Open English Translation SIR Introduction

Introduction

The Wisdom of Yeshua the son of Sira, also known as Sirach or Ecclesiasticus, is a collection of teaching about how to live wisely. The writer identifies himself as a teacher from Yerushalem (Jerusalem). In the prologue preserved below, his grandson explains that he translated his grandfather’s work from Hebrew into Greek so that more people could benefit from its instruction.

Like Proverbs, this book connects wisdom with respecting God and obeying his instructions. Its advice reaches into everyday life: choosing friends, caring for parents, using money, controlling what we say, bringing up children, eating and drinking, dealing with illness, and grieving for the dead. Its topics often return in different settings, so the opening forty-two chapters are best read as a collection of related teachings rather than as one continuous argument.

The later chapters praise God’s wisdom in creation and remember earlier generations of Yisrael’s (Israel’s) leaders, priests, and prophets. This leads to a description of the high priest Shim’on (Simon) and the worship at the temple. The book ends with a prayer of thanks and a personal account of seeking wisdom, inviting readers to become learners themselves.

The Wisdom of Yeshua the Son of Sira, also called Ecclesiasticus, is recognised as Deuterocanonical Scripture by the Romaios Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Russian Orthodox Churches.

The Prologue of the Wisdom of Yeshua the Son of Sira.

WHEREAS many and great things have been delivered to us by the law and the prophets, and by the others that have followed in their steps, for which we must give Yisrael the praise for instruction and wisdom; and since not only the readers need to become skilful themselves, but also those who love learning must be able to profit those who are outside, both by speaking and writing; my grandfather Yeshua, having much given himself to the reading of the law, and the prophets, and the other books of our fathers, and having gained great familiarity with them, was also drawn on himself to write somewhat pertaining to instruction and wisdom, in order that those who love learning, and are devoted to these things, might make progress much more by living according to the law. You are entreated therefore to read with favour and attention, and to pardon us, if in any parts of what we have laboured to interpret, we may seem to fail in some of the phrases. Because things originally spoken in Hebrew don’t have the same force in them when they are translated into another language. Not only these, but the law itself, and the prophecies, and the rest of the books, have no small difference, when they are spoken in their original language. Because having come into Mitsrayim in the thirty-eighth year of Energetes the king, and having continued there some time, I found a copy giving no small instruction. I thought it therefore most necessary for me to apply some diligence and travail to translate this book, applying indeed much watchfulness and skill in that space of time to bring the book to an end and publish for them also, who in the land of their travels are desiring to learn, preparing their character in advance, so as to live according to the law.

This is still an early look into the unpolished text of the Open English Translation of the Bible. Please double-check the text in advance before using in public.