The Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirah Complete Overview

Sometimes called “Sirach” or “Ecclesiasticus”, “The Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirah” is the name found in the book itself. In the Hebrew that Jesus spoke, his name was ‘Yeshua’. In fact, the term ‘ben’ is also Hebrew and it simply means “son of”, and as we learn at the conclusion of the book, Yeshua is actually the son of Eleazer who is the son of Sirah.

PROLOGUE

As we find in the prologue attached to the beginning of the book by his grandson, Sirah spent his life devoted to reading “the Law and the Prophets and the other books” - That is, the Old Testament - and became very familiar with them. He established a school for scribes so that he could teach them the wisdom found in the Scriptures and over his time of teaching, he compiled the majority of this work in Hebrew. His grandson, Yeshua, was inspired by his work and translated it into Greek to teach even more people the wisdom found in the Scriptures.

For the most part, the book does not have any rigid design but it does have certain sections of the text marked out with subtitles original to the book. The actual teachings of Sirah start in the beginning of chapter 1 and right away you can see how it is inspired by the book of Proverbs. It begins by talking about the greatness of wisdom - Wisdom is so great that no one can completely understand her. In fact, wisdom is once again portrayed as a lady (see Proverbs 8-9) and one obtains it through fearing and following God. Generally, those who have wisdom and live by her principles will have a good, long life.

CHAPTERS 18:30-19:17

In 18:30, the book suddenly has a subtitle: “Self Control” - This section is all about being moderate in how much one has: “Do not follow your base desires, but restrain your appetites.” (18:30). This section talks about food, money, and relationships. While all these things are good, they can become a problem for one who is led away or abuses anyone of them. You may desire riches and then become poor because your misuse of money in buying too much. In relationships, you cannot trust someone at the beginning and you shouldn’t gossip or constantly repeat one conversation - Someone else could overhear your gossip or you could make a bad image for yourself by becoming annoying. Either way, one who does not control himself is uncareful and can get themself stuck.

CHAPTERS 20:27-23:6

The second marked-off section begins in 20:27 and is a collection of many different sayings grouped together by idea. This section is really no different from the rest of the book in that it talks about sharing wisdom, asking for forgiveness, doing justice for those in need, learning from others, carefulness in speech and much more! It has many groups of different proverbs that deal with many relevant, every-day issues.

CHAPTERS 23:7-15

23:7-15 is all about “Discipline of the Tongue”. Sinners ruin their lives by their own words and proud people speak a lot of words that only end up getting them in trouble. Promises and oaths are serious and should not be taken often but only if needed. One can create death for themselves only by speaking. This is a short but very powerful section and it speaks to the necessity to carefully watch every word we say.

CHAPTER 30:1-13

Later, in chapter 30, Sirah offers practical advice on how to bring up children called “About Children”. Discipline them throughout their life so that they grow up in wisdom and know right from wrong. A spoiled child that is left undisciplined will not grow up knowing how to live his life. He will be like a wild animal, will rebel against his family and bring shame. A child must be taught to grow up right by their parents or they will never learn and only ruin their own life.

For Sirah and Yeshua, shame and honor are very important. It’s not about pressuring people to do wrong but living in a way that brings honor to your family and the social groups that you lived in. This idea is especially important for when Sirah speaks about family but you can also see it all throughout the book. There’s a culturally appropriate way to live and to cross cultural lines is shameful not only for the individual but for their family and the whole community they’re a part of.

CHAPTERS 30:18-25

Just after the section on children is a section “About Food”. Food can seem to comfort you when you’re sad but it has no effect. The sorrow stays and can even destroy your life so be careful not to give into your desire to overeat.

CHAPTERS 44:1-24

To end Sirah’s writings is the “Hymn in Honor of Our Ancestors”: it retells the stories from the Hebrew Scriptures of how prophets and priests lived by wisdom in righteousness. So, for example, Enoch was righteous and so God took him up to be with him. Noah also followed God and so he was kept alive during the flood.

Abraham was also righteous and is even mentioned living by the Torah. God chose to bring blessing through his family - Through Isaac and Jacob. Also Moses performed miracles and met with God face to face to receive the Torah. Then there’s Aaron, who was also holy and the first priest. And it's especially here where Sirah puts special emphasis on Aaron’s job as a priest: his awesome priestly robes and clothing (see Exodus 28) and how God established him as a priest to offer up sacrifices and continue teaching the law. Phineas is also a priest who loved God and desired him and through which God gave a covenant.

The hymn goes on to honor Joshua and Caleb for standing up for Israel, the judges, Samuel, Nathan, David, Solomon, Elijah and Elisah, Hezekiah, Isaiah, Josiah, Ezekiel, Zerubbabel and Nehemiah. Notice how the whole hymn has been replaying the whole story of the Scriptures from Enoch to Israel to the exile and back? It then goes back to Enoch and mentions Joseph and Shem, Seth, and ends with Adam as the most honored human.

Sirah then speaks about Simon son of Onias - Who was a priest in his day - and he uses language from earlier in the hymn and the whole work. He sees Simon as an example of a priest living in the Wisdom of the Torah and faithfully representing Israel according to its commands.

CHAPTER 51:1-12

At the beginning of chapter 51, Yeshua concludes the book with some of his thoughts. He first praises God in what is titled “The Prayer of Yeshua Son of Sirah”. He thanks Him for protecting him from danger and giving Him wisdom. He speaks of how God saved him through his many dangerous journeys in His life when he only called out to Him and asked for His protection. He would pray and look for wisdom and decided to let wisdom guide how he lived his whole life since he was young.

Now there are many other sections scattered throughout this book that have good insight on the need to look out for and give to the poor, not going into debt, and other ways to manage money well. He also talks about maintaining a business or friendship and marriage. A lot of his advice is really good and applicable to many situations that you can find yourself in even today. But even Yeshua and Sirah point to a source outside themselves for wisdom

CHAPTERS 24:1-34

In chapter 24, there’s a section called “The Praise of Wisdom” - It’s the very center of the book. It first shows Lady Wisdom giving herself glory by speaking of her creation. When she was first created, she filled the whole world. She eventually searched for a place where she could live and saw Israel! She continues to speak about herself as the very presence of God who spoke with Israel in the Tabernacle and was brought up to Jerusalem. She is then pictured as a tree that grew up and sprouted and she called to everyone to come and eat from her fruit.

In verse 23, Sirah says that Wisdom was the very “book of the covenant of the Most High God, the Torah that Moses commanded.” In other words, Wisdom is the Torah. For Sirah, the instruction that God gave Moses provides principles for how to live one’s life to the fullest extent! That’s why he can continue to talk about Lady Wisdom as the rivers that flowed out of Eden. No one can reason to save themselves or live on their own instinctual understanding of right and wrong. They must fear God by obeying the wisdom in His commands found in the Torah.

For Sirah and his grandson, the Torah did not just provide ancient, unnecessary rules but a whole way of life that provided practical wisdom for every day. Sirah saw it in the end in his “Hymn in Honor of the Ancestors” and Yeshua saw it in his final prayer. That’s why they taught a school to scribes that would go on to be priests and scribes - To show them that they need the wisdom of God found in the Scriptures. Through them, they can know how to live their lives in moderation - Not living in so much that they will destroy themselves with greed but not in need of anything they don’t already have. They believed that the wisdom that the prophets after Moses received from the Torah was just as available to them if they meditated on it in the Torah and prayed to God asking for it. That’s what the book of the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirah is all about.

COMPARE TO THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON'S FOCUS ON WISDOM AS GOD'S MANIFESTATION!