LiTERATURB. — The Standard books in NT Theology and ChriS: tian doctrine ; coinmeiiriirifs on the apostolic wrilin^a such as W. Sanday and A. C. Headlam, ICC, ' Koiniins,' Iviinburf;:!!, 1!)02; B. F. Westcott, The Kpislle to the Urijirjci:, London, 1SS9, Tlie EpLslks of A«. John, do., 1883 ; J. B. Mayor, Tlie KpisHe 0/ St. James'\ do., lUlO ; H. St. J. Thackeray, The Rflation of St. Paul to Cuntrmporary Jt.witih Tlitnuiht, do., UKKI; J. Laidlaw, The. Bihle llm-trine of Ma}i. new cil., Edin- hurj^h, 1805 ; J. S. Candlish, The lilbiical Doctrine of Sin, do., 1803 ; F. R. Tennant, The Ofigin and I'ropaijation oj ■Sin-, Cambridge, 1900, The Fall and Oritiinal Sin, do., 1903, The Concept of Sin, do., 1912 ; H. W. Robinson, The Christian Doctrine of Man, Edinburgh, 1011 ; F. J. Hall, KrolutUm and the Fall, London, 1910; A. Ritschl, Die chnstiiche I,ehre von der RechtJ'ertigung und Versohnaitg (Eng. tr.. The Christian Doctrine of Jxcstijication and lieconciliation, Edinburgh, 1900).
A. E. Garvie. SINAI. — The peninsula between the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Akabah ; also one of the higli peaks there. The peninsula is usually called in Scripture ' the desert (or wilderness) of Sinai.' St. Stephen (Ac 7"") recalls how an angel of the Lord ajipeared to Moses ' in the wilderness of mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.' Mount Sinai was a sacred mountain from very early times, being possibly connected with the worship of the Hahylonian moon-god Sin. In the Jewish tradition it was sacred to Jahweh, and was memorable as the place where God gave to Moses the 'lively oracles' (Ac 7"*). See, further, MOUNT, Mountain. For Gal 4--"- see Hagar. J. W. DUNCAN.
SINGING.— See Praise.
SIRACH.— Sirach {'^etpax or Sipax) is the Greek form of the name which in Syriac and post-biblical Hebrew is written ntp, and resembles in structure K-iii; and numerous other names which appear in late Hebrew lists (e.if. Ezr2), though its etymology is obscure. The Greek transliteration has been compared to 'AKeXoa/xax for sm '?pn in Ac 1", and appears to be an attempt to render a sound some- times called the glottal catch.
1. Author. — The person who bore this name was the father of a Jesus, author of a Hebrew work of which the original is lost, htit which is preserved in a Greek translation called 1o(pla 'IijaoD vlov lupixt a Syriac translation called The Word.i of Jesus son of iiimon called son of Astra (i.e. the Captive), and a Latin translation called Ecclesin.'sticus lesu filii Sirach. In the Jewish oral tradition it is cited as The Book of Ben-Sira, whereas according to Jerome it was called Proverbs. The Latin name is ex- plained by the Latin Father Kuhnus as a ' non- canonical book suited for churches'; but this is very proliaiily a conjecture, and the suggestion in the mediaeval chronicle called d^ivtid (A. Neubauer, iMci/ltcvnl Jeivish Chronicles, Oxford, 1SS7-95, i. 167) that the title was a Latin one derive<l from Ecclesiastes, i.e. ' Hook in the style of Ecclesi.astes,' is attractive. The Hebrew original doubtless perished when the rest of the non-canonical litera- tare in that language was destroyed : and such specimens as are preserved in the collections of oral tradition are exceedingly inaccurate, incon- sistent, and mixed up with biblical and other
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SIKACH
SIRACH
matter, while at times sayings of Ben-Sira are ascribed to utiier Kaliliis. In some cases the gradual niergiiif; of a saying of his in some biblical text can be followed in dilierent collections of tradition. From this source, then, nothing certain can be learned about him or his book.
In the colophon (50") some Greek MSS give the grandfather's name as Eleazar, and, as has been seen, the .Syriac gives the father's as Simon, sup-
f losing Asira to be an Aramaic sobriquet. The ast seems improbable, since we should have ex- pected the Hebrew form to be ben-ha-Asir ; but the word may have been a sobriquet, and the other statements may be correct.
To the Greek translation there is prefixed a pre- face of great interest, said to be the only known honest paragraph by any Israelite of this period, in which the translator states that the original was b\' his grandfather, a diligent student of the Law, the Prophets, and the other national books (a phrase whii-h represents the Rabbinical TNK, i.e. Law, Prophets, Writings, as a name for the OT), and that he himself had come to Ale.xandria in the year 38 under King Euergetes, and studied there for a long time. He implies further that the whole OT already existed in Greek. Though the chrono- logical expression is not perfectly clear, it seems probable that it should be interpreted as the year 38 of Euergetes II., which synchronizes with 132 B.C. The author in the Greek translation calls himself in the colophon (50'-') ' of Jerusalem,' ac- cording to some MSS ' a priest of Jerusalem ' ; and the list of eminent Israelites with which the book closes ends with an encomium on the high priest Simon son of Onias (' Nathania' of the Syriac is a corruption to be explained from the Syriac script). If this personage is to be identified with the Simon the Just of Josephus, his period of office appears to have been from 300 to 287 B.C., and the words of BenSira imply, though they do not distinctly state, that he had seen this Simon officiate. 'Vari- ous ways have been devised of reconciling the dates of the original and the translation, which ac- cording to this would be separated by about 150 years, though the translator was the grandson of the author ; probably the solution is to be found in the great uncertainty which attaches to the list of the high priests, as may be seen from the works of those who have endeavoured to restore it {e.g. L. Herzfeld, Gcwhichte des Volkes Jisrael", 2 vols., Leipzig, 1863, ii. Excursus 6). It is clear that Ben- Sira is pre-Maccabfean ; h\s floruit is probably to be placed near the end of the 3rd or the beginning of the 2nd pre-Christian century. The ajipendix to his work (ch. 51), which has the heading 'A Prayer of .lesns the son of Sirach,' contains some biographical details, but they are too vague and obscurely worded to convey much information. He claims to have travelled, and this may also be inferred from his praise of travel (31'°"'^), and in both passages he asserts that he had many times been in great danger ; in the Prayer he specifies an occasion when he had been falsely accused before a king. Neither this nor the other perils which he enumerates are anywhere explained in detail. Since in 43^^ he quotes hearsay for the dangers of the sea, we should infer that he had not himself crossed it ; it is noticeable that he gives the correct seasons for the overflow of the rivers Jordan, Tigris, and Nile (24'-^-^), and, though the first of these may have been got from Jos 3'°, the others could scarcely have been learned from the Bible. If (as seems likely) the account of the scribe in ch. 39 is autobiographical, he must at some time have obtained employment at a Court.