About This Text

Author: Ben Sira

Composed: Jerusalem, 180 CE

Ben Sira, also known as Ecclesiasticus, is an apocryphal poetic book of guidance for living a wise, ethical, and God-fearing life, composed in the second century BCE by a scribe in Jerusalem named Shimon ben Yeshua ben Elazar ben Sira. The book was translated into Greek by the author’s grandson, and by the early medieval period the original Hebrew was lost. In the late-19th century, fragments of the work in its original Hebrew were among the first texts discovered in the Cairo Genizah. Ben Sira is quoted several times in rabbinic literature and is the first known source for several customs that were later codified as law, like saying a blessing upon seeing a rainbow (Ben Sira 43:11).

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