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Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 1
TRANSLATOR’S FOREWORD
1 Many and wonderful are the gifts we have been granted by means of the Law and the Prophets
2 and the others that followed them,
3 an education in wisdom on which Israelis indeed to be complimented.
4 But it is not enough merely for those who read the scriptures to be learned in them;
5 students should also be able to be of use to people outside
6 by what they say and write.
7 So it was that my grandfather Jesus,
8 having devoted himself more and more to reading the Law
9 and the prophets and
10 the other volumes of the fathers,
11 and having gained ability enough in these matters,
12 was brought to the point of himself writing down of the things that have a bearing on education and wisdom,
13 in order that those studiously inclined and with obligations in these maters
14 might make all the more progress in living according to the Law.
15 You are therefore asked
16 to read this book
17 with good will and attention :
18 and to show indulgence
19 in those places where, notwithstanding our efforts at interpretation, we may seem
20 to have failed ,to give an adequate rendering of this or that expression;
21 the fact is that you cannot find an equivalent
22 for things originally written in Hebrew when you come to translate them into another language;
23 what is more,
24 you will find on examination that the Law itself, the Prophets
25 and the other books
26 differ considerably in translation from what appears in the original text.
27 It was in the thirty-eighth year of the late King Euergetes[*a],
28 when after my arrival in Egypt I had already spent some time there,
29 that I found a work of more than common instructional worth,
30 which convinced me of the urgency of applying myself in my turn with pains and diligence to the translation of the book that follows;
31 and I spent much time and learning on it
32 in the course of this period,
33 to complete the work and to publish the book
34 for the benefit especially of those who, domiciled abroad, wish to study how to fit themselves
35 and their manners for living according to the Law.