lations of the books which now compose the Hebrew Bible were collected together for use in the Christian Churches of the East, where Greek was the universal language of prayer and of familiar speech, there was added to them a small group of other writings, not portions of the Hebrew Bible at all, and not all of them even originally written in Hebrew. One of these writings was the Greek translation of Ben Sira. A controversy grew up as to whether these books, concerning the origin and claims of which there was obscurity or dispute, did or did not rightly belong to the Sacred Scriptures. Hence they were called Apocryphathe obscure or hidden writings. By the Roman Catholic Church they are regarded as 'canonical'-i. e. as parts of the 'Bible'; by all Protestants, including the Church of England, they are not so recognized. Neither are they by Jewish authorities. For us to-day the whole dispute has become of small value and meaning. A book is wise and good and true on account of what it contains, and not because it is included in or excluded from a particular collection. The Bible is holy because of its contents, but its contents are not holy because it is called so. We have no other means and criterion of knowing whether any given chapter or paragraph in the Bible is good and wise and true than those by which we decide whether any parts of any other book are so or are not so. We cannot defend any particular sentence in the Bible by merely saying, 'It is in the Bible'; nor is any sentence in the Apocrypha of less value or beauty because it is not in the Bible. The greatness of the Bible needs no external props. Like a deed of goodness, its value is in itself. And as to the apocryphal writings, they too must stand or fall on their own internal merit. Ben Sira's work has no cause to fear the test. §3. Characteristics of Ben Sira.-Joshua ben Sira's book, then, is one, and the largest one, of the apocryphal books. It is divided. into fifty-one chapters (Proverbs has thirty-one), and forms about one-fifth part of the entire Apocrypha. It is also known to us: under the name of Ecclesiasticus. That Latin word means 'belonging to a church,' and Ben Sira's book was called 'ecclesiasticus liber,' the church book, because it was considered a book suitable to be read in church, but not (at that time) 'canonical,' or authoritative in matters of faith. The subject of it (like the Biblical Book of Proverbs) is the Praise of Wisdom, together with numerous counsels, exhortations, and reflections upon the many sides and circumstances of human life. The book has been well described by Professor Schürer in the following words : 'The fundamental thought of the author is that of wisdom. For CONTENTS OF BEN SIRA'S BOOK 65 him the highest and most perfect wisdom resides only in God, who has established and who continues to govern all things in accordance with his marvellous knowledge and understanding. On the part of man, therefore, true wisdom consists in his trusting and obeying God. The fear of God is the beginning and end of all wisdom. Hence it is that the author, living as he did at a time when the fear of God and the observance of the law were already regarded as one and the same thing, inculcates above all the duty of adhering faithfully to the law and keeping the commandments. But besides this he also points out in the next place how the truly wise man is to comport himself in the manifold relationships of practical life. And accordingly his book contains an inexhaustible fund of rules for the regulation of conduct in joy and sorrow, in prosperity and adversity, in sickness and in health, in struggle and temptation, in social life, in intercourse with friends and enemies, with high and low, rich and poor, with the good and the wicked, the wise and the foolish, in trade, business, and one's ordinary calling; above all, in one's own house and family in connexion with the training of children, the treatment of men-servants and maid-servants, and the way in which a man ought to behave towards his own wife and towards women generally. For all those manifold relationships the most precise directions are furnisheddirections that are prompted by a spirit of moral earnestness which only now and then degenerates into mere worldly prudence. The counsels of the author are the mature fruit of a profound and comprehensive study of human things and of a wide experience of life. In entering as they do into such a multiplicity of details, they at the same time furnish us with a lively picture of the manners and customs and of the culture generally of his time and his people. How far the thoughts expressed, as well as the form in which they are expressed, were the author's own, and how far he only collected what was already in current and popular use, it is of course impossible in any particular instance to determine. To a certain extent he may have done both. But in any case he was not a mere collector or compiler, the characteristic personality of the author stands out far too distinctly and prominently for that. Notwithstanding the diversified character of the apothegms, they are all the outcome of one connected view of life and the world.' The son of Sira was a professional sage; he was a scribe, an expounder of the law. As we shall see, he held his office high, and glorified it in his book. He was a little inclined to look down on those who laboured with their hands and had no leisure for study and thought. Herein we may see a trace of Greek influence, 6 for the Greek philosophers believed that leisure (schole) was necessary for the attainment of wisdom and the highest life. The later sages and rabbis were wont to combine the study of the law' with manual labour. In this they were perhaps superior to Ben Sira. He resembles them in the perilous identification of Wisdom with the Pentateuch. For herein we shall mark a difference between Ben Sira and the author of the Praise of Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs. For the latter, Wisdom, the essential attribute of God, has not yet been absorbed into a book, or made co-equal with a code; but Ben Sira idealizes the Law so as to make it the incarnation of Wisdom, and sometimes lowers Wisdom to a complete equivalence with a book. It is also noticeable, as Mr. Moulton in his excellent introduction to Ecclesiasticus, in the Modern Reader's Bible, well points out, that 'on the whole the book contains not so much general ethical notions as the particular applications of them which we call behaviour. . . . The separation has not yet taken place between manners and morals.' Good counsel how to behave at a feast and to be silent during the music is excellent in itself and quite desirable, but it seems strange to find in close juxtaposition to it an adage on the fear of the Lord. One might too hastily imagine that the author put the fear of God on the same plane of importance as foolish behaviour. But this would be a false inference. It is merely that manners and morals were not yet rigorously marked off from each other. Their close connexion in history is clearly indicated by language. The Latin word mos means first of all custom, usage, habit, and then in the plural manners, moral habits, character, morals. In French les mœurs still sometimes mean customs or manners. In German we have the word Sitte, which means custom, fashion, and the cognate word Sittlichkeit, which means morality. It is a fascinating chapter of human history to trace in language, in history, and in thought the development of Sittlichkeit out of Sitte, of morality out of mos. We may venture to doubt whether a too absolute separation between manners and morals is of advantage to either. We call to mind that fine old English proverb which, through William of Wykeham their founder, has become the motto of his great school at Winchester and his great college at Oxford: Manners maketh man. § 4. Ben Sira's essays.-The literary form of Ecclesiasticus is not quite the same as that of Proverbs. There are in Ben Sira also a number of separate and disconnected adages, but no less frequent is a grouping together of several adages to form a single MANNERS AND MORALS 67 whole about a single subject. In fact it is often more than mere grouping or addition of one to one; it is a connected little discourse. Mr. Moulton does not hesitate to call these little discourses essays. He finds some forty-seven of these essays in the book, besides the two long rhetoric encomia which fill its last eight chapters. Mr. Moulton's introduction deals admirably with Ben Sira's form and style, and I hope that many readers of my book will pass on to his. § 5. The Preface of the Greek Translator.-The Greek version of Ben Sira is opened by a preface from the pen of the translator, who was the grandson of the author. He explains why he made the translation, and asks, in quite a modern sort of way, for the indulgence of the friendly reader. Perhaps this is one of the earliest prefaces by a translator in all literature. And here I may take the opportunity to state again that my selections from Ecclesiasticus and from all other books of the Apocrypha are taken from the Revised Version. For permission to use this Version, I must express my sincere thanks and gratitude to the authorities of the University Presses of Oxford and Cambridge. Whereas many and great things have been delivered unto us by the law and the prophets, and by the others that have followed in their steps, for the which things we must give Israel the praise of instruction and wisdom; and since not only the readers must needs become skilful themselves, but also they that love learning must be able to profit them which are without, both by speaking and writing; my grandfather Jesus, having much given himself to the reading of the law, and the prophets, and the other books of our fathers, and having gained great familiarity therein, was drawn on also himself to write somewhat pertaining to instruction and wisdom; in order that those who love learning, and are addicted to these things, might make progress much more by_living according to the law. Ye are intreated therefore to read with favour and attention, and to pardon us, if in any parts of what we have laboured to interpret, we may seem to fail in some of the phrases. For things originally spoken in Hebrew have not the same force in them, when they are translated into another tongue and not only these, but the law itself, and the prophecies, and the rest of the books, have no small difference, when they are spoken in their original language. For having come into Egypt in the eight and thirtieth year of Euergetes the king, and having continued there some time, I found a copy affording no small instruction. I thought it therefore most necessary for me to apply some diligence and travail to interpret this book; applying indeed much watchfulness and skill in that space of time to bring the book to an end, and set it forth for them also, who in the land of their sojourning are desirous to learn, fashioning their manners beforehand, so as to live according to the law. The words 'I found a copy affording no small instruction' should probably run thus: 'I found no small difference of culture.' The translator means that he thought the standard of piety was higher in Palestine than in Egypt, and that the Egyptian Jews would therefore be benefited by the translation of his grandfather's work into their vernacular, that is to say, into Greek. The thirtyeighth year of Ptolemy Euergetes (Ptolemy Physcon VII) would be 132 B.C. § 6. The Fear of the Lord.-The fundamental virtue to the son of Sirach, as to the sages of Proverbs, is the fear of the Lord. His book opens with its praise. But this fear is no slavish terror. It is a reverence which admits and is almost synonymous with love. Ben Sira closely connects this fear of the Lord with the wisdom which is God's attribute and his gift. All wisdom cometh from the Lord, The sand of the seas, And the drops of rain, And the days of eternity, who shall number? And the breadth of the earth, and the deep, To whom hath the root of wisdom been revealed? |