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The centrality of the latter in Jewish life when the Seleucids took control is underscored by a major Jewish writer and teacher of this period, Jesus ben Sira (Beentjes 1997); and neither he, nor his hero the Zadokite high priest Simon II (the subject of Ben Sira 50:1–21) seem unduly perturbed about the change of overlords which occurred in their days. Ben Sira’s Wisdom book, composed in Hebrew and translated into Greek by his grandson (included in LXX under the title Sirach, and later known among Christians as Ecclesiasticus) displays no overt signs of political tension. While Ben Sira’s book may betray anxieties about relations between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the less privileged in Jewish society, the author is generally content with the world he inhabits. Significantly, he envisages no necessary conflict between Greek and Jewish spheres: he himself indirectly quotes Homer (14:18; cf. Iliad 6.146–149), clearly knows well the poetry of Theognis; and is even conversant with Egyptian Wisdom writings (Skehan and di Lella 1987). He emphatically advises his students to travel (34:10; 39:4); and, if he remains steadfast in his profound commitment to Judaism, and firm in his conviction that wisdom is embodied in the Torah and the service of the high priest in Jerusalem’s temple, this is not at the expense of the non-Jewish world, since he is firmly of the opinion that Wisdom has, in some measure, been granted to all humanity (Marböck 1999).