INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF SIRACH

If you look in Scripture for this particular book, chances are that you won't find it. In the first place, the only Protestant Bibles including it will probably be ecumenical editions such as NEB or some editions of KJV, RSV and NRSV. This is because this book is part of what is called the Apocrypha, not accepted as part of the canon by the majority of Protestant churches. And even if you do have a Roman Catholic or ecumenical version, you may not find it under the name Sirach. The full title of the book is actually Wisdom of Joshua ben-Sira, but it became more popularly known as Ecclesiasticus (not to be confused with either Wisdom of Solomon or Ecclesiastes). That strange Greek title translates into English as “The Church-Book,” so-called due to the honor it held in the early church. Further complicating the issue of the title is the fact that “Joshua” may also be rendered Jeshua or Jesus. The situation can be summarized as follows: “'Sirach' is the Greek name, 'ben Sira' the Hebrew, and 'Ecclesiasticus' the Latin.”

In terms of contents and style of writing, this very long book (51 chapters) most closely resembles the canonical Book of Proverbs and is written mainly in poetic couplets although Dentan notes that “for the most part, the discussions take the form of of essays of considerable length rather than brief apothegms.” Most modern editions come with an ancient prose preface, which is generally not numbered as to chapter and verses. It contains valuable background information concerning the composition of the book, written originally in Hebrew between 200-175 BC (Some pinpoint it to about 180 BC). Ben-Sira's grandson took this book with him to Egypt around 132 BC and proceeded to translate it, as best he could, into Greek for the benefit of his Jewish compatriots there.

We do not possess today full copies of the Hebrew original. And so establishing the text to any certainty is not really possible, especially since there are also independent versions in Syriac known as well as several old Hebrew manuscripts containing about 2/3 of the whole work discovered in an old synagogue in Cairo. At first it was felt that these latter documents must have been an attempt at a back-translation into Hebrew from the Greek. But later fragments in Hebrew located in Masada in pre-Christian Israel appear to confirm the readings of the Cairo manuscripts. All of these editions differ in one respect or another. Thus, it is hard to definitively pin down how the original text read. As Phua summarizes the situation: “The textual history of the book is...notoriously complex.”

This book was not part of the Hebrew canon, which is one of the reasons Protestant groups generally exclude it from the canon. As to the teachings in the book, there are a number of places where they appear to differ from those found in the canonical Bible. And this is another reason most modern Bible translations will either not include it at all or perhaps relegate it to the category of those writings which may be useful to read for instructions in living but not for establishing any doctrinal points. Such departures from Scriptural teaching include those identified by Phua:

    A pronounced negative opinion toward women

    Abraham as an example of a keeper of the law

    Aaron stressed over Moses

    The body of Elisha continuing to prophesy after death

    The bones of the twelve prophets coming back to life in order to strengthen Jacob

    Correlation taught between Wisdom and the Torah

In addition, DiLella notes that there are extended sections regarding practical issues such as the importance of doctors and maintaining good health as well as on proper table etiquette. As D.G. Clark says, “The wide range of subjects discussed by ben Sirach indicates that he wished to provide authoritative instructions for every circumstance of life.”

One of my personal tests as to whether an ancient Jewish writing should be included in the canon involves a study of the literary structure of the whole work as well as the individual sections. Because of the uncertainties in establishing the original text, such an analysis cannot be easily carried out on such a massive book. However, scholars have provided hints indicating that at least a portion of the book contains literary clues that point to the sort of symmetrical elements present in authentic OT and NT books. That does not, of course, mean that it should automatically be added to the canon, merely that its writing style was heavily influenced by the sort of literary techniques found in inspired Scripture.

First, we must consider in broad brushstrokes how the contents of this book are organized, according to various scholars:

I. Introductory Poem (1:1-10)

        II. Alphabetic acrostic (1:11-30)

                III. Wisdom sayings (12:1-43:33)

                III'. Praise of the fathers (44:1-49:16)

I'. Appendix (50:1-51:12)

        II'. Alphabetic acrostic (51:13-30)                     (Phua)

I. Proverbs of Ben Sira (1:1-42:14)

        II. Works of God in Nature (42:15-43:33)

        III. Works of God in History (44:1-49:16)

        IV. Appendix (chs. 50-51)                                  (Dentan)

Introduction (1:1-10)

        I. Non-alphabetic poem (1:11-30)

                II. Wisdom sayings (12:1-51:12)

        I'. Alphabetic poem (51:13-30)                         (Di Lella)

The ways of wisdom (1:1-10:3)

Man's life under God's protection (10:4-18:29)

Prudence and self-discipline (18:30-23:27)

The praise of wisdom (24:1-34:12)

True piety and the mercy of God (33:13-36:17)

Man in society (36:18-42:14)

The wonders of creation (42:15-43:33)

Heroes of Israel's past (44:1-50:29)

Epilogue (51:1-30)                                                     (NEB)

Collection of Sayings (1:1-42:14)

        The Glory of God in Nature (42:15-43:33)

        The Glory of God in History (44:1-50:29)

Appendices (51:1-30) (JB)

As you can see from the above attempts to find order in this massive book, scholars can't even agree on where the historical review beginning with 44:1 truly ends, with opinions divided equally between 49:16 and 50:29. And that is perhaps the most clear-cut individual section in the whole of Sirach. And there is similar confusion regarding the limits of the beginning and closing sections of the book, generally one of the easiest things to determine.

The closest of the above proposals to the sort of symmetry which occurs in the canonical books is that of Phua. But when he attempts to delve deeper in the order in the book, he inexplicably switches gears by combining sections I, II, and the first part of III into one literary unit in order to show that it has parallels in the second part of III. Thus, he discovers the following identical or near-identical sayings or concepts:

Subject                                              Verses 1:1-23:38         Verses 24:1-43:33

Wisdom coming from the Lord                 1:1                                 24:3

Depth of the abyss                                    1:3                                  24:5

Wisdom created by God                           1:4                                  24:9

Application of wisdom                             1:11-2:17                        25:1-11

Wisdom as a tree                                      1:20                                24:16

As a third 'proof' that there is an overall organization to the book of Sirach, Phua offers the fact that it is just like canonical OT wisdom books in containing poems called alphabetic acrostics of 22-23 verses. However, the Hebrew alphabet never contained 23 different letters in its long existence, only 22. And since there are no obvious divisions given in the text of Sirach, unlike Proverbs, that also leaves a lot of leeway to achieve the magic number of 22 by simply dividing the text wherever you choose.

Even when one looks at individual units, the intended structure, assuming there is one, is not always clear. For example, Phua states, “Enoch, the ideal wisdom figure, is the first and last person mentioned [in the section on praise of the fathers].” But that is not really true since (1) Enoch does not appear in the poem until 16 verses into the section and (2) at the conclusion, Joseph, Shem, Seth, and Adam are all mentioned after Enoch.

The other problem with the “Praise of the Fathers” section is that introductory words in 44:1-15 are echoed best in the obvious summary to the first half of the overall unit at 45:26, not in the final conclusion in 49:14-16.

“their/all generations”                                         44:1,7         45:26g

“glory                                                                  44:2,7,13     45:26f

“righteous(ness)                                                  44:10           45:26c

“their prosperity will remain”                             44:11           45:26d

“their glory will remain/not be blotted out"        44:1            45:26e

“people”                                                              44:15          45:26b

“wisdom                                                             44:15           45:26a

As you can see, the concepts in ch. 44 reappear in roughly reverse order in 45:26. But if Phua's section III' is divided into two equal parts, as he himself proposes (with 44:16-45:26 discussing the characters in the Pentateuch and 46:1-49:16 dealing with the former prophets) then the overall symmetry he proposes to begin with for the whole book is lost.

The end result is that, as with claims of symmetry supposedly located in The Book of Mormon, such symmetries evaporate when closely examined.