A List of Aramaic Proverbs in an Alphabetical Acrostic from the Cairo Geniza

Abstract Folio 14b of Bodleian Library Ms. Heb. g. 8/2, from the Cairo Geniza, contains a series of 23 proverbs in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic arranged in an alphabetic acrostic. Some of the proverbs are parallel to those found in the medieval Alphabet of Ben Sira, while some others are indebted to deuterocanonical Ben Sira or rabbinic maxims; one is exactly parallel to a proverb from the 5th century bce Elephantine Sayings of Ahiqar. It is likely that this list is taken from an alternate version of the Alphabet of Ben Sira, no longer extant, and testifies to the fluidity of the pseudepigraphic Ben Sira tradition.