CHAPTER 43
Here, all Ben Sira does is praise God. He praises God through nature. God made the moon, the stars, the skies –
they are all reflections of the Lord.
They are all ways we can see why and how he is wonderful. The weather? God, too.
We should, “praise him the more, since we can not fathom
him.” That’s a nice sense right
there. No, I’m not a believer, but
that’s the sort of God that is worth believing in. If there is a God, he surely
is beyond all our comprehension.
CHAPTER 44
Now we enter a section that defines almost all the rest of
Ben Sira. After giving him views on
life and all that, he decides we need to praise the ancestors. Here, he praises Enoch, Noah, Abraham,
Isaac, and Israel. There really isn’t
much to say here, but this approach will take almost all remaining chapters.
What I’m saying is, it looks like this Bible book will go
out with a long, extended and pretty boring whimper. This is why I reckon the “do not” tally will end at 116.
CHAPTER 45
It’s more of the same.
After spending all last chapter praising the patriarchs, this time he
moves on to Moses and Aaron. Oh, and he
gets early priest Phinehas in it, too.
He killed a guy, if I recall correctly from the Torah. Ben Sira doesn’t
give much info on them. He mostly just
broadly refers to them and why they were great.
CHAPTER 46
This is the second straight wisdom book to end like
this. The Book of Wisdom also ended
with a prolonged section of praise for what happened previously in the Bible,
and now so does Ben Sira. Well, at
least Ben Sira was interesting before this part (unlike the Book of Wisdom).
This chapter goes through Joshua, Caleb, the Judges (who
don’t get named) and Samuel. Clearly,
Ben Sira is working from the same texts I am, but …. I already read this
stuff.
Oh, there is one notable point. Ben Sira says of Joshua, “Formed to be, as his name implies, the
great savoir of God’s chosen ones.”
Huh. I guess in ancient Hebrew,
Joshua means some sort of savoir. This
is especially notable because the actual name for Jesus Christ it Joshua. (Jesus is a Greek-ified version of his name). And if you’re Christian – and Ben Sira is
only in the Catholic Bible these days – then it’s all the more appropriate that
the guy with Jesus’ name is said to be a savoir to his people because of his
name.
CHAPTER 47
Same as it ever was.
We get the prophet Nathan, David, and Solomon this time.
Ben Sira says of David, “He played with lions as though they
were young goats.” Wait – what?
This is either awkward phrasing or awkward translation:
after a section on how Solomon “abandoned himself to women,” Ben Sira writes,
“Solomon finally slept with his ancestors.”
It took me a beat, but I finally realized this meant Solomon died. I thought he accused Solomon of incestuous
necrophilia there for a second.
CHAPTER 48
Now it’s Elijah and Elisha.
Ben Sira says of Elijah, “You are destined, it is written, in time to
come to put an end to wrath before the day of the Lord.” Wait – where is this
written? Either I missed it or a forgot
it; both of which are possible. Well,
it’s been written now, hasn’t it? It’s
in Ben Sira.
We also get the fall of Israel and the story of Isaiah. The prophet gets just a handful of verses,
which end: “He foretold what would happen till the end of time, hidden things
yet to be fulfilled.” Again, this is
key if you’re a Christian because Isaiah is often portrayed to be foretelling
the coming of Christ. Ben Sira writes
before Christ, so this works out.
CHAPTER 49
We get the end of the days of Judah. Ben Sira says that the only non-wicked kings
were David, Hezekiah, and Josiah. No
Solomon? No, not Solomon. He was wise,
but also wicked. For that reason alone,
it’s amazing that books like this one spend as much time promoting wisdom as
they do.
For that matter – there are several other kings endorsed in
Kings I and Kings II. True, but there
are always some qualifications. OK, but
Chronicles II is in love with Jehoaphat.
Yea, but Ben Sira may not have that book. Anyhow, who actually pays attention to Chronicles anyway? It’s a much worse, much lamer version of the
Samuels and the Kings.
CHAPTER 50
This is a little unexpected. We get an entire chapter praising ….a guy we’ve never heard of
before. Simeon, son of Jochanan. Huh?
According to the footnotes, he was high priest from 219-196 BC, around
the time of Ben Sira. Ah, so he’s
writing what he knows and has seen.
Still, you get this oddity of a very brief summation of all the great
Biblical heroes, culminating in a guy we’ve never heard of before – but he gets
damn near the entire chapter, something not even Moses could claim.
But not quite the entire chapter, as Ben Sira concludes with
a epilogue where he urges people to focus on wisdom.
CHAPTER 51
Though the last chapter ended with an epilogue, we still
have one last chapter to go. The first
half of the chapter is all about thanking God for what he’s done. The second half thanks wisdom.
Yeah, that sounds about right. In this entire section of the Bible, wisdom is continually
praised alongside God, so they get to share the stage at the end here.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
OK, this was better than I expected. It’s tons better than the Book of
Wisdom.
I had trouble getting into it at first, but what drew me in
was the sense of the person behind it.
First it was his negative approach with all the “Do not”s. OK, so they might be off-putting, but it got
me wondering about the person behind the pen.
Then you saw his fixations on bad friends and financial matters and I
got a clearer sense of Ben Sira as a man whose life hadn’t gone the way he’d
hoped, but who found his refuge in God’s wisdom. That also explains why he goes against Job’s philosophy. Here is a man who was saved by God when he
was at his lowest, so naturally he feels that’s how it works.
Parts of this book are dull (like the last 8-10 chapters or
so). Some advice I didn’t like. But much of the advice really was nice. And I like the sense of a person writing
this, not just a bunch of dry comments detached from lived humanity. The Bible is always at its best when it is
at its most human, and this was surprisingly human for a book that appears to
be a bunch of dry maxims about life.
Click here to begin Isaiah.
Click here to begin Isaiah.
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