ECCLESIASTICUS OR THE WISDOM OF THE SON OF SIRACH

This book was originally written in Hebrew by Joshua Ben Sira of Jerusalem a few years before the outbreak of the Maccabean persecution. It was translated by his grandson into Greek, and until recently the book was known only in its Greek form, but by a surprising series of discoveries nearly the whole of the work is now extant in a Hebrew text.

The book falls into two distinct and unequal divisions. The first forty-three chapters comprise, in the main, a text-book of morals, which is of great value as reflecting the manners and customs of the age. The last eight chapters are occupied chiefly with the beautiful prose-hymn known as “The Praise of Famous Men.”

The title “Ecclesiasticus” marks the book as the most important or the most popular of the Ecclesiastical Books.