Background and History

The chapters above are the King James Apocrypha. This essay is the setting of Sirach: who is said to have written it, when and where the book places the story, what happens in it, which copies have been found, and why the Protestant canon does not include it.

Canon and Authorship

Jerome’s prologue, under Church Lists, sets the book of Jesus son of Sirach outside the canon. Westminster Confession 1.3 refuses the books commonly called Apocrypha. Trent and the later Catholic and Orthodox sentences that receive the book are quoted in that same section.

The prologue says the grandfather Jesus wrote in Hebrew, and that the translator came into Egypt when Euergetes was king. The Catholic Encyclopedia says the author is not Solomon, and that Augustine said the more learned knew the book should not be referred to him.

At a Glance

Author	Jesus, son of Sirach, of Jerusalem in the Greek and Latin. His grandson says he translated the book.
Date	The Catholic Encyclopedia reads the prologue’s thirty-eighth year as 132 B.C., under Ptolemy VII, and places the grandfather about 190–170 B.C. if the high priest is Simon II, or about 280 B.C. if he is Simon I.
Place	Jerusalem, in the Greek and Latin description of the author. The Catholic Encyclopedia says that phrase is not in the Hebrew.
Genre	A wisdom book of proverbs, a praise of Israel’s worthies, and a closing prayer.
Chapters	51
Verses	1393 in this King James Apocrypha
Key verse	Sirach 3:30 Apocrypha Not part of the 66-book Protestant canon. Catholic and Orthodox churches accept these books as deuterocanonical. Water will quench a flaming fire; and alms maketh an atonement for sins.Sirach 3:30 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source

Setting

The King James prints two prefaces before Sirach 1

^1:1 All wisdom cometh from the Lord, and is with him for ever. ^1:2 Who can number the sand of the sea, and the drops of rain, and the days of eternity? ^1:3 Who can find out the height of heaven, and the breadth of the earth, and the deep, and wisdom?Sirach 1 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source. The first is headed as a prologue by an uncertain author. The second is the prologue of the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach. In that second prologue the translator says his grandfather Jesus gave himself to the law, the prophets, and other books of the fathers, and then wrote something of learning and wisdom. He asks the reader to pardon the translation, because the same things uttered in Hebrew do not have the same force in another tongue. He says he came into Egypt in the eight and thirtieth year, when Euergetes was king, and found a book of no small learning.

The Text

The Catholic Encyclopedia says the Greek prologue’s genuineness is undoubted, and that the book was written in Hebrew. Jerome, in his preface to the Solomonic books, spoke of a Hebrew original still existing in his day. The Latin title Ecclesiasticus is the name the Council of Trent used. The encyclopedia says the author is not Solomon. Augustine said the more learned knew it should not be referred to him.

Manuscripts

The encyclopedia describes Hebrew fragments found in the years before it was written, and a dispute over whether they were the original or a late retranslation. The Dead Sea Scrolls site lists Ben Sira among the Apocrypha works found among the Scrolls. Its discovery-sites page says the 1963–65 excavation at Masada found a Hebrew text of Ben Sira together with biblical scrolls. A Cairo Geniza copy was not verified for this page and is not cited.

Structure and Themes

The encyclopedia divides the book into maxims like Proverbs, descriptions of wisdom, a praise of God’s works in nature, and a praise of Israel’s worthies from Enoch to the high priest Simon, with a subscription and a closing prayer in chapter 51. Sirach 3:30

Water will quench a flaming fire; and alms maketh an atonement for sins.Sirach 3:30 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source says water will quench a flaming fire, and alms make an atonement for sins.

Rulers at the Time

The encyclopedia reads the Greek prologue as the thirty-eighth year of Ptolemy Euergetes. It says Ptolemy III reigned only twenty-five years (247–222 B.C.), so the king must be Ptolemy VII, and the year 132 B.C. It then places the grandfather about forty to sixty years earlier, between 190 and 170 B.C., if Simon son of Onias is Simon II, about 200 B.C. It also records the other view, which identifies Simon I, about 300 B.C., and dates the book about 280 B.C. The King James English says “in the eight and thirtieth year coming into Egypt, when Euergetes was king,” and does not itself print the year 132.

Issues With This Book

Sirach 3:30

Water will quench a flaming fire; and alms maketh an atonement for sins.Sirach 3:30 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source is the sentence cited when almsgiving is said to atone for sins. This site has no article devoted only to almsgiving. The prologue’s own account is that the book was written in Hebrew after the law, the prophets, and other ancestral books, and then translated. The Church Lists section quotes Jerome’s statement that Sirach is not in the canon, and the decrees that later receive it.

On This Site

These articles quote the church lists and the passages that those lists argue from. They link back to this collection.

Church Lists

The Council of Trent, session 4 (1546), receives Tobias, Judith, Esther, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch with Jeremiah, Daniel, and two books of Maccabees, and it anathematizes a knowing refusal. That decree’s first and second books of Esdras are Ezra and Nehemiah, not the books titled 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras in this King James Apocrypha. The decree does not name the Prayer of Manasseh as its own book. The English of the decree is quoted on How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 120 says the Church discerned the canon by apostolic Tradition and counts 46 Old Testament books, including Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

The Confession of Dositheus, from the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672, answers “What Books do you call Sacred Scripture?” by naming, among the books Cyril Lucaris had called Apocrypha, “The Wisdom of Solomon,” “Judith,” “Tobit,” “The History of the Dragon,” “The History of Susanna,” “The Maccabees,” and “The Wisdom of Sirach,” and it says “we judge these also to be with the other genuine Books of Divine Scripture genuine parts of Scripture.” That sentence, on the English hosted by CRI/Voice, does not name 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, or the Prayer of Manasseh. The host says the English is adapted from J. N. W. B. Robertson’s 1899 translation. The brackets around “Bel and the Dragon” on that page are the editor’s.

Anglican Article VI says the other books, “as Hierome saith,” the Church “doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine.” The article’s other books include the Third and Fourth of Esdras, Tobias, Judith, the rest of Esther, Wisdom, Jesus the Son of Sirach, Baruch, the Song of the Three Children, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, and the First and Second of Maccabees. Its canonical First and Second of Esdras are Ezra and Nehemiah. The sentence is on the Articles of Religion and on What Do Anglicans Believe?

The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.

That is Westminster Confession 1.3, as printed by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. What Do Protestants Believe? quotes the same paragraph.

The Lutherhaus Wittenberg records a complete German Bible of 1534, printed by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg, titled Biblia, das ist, die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch. A Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek record of a 1536 Lufft Apocrypha title page reads “Apocrypha. Das sind Bücher: so nicht der heiligen Schrifft gleich gehalten: und doch nützlich und gut zu lesen sind.” Bruce Metzger, writing in Christianity Today in 1957, says the 1534 edition gathered the books between the Old and New Testaments under that heading and did not include 1 and 2 Esdras. The 1534 leaf itself was not opened for this page.

The New Testament and These Books

These pages do not cite a sentence in the New Testament that names Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, or Maccabees as Scripture. Jude 14 says Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, and the next verse continues that prophecy. First Enoch is not one of the fourteen books in this King James Apocrypha. The text and the history are on 1 Enoch.

1 Maccabees 9:27 says there was great affliction in Israel, “the like whereof was not since the time that a prophet was not seen among them.” 2 Maccabees 15:38 is the writer’s own limit: if the story is done well, that is what he desired, and if slenderly and meanly, that is what he could attain.

2 Maccabees 12:44 says that if Judas had not hoped the slain would rise, it would have been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. Verse 45 says he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin. This King James text has no verse 12:46. The Catechism’s footnote 607 names 2 Maccabees 12:46 for that reconciliation. Is Purgatory Biblical? quotes the churches on that dispute and does not decide it.

Tobit 12:9 says alms deliver from death and shall purge away all sin. Sirach 3:30 says water quenches a flaming fire and alms make an atonement for sins. Those sentences are what the pages that discuss almsgiving and atonement are quoting. This site does not have a separate article whose only subject is alms.

Jewish Lists

Josephus, Against Apion 1.8 (William Whiston’s translation), says the Jews have “only twenty two books, which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine,” five of them Moses, thirteen the prophets after Moses through Artaxerxes, and four hymns and precepts. History written since Artaxerxes “hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of Prophets since that time.”

Jerome’s prologue to Kings, the Prologus Galeatus, in Kevin P. Edgecomb’s public-domain translation, counts twenty-two books and says “whatever is outside of these is set aside among the apocrypha.” He names Wisdom, “the book of Jesus son of Sirach,” Judith, and Tobias as not in the canon, and he says the first book of Maccabees is Hebrew and the second is Greek. The translation is at tertullian.org.

Athanasius, Festal Letter 39 (367), counts twenty-two Old Testament books and includes “Jeremiah with Baruch, Lamentations, and the epistle” as one book. He then names Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Sirach, Esther, Judith, and Tobit as “not indeed included in the Canon, but appointed by the Fathers to be read.” The English is the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers text on New Advent.

Melito of Sardis, quoted by Eusebius in Church History 4.26.14, lists the Old Testament books he learned in the East. The list includes “Wisdom also” and does not name Tobit, Judith, Sirach, or the books of Maccabees.

The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), “Bible Canon,” says the Jewish canon is twenty-four books: the five of the Law, eight of the Prophets, and eleven Writings. It summarizes the baraita in Bava Batra 14b as Law; Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the Minor Prophets); and Writings (Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Chronicles). That summary does not include Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch as its own book, or Maccabees. The English of the Talmud on Sefaria is copyrighted, so this page does not reprint it.

3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, and Psalm 151 are not in this King James text.

Sirach