Sirach or Ecclesiasticus title

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The Book of Sirach is also called The Book of Ecclesiasticus.
Which title came first: Sirach or Ecclesiasticus?
 
CyrilSebastian said:
The Book of Sirach is also called The Book of Ecclesiasticus.
Code: 
 Which title came first: Sirach or Ecclesiasticus?
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The Greek title is *Sophia Iesou uiou Seirach. St. Jerome said it was in the Hebrew **“Mishle” of Jesus of Sirach, which is the same meaning. **Latin writers used titles which derived from Greek names.

See Catholic Encyclopedia.
 
As I understand it Ecclesiasticus, loosely translated, means “assembly” or Church book. Since this was an exposition of the condensed wisdom of Yeshua ben Sira (or Sirach), the title Ecclesiasticus would seem to have been appended at a later date when it was in more widespread use.
 
CyrilSebastian said:
The Book of Sirach is also called The Book of Ecclesiasticus.
Code: 
 Which title came first: Sirach or Ecclesiasticus?
Click to expand...
The actual title of the book was The Wisdom of Joshua ben-Sira (‘Jesus son of Sirach’ in Greek)*, which is often abbreviated as Jesus Sirach or just Sirach (ben-Sira in Hebrew). Some of the Greek Fathers also called it ‘The All-virtuous Wisdom’.
  • Note: the actual author identifies himself as “Joshua (= Yeshua) son of Eleazar son of Sira” in 50:27. So ‘Sira(ch)’ is actually the author’s grandfather’s name!
Some Christians - mainly Latin ones - called Sirach the ‘Church’s Book’ (liber ecclesiasticus). The term is quite old (dating back to the time of St. Cyprian in the mid-3rd century AD), but we don’t exactly know why they called it that way. Maybe because Christians used Sirach both in the liturgy and in presenting moral teaching to the faithful (a ‘guide to living’ of sorts, if you will).

So to answer your question: ‘Sirach’ came first.
 
patrick457 said:
The actual title of the book was The Wisdom of Joshua ben-Sira (‘Jesus son of Sirach’ in Greek)*, which is often abbreviated as Jesus Sirach or just Sirach (ben-Sira in Hebrew). Some of the Greek Fathers also called it ‘The All-virtuous Wisdom’.
  • Note: the actual author identifies himself as “Joshua (= Yeshua) son of Eleazar son of Sira” in 50:27. So ‘Sira(ch)’ is actually the author’s grandfather’s name!
Some Christians - mainly Latin ones - called Sirach the ‘Church’s Book’ (liber ecclesiasticus). The term is quite old (dating back to the time of St. Cyprian in the mid-3rd century AD), but we don’t exactly know why they called it that way. Maybe because Christians used Sirach both in the liturgy and in presenting moral teaching to the faithful (a ‘guide to living’ of sorts, if you will).

So to answer your question: ‘Sirach’ came first.
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Thank you, Patrick! You are in my prayers.
 
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