An Atheist Explores the Apocrypha Part 18: AKA Ben Sirach (Ecclesiasticus 1-5)
Ecclesiasticus
1-5
AKA Ben Sirach
Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Apocrypha version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Old Testament Apocrypha, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/3aEJ6Q5
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP
Ecclesiasticus 1
“Who can number the sand of the sea, and the drops of rain, and the days of eternity?
Who can find out the height of heaven, and the breadth of the earth, and the deep, and wisdom?
Ecclesiasticus starts with a monster verse, practically a chapter in itself, that serves as a prologue. It tells how the writer is setting down and translating the works of his grandfather, Jesus son of Sirach (or Yeshua ben Sirach). The author explains that the translation may not carry all the intent, and it’s better in the original Hebrew – “For the same things uttered in Hebrew, and translated into another tongue, have not the same force in them”, but that he has tried to be as faithful to the meaning as possible.
We also get mention of the reign of a King Eurgetes in Egypt, which I looked up and got a bit more background to this book. “Eurgetes” is a Greek honourific meaning “the Benefactor”, given to two Egpytian kings – Ptolemy III Eurgetes and Ptolemy VII Eurgetes. Greek titles and the Ptolemy name mean we’re dealing with the successors to Alexander the Great (other Eurgetes are found in other post-Alexandrian nations). This allows dating of the document to sometime in the reign of Ptolemy VII, around the late 2nd century, with the original stemming from early 2nd century.
From the first chapter, it looks like it’s going to a book of wisdom in the style of Proverbs so, although there are 51 chapters it may be fairly quick and light on details to read through; there’s only so much one can say about such things.
It’s well written, though, posing some rhetorical questions at the beginning, then describing Wisdom as a female allegory again, who is given by God to those who seek her with an honest heart and who obey the strictures of their faith. Most of the phrases are pitched as “The fear of the Lord is…”, such as “The fear of the Lord is honour, and glory, and gladness, and a crown of rejoicing” or “To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and it was created with the faithful in the womb”. I sometimes wonder if the word “fear” is meant in the same sense as we would use it. “Respect” or “Honour” would seem more appropriate – “fear” is a very bad motivating emotion for spiritual growth. Most of it is in this vein – fearing the Lord is the route to Wisdom, and Wisdom makes a person flourish.
One verse stands out that I liked – “A furious man cannot be justified; for the sway of his fury shall be his destruction”. Anger leads to the Dark Side!
Ecclesiasticus 2
“Ye that fear the Lord, believe him; and your reward shall not fail.”
The theme of this chapter is to put faith in God and let that sustain you through difficult times, knowing that God rewards the faithful at the end, and also that any problems are for your own good – “For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity”. And, if it turns out that things don’t end up going your way, well, that’s all your fault for not having enough faith – “Woe unto him that is fainthearted! for he believeth not; therefore shall he not be defended”.
It’s pretty straightforward stuff, kind of uplifting in a way (but also, to me, maybe a bit too fatalistic). It undermines itself a bit too by asking “Look at the generations of old, and see; did ever any trust in the Lord, and was confounded? or did any abide in his fear, and was forsaken? or whom did he ever despise, that called upon him?” Well… the Hebrew slaves in Egypt between Joseph and Moses, perhaps? Job, maybe? Every other occasion, admittedly, is pitched as being the fault of the Israelites for insufficient zeal – the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests, first destruction of the Temple and the Babylonian Exile; all of which will have been history by the time Yeshua ben Sirach writes this lot down.
Ecclesiasticus 3
“He that honoureth his father shall have a long life; and he that is obedient unto the Lord shall be a comfort to his mother.”
The first part of this chapter is an expansion on the commandment to “honour thy father and mother”, mostly simple exhortations to do so with no justification, but there’s a sense of family honour given as well – “Glory not in the dishonour of thy father; for thy father's dishonour is no glory unto thee”. Any dishonour to the father, therefore, will also reflect on the children. And vice versa, dishonourable children reflect badly on their parents. What “dishonourable” actually means is left pretty much vague, but there’s a nice verse about looking after parents even if they start to go senile – “if his understanding fail, have patience with him; and despise him not when thou art in thy full strength”. Anyone doing so, it’s said here, is more likely to be treated well when it’s their turn to grow old. I don’t think you need God to follow that kind of compassion, and also this whole concept doesn’t consider if the parents are cruel, abusive or neglectful. It seems to me that compassion and consideration is at least somewhat of a two-way street; respect certainly is.
The latter half of the chapter then moves on to a series of guidelines that, to my reading, seem like very poor advice. E.g. “Seek not out things that are too hard for thee, neither search the things that are above thy strength” , in other words, don’t push yourself to improve. “Be not curious in unnecessary matters: for more things are shewed unto thee than men understand”, in other words don’t bother to go and find things out for yourself, just accept what you are told.
The chapter ends with a series of diptychs, such as “An obstinate heart shall be laden with sorrows; and the wicked man shall heap sin upon sin”. These are a similar format to Proverbs, and I’d guess at it being a traditional form. That quote is pretty much meaningless, but others are quite good, about “an attentive ear is the desire of a wise man” which I take to mean that a wise man listens, not that he wants people to hear him spout off; also “he that requiteth good turns is mindful of that which may come hereafter; and when he falleth, he shall find a stay” – reciprocal altruism, in other words.
Ecclesiasticus 4
“My son, defraud not the poor of his living, and make not the needy eyes to wait long.”
Here we start with some exhortations to charity, to be a “father unto the fatherless” and not to reject the “the supplication of the afflicted”. The intent here feels like it’s directed at a person in some kind of power (it feels like it’s meant to be Solomon to Rehoboam as in Proverbs), but the advice all seems pretty sound to me, a reminder to be compassionate and not to add “more trouble to an heart that is vexed”. Sirach gives a bit of a stick to anyone that doesn’t heed this advice; God listens most intently to the oppressed poor - “if he curse thee in the bitterness of his soul, his prayer shall be heard of him that made him”. Sadly I don’t think history bears this out, but I appreciate the intention.
The chapter then returns to the female personification of Wisdom and of how God loves those that seek and accept her, because through her people are able to find God. It’s mostly similar to the sentiments in Wisdom of Solomon (and Proverbs), but what I found most interesting is how Wisdom is difficult at first - “at the first she will walk with him by crooked ways, and bring fear and dread upon him, and torment him with her discipline, until she may trust his soul”. Here, the text implies, many people are inclined to give up.
What’s going on here? Seeking wisdom requires hard work and study, that much is implied by the torment of discipline, but there’s also an element of what Sartre termed the Nausea, the sense, I would say, that the more one knows, the more one realises what one doesn’t know, and how much nobody knows. It’s a scary and exhilarating thing at the same time, like swimming over deep waters, hence the fear and dread.
The last few verses are some more aphorisms, which are generally worth a read. I’m not going to replicate them all here because a true examination would mean going through line by line, which would be both dull and time-consuming. Instead, a couple of standouts: “Make not thyself an underling to a foolish man”, or, as Obi-Wan Kenobi would say, who is the more foolish, the fool or the one who follows him? “Be not as a lion in thy house, nor frantick among thy servants”; this reminds me of a saying that you can tell the measure of a man by how he treats his servants (I can’t remember who that comes from).
Ecclesiasticus 5
“Winnow not with every wind, and go not into every way: for so doth the sinner that hath a double tongue.”
I chose the above verse because, of all of them in this chapter, this is the most obscure in its meaning. I guess it’s meant to imply “mind your own business”, but I can’t be sure.
Otherwise this chapter is really just a continuation of one-verse aphorisms. The bulk of them are along the lines of God’s mercy vs. justice, that a wise person doesn’t rely upon God having mercy for them if they are a sinner – “Say not, I have sinned, and what harm hath happened unto me? for the Lord is longsuffering, he will in no wise let thee go […]And say not His mercy is great; he will be pacified for the multitude of my sins: for mercy and wrath come from him, and his indignation resteth upon sinners.”
Most of the rest are the same as Wittgenstein’s “Whereof one cannot speak thereof one must remain silent”, for example “If thou hast understanding, answer thy neighbour; if not, lay thy hand upon thy mouth”. There are also a couple of unlikely verses concerning worldly goods – “Set thy heart upon thy goods; and say not, I have enough for my life”. That… sounds uncharacteristically materialistic. Unless I’m misreading “thy goods” as “thy possessions” when it should mean “thy good acts”? Later on we are told “Set not thine heart upon goods unjustly gotten, for they shall not profit thee in the day of calamity”, but technically that says nothing about goods “justly gotten”.
AKA Ben Sirach
Welcome to the next instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Apocrypha version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Old Testament Apocrypha, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/3aEJ6Q5
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP
Ecclesiasticus 1
“Who can number the sand of the sea, and the drops of rain, and the days of eternity?
Who can find out the height of heaven, and the breadth of the earth, and the deep, and wisdom?
Ecclesiasticus starts with a monster verse, practically a chapter in itself, that serves as a prologue. It tells how the writer is setting down and translating the works of his grandfather, Jesus son of Sirach (or Yeshua ben Sirach). The author explains that the translation may not carry all the intent, and it’s better in the original Hebrew – “For the same things uttered in Hebrew, and translated into another tongue, have not the same force in them”, but that he has tried to be as faithful to the meaning as possible.
We also get mention of the reign of a King Eurgetes in Egypt, which I looked up and got a bit more background to this book. “Eurgetes” is a Greek honourific meaning “the Benefactor”, given to two Egpytian kings – Ptolemy III Eurgetes and Ptolemy VII Eurgetes. Greek titles and the Ptolemy name mean we’re dealing with the successors to Alexander the Great (other Eurgetes are found in other post-Alexandrian nations). This allows dating of the document to sometime in the reign of Ptolemy VII, around the late 2nd century, with the original stemming from early 2nd century.
From the first chapter, it looks like it’s going to a book of wisdom in the style of Proverbs so, although there are 51 chapters it may be fairly quick and light on details to read through; there’s only so much one can say about such things.
It’s well written, though, posing some rhetorical questions at the beginning, then describing Wisdom as a female allegory again, who is given by God to those who seek her with an honest heart and who obey the strictures of their faith. Most of the phrases are pitched as “The fear of the Lord is…”, such as “The fear of the Lord is honour, and glory, and gladness, and a crown of rejoicing” or “To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and it was created with the faithful in the womb”. I sometimes wonder if the word “fear” is meant in the same sense as we would use it. “Respect” or “Honour” would seem more appropriate – “fear” is a very bad motivating emotion for spiritual growth. Most of it is in this vein – fearing the Lord is the route to Wisdom, and Wisdom makes a person flourish.
One verse stands out that I liked – “A furious man cannot be justified; for the sway of his fury shall be his destruction”. Anger leads to the Dark Side!
Ecclesiasticus 2
“Ye that fear the Lord, believe him; and your reward shall not fail.”
The theme of this chapter is to put faith in God and let that sustain you through difficult times, knowing that God rewards the faithful at the end, and also that any problems are for your own good – “For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity”. And, if it turns out that things don’t end up going your way, well, that’s all your fault for not having enough faith – “Woe unto him that is fainthearted! for he believeth not; therefore shall he not be defended”.
It’s pretty straightforward stuff, kind of uplifting in a way (but also, to me, maybe a bit too fatalistic). It undermines itself a bit too by asking “Look at the generations of old, and see; did ever any trust in the Lord, and was confounded? or did any abide in his fear, and was forsaken? or whom did he ever despise, that called upon him?” Well… the Hebrew slaves in Egypt between Joseph and Moses, perhaps? Job, maybe? Every other occasion, admittedly, is pitched as being the fault of the Israelites for insufficient zeal – the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests, first destruction of the Temple and the Babylonian Exile; all of which will have been history by the time Yeshua ben Sirach writes this lot down.
Ecclesiasticus 3
“He that honoureth his father shall have a long life; and he that is obedient unto the Lord shall be a comfort to his mother.”
The first part of this chapter is an expansion on the commandment to “honour thy father and mother”, mostly simple exhortations to do so with no justification, but there’s a sense of family honour given as well – “Glory not in the dishonour of thy father; for thy father's dishonour is no glory unto thee”. Any dishonour to the father, therefore, will also reflect on the children. And vice versa, dishonourable children reflect badly on their parents. What “dishonourable” actually means is left pretty much vague, but there’s a nice verse about looking after parents even if they start to go senile – “if his understanding fail, have patience with him; and despise him not when thou art in thy full strength”. Anyone doing so, it’s said here, is more likely to be treated well when it’s their turn to grow old. I don’t think you need God to follow that kind of compassion, and also this whole concept doesn’t consider if the parents are cruel, abusive or neglectful. It seems to me that compassion and consideration is at least somewhat of a two-way street; respect certainly is.
The latter half of the chapter then moves on to a series of guidelines that, to my reading, seem like very poor advice. E.g. “Seek not out things that are too hard for thee, neither search the things that are above thy strength” , in other words, don’t push yourself to improve. “Be not curious in unnecessary matters: for more things are shewed unto thee than men understand”, in other words don’t bother to go and find things out for yourself, just accept what you are told.
The chapter ends with a series of diptychs, such as “An obstinate heart shall be laden with sorrows; and the wicked man shall heap sin upon sin”. These are a similar format to Proverbs, and I’d guess at it being a traditional form. That quote is pretty much meaningless, but others are quite good, about “an attentive ear is the desire of a wise man” which I take to mean that a wise man listens, not that he wants people to hear him spout off; also “he that requiteth good turns is mindful of that which may come hereafter; and when he falleth, he shall find a stay” – reciprocal altruism, in other words.
Ecclesiasticus 4
“My son, defraud not the poor of his living, and make not the needy eyes to wait long.”
Here we start with some exhortations to charity, to be a “father unto the fatherless” and not to reject the “the supplication of the afflicted”. The intent here feels like it’s directed at a person in some kind of power (it feels like it’s meant to be Solomon to Rehoboam as in Proverbs), but the advice all seems pretty sound to me, a reminder to be compassionate and not to add “more trouble to an heart that is vexed”. Sirach gives a bit of a stick to anyone that doesn’t heed this advice; God listens most intently to the oppressed poor - “if he curse thee in the bitterness of his soul, his prayer shall be heard of him that made him”. Sadly I don’t think history bears this out, but I appreciate the intention.
The chapter then returns to the female personification of Wisdom and of how God loves those that seek and accept her, because through her people are able to find God. It’s mostly similar to the sentiments in Wisdom of Solomon (and Proverbs), but what I found most interesting is how Wisdom is difficult at first - “at the first she will walk with him by crooked ways, and bring fear and dread upon him, and torment him with her discipline, until she may trust his soul”. Here, the text implies, many people are inclined to give up.
What’s going on here? Seeking wisdom requires hard work and study, that much is implied by the torment of discipline, but there’s also an element of what Sartre termed the Nausea, the sense, I would say, that the more one knows, the more one realises what one doesn’t know, and how much nobody knows. It’s a scary and exhilarating thing at the same time, like swimming over deep waters, hence the fear and dread.
The last few verses are some more aphorisms, which are generally worth a read. I’m not going to replicate them all here because a true examination would mean going through line by line, which would be both dull and time-consuming. Instead, a couple of standouts: “Make not thyself an underling to a foolish man”, or, as Obi-Wan Kenobi would say, who is the more foolish, the fool or the one who follows him? “Be not as a lion in thy house, nor frantick among thy servants”; this reminds me of a saying that you can tell the measure of a man by how he treats his servants (I can’t remember who that comes from).
Ecclesiasticus 5
“Winnow not with every wind, and go not into every way: for so doth the sinner that hath a double tongue.”
I chose the above verse because, of all of them in this chapter, this is the most obscure in its meaning. I guess it’s meant to imply “mind your own business”, but I can’t be sure.
Otherwise this chapter is really just a continuation of one-verse aphorisms. The bulk of them are along the lines of God’s mercy vs. justice, that a wise person doesn’t rely upon God having mercy for them if they are a sinner – “Say not, I have sinned, and what harm hath happened unto me? for the Lord is longsuffering, he will in no wise let thee go […]And say not His mercy is great; he will be pacified for the multitude of my sins: for mercy and wrath come from him, and his indignation resteth upon sinners.”
Most of the rest are the same as Wittgenstein’s “Whereof one cannot speak thereof one must remain silent”, for example “If thou hast understanding, answer thy neighbour; if not, lay thy hand upon thy mouth”. There are also a couple of unlikely verses concerning worldly goods – “Set thy heart upon thy goods; and say not, I have enough for my life”. That… sounds uncharacteristically materialistic. Unless I’m misreading “thy goods” as “thy possessions” when it should mean “thy good acts”? Later on we are told “Set not thine heart upon goods unjustly gotten, for they shall not profit thee in the day of calamity”, but technically that says nothing about goods “justly gotten”.
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