Jesus the Son of Sirach

Jesus (Joshua) the son of Sirach was a Jewish scribe and wisdom teacher in Jerusalem who composed the book known as Ecclesiasticus (or the Wisdom of Ben Sira) around 180 BC, during the period between the Testaments. He belongs to the tradition of Israelite wisdom literature, but unlike Proverbs and Job, Ben Sira identifies wisdom explicitly with the Torah of Moses (Sir. 24:23), producing a synthesis of Hellenistic-era wisdom and Jewish covenantal piety. His grandson translated the work from Hebrew into Greek in Egypt around 132 BC, as explained in the book's prologue. The book addresses practical ethics, the fear of God, the praise of famous biblical men (Sir. 44–50), and liturgical hymns. Though not in the Jewish or Protestant canon, Ecclesiasticus is included in the deuterocanonical books of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions and was widely quoted by early church fathers. Portions of the original Hebrew text were recovered among the Cairo Geniza manuscripts in the late nineteenth century and in the Masada scrolls in the 1960s.