Ecclesiasticus

Alternative names

Sirach or The Wisdom of Ben Sira. The title derives from the author's name "Jesus son of Eleazar son of Sirach".

Probable language(s) of composition

This is an interesting question because the book that became known as Ecclesiasticus (The Church Book) was originally a work rendered in Hebrew but the translation known by the Christian world today was made in Greek by the author's (Ben Sira) grandson.

Probable date(s) of composition

Sirach was composed about 180 B.C. in Hebrew. It was translated into Greek by the author's grandson about 117 B.C.

Probable places of composition

Ben Sira conducted a school in Jerusalem, probably near the temple, for young men to learn to become scribes. This is the most likely place of composition for the original text. The author's grandson translated the text into Greek in Egypt, most likely in or near Alexandria.

Further information about composition

As regards metrics, Ben Sira wrote most often in 3 + 3 accents per bicolon (or poetic line). There are however, many cola that have two as well as four accents. Ben Sira made extensive use of such poetic and rhetorical devices as assonance, alliteration, rhyme, chiasm, rhythm, and inclusio in order to enhance the quality and power of his poetry. Like the great Hebrew poets before him, he often composed units of twenty-two and twenty-three lines and used these to signal the opening or closing of a major portion of the book, to show the unity of a section of text, or simply to add elegance to his work.

Any peculiarities of canonical status

The Wisdom of Ben Sira is listed among those books which Jews and Protestants call apocryphal, but which Roman Catholics call deuterocanonical, for they believe it to be part of the canon of the OT.

Although Sirach was not included in the Hebrew Scripture it was often quoted as Scripture by later rabbis. The early Church (e.g. Didache, Clement of Rome, Irenaeus, Tertullian) considered Sirach canonical. There are many allusions to the book in the NT, especially in James. The Fathers of the Church attest more frequently to the canonicity of Sirach than to several protocanonical books.

Dependencies and influences upon work

In his prologue, the grandson writes that Ben Sira spent a lifetime studying the Scriptures of Israel. Not, surprisingly, Ben Sira adapted the older Scriptures in order to make them relevant to the new Hellenistic age in which he and his people lived. Though he often quotes or alludes to a sacred text, he usually alters it or changes it's wording so that there is a new emphasis or a different meaning. Ben Sira's favorite book was Proverbs. He did not merely quote or paraphrase a maxim from Proverbs but explained and developed its implications for his own day and world. His dependence upon Proverbs is seen in almost every section of the book. There are however differences in subject matter and emphasis between Proverbs and Ben Sira.

There can be little doubt that Ben Sira also derived material from gentile sources. There are about a hundred texts in Ben Sira that have clear parallels in Greek literature. Ben Sira however, only used Hellenistic materials when they suited his Jewish purposes. Thus despite the Greek influences what Ben Sira wrote was an essentially Jewish book. Ben Sira used gentile sources other than Greek as well. Egyptian and other influences are found in Sirach but again, each time they are used only when Ben Sira considers them to be true and therefore conformable to Jewish doctrine. Ben Sira used gentile sources not because he had given in to the spirit of compromise and syncretism that was rampant at the time, but because he felt he had to show his fellow Jews that the best of foreign thought is no danger at all to the true faith but could even be incorporated into an authentically Jewish book, the purpose of which was to encourage fidelity to the ancestral religion.

Genre of work

Sirach is a Wisdom Book. The principal literary genres in the book are these: masal, hymn of praise, prayer of petition, autobiographical narrative, lists or onomastica, and didactic narrative.

a.	Masal- a proverb, aphorism, maxim; comparison, similitude; paradigm, model, 
exemplar; byword; word play; taunt song; allegory; or didactic poem.
b.	Hymn of praise- There are two basic modes of calling on God: praise and 
lament/petition.  Hymns of praise occur with frequency in Sirach.
c.	Prayer of petition/lament- This kind of prayer is found only twice in Sirach.
d.	Autobiographical narrative- This type of narrative or confessional statement 
occurs in the Wisdom Literature when the sage appeals to his own authority and 
experience in order to emphasize a point for his students or readers.  
e.	Lists or onomastica- Lists of geographical, mineralogical, cosmic, meterological, 
and other natural phenomena became a literary genre in ancient Egypt and 
Mesopotamia and were later utilized in the Wisdom Literature of Israel.  
f.	Didactic narrative- A narrative with the purpose of teaching a particular point.

Content

It is virtually impossible to outline the book because, except for chapters 44-50 (Praise to the ancestors of old), Ben Sira seems to have had no clear plan for arranging the various subjects. He dealt with some of the same topics in different parts of the book. Since the book is basically a com0pilation of class notes that Ben Sira accumulated over many years of teaching, it is not surprising that there is little order in the presentation of topics. The following list may facilitate a topical reading and also indicates the most important subjects in the book.

Autobiography:  24.30-34, 33.16-19, 34.9-13, 39.12-13, 50.27, 51.13-30

Creation:  16.24-17.24, 18.1-14, 33.7-15, 39.12-35, 42.15-43.33 

Death:  38.16-23, 41.1-13
Fear of the Lord:  1.11-20, 2.1-18, 34.14-20

Friendship:  6.5-17, 9.10-16, 19.13-17, 22.19-26, 27.16-21, 36.23-37.15

Happiness:  25.1-11, 30.14-25, 40.1-30

Honor and Shame:  4.20-6.4, 10.9-11.6, 41.14-42.8

Humility and Pride:  3.17-29, 10.6-18

Manners and Moderation:  31.12-32.13, 37.27-31

Money Matters:  3.30-4.10, 29.1-20, 29.21-28

Parents and Children:  3.1-16, 7.23-25, 16.1-4, 30.1-13, 41.5-10, 42.9-14

People of God:  36.1-22, 44.1-50.24

Prayers:  22.26-23.6, 39.12-35, 50.22-24, 51.1-12, 51.12ff

Rulers:  9.16-10.5

Sacrifice:  34.21-35.26, 50.5-21

Sickness and Doctors:  38.1-15

Sin:  7.1-17, 15.11-20, 16.1-23, 16.24-17.24, 17.25-31, 18.30-19.3, 21.1-10, 22.26-23.6,     
23.7-15, 23.16-27, 26.28-27.29, 27.30-28.7

Social Justice:  4.1-10, 34.21-27, 35.14-26

Social Relations:  7.18-36, 8.1-19, 11.29-12.18, 33.20-33

Speech:  5.9-15,18.15-18, 18.19-29, 19.4-17, 20.1-31, 23.7-15, 27.4-7, 27.11-15, 28.8-26

Wealth:  11.7-28, 13.1-24, 13.25-14.19, 31.1-11

Wisdom:  1.1-10, 4.11-19, 6.18-37, 14.20-15.10, 19.20-30, 21.11-28, 22.1-18, 24.1-34, 
32.14-33.6, 34.1-20, 37.16-31, 38.24-39.11, 51.13-30

Women:  9.1-9, 23.22-26, 25.13-26.27, 36.26-31, 42.9-14

Through moral and religious instruction and practical counsel Ben Sira declares that the nature of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Sirach wished to call all wise men to an understanding that God was the Lord of Life and to live in reverent recognition of the obligations that fact entails.

Internet Links

Later uses and influences

The book contains moral, cultic, and ethical maxims, folk proverbs, psalms of praise and lament, theological and philosophical reflections, homiletic exhortations, and pointed observations about the life and customs of Ben Sira's day. For that reason it has been popular with both Jews and Christians, and it has left its impact on the proverbial literature of the West.

St. Jerome distinguished between canonical books and ecclesiastical books after coming under the influence of Jewish teachers in the Holy Land. Sirach was defined as an ecclesiastical book (from which its Latin name Ecclesiasticus is derived). He did not accept as Sacred Scripture the ecclesiastical books that later were called deuterocanonical. St. Augustine disagreed with Jerome's distinction and insisted on the ancient tradition of the Church that all books in the LXX collection are equally authoritative. In the 16th century Martin Luther broke with the tradition of the Church by accepting Jerome's position that the so-called Palestinian canon was the rightful canon as it had alone supposedly been used by Jesus and the early Christians. In his German translation of 1534, Luther was the first to remove the deuterocanonical books from their logical and traditional places in the canon and to locate these books, to which he gave the inaccurate label "Apocrypha" (hidden away), in a separate section between the OT and the NT. Most Protestant translations of the Bible, if they include the deuterocanonicals at all; follow Luther's lead in segregating these books.

Ben Sira has also influenced Christian music. The exalted hymn of thanksgiving, "Nun danket alle Gott," (Now thank we all our God) was written by Pastor Martin Rinkart about 1636 just as the devastating Thirty Years War was nearing its end. The hymn is dependant upon Luther’s translation of Sirach 50.22-24.

Sources used

1.	The Anchor Bible Dictionary: Wisdom of Ben-Sira.
2.	The Anchor Bible Commentary: The Wisdom of Ben Sira, by Patrick W. Skehan 
and Alexander A. DI Lella.
3.	Invitation to the Apocrypha: Daniel J. Harrington.
4.	The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, edited by Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. 
Fitzmyer, and Roland E. Murphy, Sirach by Alexander A. Di Lella.
5.	The Interpreter's One Volume Commentary on The Bible, edited by Charles M. 
Laymon, Ecclesiasticus by Edward Lee Beavin. 
6.	The New Oxford Annotated Apocrypha NRSV, edited by Bruce M. Metzger and 
Roland E. Murphy.

This page written 2001 by Mark Taylor Grant.
Listing of summaries of Deuterocanonical books.
Deuterocanonical Books start page.
Comments to: gto@nashotah.edu
This page last modified 24 March 2001. Copyright is claimed jointly by the author, the instructor, and Nashotah House.