripts date to the Middle Ages—in a (probably older) long text (ed. Burchard) and a short text (ed. Philonenko). Dating it to the early second century CE at the latest is suggested by the keen interest in proselytes (which dissipated after the war with Hadrian) as well as the numerous correspondences with contemporary Hellenistic novels. Joseph and Aseneth was written in Greek by an educated Alexandrian Jew (cf. 1:5; 4:10; 7:1).

      The events narrated consist of two units which are linked in 1:1 and 22:1 by means of chronological information from Gen 41:47, 53. In 1:1–21:21 the concern is the background history and course of the marriage between Aseneth and Joseph (enabled by her conversion). Then in 22:1–29:9 we read of the futile attempt of the firstborn of Pharaoh to win Aseneth by force and become king of Egypt.

      In its combination of love story and conversion drama, Joseph and Aseneth reflects the opportunities, threats, and potential for conflict of Jewish life in upper-class Alexandria. The boundaries between Jews and non-Jews are linked with the Jewish ethos of the fear of God as the fundamental standard.

      5 Teachings in Didactic Form

      The Book of Jesus Sirach (Greek tradition) or Ben Sira (rabbinic tradition) is a wisdom writing consisting of numerous individual proverbs.³⁴ It contains statements on all areas of everyday life as well as reflections on wisdom, fear of God, theodicy, and salvation history. According to its own testimony, the book aims to teach wisdom and guide a young audience into right conduct of life.

      The full text is extant only in a Greek translation, which was handed down in two different text forms from an early date. The Sirach fragments from the Cairo Genizah and from the Judean desert comprise around 68% of its total volume. In the prologue to the Greek translation of the book, the unnamed grandson of Sirach, who belonged to the upper echelons in Jerusalem (cf. 38:24; 39:4, 10f.), says he came to Egypt from Palestine in the 38^th year of the reign of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes (170–116 BCE). If this calculation is made from the co-regency of the Ptolemaic king, the date corresponds to the year 132 BCE; if the date refers to the beginning of his sole-rule, then the year is 107 BCE. The Hebrew original was written by the translator’s grandfather, so probably in Jerusalem in the first quarter of the second century.

      The book is structured as a thematically arranged collection of wisdom proverbs which admonish the reader to a godly life (chs. 1–23), wisdom teachings concerning life in public (chs. 24–42), a praise of God in creation, history, and the present (chs. 42–50), as well as a hymn to Wisdom (ch. 51). There is a striking variety of forms of speech (proverb, didactic lecture, didactic poem, autobiographical notes, prayers of petition, hymnic sections, historical portraits); the individual verse units are shaped by alliteration, rhyme, chiasms, and inclusions. On one hand the work warns against the dangers of the Hellenistic lifestyle (9:1–9; 32:1–8), while on the other it reveals an unashamed acceptance of Greek culture (31:12–32:13).

      The book of Sirach is the only non-canonical book that the rabbis ever treated as though it were a canonical book (cf. t. Yad. 2.13; b. Hag. 13a). The high esteem in which it was held is evident in part in the fact that the sages quoted it using the same introductory formulas as for the authoritative holy scriptures. But in y. Sanh. 28a, 17, R. Aqiba includes it among the »outside« books, readers of which have no share in the world to come.

      The Wisdom of Solomon³⁵ is seen (especially in chs. 7–9) as a eulogy to King Solomon (cf. 1 Kgs 3:12; 5:12f.; 10:6). This work, originally written in Greek and initially transmitted as anonymous, is a product of Hellenistic Diaspora Judaism which grew in a collective literary process, being ascribed to Solomon only at a later stage. It was not embraced by the rabbis and has been preserved only in manuscripts handed down in the Christian tradition.

      Although there are no direct indications of its date, its use of the Septuagint as well as apocalyptic literature suggests that the earliest the Wisdom of Solomon can have emerged is the third century BCE. Its widespread use by Christian writers points to a terminus ad quem in the second century CE. The linguistic and thematic contacts between the book and the work of Philo of Alexandria suggest that both come from the same environment and not far from each other. The most probable time of composition for the book is around the turn of the eras. Support for its emergence in the capital city of Egypt, besides its use of the Septuagint, comes from its references to the problems of the Exodus (e.g. 16:1–19:17), its polemic against Egyptian religion (e.g. 11:15; 12:27), as well as the broad philosophical education of the writer (e.g. 9:15).

      Three main parts of the hortatory wisdom may be distinguished: a fictional admonition by Solomon of old, which speaks of a righteous and godly way of life in an ungodly world (1:1–6:21), an extensive eulogy to Wisdom, which makes use—among other things—of motifs from Hellenized Egyptian Isis worship (6:22–9:17), and a song of praise to the saving power of God (9:18–19:22). The similarities between these three parts in terms of vocabulary, structure, stylistic devices, and basic theological ideas show that the Wisdom of Solomon is a cohesive work. Numerous references to biblical tradition (e.g. 11:5–8) and influences from Hellenistic culture and philosophical education (e.g. 4:2; 13:2; 17:5, 11), especially Stoic (e.g. 7:27) and Middle-Platonic (e.g. 9:15), are discernible in the text.

      The Wisdom of Solomon aimed to guide its Hellenistic-Jewish addressees in the Egyptian Diaspora to a pious, just, and godly life, characterized by grateful recognition of the God of Israel as Lord of the world and the Torah as an expression of his wisdom. It brings the comforting message that with the help of this wisdom, a both pious and rational lifestyle is possible—one which promises eternal fellowship with God.

      As the solution to theodicy and the acts-and-consequence connection, the Wisdom of Solomon is the first text to mention the idea of a post-mortem judgment, which rewards the righteous, the poor, and the persecuted and punishes the unrighteous and the ungodly.

      The pseudepigraphal Book of Baruch,³⁶ compiled from separate parts, contains a prayer of repentance by the deportees within a narrative context, a didactic wisdom poem, as well as laments and songs of consolation for Jerusalem. These are handed down together in Greek, under the name of the scribe of the prophet Jeremiah (cf. Jer 36; 45). In Christian editions of the Septuagint, the book comes immediately after Jeremiah. The compendium, rich in scribal expertise, probably represents –in part (1:15–3:8)—a translation from the Hebrew. Its component parts reflect the needs of a Jewish community in late second-century BCE Syro-Palestine for self-assurance and comfort, and for the coming of a God-sent savior figure (4:22).

      The Epistle of Jeremiah,³⁷ transmitted in the Septuagint as a separate writing and linked in the Vulgate with the book of Baruch (Bar 6), is concerned with the rejection of a caricatured (vv. 69f.) and pointless idolatry. The narrative setting of this letter, originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic (cf. 7Q2) but preserved only in translations, is the beginning of the Babylonian Exile. In its polemics against the Babylonian deities, in its warning to the exiles not to worship them, and in its demand for exclusive worship of the God of Israel is a reflection of the Jewish author’s resistance to the pressure of assimilation on the part of the mostly non-Jewish environment in the eastern Diaspora of the third century BCE.

      The

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