Wisdom writing · Hebrew, Jerusalem, c. 195-175 BC
Sirach
The one book on this shelf whose author signs his name: a Jerusalem teacher handing his students everything he knows.
- 51Chapters
- 1,393Verses
- HebrewOriginal language
Written: c. 196-175 BCE (Hebrew); Greek translation by grandson c. 132 BCE
King James Version Apocrypha (1769 standardized text) · public domain
Read Sirach
King James Version + Apocrypha (standardized 1769 text), eBible.org USFX edition of the Crosswire/eBible KJV — Public Domain
Featured studies on this book
— the deep dives, each its own page
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Michelangelo, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Judah (Sistine Chapel ancestors of Christ lunette) (1511-1512) — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Fear of the Lord in Ben Sira
Rembrandt van Rijn, A Scholar in His Study (1634) — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Sirach beside James
Codex Sinaiticus scribes, Introduction to Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Codex Sinaiticus (4th century) — Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Plain answers first
What this book is
This is the longest book of the Apocrypha and the only one that names its author: Jesus son of Sirach, a scribe of Jerusalem who taught in the years just before the Maccabean crisis, probably between 195 and 175 BC. His grandson carried the book to Egypt and translated it into Greek around 132 BC, adding a preface that apologizes for how hard translation is. The church used it so heavily in teaching new believers that it picked up the Latin nickname Ecclesiasticus, the church's book.
Most of it is proverbs, gathered in loose clusters, on everything a young man of that world had to handle: speech, money, friendship, work, food, doctors, grief, servants, and the honoring of parents (3:1-16). The section on the tongue is famous: "many have fallen by the edge of the sword: but not so many as have fallen by the tongue" (28:18). Chapter 24 stands apart: Wisdom rises in the assembly and praises herself, then is identified with the book of the covenant, the law of Moses: Wisdom pitching her tent in Israel.
The last section, chapters 44 to 50, is a roll call. "Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us" (44:1), and then Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, the prophets, ending with the high priest Simon coming out of the sanctuary in his robes like a morning star. It is the first surviving Jewish history told through biography.
The Hebrew original was lost for nearly a thousand years, and then it came back. Beginning in 1896, leaves of the Hebrew Ben Sira turned up in the Cairo Geniza, the storeroom of discarded manuscripts in an old Cairo synagogue, where Solomon Schechter recognized the first one. Fragments later appeared at Qumran, and in 1964 a scroll of the closing chapters was excavated at Masada. About two-thirds of the Hebrew text has now been recovered.
The grandson's preface is itself a landmark. It speaks of the law, the prophets, and the other books of the fathers: the earliest clear witness we have to the threefold shape of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Why a student of the 66 should still open it
Why read it: and how
For plain usable wisdom this is the closest thing outside the canon to Proverbs, and the church has always known it. The strongest New Testament resonance is with James: both hammer the tongue (Sirach 28:12-26 beside James 3:1-12), both warn against the double heart (Sirach 1:28 beside James 1:8), both say be swift to hear (Sirach 5:11 beside James 1:19), and both insist God tempts no one: Sirach 15:11-12, "say not thou, It is through the Lord that I fell away," stands remarkably close to James 1:13. Scholars argue whether James read Sirach or whether both drew on the same body of Jewish teaching; either way the parallel is real. Many readers also hear Sirach 51:23-27, with its call to put your neck under the yoke and let your soul receive instruction, behind the invitation of Matthew 11:28-30, though there Jesus does what no scribe would dare: he offers his own yoke and his own rest. And chapter 24, Wisdom tabernacling in Israel, is the background music behind John 1:14.
Do not read it straight through. It is a teacher's notebook, not an argument, so take a chapter at a time the way you would take Proverbs and let the lines that sting stay with you. Keep a hand on the New Testament while you read: Ben Sira's world runs on honor and shame and a hard hand with sons and daughters, and some of his counsel about women and servants belongs to his century rather than to the gospel. Save chapters 44 to 50 for last, and read them aloud.
The canon question, honestly
Why it stands outside the 66
Jewish teachers knew this book and loved it (it is quoted in the Talmud, sometimes with a formula normally reserved for Scripture) and still it was not received into the Hebrew canon. Jerome knew the Hebrew existed and set the book among those the church reads for building people up rather than for establishing doctrine. The Reformers kept that line, and the King James of 1611 printed it in the Apocrypha; the Church of England's sixth Article names Ecclesiasticus among the books read for example of life and instruction of manners but not to establish doctrine. Trent made it canonical for Roman Catholics in 1546. It is worth saying that Ben Sira never claims to be writing Scripture: he is a teacher passing on what he has learned.
Doors into the text
Key moments
All wisdom comes from the Lord, and the fear of the Lord is its beginning.
The fullest ancient Jewish expansion of the fifth commandment, including aging parents.
Wisdom praises herself in the assembly and settles in Jacob as the law of Moses.
More have fallen by the tongue than by the sword: the chapter behind James 3.
Honor the doctor, God made him; then the vocation of the man who studies the law.
The roll call of Israel's fathers begins, and runs to the high priest in his glory.
Plainly told
The story it tells
A teacher opens his school
Jesus son of Sirach ran a house of instruction in Jerusalem, teaching young men how to handle money, friendship, work, food, grief, and the honoring of aging parents. Most of the book is his notebook of proverbs, gathered the way a teacher collects the lines that work.
The tongue that cuts deeper than a sword
Chapter 28 is the book's most famous passage: "many have fallen by the edge of the sword: but not so many as have fallen by the tongue." Ben Sira treats gossip and slander as a weapon that kills reputations the way a blade kills bodies.
Wisdom pitches her tent
In chapter 24, Wisdom stands up in the heavenly assembly and praises herself, then comes down and settles in Jacob, and the poem identifies her outright with the law Moses gave. Wisdom is not an abstract idea here; she has an address.
Let us now praise famous men
The last section, chapters 44 to 50, is a roll call of Israel's ancestors from Enoch and Noah through Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets, ending with the high priest Simon coming out of the sanctuary "as the morning star." It is the earliest surviving Jewish history told through biography.
A grandson crosses the sea
Decades after Ben Sira died, his grandson carried the book to Egypt and translated it into Greek, adding his own preface apologizing for how hard translation is. That preface is itself a landmark: the earliest clear description of the Hebrew Bible's three-part shape: the law, the prophets, and the other books.
Dates hedged where scholarship hedges
Where it sits in history
- c. 195-175 BC
Ben Sira teaches and writes in Jerusalem, before the Maccabean crisis.
- c. 132 BC
His grandson translates the book into Greek in Egypt and adds his own preface.
- 1896
Hebrew leaves of Ben Sira turn up in the Cairo Geniza; Solomon Schechter identifies the first one.
- mid-20th century
Further Hebrew fragments are found at Qumran.
- 1964
A scroll of the closing chapters is excavated at Masada, recovering roughly two-thirds of the Hebrew text overall.
The disagreement is old: here it is plainly
Where the traditions stand
Jewish teachers knew this book well and used it (the Talmud quotes Ben Sira's proverbs, sometimes with a formula elsewhere reserved for Scripture) and other rabbinic passages warn against reading the outside books, Ben Sira named among them. The Hebrew canon simply never took the further step of admitting it, even as it kept being read and cited.
Jerome knew a Hebrew original existed and had seen it. In his preface to the books of Solomon he set both Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus among the books the church reads for the strengthening of its people, not for settling doctrine: read aloud, but not treated as a source of new teaching.
The Reformers held that same line. Luther printed Ecclesiasticus among the Apocrypha in his German Bible, useful and good to read but not equal to Scripture, and the Church of England's sixth Article names it among the books read for example of life and instruction of manners rather than for establishing doctrine.
Rome took the opposite step at the Council of Trent in 1546, declaring Ecclesiasticus canonical. Orthodox churches likewise receive it as part of their Old Testament. It is worth remembering that Ben Sira never claimed to be writing Scripture himself: he presents his book as a teacher passing on what he had learned.
| Tradition | Where this book stands |
|---|---|
| jewish | not canonical, but quoted approvingly by rabbis (with the formula 'as it is written in the book of Ben Sira') in the Talmud and recovered Hebrew fragments at Cairo Geniza, Masada, and Qumran indicate it was read seriously well into late antiquity |
| anglican | apocryphal — read for example of life and instruction of manners |
| catholic | canonical (deuterocanonical) |
| protestant | non-canonical; widely respected as edifying literature, often included in Reformation-era Bibles as an appendix |
| eastern orthodox | canonical (anagignoskomena) |
| oriental orthodox | canonical |
Real echoes only: each one attested, none invented
What the New Testament has made of it
Both writers linger on the tongue as a small thing capable of outsized damage: Ben Sira's "many have fallen by the edge of the sword: but not so many as have fallen by the tongue" (28:18) sits directly behind James's picture of the tongue as a fire that sets a whole forest ablaze.
James Hardy Ropes, ICC commentary on James (1916); Richard Bauckham, James: The Wisdom of James, Disciple of Jesus the Sage (1999)
"Say not thou, It is through the Lord that I fell away... he hath no need of the sinful man" (Sirach 15:11-12) makes the same move as James: God cannot be blamed for a person's own fall into sin.
James Hardy Ropes, ICC commentary on James (1916)
Ben Sira invites his students to put their neck under wisdom's yoke, learn in his house of instruction, and find rest for their souls: five points of contact, in the same order, with Jesus's own invitation. Jesus takes the place Wisdom holds in Ben Sira's poem: people are invited to him, not to Torah.
W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison Jr., ICC Matthew, vol. 2 (1991)
2 threads into the 66
Its connections into Scripture
Sirach 24 is Wisdom's autobiographical speech: she came forth from the mouth of the Most High, sought a resting place among the nations, was commanded to dwell in Jacob, took root in Israel, and was identified with 'the book of the covenant of the Most High God, the law that Moses commanded us.' John 1 takes this Wisdom-Torah identification and re-applies it to Jesus: the Word who was with God and was God, who took flesh and 'tabernacled' among us, full of grace and truth — explicit Sinai vocabulary. The conceptual lineage is Sirach 24 → Wisdom of Solomon 7-9 → John 1.
Sirach 51:23-27 closes the book with an invitation: 'Draw near to me, you who are uneducated... Put your neck under her yoke, and let your soul receive instruction... See with your eyes that I have labored but little and found for myself much rest.' Jesus' invitation in Matthew 11:28-30 — 'Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden... Take my yoke upon you... and you will find rest for your souls' — is structured around the same yoke/labor/rest vocabulary, with Jesus placing himself in the position Sirach occupied for Wisdom-Torah.
Reception history, never our confession
What the church has made of it
The book's Latin nickname, Ecclesiasticus (the church's book), reflects how heavily the early church leaned on it to teach new believers plain, practical wisdom, more than any theological argument it carries.
It was printed in the Vulgate as a matter of course and stands in the KJV Apocrypha of 1611. Its proverbs on speech, honor, and family have been quoted in Christian moral teaching across every century since.
The recovery of its Hebrew text (Cairo Geniza fragments from 1896 onward, then Qumran, then the Masada scroll in 1964) has let modern readers compare the Hebrew Ben Sira actually wrote against the Greek the church inherited, work that continues to shape how translators render the book today.
The voices
What the teachers have said
“Therefore, just as the Church also reads the books of Judith, Tobias, and the Maccabees, but does not receive them among the canonical Scriptures, so also one may read these two scrolls for the strengthening of the people, but not for confirming the authority of ecclesiastical dogmas.”
Every claim above rests on these
Where this comes from
- Patrick W. Skehan and Alexander A. Di Lella, The Wisdom of Ben Sira (Anchor Bible, 1987)
- Bruce M. Metzger, An Introduction to the Apocrypha (1957)
- David A. deSilva, Introducing the Apocrypha (2nd ed., 2018)
- The Cairo Geniza, Masada, and Qumran Hebrew manuscripts of Ben Sira
- The book of Sirach itself (KJV Apocrypha)