H; and he gives it to them that love him,
^ the gift of the Lord is Wisdom, Hi glorious,
^ to them to whom he appears he deals ^ it in his appearance ; or ■with the two lines after v.''',
Hi the fear of the Lord is a gift from the Lord, for on love he raises ])aths. *
Both additions are found not in 70 alone, but in 70 and 253. Where do these additions come from ? t We must look for more witnesses- versions and quotations.
The versions to be mentioned are the Armenian, Georgian, Ethiopic, Coptic, Arabic.
On the Armenian version and its complicated history see PJiE^ ii. 68, 69 ( = Urtext, p. 128 f.); liyssel, p. 129; Margoliouth - Edersheim, § ix.; Conybeare (vol. i. p. 153") ; Herkenne, pp. 28-33. The older text rests on the authority of a single MS, which breaks off at 42-'', and has a lacuna from 35"'-38''', and several omissions besides — e.g. the whole of ch. 8.
* That the critical marks are not absolutely to be trusted is shown b.v these examples ; in the first a line is placed under asterisk (* and he gives it,' etc.), which ought to be free from it : in ttie second, the second line (' for on love,' etc.) ought to have the asterisk.
t Starting from the same observation, that some of the char- acteristic additions of the cursives 106, 248, 253 are to be found in the Syr.-He.v. with asterisks prefixed, the editor of cod. 248 raises (in a private communication to the present writer, 8th June 1901) the question : Is it possible that Sirach ilso was found in Origen's Hexapla, atid that he ktiew a Hebrtuj oriijinai and compared the Gruk teict therewith t
SIEACH (BOOK OF)
SlKACn (BOOK OF)
545
Un llie Georg'um \eision no more is kiiowu to the present writer tlian what is stated hy Holmes at the end ol the Prief. in Pent. : ' In Bibliis Georgianis Mosciue curutis, liber Ecclesiastici et duo libri ^lucchaboioruiu, critico Usui forte hand inser- vient.'
The PaloBO-Slavonic version, says Margoliouth, ' follows a text similar to that of the Cuinplu- tensian version, but with only a portion of the additions.' As in other books it is revised from a, the (question must be put, whether this be not the case in Sirach also.
The Ethiopic version was published in 1S94 as the last work of A. Dillmann ( Veteris Testainenti ^thiopici tomus quintus, quo contincntur libri Apocrt/phi, Baruch . . . Judith, Ecclesiasticits, Sapientia . . . Berolini, 1897, 4to. On its confused state see Nestle, Marginalien, p. 58 ; Dillmann's Epilogus, p. 11311". ; iferkenne, pp. 33-38: Margo- liouth believed lie could find in a few places signs of contamination from the Syriac (8° 22" 38** etc.) ; but they are ol rather doubtful character.
Of Cuptic versions the one in the Sakidic dialect is almost complete, existing in a unique MS of the Gth cent, at Turin, and published by P. de Lagarde in his ^Egyptiaca (tlottingen, 1883 ; Anastatic reprint, 1897 ; see his MitthcUungen, i. p. 17G n.). From a MS in the Museo Borgiano, A. Ciasca published short fragments from clis. 1 and 2 (Sacrorum Bibliorum J'ragiiienta Copto- Sa/iidiia, vol. ii. (1889) p. 218); and the same by E. i\.meiiiKa.a (Finginenisde la Version Thibaine de VEcrilure Ancien Testament, Parisiis, 1889), to- gether with two leaves from a MS at Berlin, con- tainin-' 6"-7'", 21*"^ supplying and emending some defects in Lagarde's codex (see Herkenne, pp. 23-27, and Norb. Peters, Die snhiilvich-kijptiwM Vbcrsctzung des Buc/ies Ecclesiasticus auf ihren Mxihren H'ert fur die Textkritik untersucht I'Vciburg, 1898).— A fragment in the Bohairic dialect (ch. 2'"") has been published by Lagarde, Orientali't, i. (1879) p. 09; the same piece with some more fragments (chs. 1. 4»>-5- 12'*-13> 22''"' 23'-u 24''") by U. Bouriant, Becueil de travattx relalifs d la pnilologie et a Varchiolugie (gyptiennes et assgriennes, vol. vii. (Paris, 1886), p. 81 11'. — One piece, finally, has been published by U. Bouriant in the dialect of Akhmliii in the Mcmoires publiis par les membrcs de la misHon ardiiolngUnte fran- <^aise an Caire sous la direction de M. Mnspero, I. 2. (Paris, 1885), 255 If., containin'^ 22"'-23''.
In Arabic there seem to exist several versions. One M.S, said to be corrected from tlie Greek, is preserved in the Mcdicuan Library at Plorence : in the Prologue the grandson is made to say that he translated the work into Syriac. A com- pendium of the Arabic version in an imperfect state (5 pages) is prescn'ed, according to Mar- goliouth, in the Bodleian Library (Hunt. 260).
The version contained in Kiirshuni in cod. Syr. 179, i., at Paris, is said to be due to Basilius, bishop of Tiberias, but goes back to the Syriac, not tlie Greek text of Sirach.
All these versions, except the last, rest on the oomiuon Greek text ; and so do most of the quotations in Greek Patlier.s. An exceptional position among them is held by Clemens Alex- andrinus, whose quotations in important details agrie with cod. 248, 253, and the monks Antu/iius ami Maximum.
Of greater importance than the other versions, and of gieater value than for other parts of the Greek OT, is—
(i) T/ie Latin Version. It is true that the suji- gestion first broached by the Roman Catholic commentator Cornelius a Lapide (tl037, Comm. on Sirach, 2 vols., 1631), next mooted by Sahaticr, then discussed in a special paper by Ernst Gottlob vou IV.— 35