Sapientialised Priest?: Reconsidering the Priestly Torah in Sirach

Scholars have maintained that Ben Sira belongs to a priestly group, or a circle of scribe-sages subjugated to priests, and that the book of Sirach hints at a merger of the created and priestly orders. The book’s harmonization of sapiential and Zadokite strands of Judaism might justify its identification with Jerusalemite priestly groups, but it is misleading to conclude that Sirach merges these two separate traditions. Its wisdom discourses are an adaptation of Proverbs in which Ben Sira, as a Jewish scribe, grants authority and power to the Zadokites on the model of Proverbs’ divine wisdom.