Day 25
The Wisdom of Yeshua son of Eleazar son of Sira. The Book of Jesus, Son of Sirach. Ecclesiasticus. The Instruction of Ben Sira. Sirach.
I don’t think I’ve seen a bible book with so many names, but, well, there you have it. Sirach is a wisdom book collecting the sayings of Yeshua (Joshua/Jesus) son of Eleazar son of Sira (50:27), otherwise known as Ben Sira. Dude has a lot of names.
Anyway, this book is exactly that. An apocryphal wisdom book with sayings covering a variety of topics, including several chapters that laud great heroes from the history of the Israelites (such as my best buddy, Hezekiah). The overall feeling I was left with was that this book was written for the edification of Jews in Egypt. It says as much in a special prologue written by the author. It also makes it quite clear that this book is for these distant communities.
But even deeper, I was mostly entranced by the wisdom here. It felt like sitting in the presence of a great elder, soaking up wisdom — the occasional tidbit thrown in that makes you go “Oh, you…yeah, we’re not doing that. Let’s move on.” And after the shock of the bizarre bits, I was able to settle back in, get comfortable, hear stories and axioms of a life well lived. Sirach also felt like it was comprehensive. You got Jewish history, morals, great leaders and legends, the creation story, relationship advice, purity laws, and the ever-present divine woman…wisdom. This was written to soothe and strengthen a people. One similar feeling in my life is the way I feel every time I see the St. Patrick’s Breastplate or hear the words — a familiar Irish prayer. Sirach embodied those feelings of familiarity, recognition, and home.
One Word for Sirach: Warmhearted
Parts of the Text That Stayed With Me
- Sir, Prologue. Yeah, it has a prologue! This is unique.
- Sir 11:7-9, Temper Judgement. There’s a lot of advice in this book about tempering ones judgement and being thorough in investigation. Here we also see counsel to listen before answering.
- Sir 14:20-27, Go Camping with Wisdom. I love that Wisdom is consistently a woman in the Hebrew Bible and Apocrypha. Here it sounds a little stalkerish, but we’re encouraged to camp near her house, peer through her windows, pursue her like a hunter, and so on. The point being: seek Wisdom in life always.
- Sir 21 & 28, Seek & Give. Forgiveness, that is.
- Sir 30, Slap Your Kids. This chapter lost me. It was the “Did Uncle Bob just say that?” moment of the book. No, sorry, I won’t slap a kid if I ever have one.
- Sir 44-49, Best in Show. Here’s the who’s who of Israelite history with some beautiful poetic biographies. I really got a kick out of it.
This post is part of a lager series where I read the entirety of Hebrew & Christian scriptures in 45 days. Take a look a the original post for more info, as well as links to other reflections on this journey.