Yeshua ben Sira ישוע בן סירא
wrote a book of wisdom and described the high priest he had seen
Ben Sira wrote his book in Hebrew about 180–175 BCE. It is a book of wisdom, standing beside Proverbs in its manner of speech and far from it in time: centuries lie between them.
It was not received into the canon of the Tanakh and belongs to the sefarim hitzonim. Yet it cannot be called discarded either: the Talmud in Sanhedrin discusses whether it may be read and quotes sayings from it, and the sages cite it for centuries. The Hebrew original was lost and found again—in the Cairo Genizah.
For the timeline it has a value of its own: its fiftieth chapter describes the high priest Simon coming forth from the Sanctuary, through the eyes of a man who stood there.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Documents of the period
- Ben Sira 50 — a description of the high priest Simon made in his lifetime; one of the sefarim hitzonim, discussed in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 100b)
Scholarship
- Reference literature: years of the high priesthood — the years of office by the agreed count of the reference literature; scholars differ, and the differences are named
Basis: documents and evidence.