"... the formerly widespread assumption that the text of Sirach shows knowledge of the text of Qoheleth has been challenged in recent years. In 1993 Franz-Josef Backhaus systematically analyzed the 35 verses most commonly held to reflect this influence and the general theme of “carpe diem.” He concluded that in every case there was no evidence of direct literary contact between the two books, though he was careful to note Ben Sira’s knowledge of the content of Qoheleth cannot be ruled out. A few years later the question of an intertextual relationship between the two books was revisited by two leading scholars of Sirach, Maurice Gilbert and Johannes Marböck. Gilbert’s article focused principally on Ben Sira’s teaching regarding the enjoyment of life in 14:11–16, a passage frequently thought to show awareness of Qoheleth’s thinking. While Backhaus had already pointed to the absence of central lexical components of Qoheleth in Sirach 14:11–16, Gilbert supplemented his analysis by showing that death functions in fundamentally different ways in the two books. Thus, he concluded that lacking specific textual markers and differing in substantial, conceptual ways, the similarities of thought are best explained by their common immersion in a similar cultural setting ..."