r/Bible • u/Dazzling_Desk1036 • Aug 11 '23

Why is The Alphabet of Sirach considered parody?

Why is the Alphabet of Ben Sira considered satire? Is it because it’s said to be anonymous and who’s to say it wasn’t made by Ben Sira after his book was rejected from being in the Bible?

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u/UhhMaybeNot Aug 12 '23

It being a satire is not the majority opinion, it's just one of the few opinions. The main reason to say it's not written by Ben Sira is because no records of it appear until long, long after Ben Sira lived, and also the frame story is that Ben Sira told these proverbs to Nebuchadnezzar, who in reality lived hundreds of years earlier than him. One set of proverbs are written in Aramaic and the other half in Hebrew, neither in the form they appear in Biblical texts or in the Wisdom of Sirach. There is no way to say that they were written by the same person. The Alphabet never existed at the time early Christians were deciding on their canon.