Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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Historic voices 1 ▾
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1× 20
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Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325
What is Sirach 50 about?

The praise of the fathers reaches its height in Simon the high priest, son of Onias, a figure of Ben Sira's own generation. His repair of the temple and fortifying of the city are noted, and then his glory is described as he came out from the sanctuary and ministered at the altar, robed in splendor, encircled by the priests, the trumpets sounding, the people falling down in worship, and the blessing pronounced over them in the name of the LORD. A closing benediction, a sharp word against the neighboring peoples Ben Sira despised, and the author's own signature bring the section to its end. Presenting the temple service in its full solemnity, the chapter commends the worship of God as the crown of Israel's remembered greatness.

Historical backdrop

Ben Sira taught in Jerusalem around 180 BC, in the last calm before the storm. Judea had passed from Ptolemaic to Seleucid hands, Greek ways pressed in from every side, and the second temple still stood in the glory the high priest Simon had restored, the Simon whose splendor the book remembers. Within a generation Antiochus would defile that temple, and the grandson who carried the work to Egypt and turned it into Greek wrote in the aftermath, for the Jews of Alexandria.

The Church Fathers on Sirach 50
Deuterocanon (Catholic & Orthodox) · Accepted as canonical Scripture by the Catholic and Orthodox traditions and included in the original 1611 KJV (between the Old and New Testaments). Not in the Protestant 66-book canon. Read with the same care you bring to other Scripture, conscious that Protestants and Catholics weigh its authority differently.

Sirach 50

Sirach Chapter 50
50
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What is Sirach 50 about?

The praise of the fathers reaches its height in Simon the high priest, son of Onias, a figure of Ben Sira's own generation. His repair of the temple and fortifying of the city are noted, and then his glory is described as he came out from the sanctuary and ministered at the altar, robed in splendor, encircled by the priests, the trumpets sounding, the people falling down in worship, and the blessing pronounced over them in the name of the LORD. A closing benediction, a sharp word against the neighboring peoples Ben Sira despised, and the author's own signature bring the section to its end. Presenting the temple service in its full solemnity, the chapter commends the worship of God as the crown of Israel's remembered greatness.