the Jewish 'fathers,' and a saying of his is given in Pirke Aboth, i. 10. It is remarkable that the very same passage of
Bereshith Rabba (c. 91) which contains this wise man's
quotations from Koheleth (see above) also contains one from
Sirach introduced with the formula (
Hebrew characters)(Transliteration from Hebrew: bmkr) dbn syr) khtb), 'in the
book of Ben Sira it is written.' The quotation is, 'Exalt her,
and she shall set thee between princes'—apparently a genuine
saying of Ben Sira (Sirach), though not found in our Ecclesiasticus.
The first word ('Exalt her') comes, it is true, from
Prov. iv. 8, but, as Dr. Wright remarks,[1] Ben Sira 'was fond
of tacking on new endings to old proverbs.' At a much
later period, a quotation from Ben Sira (Sir. vii. 10?) is
made by Rab (about 165-247 A.D.) introduced with the
formula (Hebrew characters)(Transliteration from Hebrew: msvm sn)mr), 'because it is said,' Erubin, c. 65a.
Strack indeed supposes that Rab meant to quote from
canonical Scripture, but by a slip quoted from Ben Sira
instead; but this is too bold a conjecture. Lastly, Rabba
(about 270-330 A.D.) quotes a saying of our book (Sir. xiii.
15; xxvii. 9) as 'repeated a third time in the Kethubhim
(the Hagiographa)'—(Hebrew characters)(Transliteration from Hebrew: msvlw bkhtvbim), Baba Kamma, c. 92b.
It is quite true that, according to the Talmudic passage referred to on p. 196, the Book of Ben Sira stands on the border-line between the canonical and the non-canonical literature: the words are, 'The Books of Ben Sira, and all books which were written thenceforward, do not defile the hands.' But taking this in connection with the vehement declaration of Rabbi Akiba that the man who reads Ben Sira and other 'extraneous' books has no portion in the world to come,[2] we may safely assume that the Book of Ben Sira had a position of exceptional authority with not a few Jewish readers. It is equally certain, as the above quotations show, that even down to the beginning of the fourth century A.D. sayings of Sirach were invested with the authority of Scripture. Whatever, then, may have been the theory (and no one pretends that the Synods of Jamnia placed Sirach
