Reading misogynic texts as sacred texts

The biblical book "Ben Sira" (Ecclesiasticus) named after its author Jesus Ben Sira and written in the beginning of the second century B.C. is one of Israel`s sapiential writings. Ben Sira knows the divine feminine Wisdom figure (Sir 4.11-19, 8.18-37, 14.20-15.10, 24, 51.13-30) and he also writes a lot about women. Without doubt, his attitude against women is at first glance negative for Ben Sira is the first to make women explicitly responsible for sin and death in the world (Sir 25.24) and he differentiates keenly between women who are good for men and those who are bad for men. Doing so Ben Sira construes a picture of women which is signed by abstractions and polarizations into good and bad women (mainly wives and daughters) and by idealization and demonization of women. Even the female personification of Wisdom appears in this context merely as abstraction and idealization of women`s reality. Therefore the question for the relation of and connection between Ben Sira`s statements and real lifes of women arises as well as the question about the relation between the sayings about women and divine Wisdom. Both questions are referred to in modern research, however they are hardly critically analyzed. The last monography was published about twenty years ago .Since then the knowledge of Ben Sira`s time has substantially increased. Moreover, approaches and methods to bibical literature have considerably developed. Therefore the study puts into question the relation between Ben Sira`s statements about women and real women lifes in history and present. The study inquires the possibilities of identification for women in Ben Sira`s texts about women, mainly about wifes and daughters and connects them with texts about female wisdom. The question is whether there are possibilities of identification for women and how they are construed in the texts. With whom are we encouraged to identify: the good wife, lady Wisdom or even the husband or none (which would be the case if the book indeed is adressed only to men). And what about the reception of the marriage metaphor as relation of men to wisdom? To answer these questions a reader-related approach to the texts will be chosen. The study has two aims concerning the relation between the texts and real women: First, to find possibilities of identification for women which leads to an understanding of the texts as holy texts today. Second aim is to present women`s realities and perspectives in the texts and to make sure that Ben Sira was in discussion with women of his time.