Ben Sira

Ben Sira (fl. 2nd century BCE) was a Hellenistic Jewish scribe, sage, and allegorist from Jerusalem. He is the author of the Book of Sirach, also known as the Book of Ecclesiasticus.

Ben Sira is also known as Shimon ben Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira, or Jesus Ben Sira. He wrote his work in Hebrew, possibly in Alexandria, Egypt ca. 180–175 BCE, where he is thought to have established a school.

Some commentators claim Ben Sira was a contemporary of Simon the Just (Shim`on HaTzadik), although it is more likely that his contemporary was High Priest Simon II (219–199 BCE).

A medieval text, the Alphabet of Sirach, has been attributed to Ben Sira.

The surname Sira may mean "thorn" [Hebrew (Ecclesiastes 7:6, Hosea 2:6)], "white of the eye" (Mishnaic Hebrew), or "boat" [Hebrew, according to one reading of Amos 4:2]. Sira could also be an Aramaicized form of a family name ha-qots "the thorn" (Ezra 2:51).

In the Greek text, the author's father is called "Jesus the son of Sirach of Jerusalem". Jesus is the Anglicized form of the Greek name Ἰησοῦς, the equivalent of the Aramaic borrowed from Late Biblical Hebrew "Yeshua`", derived from the older Masoretic Hebrew "Yehoshua`".

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.

M.Z. Segal, in his commentary on Ben Sira, concluded that the long form with "Shim`on" should be accepted as original and suggested that the common naming of the book "Ben Sira" is because so many people were named Shim`on at the end of the Second Temple period that people often used the family name without Shim`on.

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