The book of Ben Sira, also known as Sirach or Ecclesiasticus, is a very controversial book. Roman Catholics consider it deuterocanonical (sacred and inspired by God), while for Jews and Protestants it belongs to the Apocrypha, i. e. the books they do not accept as canonical. Situated on the border of the canon, this book of wisdom is as quickly introduced into the canon as it is excluded1. Our purpose is to study the importance of the book for the Jews and for Christians in antiquity after the rabbis excluded it from the Jewish canon.
Our method will be as follows: firstly, we will begin with a brief presentation of the textual history of the book; secondly, we will consider its place in Rabbinic Judaism and, thereafter, in the primitive Church; and, finally, we will attempt to draw some conclusions.
1 The Textual History of the Book of Ben Sira2
The Hebrew text we have in our possession is fragmentary and strewn in various manuscripts. The Greek, Latin and Syrian versions, on the other hand, have preserved the integral text of the book. We shall now very briefly see the different forms the text presents.
1.1 Hebrew I (HbI)
The book was originally written in Hebrew by Jesus, son of Sira towards 180 AD in Jerusalem3, and addressed to the young disciples who went to his school (cf. Sir 51,23). Unfortunately, this text was lost, but we neither know when nor how.
For centuries, the only two ways to access to the work of Ben Sira were via the numerous quotations in rabbinic literature and the translations into Greek, Syriac and, above all, Latin. This situation radically changed in 1896: Solomon Schechter, at that time professor at the Cambridge University, discovered, on a page of an ancient manuscript bought in the East by Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis and Mrs. Margaret Dunlop Gibson, the Hebrew text of Sir 39,15 â 40,7. Other equally important discoveries followed.
Between 1896 and 1900, experts identified many fragments of the book of Ben Sira. Like the first one, these fragments came from the Karaite synagogue of Old Cairo. They belong to four manuscripts (A, B, C and D) dated between the 10th and the 12th centuries AD. In 1931, Joseph Marcus discovered a fifth manuscript among the fragments of the Adler Collection at the Hebrew Theological Seminary of America, the so-called MS E. Some twenty years later, other discoveries were made at Qumran. In 1952, fragments of the book of Ben Sira were found in the second cave (2Q18), and three years later a scroll with an important fragment of our book was discovered in cave 11 (11QPsa). The latter is dated from before 69 AD. In 1958 and 1960, two discoveries of Jefim Schirmann completed respectively the texts of MSS B and C. In 1964, the excavations at Masada recovered a very deteriorated leather scroll (26 pieces) containing fragments of Sir 39,27 â 43,30, dated before 73 AD. Finally, in 1982, Alexander Scheiber found a part of a sixth manuscript (MS F), previously unknown. He published it in a Hungarian review that was scarcely noticed in international circles. His work made little impression until it was treated in Alexander Di Lellaâs commentary, which came out in 1987. The author then published the manuscript in a better-known biblical journal.
At present, we estimate that we have two thirds (68 %) of the Hebrew text assembled from six manuscripts discovered in the genizah in Cairo and the fragments from Qumran and Masada4. Unfortunately, a large part of the text is still missing: Sir 1,1 â 3,5; 16,28 â 30,10 and 38,27 â 39,14. Among the lost sections, the most outstanding ones are: chapters 1 â 2 (on Wisdom and fear-of-the-Lord), chapter 24 (the praise of Wisdom) and 38,27 â 39,14 (a portrait of the sage).
1.2 Greek I (GkI)
The grandson of Ben Sira translated the work into Greekâthis information is furnished by the anonymous author of the Prologueâduring his stay in Egypt to instruct the Jews of the Diaspora5. He accomplished his task between the years 132 and 117 (under the reign of Ptolomeus VII, Evergetes II: 170 â 164 and 146 â 117 AD)6. The text of this version is called GkI or short form of the text. It is attested by the large uncial codices (A, B, C, and S), written metrically by lines, and other minor ones.
1.3 Hebrew II (HbII)
The manuscripts found in Cairo do not present a unified text. On one hand, many passages are repeated in two (this is most frequent) or more manuscripts; and, on the other hand, the large number of variations lead exegetes to believe in the existence of a long form of the Hebrew text, called HbII. Dated between 50 and 150 AD it is characterized by its additions, and its best illustration is MS A. Concerning the origin of HbII, there are diverging opinions: Hart considers HbII to be a revised form of HbI that should be attributed to the Pharisees, whereas Kearns, basing himself on a consideration of the eschatology of the long form, defends its Essene origin. This second form of the Hebrew textâwe only have a few samples of itâis the version on which GkII, VL and, in a confusing way, also the Syriac, version depend.
1.4 Greek II (GkII)
The long form of the Greek version, composed between the 1st century and the middle of the 2nd century AD, is called GkII and is represented by various minor manuscripts, among which the well-known codex 248 (cod. Vat. Gr. 347) stands out. The author did not provide a new translation, independent of GkI. On the contrary, he added to the original base text of GkI a word or groups of words (1,30e; 2,11a), lines (2,5c.9c; 12,6c; 16,18c; 18,33c) or entire verses (1,5.7; 3,19.25; 10,21; 11,15 â 16). With the exception of some lines of Greek origin, coming from the Alexandrine school of Aristobulus, the majority of them depend on the long form of the Hebrew text (HbII), which may have existed in one or more versions at the time that this compilation was produced.
2 The Book of Ben Sira in Rabbinic Judaism
When the Rabbinic Pharisees definitively closed the Jewish canon, at the Synod of Jamnia in 90 AD, the book of Ben Sira officially lost the character of a sacred book7. However, in spite of its exclusion from the canon, the work of the sage continued to be widely read among the Jews for several generations. In fact, the book of Ben Sira is the only non-canonical work of the Talmud used as Sacred Scripture and classified among the hagiographers.
The Jewish canon, according to the information provided by Flavius Josephus8, contains 22 books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; Joshua, Judges with Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra with Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah with Lamentations, Ezekiel, the minor prophets, Daniel; Psalms, Proverbs, Canticle, Qohelet). Their canonicity is based on the fact that they were composed during the period between Moses and Artaxerxes, i. e. before the end of the prophetic succession in Israel. According to t. Soášah 13,2, âWhen Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, the last prophets, died, ⌠the Holy Spirit disappeared from Israelâ.
Therefore, all the books written after the disappearance of the Holy Spirit are books that âdo not contaminate the handsâ because they are not sacred or canonical books. According to m. Yad. 2,13: âthe Gospels and the books of the heretics do not contaminate the hands. The books of Ben Sira9 and all the books that have been written later on do not contaminate the handsâ.
Another way of designating this category of books is the expression âexterior booksâ (those that do not form a part of the canon) in contrast to the âinterior booksâ (the canonical ones); see R. Aqiba, below.
Despite this rigorous distinction between canonical and non-canonical (interior and exterior) books, the book of Ben Sira, along with other works not included in the canon, remained popular with many Jews, who continued to consi...
