ViCe AnD VirTue 45 ii. Pride and Humility One of the most distinctive features of the expansions and alter- ations in the Latin version of Ben Sira is an emphasis on the vice of pride and the virtue of humility. As kearns noted, this trajectory was al- ready evident in the Greek manuscripts in additions in 3,19; 10,21; 22,8; and 26,26b 17, but curiously none of these four expansions is found in the Latin version. Given the predilection for the topic of pride in the Latin version, it is likely that they simply were absent in the Latin’s Vorlage. The addition in 10,21 places arrogance opposite the fear of the Lord, and the addition in 3,19 affirms that the meek will receive divine revelation. The other two additions observe how the arrogance of children (22,8) or of a wife (26,26b) will bring shame upon the family. expansion and alterations concerning pride in the Latin version are found throughout the first half of the book, but especially in the discussion of pride in 10,6-18 (6-22). in Ben Sira’s teaching there is a strong correlation between the use of political power and the sin of pride, but the latter is considered foolish because it is antithetical to the created nature of humanity. Pride, Ben Sira goes on to argue, originates from sin and therefore will be punished swiftly and severely by God. The Greek version replicates this teaching in 10,13: “the beginning of pride is sin”. However, in Grii (and the Syriac) this relationship is reversed such that pride is now the source of sin: “the beginning of sin is pride”. The Latin version, however, absolu- tizes the reading in Grii by adding the word omnis: “the beginning of every sin is pride” (quoniam initium peccati omnis superbia) 18. This change makes pride a “capital vice” which gives rise to every sin, a claim that later played an enormous role in discussions of pride as the source of all sins in Western moral theology 19. This absolutizing tendency is found in relation to the corresponding virtue of humility in 3,18 (20). There the Greek warns that the greater people’s stature, the more they must humble themselves. The Latin appends to this the qualification “in all things” (in omnibus) 20. 17 keArnS, Expanded Text, 80-81. 18 So also D. Z: initium enim peccati omnis superbia. See THieLe, Sirach, 367-369. 19 This claim can be understood in two ways: either pride potentially leads to every kind of sin, or in a more metaphysically sweeping way pride is the ontological cause of every sinful action. See B. GreGOry, “Pride and Sin in Sirach 10:13(15): A Study in the interdependence of Text and Tradition”, HTR 108 (2015) 213-234. 20 One such case can be seen in a discussion of vulnerability to those in power