《便西拉的字母》（The Alphabet of BenSira），又譯本司拉的知識，是中世紀時期一份佚名文獻，講述《舊約聖經》的次經《便西拉智訓》的作者、希伯來先知便西拉的生平，由受孕、出生、受教育到長大成人。《便西拉的字母》用希伯來語書寫，另外還有以亞蘭語書寫的古版，但內容略有不同。成書時間估計在公元 7 世紀至 11 世紀，很可能在 10 世紀。 在文獻中，便西拉以先知耶利米的兒子的身份被帶到巴比倫國王尼布甲尼撒二世的面前。尼布甲尼撒二世在法庭上向便西拉揭示四道神諭，並要求便西拉解釋這四道神諭的意思。便西拉於是利用了希伯來語的 22 個字母作開首，講述了 22 個故事來回應國王的問題。 有關莉莉絲的記述 本文獻宣稱猶太人在被虜到巴比倫的這段時期，曾一度有過莉莉絲的信仰。這在本書的結尾部份出現，內容記述如下。 漢語譯文（譯自英語譯文） 英語譯文 Soon afterward the young son of the king took ill Said Nebuchadnezzar Heal my son If you dont I will kill you Ben Sira immediately sat down and wrote an amulet with the Holy Name and he inscribed on it the angels in charge of medicine by their names forms and images and by their wings hands and feet Nebuchadnezzar looked at the amulet Who are these The angels who are in charge of medicine Snvi Snsvi and Smnglof After God created Adam who was alone He said It is not good for man to be alone Genesis 218 He then created a woman for Adam from the earth as He had created Adam himself and called her Lilith Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight She said I will not lie below and he said I will not lie beneath you but only on top For you are fit only to be in the bottom position while I am to be the superior one Lilith responded We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth But they would not listen to one another When Lilith saw this she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air Adam stood in prayer before his Creator Sovereign of the universe he said the woman you gave me has run away At once the Holy One blessed be He sent these three angels to bring her back Said the Holy One to Adam If she agrees to come back fine If not she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day The angels left God and pursued Lilith whom they overtook in the midst of the sea in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown They told her Gods word but she did not wish to return The angels said We shall drown you in the sea Leave me she said I was created only to cause sickness to infants If the infant is male I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth and if female for twenty days When the angels heard Liliths words they insisted she go back But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet I will have no power over that infant She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day Accordingly every day one hundred demons perish and for the same reason we write the angels names on the amulets of young children When Lilith sees their names she remembers her oath and the child recovers כתב תחתי 參考文獻 引用 來源 Eisenstein JD Alpha Beta Ben Sira in Otsar Midrashim vol 1 1915 Steinschneider Moritz Alphabeticum Syracidis Berlin 1854 Steinschneider Moritz Alphabeticum Syracidis utrumque cum expositione antiqua narrationes et fabulas continente Berlin 1858 David Stern Mark Jay Mirsky eds Rabbinic Fantasies Imaginative Narratives from Classical Hebrew Literature Yale Judaica Series 1998 ISBN 0300074026 Taylor C The Alphabet of Ben Sira in JQR 17 190405 238239 Taylor C The Alphabet of Ben Sira in Journal of Philology 30 1907 95132 Tobias Lachs Samuel The Alphabet of Ben Sira Gratz College Annual of Jewish Studies 11 1973 928 外部連結 SIRACH THE ALPHABET OF T Witton Davies International Standard Bible Encyclopedia The Alphabet Of Ben Sira A Not So Divine Comedy Rabbi Josh Yuter Ben Sira The Alphabet of Crawford Howell Toy Louis Ginzberg Jewish Encyclopedia Straight Dope Article on Lilith Fragment from the Alphabet of Ben Sirah Category 宗教文獻 Category 猶太教文獻 Category 中世紀資料 Category 希伯來語文獻