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While Ben Sira’s poem on wisdom and fear of God (Sir 1:11–21) draws on earlier texts from the Hebrew Bible, it transfers the rewards for wisdom (Prov 1–9) and the blessings for Torah obedience (Deut 30:15–16) onto the fear of the Lord. The poem also exhibits parallels to some Dead Sea Scroll texts, including the Qumran Wisdom Admonition (4Q185) and the Treatise on the Two Spirits from the Community Rule (1QS III, 13–IV, 26). Since Sir 1:14 teaches that wisdom has been given in the womb to the faithful Jews, the “eternal foundation” (1:15) may be a reference to the Jerusalem temple.

This survey article on the Book of Sirach (Latin: Ecclesiasticus) first considers its composition by a Jerusalem scribe named Ben Sira, who lived in the early second century bce. The article then examines major themes in the book’s theology (wisdom, creation, theodicy, and death), as well as its much-criticized portrayal of women. The chapter also explores its ethics of honor, generosity, and friendship, as well as the review of biblical history in the Praise of the Ancestors (Sirach 44–50). Thereafter, the chapter notes the book’s parallels to the New Testament, as well as its mixed reception history within Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant faith communities. Finally, to illustrate aspects of the reception history, the article offers four case studies showing how various later interpreters have used the sage’s teaching on testing (2:1–18), friendship (6:5–17), social justice (34:21–31), and remembering godly ancestors (44:1–15).

This preface surveys developments in Ben Sira research, pertinent to the topic, since the publication of the first edition in 2002. Because the second edition is not a rewriting of the first edition, this preface seeks to take account of the last two decades of Ben Sira scholarship. The original edition of the study was the revised and updated form of my 1996 doctoral dissertation at the Catholic University of America, Washington DC. The work was written under the guidance of the late Alexander Di Lella (1929- 2019), known especially for his Anchor Bible commentary, which he wrote jointly with Patrick Skehan. My 2002 volume also acknowledges its debt to the 1996 essay collection, based on papers given at the 1995 Salzburg symposium on friendship in Ben Sira.

Entre las composi- ciones más oscuras de la Biblia, el Salmo 110 (109) revela el patrón de un ritual de entronización real, comparable, en parte a las cere- monias narradas en el Libro de los Reyes (1 Re 1: 32-53; 2 Reyes 11: 4-20). Este artículo proporciona una exégesis del difícil poema hebreo, observando paralelos con textos reales de Egipto y Mesopotamia. El presente trabajo considera las diferencias en la versión griega del texto. Aunque algunos ecos del Salmo 110 aparecen dentro de la descripción de la investidura de Simón Macabeo como líder cívico y sumo sacerdote (1 Macabeos 14), los macabeos eran sacerdotes que tomaban el poder civil en lugar de reyes que eran nombrados sacer - dotes (Sal 110,4). Por lo tanto, el salmo parece provenir de la pri- mera monarquía, alrededor del tiempo en que todavía era posible decir que “los hijos de David eran sacerdotes” (2 Sam 8:18)

Despite the differences between the Priestly creation story in Genesis 1 and the Yahwist’s creation narrative in Genesis 2–3, several Second Temple period Jewish texts began to harmonize both accounts. Ben Sira (Sirach) makes selective use of both Genesis creation stories, especially when referring to human mortality. While Sirach 25:24 implies an allusion to sin and death entering the world through Eve, Sirach 17:1–2 appears to pass over the primeval sin and instead seems to regard human mortality as a natural disposition by the Creator who providentially allots humanity a fixed number of days of earthly life. Like some interpretations of Genesis 3 within early Judaism and Christianity, emphasizing human mortality as deriving from the primeval sin, Ben Sira echoes the primeval punishment of humanity (Genesis 3:19) by employing the verb ‘return’ in Sirach 17:1. Thereafter, Sirach 17:2 follows Jewish sapiential reflection (especially Psalm 90) and Stoic teaching to present death as something natural within God’s providential plan.

About two-thirds of the Hebrew text of Ben Sira is now available in at least one of the nine ancient or medieval Hebrew manuscripts. The earliest manuscript, discovered at Masada in 1964, perhaps dates from about a century after the works composition, yet even it shows probable signs of scribal editing, since it never uses the Tetragrammaton. The anthological character of MS C makes it different from all the other medieval Genizah Hebrew manuscripts of Ben Sira. In fact, this manuscript diverges from those other Ben Sira MSS in two ways: excerpting and resequencing. Some scholars have proposed an educational function, not only because of the content, but also because the manuscript has large Hebrew letters written on small leaves of paper. Some scholars have proposed an educational function, not only because of the content, but also because the manuscript has large Hebrew letters written on small leaves of paper. Keywords: anthological manuscript; Ben Sira; Genizah; Hebrew