Fragment Or.1102: the Hebrew ben Sira

The Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit

Fragment Or.1102: the Hebrew ben Sira

Or.1102 is perhaps the most famous manuscript of the collection. It was the identification of this fragment as part of the lost Hebrew original of the book of Ecclesiasticus (The Wisdom of ben Sira) which led to Schechter's trip to Cairo and his discovery of the Ben Ezra Genizah in 1896.

[Frag Or.1102 (recto)] Recto [(verso)] Verso
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[Schechter's letter (recto)] Schechter's [(verso)] letter
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and [Transcription] Transcription (recto) Transcription (verso)
(Size of each full image = 120KB)

Fragment Or.1102 (ben Sira):

Description
Bibliography (courtesy of Franz Boehmisch)
Editions and Translations
Transcription: recto and verso
An image of the manuscript: recto and verso (190KB each)
The script (detail) (200KB)
Other ben Sira fragments
Problems of displaying transcriptions

Description of the Fragment

This description is taken from SC Reif (ed) Hebrew Manuscripts at Cambridge University Library: A Description and Introduction (Cambridge: CUP, 1997), which forms a complete catalogue of all the non-Genizah Hebrew manuscripts in the Library, together with some of the Genizah fragments.

Classmark: Or.1102
Paper: 18 X 18 cm; 1f.; 17 lines; stained, torn and holed, with some loss of text.
Script: Oriental square; 10th century.

ECCLESIASTICUS (BEN SIRA), fragment

The text covers 39:15 -- 40:8 and is identified as MS B in the various editions. It was the first in a series of discoveries that led to the reconstruction of the original Hebrew of Ben Sira.
Its purchase by Mrs A. S. Lewis and Mrs M. D. Gibson in Palestine in 1896 and identification by S. Schechter on 13 May 1896 led to Schechter's trip to Cairo and the acquisition of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection.
With notes on the discovery by Lewis and Gibson and the original letter of identification written by Schechter. Photographs of this manuscript are found at Or.1751.16 (entry no. [1015]).
With marginal annotation.
Owners: Mrs A. S. Lewis and Mrs M. D. Gibson.
See Reif, Published Material, pp. 410--11.
Under glass.
Bequeathed in 1926 by Mrs A. S. Lewis; probably from the Cairo Genizah.
HL 932; Reif [906]; SS --.

Editions and Translations

Schechter, who first identified the fragment, offered an edition and translation in his article announcing the discovery (The Expositor, Fifth Series Volume 4 (1896), 1-15). Other editions have also appeared, notably that of MH Segal, Sefer ben Sira ha-shalem: kolel kol ha-sederim ha-`ivriyim she-nitgallu mitokh ha-genizah w-hahzarat ha-qeta`im ha-haserim (Jerusalem: Mossad Bialik, 1971).

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