The Book of Wisdom That Almost Made It into the Hebrew Bible

In the Septuagint—the Greek translation of the Tanakh used by many ancient Jews, which introduced Jewish scripture to the Gentile world—there is something called the book of Ben Sira, sometimes known as Ecclesiasticus. This text, which bears some resemblance to Proverbs, can be found in the Bibles of the Catholic Church and some other Christian denominations, but never made it into the Jewish canon. It is, however, occasionally cited by the Talmud and some other rabbinic works. In conversation with J.J. Kimche, Michael Satlow explains what is known about Ben Sira, its relationship to Judaism and to Jewish scripture, and its content and meaning. (Audio, 54 minutes.)