THE WISDOM OF JESUS THE SON OF SIRACH.
CHAPTER I.
THE WISE MAN TURNED SCRIBE. SIRACH'S MORAL TEACHING.
The inclusion of Sirach within our range of study, as an appendix
and counterpart to the canonical Book of Proverbs,
requires no long justification. The so-called 'Wisdom of
Solomon' is in form and colouring almost as much Greek as
Hebrew, and has no place in a survey of the wisdom of Palestine.
But the 'Wisdom' more modestly ascribed to the son
of Sirach is a truly Israelitish production, though as yet none
but the masters of our subject have recognised its intrinsic
importance. Whence comes this prevalent neglect of a work
still known as 'Ecclesiasticus' or a 'church-book'? Doubtless
it has fallen in estimation from being combined with books
more difficult to appraise fairly and consequently regarded
with suspicion. The objection which some Jewish doctors
entertained to recommending parts of the Hagiographa has
been felt by many moderns with regard to the Apocrypha.
The objection is too strong and general not to have some
foundation, but it implies an unhistorical habit of mind.
Granted that the Apocryphal writings of the Old Testament
belong in the main to a period of outer and inner decadence
(though the noble Maccabean days may qualify this); yet
periods of decadence are often also periods of transition to
some new and better thing, which cannot be understood or
