From a woman sin had its beginning, and because of her we all die: This verse is usually interpreted as referring to Eve’s act of disobedience in Eden; compare 1 Tim 2.13-14; 2 Cor 11.3. Jack Levison has argued that this is not required, or even correct. He quotes an interesting parallel passage from one of the Dead Sea scrolls to support his argument. Woman here refers to wives, not Eve, and we refers to husbands, not humanity. After all, this section deals with relations between wives and husbands, not with the origin of human sinfulness. The bad wife is blamed here for leading her husband to sin. Ben Sira nowhere else associates death with Adam and Eve; indeed, in 17.1-2 death is presented simply as part of life, part of God’s intention. Moreover, in 26.1-2 (three verses down), ben Sira clearly says that a good wife helps her husband lead a long life. There is a progressive movement in verses 22-24. We move from anger to depression to helplessness to sin and finally to death—although “death” is possibly an overstatement, a figure of speech. In 30.21-23 the author speaks of mental attitudes that either shorten life or lengthen it. We think that Levison’s argument is convincing. Following his interpretation of this verse, these are possible models for it:

• Our wives can drag us all into sin, and they can lead us to an early grave.

• Our wives can make all of us [husbands] sin, and they can also make us die early.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Sirach. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.