The rich and complex traditions which we find about sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible were passed on and cherished by priests and scribes of Second Temple times (520 BC–AD 70), and the ancient rituals prescribed by the scriptures were, for the most part, faithfully carried out day by day. But what might sacrifice mean? Once the Torah had been acknowledged by the Jews as the Word of God, the unfailing and unfaltering guide to the pious individual in his journey through life and the state constitution of the Chosen People (see Neh. 8–9), such a question would inevitably arouse interest. At least one profound thinker of Second Temple times, Jesus ben Sira, was concerned with our topic, and his theological insights are not without significance for Jewish sacrificial ideology in general and for one particular aspect of New Testament theology.

The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira is of outstanding importance for the study of pre-rabbinic Judaism. Indeed, it has been justifiably described as ‘the most crucial source that we possess of the period preceding the Hasmonean revolt’ (Rivkin 1963, 322). It is to be dated to the first decades of the second century BC (Stadelmann 1980, 1–4, Eissfeldt 1966, 597). As such, it gives us a precious glimpse of Jewish social, economic, political and religious life in the land of Israel before the Hellenistic crisis came to a head and shattered the old way of life as it had been lived under the Zadokite high priests. The book was highly esteemed by very different groups of Jews.