Category: Jewish Literature: Sirach
Saturdays in Second Temple Judaism: Wisdom from the Book of Sirach (Pt. 5)
What should a God-fearing person do? The Book of Sirach provides a list (4.7-10):
Gain the love of the community, in the presence of the great bow your head. To the poor lend an ear, and courteously return the greeting. Save the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor, and do not be mean-spirited in your judgments. Be like a father to the fatherless and as good as a husband to their mothers. And you will be like a child to the Most High, who will love you more than your own mother does.
This is quite an impressive list of responsibilities. It includes honoring the great, listening to the poor, rescuing the oppressed, being kind in judgment, father orphans and caring for widows. If one does this they will be a child of “the Most High”.
What I find common in ancient Judaism is that holiness is not about being an uptight moralist as many Christians have portrayed it over the years. You could hear these very words coming from James the Just. In the Roman Catholic canon this book is included for good reason. These actions should be characteristic of the children of God.
Saturdays in Second Temple Judaism: Wisdom from the Book of Sirach (Pt. 4)
Our world is not good to the poor, but we are not the first generation of humans to be at fault for this. In the Book of Sirach the author reminds his son that we are not to “rob…the poor man of his livelihood”, grieve him, anger him, exasperate him, and delay in giving to him, distress him (4.1-4). In v. 1 there is a poignant line: “…force not the eyes of the needy to turn away.” In v. 4 he tells his son not to turn away his face from the poor.
It is as if the author wants to make the point “Give to the poor and look them in their eyes.” Why? I think this humanizes the poor. I know when I see a beggar as a stop light and I don’t have change (or change I want to give) the first thing I do is avoid eye contact.
Saturdays in Second Temple Judaism: Wisdom from the Book of Sirach (Pt. 3)
The Book of Sirach places a high premium on honoring one’s father and mother. According to the author honoring one’s father can atone for sins, it results in one being “gladden by children” of their own, and it leads to long life. It is evidence that one fears the Lord. It establishes strong family roots. The author goes as far as to say that a father’s honor is a man’s glory! (3.1-11)
All this leads to the demand to care for a father when he is old. In doing so one must not despise one’s father even as his father’s mind fades away. To be kind to one’s father is to do something that God will not forget when he considers your sins, or when you go through a time of tribulation. (vv. 12-15)
Only a blasphemer despises his father. This leads the author to call for the humility of sons so that may not become less of a person. (vv. 16-30). It is apparent that for the author of this book the family is very, very important. If one cares for his father it is honoring to God. If one cares for his father it results in the family being strong and it is likely that this will be reciprocated in the future.
The mother is given honor, but this work being written in a patriarchal society emphasizes the father. I admit, as a modern reader, that I struggle with these words. Let’s not mind the odd atonement theory (which comes close to the teachings of Jesus only when he speaks of forgiving others if one is to be forgiven), but rather it is the idea that caring for one’s father and respecting one’s father is so essential.
What if you have a terrible father?
My relationship with my own father is basically non-existent. I have tried to patch it, but eventually it rips apart again. I find these words to be hard words. It is hard to honor my father.
Yet I accept the challenge as far as I can go. I honor him for giving me life, for providing for me as a child and young man, for displaying a hard work ethic, and for passing along to me a love for sport (especially baseball and football).
I seek to find what honor can be found. And maybe that is the best we can do. We live in a world where many, many fathers have abandoned their role. We who are the children of these fathers face much angst. But at the end of the day we are left with ourselves and I think we need to realize our fathers are humans, they fail, and for our own sake we must acknowledge what they did well (assuming we can find something). We live in a different world that the author of the Book of Sirach, but his wisdom should challenge us never the less.
Saturdays in Second Temple Judaism: Wisdom from the Book of Sirach (Pt. 2)
Often we think that serving our God will result in life being easier. This is sometimes true, but not always and not in every facet of life. The author of the Book of Sirach realizes this writing, “My son, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare for trials.” (2.1) What characteristics should follow?
- Sincerity and steadfastness (v. 2)
- Lack of disturbance in time of adversity (v. 2)
- Clinging to God (v. 3)
- Not forsaking God (v. 3)
- Accepting what befalls us (v. 4)
- Being patient under crushing misfortunes (v. 4)
This is not Nihilism, but rather realism. It is a realization that serving God doesn’t mean utopia now. It means hope though. It is hope that allows one to show the above signs of trust in God.
The author then instructs those who “fear the Lord” to:
- Wait for his mercy, turn not away lest you fall. (v. 7)
- Trust God, in doing so one’s reward will not be lost. (v. 8 )
- Hope for good things, for lasting joy and mercy. (v. 9)
- Not disobey the words of God and love him by keeping his ways. (v. 15)
- Seek to please God, because those who love him are “filled with his law”. (v. 16)
- Prepare one’s heart and humble one’s self before God. (v. 17)
One way to create stability for these trials is to “study the generations long past”. This will lead the reader to realize God is always faithful. (v. 10) Why? Because God is compassionate and merciful. He is a God who forgives sins and rescues his people. (v. 11) When one knows this one can become like those who have “feared the Lord” and they will see God deliver them as well.
“Let us fall into the hands of the LORD and not into the hands of men, For equal to his majesty is the mercy that he shows.” (v. 18)
Saturdays in Second Temple Judaism: Wisdom from the Book of Sirach (Pt. 1)
In a recent discussion with Ryan Collins he asked me if I have read the Book of Sirach. I have not, but I noted that it looked like another Book of Proverbs. He responded, “I refer to it as ‘Proverbs on the ‘roids’.” So the Book of Sirach is like the Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, or Barry Bonds of proverbial wisdom? Interesting.
I decided that I would read it, slowly.
The author begins by directing the reader to be totally dependent upon the LORD God for wisdom since all wisdom comes from God (1.1). Like the end of the Book of Job we are reminded how unwise we are without God (1.2-5). The only wise One is the One who is on the throne (1.6), the LORD who created wisdom (personified as a female, 1.7).
Since it is the LORD who does this we must fear him (1.8-11). Those who fear the LORD will be shaped in the womb to do so (1.12). Wisdom is the most honorable of women and she is described with many feminine attributes (1.13-18).
Those who receive her are depicted as patient, humble and slow to speak.
Oops.
In our hyper-connected, wired for speed world these words convinct:
“A patient man need stand firm but for a time, and then contentment comes back to him.
For while he holds back his words, then the lips of many herald his wisdom.”
Why do I often feel obligated to speak quickly? Why do I often seek to have an answer that will settle the matter? Why do I want to get in my two cents before others?
Wisdom is slow to speak. She teaches us to take our time. If we stand firm we will find contentment and while we hold back our words those quick and shallow responses give way to patient, thoughtful, wise responses.
I want to be a person who allows wisdom to slow down my words to purify them.
Reading Levison’s Filled with the Spirit: Part Two, Chapter One
Levison, Filled with the Spirit
Levison, John R. (2009) Filled with the Spirit. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Several months ago I suspended my reading of Jack Levison’s book Filled with the Spirit (see here). At that juncture I had written a little by way of introduction (see here), as well as some commentary on the prescript to part one (here), chapter one (here), two (here), three (here), and finally the postscript to part one and the prescript to part two (here). After meeting Jack at the recent SBL PNW it seems like a good time to resume.
Why? Because I think this is going to be the most important book on pneumatology for some time. It revisits biblical texts in relation to Second Temple Judaism in a similar way to how E.P. Sanders forced Pauline scholars to rethink their presuppositions.
In chapter one of part two, titled “A Wise and Holy Spirit Within”, Levison examines how the spirit provides wisdom to the scribal vocation as seen in Sirach. He observes that “universal wisdom comes to reside in Israel through the word of Torah (Sirach 24)”. (p. 118) This spirit empowers the scribe to do three important tasks: (1) travel; (2) study of Torah; (3) prayer. (p. 120) In contrast to others who see pneuma as providing ecstatic speech and prophecy, Sirach sees the role of spirit in the scribe laboring to understand Torah (pp. 121-122)
This leads Levison to understand the spirit in Sirach not as “charismatic endowment” but rather something more or less like a human soul (p. 124). In literature like the Book of Daniel it is the spirit within that is stirred up, not an external spirit that comes from without. (pp. 127-130). In the Damascus Document the “holy spirit” is merely the human spirit (pp. 130-133). In Liber antiquitatum biblicarum of Pseudo-Philo the spirit is essential for life of the human, indicating it is something anthropological (pp. 133-140).
What about outside Jewish literature? Seneca understand the holy spirit as something that “dwells within us, one who marks our good and bad deeds, and is our guardian. As we treat this spirit, so are we treated.” (Moral Epistles, 41.2) (p. 141) This sounds similar to what we today may say of the conscience. The Stoic idea is that the human spirit is part of a greater divine spirit and this maintains life (pp. 141-142).
Once one has read this chapter it seems evident that this literature, including Wisdom of Solomon, some other writings by Philo, and so forth, depict the spirit, and even the holy spirit, as something intrinsic to human existence (often citing Gen. 2.7).
What does this mean for the common understanding of the “holy spirit”? Does this impact Christianity in any way? We will investigate Levison’s views more when we read those chapters covering early Christian literature. In our next entry we will look at part two, chapter two, “Spirit and the Allure of Ecstasy”.
