- Ben Sira
Ben Sira was the author of the deuterocanonical book
Sirach .His name
The evidence seems to show that the author's name was Shimon (Simon), son of Yeshua (Jesus/Joshua), son of Eleazar, son of Sira. [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05263a.htm] In the Greek text, the author is called "Jesus the son of Sirach of Jerusalem." (l.27) "Jesus" is the Anglicized form of the Greek name "Ιησους", the equivalent of
Syriac "Yeshua`" andMasoretic Hebrew "Yehoshua`". The 'ch' on the end of "Sira" means "of"; thus "ben Sirach" means "son of Sira".The copy owned by
Saadia Gaon , the prominent rabbi, Jewish philosopher, and exegete of the 10th Century CE, had the reading "Shim`on, son of Yeshua`, son of El`azar ben Sira"; and a similar reading occurs in the Hebrew manuscript B. By interchanging the positions of the names "Shim`on" and "Yeshua`," the same reading is obtained as in the other manuscripts.The correctness of the name "Shim`on" is confirmed by the Syriac version, which has "Yeshua`, son of Shim`on, surnamed Bar Asira." The discrepancy between the two readings "Bar Asira" and "Bar Sira" is a noteworthy one, "Asira" ("prisoner") being a popular etymology of "Sira."
The surname Sira means "the thorn" in Aramaic. The Greek form, Sirach, adds the letter chi similar to Hakeldama"ch" in Acts 1:19.
His life
According to the Greek version, though not according to the Syriac, the author traveled extensively (xxxiv. 11) and was frequently in danger of death (ib. verse 12). In the hymn of chapter li. he speaks of the perils of all sorts from which God had delivered him, although this is probably only a poetic theme in imitation of the
Psalms . The calumnies to which he was exposed in the presence of a certain king, supposed to be one of thePtolemaic dynasty , are mentioned only in the Greek version, being ignored both in the Syriac and in the Hebrew text. The only fact known with certainty, drawn from the text itself, is that Ben Sira was a scholar, and a scribe thoroughly versed in the Law, and especially in the "Books of Wisdom."Ben Sirah, a
Jew who had been living inJerusalem , may have authored the work inAlexandria ,Egypt "circa" 180–175 BC , where he is thought to have established a school. [See Guillaume, Phillipe. "New Light on the Nebiim from Alexandria: A Chronography to Replace the Deuteronomistic History": sections 3 – 5: full notes and bibliography]References
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