A man of cheerful and good heart will give heed to the food he eats: This verse is hopelessly unclear in Greek, and unfortunately, the Hebrew only makes things more confusing. There are several ways of understanding the Greek grammar, none of them convincing. The fundamental question is whether the two lines of this verse are two independent sentences (the first sentence would understand “is” as the verb, interpret and as “also,” and understand good as a predicate adjective) or whether they are one sentence, with the Greek verb rendered give heed coming at the end. There are questions as to the meaning of that verb, and the shade of meaning given good. There is also a question as to whether the second of the two prepositional phrases in Greek modifies the first one or whether it is to be taken with the verb of the second line (see the literal translation below for the two prepositional phrases here).

Here we simply offer our own suggested translation. To help the reader understand how we arrive at it, we will begin with a fairly literal translation of the verse, understanding the two lines as two separate sentences. We will then try to tease meaning out of that literal translation, bit by bit, until we arrive at our final translation. Here it goes:

A cheerful person is also good over food; he will take care with his food.
A cheerful person is also good at the table; he will take care with his food.
A cheerful person has a good attitude also at the table; he will take care with his food.
A cheerful person does not bring worries to the table; he can concentrate on his food.
A cheerful person does not bring worries to the table, and can enjoy his food.

The last rendering is the translation we offer. It tries to do some justice to the grammar; it tries to give the Greek word for good an interpretation appropriate to context; it tries to deal with the final verb in a responsible manner; and it is an appropriate conclusion to the paragraph beginning at verse 21, as well as to the entire subsection. We will not pretend that this solves any problems, but the translation is as good as any, and it is one we can feel fairly comfortable with. Any translator is free to use as a model any translation he chooses. Whatever the translator chooses to do, we suggest the following footnote: “This verse is unclear in Greek.”

From this point through chapter 36 there is some confusion in the chapter numbers. Those who are using Ziegler’s Greek text should follow the chapter numbers he gives in parentheses, but not the verse numbers he has in parentheses. Other translators will probably not be bothered by this problem. Simply follow this Handbook through the chapter numbers and verse numbers in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, and all will be well.

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.