An Atheist Explores the Apocrypha Part 19: Ben Sirach vs. Beyoncé (Ecclesiasticus 6-10)
Ecclesiasticus
6-10
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.
Ecclesiasticus
6
“And if thou seest a man of understanding, get thee betimes
unto him, and let thy foot wear the steps of his door.”
There are three sections to this chapter. The first
concerns friendship, advising that it is good to be pleasant to all that you
meet because “Sweet language will
multiply friends: and a fairspeaking tongue will increase kind greetings”,
but also be particular about who you call a friend. It’s better to have one
loyal and good friend in a thousand acquaintances than to rely on fair-weather
friends who are “a companion at the
table, and will not continue in the day of thy affliction”. “A faithfull friend is a strong defence: and
he that hath found such an one hath found a treasure” says ben Sirach, and
I can only say that he gives good advice. [While editing this for publishing,
I’ve juts finished reading Cicero’s “On Friendship”, and it seems like Late
Republican Romans have the same ideas about what makes a good friend as do
Second Temple Period Jews. Because, you know, we’re all human, even the ones
from 2000 years ago.]
The next section is back to the getting of wisdom and
her personification, wherein wisdom is depicted as a not for everyone, and a
heavy burden to those who would seek her – “put
thy feet into her fetters, and thy neck into her chain. Bow down thy shoulder,
and bear her, and be not grieved with her bonds”. In the end, though, the
“chains” will become like “a strong
defence for thee” and “a robe of
glory”. I guess the message here is that seeking knowledge is a difficult
thing but worth the effort in the end. Again, I rather like the language.
Finally, and following on from the last section, ben
Sirach urges the reader to seek out wise men (obviously only men…) and learn
from them – “Stand in the multitude of
the elders; and cleave unto him that is wise”. [Edit: Again, he’s of a
similar mind to Cicero. And Plato. And Epictetus.]
Ecclesiasticus
7
“My son, sow not upon the furrows of
unrighteousness, and thou shalt not reap them sevenfold.”
Here, at last, we seem to have got to the lists of
platitudes where each verse is a different piece of wisdom. But, it has to be
said, it all strikes me as pretty reasonable. It’s mostly on the themes of
generally being nice to people – “Devise
not a lie against thy brother; neither do the like to thy friend”, or “Let thy soul love a good servant, and
defraud him not of liberty”, or “Fail
not to be with them that weep, and mourn with them that mourn”. All
generally expressions of compassion.
There’s kind of a reflection of what we think of as
the Ten Commandments here as well, with verses such as filial duty in “Honour thy father with thy whole heart, and
forget not the sorrows of thy mother” or piety in “Fear the Lord with all thy soul, and reverence his priests”.
There are a few things that seem off to modern
sensibilities in there, largely to do with being stand-offish or domineering
with children – “Hast thou children?
instruct them, and bow down their neck from their youth” for example, or
also the advice to “shew not thyself
cheerful toward” daughters (but nothing about sons). Dr. Spock would not approve.
Ecclesiasticus
8
“Lend
not unto him that is mightier than thyself; for if thou lendest him, count it
but lost.”
There’s a wonderful motif to this chapter, with each
verse giving advice on what not to do with a particular kind of person. Don’t
take out a law suit against a judge because the judgment will go against you,
don’t get into a quarrel with an angry man because “blood is as nothing in his sight”, or one of my favourites, “Jest not with a rude man, lest thy ancestors
be disgraced”.
It’s not all avoiding bad outcomes from toxic people,
though. In some cases the advice is a warning not to be the badly behaved one
in the duo – “Dishonour not a man in his
old age: for even some of us wax old” for example, or “Rejoice not over thy greatest enemy being dead, but remember that we
die all”.
It’s all pretty good and seems quite sensible once
again. There’s not much else to say about it, though, without simply quoting
the whole thing and you may as well go and read it for yourself if that’s the
case. There’s a small motif running through it with a metaphor between a mood
and a fire, stoking a fire or heaping coals on anger, that kind of thing, but
mostly this one’s really in the structure and what it says.
Ecclesiastes
9
“Use
not much the company of a woman that is a singer, lest thou be taken with her attempts.”
The first part of this chapter concerns advice about
the temptations of women – stay away from harlots “lest thou fall into her snares”, and later on “that thou lose not thine inheritance”. Also warned against is
getting too chummy with another man’s wife, or even looking around you on the
city streets in case you see a beautiful woman “for many have been deceived by the beauty of a woman; for herewith love
is kindled as a fire”. Basically, women are portrayed as dangerous
temptations likely to lead a man into financial ruin and/or sin. I mean… yes,
women aren’t immune from having toxic personalities, and perhaps ben Sirach is
trying to persuade the reader to be discerning in who they love, but to be
honest it reads pretty mysogynistically.
The verse that segues from the women-are-dangerous
part of the chapter to the next part says to “Forsake not an old friend”, and the juxtaposition strongly implies
not letting a woman come between you and your friend. This is not directly
said, but there’s a bit of a suggestion to it.
What the second half does talk about, however, is
summed up in the verse “Envy not the
glory of a sinner: for thou knowest not what shall be his end”. I can see
how it would be galling to be trying to be good by ben Sirach’s advice and not
getting into shenaningans with your neighbour’s wife while everyone around you
is out partying; ben Sirach makes the old argument that they might be happy now, but they’ll get what’s coming to
them in the end. Which, let’s be frank, is little more than wishful thinking.
There are also a few more verses along the lines of last chapter about seeking
the company of wise people and not murderers. That bit, I can agree with.
Ecclesiasticus
10
“An unwise king destroyeth his people; but through the
prudence of them which are in authority the city shall be inhabited.”
Here ben Sirach directs us largely to the proper
behaviour of people in power, but also dips into what could be considered
advice for anyone. The general gist is not to be proud, especially as a ruler
since God is in fact in charge of the rise and fall of nations, apparently.
There’s a call-back to the ups and downs of Kings and Chronicles where we are
told that “Because of unrighteous
dealings, injuries, and riches got by deceit, the kingdom is translated from
one people to another” and also similarities to Ecclesiastes and the vanity
of mortal men - “Why is earth and ashes
proud? […]For when a man is dead, he shall inherit creeping things, beasts, and
worms”. That’s not an afterlife of any kind, I note.
Pride is singled out as “the beginning of sin, and he that hath it shall pour out abomination”
and there are a few verses with a nice continuing motif – “The Lord hath cast down the thrones of proud princes, and set up the
meek in their stead. The Lord hath plucked up the roots of the proud nations,
and planted the lowly in their place” and so on. The conclusion of this
chapter is that it is ”fear of God”
and not pride, that a good ruler should seek – “The fear of the Lord goeth before the obtaining of authority: but
roughness and pride is the losing thereof”. This is another of those
chapters in Ecclesiasticus where, actually, the advice is pretty good. You
don’t need the God part necessarily, but the better leaders and rulers are
those that have some level of humility about their position, as they are more
likely to see themselves as serving the best interests of the people than the
other way around. That said, a good leader also needs to have some level of will
and determination and not just try to be nice and humble all the time, else
they’d never get anything done.
The only other element in this chapter that stands out
is the verse “They that fear the Lord are
a sure seed, and they that love him an honourable plant: they that regard not
the law are a dishonourable seed; they that transgress the commandments are a
deceivable seed”. Now, leaving aside for the moment how a seed can be “deceivable”, is this not pretty much the
outline of the Parable of the Sower? Since Sirach precedes the ministry of
Jesus by some 160 years (and that’s the form written by the grandson, not the
original), perhaps this is where Jesus (or the Gospel writers) got the idea
from.
Comments
Post a Comment