The Other Jesus Who Wrote Scripture (Dan McClellan and Dan Beecher; Data Over Dogma podcast on YouTube)

His name was Jesus, and he wrote a book of the Bible. No, not THAT Jesus.

This episode: is it canon? This week's contender has more names than a witness protection program: Sirach, Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus. It came closer than almost any book to making the Jewish canon, written in Hebrew around 180 BCE and translated into Greek by the author's own grandson. So why'd it get left out? The author made one fatal mistake: he was honest about who he was and when he wrote it. The guys who lied about being ancient prophets? They made the cut.

Chapters:

0:00 Welcome + this week's mystery book 

1:10 Meet Sirach: a book by many names 

1:50 The grandson's Greek translation 

2:18 Dating it: a king, a high priest, a 21-year window 

4:46 The surviving Hebrew manuscripts 

6:00 Was it ever scripture? Why it got left out 

8:03 Wisdom literature — and Wisdom as Torah 

10:10 An honest (and doomed) gambit 

11:44 Reading the prologue 

15:58 The versification problem (Hebrew vs. English) 

19:02 Dreams, ancestors, and a "wear sunscreen" vibe 

24:27 So... is it canon?

Interview: 

https://youtu.be/dCLaTULTAwo?si=zInI-nzcCNa2yK50