Wisomd of Sirach
Book of Ecclesiasticus

The apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus explicitly names freedom of the will as an element in God's creation.

Together, Cowley and Neubauer published The Original Hebrew of a Portion of Ecclesiasticus (1897) and Facsimiles of the Fragments Hitherto Recovered of the Book of Ecclesiasticus in Hebrew (1901).

Rav loved the Book of Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), and warned his disciple Hamnuna against unjustifiable asceticism by quoting advice contained therein-that, considering the transitoriness of human life (Eruvin 54a), one should not despise the good things of this world.

I concluded on inserting in the form of a note, in my work, a passage from the book of Ecclesiasticus, which declared the rupture and even the subject of it, in terms sufficiently clear to such as were acquainted with the previous circumstances, but could signify nothing to the rest of the world.