This course treats either books (Job, Sirach, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom of Solomon) or thematic aspects (creation, prayer, eschatology) of the sapiential tradition as it evolved in the period 538 BCE - 70 CE with an eye to the relationship of these books to the broader swath of sapiential textual traditions of the era, including the instruction literature from Qumran. The focus will be Ben Sira, with attention to the significance of textual variants in the manuscript traditions for our understanding of the formation of the Bible. Course will be a seminar. Seminar participation, seminar presentations, major paper.