ECCLESIASTICUS. — The most notable of the sapiential books of the Old Testament, on account of the number and variety of its teachings; it may well be called a fairly complete treatise on morality, for every condition and circumstance of life (St Augustine, Speculum de Scriptura Sacra: PL 34, 948); hence the appellation ἡ πανάρετος (St Jerome, Comm. in Dan., 9: PL 25, 545), “a collection of all virtues,” or virtutum omnium capax (Cassiodorus, De inviti. div. litt., V: PL 70, 1117). After the Psalms, it is the book of the Old Testament most widely used in the liturgy.
The title E., taken from the Greek (ms. 348), goes back to the Latin version (2nd–3rd centuries); and already appears in St Cyprian (Tettin. adv. Iudaeus, 2, 1; 3, 1; etc.; PL 4, 696, 729). It expresses the use the Church made of it in worship, for the preparation of catechumens, almost as their official catechism
(Rufinus, In symbolum apostolicum, 38: PL 21, 374). Probably (the manuscripts recovered lack the beginning) the Hebrew title was sefakāna (“Proverbs of the son of Sīrā,” cf. Heb. 50, 27). The Greek manuscripts have: Σοφία Ἰησοῦ υἱοῦ Σατρός or simply Σοφία Σατρός (cod. B). Hence the ancient Latin title Sapientia Salamanti, since E. belongs to the sapiential literature cultivated by that king (St Jerome, Proof. in l. Salem.: PL 28, 1242; St Augustine, De doctrina christ., 2, 8: PL 34, 41); and in the liturgy Liber Sapientiae (cf. St Jerome, Contra pelag., 1, 33: PL 23, 527). Modern scholars prefer to cite E. by the author’s simple patronymic: “Sirach.”
E. takes its subject and division from Wisdom. Ten parts may be distinguished, all of which begin with a eulogy of Wisdom or with a hymn to God, its author.
I. Eulogy of Wisdom. Duties toward God, toward parents, and toward one’s neighbor: humility and meekness, compassion for the unfortunate (chs. 1–4, 10).
II. Eulogy of Wisdom. Sincerity and frankness, not presumption; friendships (4, 11–6, 17).
III. Invitation to practice Wisdom. Against ambition; conduct toward various classes of people. Duties of rulers; of the rich; not to trust in riches, but in God. Persons to be avoided. Against avarice (6, 18–14, 19).
IV. Fruits of Wisdom. Sin proceeds from free will, not from God, and is never left unpunished (14, 20–18, 23).
V. Creator. Generosity and providence. Restraining the passions and making good use of the tongue: continence of the soul, discipline of the mouth (16, 24–23, 27).
VI. Hymn to Wisdom. Three lovable things and three hateful ones, three to be feared and two dangerous ones: on good and bad women. Loans, gifts, and suretyships; the education of children; health and the ways that undermine it; temperance; conversation at table. Fear of God; divine providence (24, 1–33, 17).
VII. Invitation to listen. How to treat servants. Superstitions: true and false religion. Prayer for the triumph of Israel’s religion (33, 18–36, 22).
VIII. Choice of the best: wife, friend, counselor. Care of health: how to behave in illness and toward the dead. The noblest profession: the study of Wisdom (36, 23–39, 11).
IX. Hymn to God the Creator, who orders everything excellently for the good of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked. The unhappiness of human life, especially for the impious. Shame: what is good and what is bad. The wonders of creation: another hymn (39, 12–23, 37).
X. Hymn of praise to the patriarchs, who lived according to the wisdom communicated to them by God, from Adam to Simon, son of Onias, the high priest in the author’s time (44–50).
Two appendices follow: a hymn of thanksgiving to God for deliverance from many grave evils (51, 1–12); an alphabetical poem in which the author describes the care he devoted to the study of Wisdom and invites others to imitate him (51, 13–30; cf. A. Vaccari, I libri poetici..., Rome 1925, p. 327 ff.). Between the two appendices, the Hebrew manuscript inserts a psalm similar to Ps. 135 (Heb. 136); although ancient, it is not genuine, but derived from liturgical use.
In the Greek version, the translator—the grandson of Sirach—prefixed a prologue, important for the information it provides about his grandfather, the time of composition and translation, and the canon of the Old Testament, whose books he says had already been translated into Greek for the most part.
E. is the only book of the Old Testament, apart from the prophetic books, which, in addition to numerous indications concerning the person, gives with certainty the name of its author: Jesus, son of Eleazar, son of Sīrā (50, 29: cf. prologue). The name “Simeon” in the Hebrew text (ibid.) is due to a gloss.
A native of Jerusalem (as the grandson specifies: 50, 27 Greek), Jesus spent a large part of his life there and probably composed his
work there toward the end of his life (cf. his assiduous attendance at the Temple: 50, 5 ff.; 51, 14). A man of profound faith, Sirach was, from childhood, assiduous in studying the sacred books (prologue; 38, 24) and a keen seeker of wisdom (51, 13–30); he enriched his experience through travel, observed men and things (cf. 34, 11; 51, 13), and perhaps in his youth was at the court of some foreign king (cf. 8, 8; 11, 1; 41, 17). He experienced human wickedness, but God saved him from every danger (34, 12; 51, 2–12). His ardent fidelity to Yahwism impelled him to communicate his doctrine to others (24, 30–34). In his school (51, 23, 29) he gathered the aristocratic youth of Jerusalem, whom he instructed in the worship of God, traditions, and the Law—that is, in religion, morality, jurisprudence, and the way of wisdom. This explains in Sirach his perfect command of Hebrew, his profound knowledge of sacred literature, his breadth of outlook, his realistic sense of life, and the professorial tone of his teaching, especially the multiplicity of subjects treated according to revealed principles and human experience, whose purpose was to provide young people with the civic and moral education necessary for living well and pleasing God.
Two pieces of information enable us to establish when Sirach lived: a) ch. 50 describes the high priest Simon, son of Onias, in such a vivid and concrete manner that all agree in considering him a contemporary of the author. There were two high priests of this name, one around 300, the other from 218 to 198 B.C.; the passage 50, 1–5 applies almost exclusively to the pontificate of Simon II (Josephus Flavius, Antiq. Ind., 12, 4), which coincided with Sirach’s youth, when he saw him officiate in the Temple; b) in the prologue, the grandson says that he came to Egypt in the thirty-eighth year of King Euergetes, that is, Ptolemy II (170–116 B.C.); since Ptolemy I Euergetes reigned for only twenty-five years (247–222). We are therefore in 132 B.C.; shortly afterward the Greek version of E. began. He thus lived between the 3rd and 2nd centuries, at a distance of two generations, that is, approximately sixty years; and in the time of Simon II. Sirach probably completed his book around 180.
He wrote it in Hebrew, not all at once, but composed its various parts according to circumstances. Sirach pursued the same end as the prophets and the “wise men”: the moral and religious formation of the “remnant” that had returned to Judea, the new Israel; with particular regard (as the grandson writes in the prologue) for the Jews of the Diaspora, to preserve them from the influence of Hellenism. Sirach meditates upon and takes up again the whole of the preceding Revelation and expounds it in his literary genre, drawing upon the experience and work of human reason (A. Robert, in Rev. bibl., 44 [1935], pp. 504–506; A. Drubbel, in Biblica, 17 [1936], pp. 414–28).
Initially considered in a universalistic sense (1:10, 25), Wisdom is identified with Yahwism; for the E., as for Wisdom, salvation or wisdom is Israel’s privilege. Owing to the same circumstances of the political and cultural environment (the predominance of the Seleucids and the invasion of Hellenism: Spicq, p. 552 ff.), the E. explicitly teaches what is implicit and merely hinted at in Proverbs concerning the election of Israel, the covenant of Sinai, and the particular relationship between Yahweh and Israel. Wisdom is Yahwistic monotheism; its rules are contained in the sacred books, especially in the Tōrāh. Israel has the mission of enlightening the nations, which can share in wisdom by adhering to Yahwism (cf. 17:1-17; 24; 36:1-17; etc.: Spicq, pp. 653, 684-86, 746 ff.; A. Vaccari, in DFC, IV, col. 1202 ff.). Furthermore, the true worship is in Jerusalem (32:14 ff.; 50); praise is given to the most devoted Yahwists (44-50); the Philistines and the Samaritans are cursed (50:25 ff.). The new Israel is the heir of the Mosaic theocracy (50:13 ff. Greek); and its passage into the Kingdom of the Messiah is hinted at (36:14-17). Other elements of messianic hope are: Israel’s perpetuity (37:25; 44:13); the Davidic descent (47:11); the precursor of the Messiah (48:10 ff.), Elijah (v.).
Yahweh, who governs the universe with wisdom (cf. 39:12-40:27), searches consciences (42:18 ff.), distinguishes his worshippers (cf. 16:16-23; 33:11 ff.), and
helps them remain faithful (2:17 ff.; 22:27-23:6, etc.).
The fear of God brings about heavenly blessings (23:1; 40:26) and constitutes the happiness of life (23:27). One must not allow oneself to be influenced by the prestige of the wicked (4:27 ff.; 7:14 ff.; etc.), nor seek their friendship (9:16). God forgives those who have strayed and do penance (17:24 ff.; 18:13), but he will punish the wicked and will be glorified by defending his people (35:19-36:17; 50:23 ff.).
Chapter 24, the doctrinal culmination and synthesis of the entire book, presents Wisdom as a reality that has always been with God, the creator and supreme legislator, and that God communicated to Israel as its inheritance. It is a reality that speaks, as though it were a person; it dwells permanently among the Israelites and produces its salutary effects in them.
The Jews, who were by no means speculative, also represent the Law, the Word, and the Spirit of Yahweh by personifying them: entities not regarded as mere abstractions, but as concrete realities, to which, however, they never attribute personal existence, that is, an existence actually distinct from and independent of that of the subject possessing them. This is a poetic personification of a divine attribute or of the essential divine wisdom; nevertheless, it directs the spirit toward the idea of an autonomous person (cf. Prov. 8; Sap. 7). After the coming of Christ, the eternal Word (Jo. 1:1-14; cf. I Cor. 1:24 ff.; Col. 1:15 ff.), it was easy to recognize him in the characteristics of eternal Wisdom, described by Sirach, in the full sense (pleuior). Finally, it was natural to apply to the Virgin Mary, “seat of wisdom,” what is said of Wisdom shared by human beings, in an allegorical spiritual sense.
The Hebrew text of the E. (cf. the prologue), known to St. Jerome (Praef. in lib. Salom.: PL 28, 1242), cited in its Hebrew form and in Aramaic in Talmudic and rabbinical literature down to the tenth century, seemed to have been definitively lost. Between 1896 and 1900, in the gēnlzāh, or storeroom, of the old synagogue of Moses in Cairo, several fragments of the Hebrew text were discovered, formerly used for worship in the synagogue and by then out of use.
The manuscripts discovered are classified as follows: ms. A (eleventh century), 6 fols.: 3:6-16, 26; ms. B (twelfth century), 19 fols.: 30:11-33:3; 35:11-38:27; 39:15-51:30; ms. C (twenty-first century), 4 fols.: a florilegium of chaps. 4-7, 18-20, 25-27; ms. D, 1 fol.: 36:29-38:1. In 1930, among the manuscripts of the E. Adler collection in New York, in the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary, a new folio was found, a manuscript of the E.: 32:16-33:32; 34:1. Thus three-fifths of the original text have been discovered: 40 chapters out of 51, exactly 1090 verses out of the 1616 contained in the Greek version. The complete edition of all the aforementioned fragments was produced by M. S. Segal (Liber Sapientiae filii Sira, Jerusalem 1933). The Hebrew text offered by these manuscripts is less perfect than that of the other sacred books. “Scribes and recensors allowed themselves considerably more freedom or negligence with the E. than with the sacred Scriptures of the Hebrew canon” (Vaccari). Hebrew, Greek, and Syriac offer three independent recensions of the original text; for its reconstruction they are precious and substantially reliable witnesses.
The Greek version generally renders the Hebrew faithfully, from a codex of excellent textual quality. It is pure in Codex Vaticanus B, in many other codices and recensions; interpolated in ms. 248 and a few others. In Greek manuscripts, through an error in the transposition of folios, the displacement of 30:26-33:16a to after 36:13 is common. The editors (H. B. Swete, A. Rahlfs) restore the order attested by the Hebrew, as well as by the Syriac, the Old Latin, and internal examination.
The Syriac version, made directly from the Hebrew but with little care or understanding, presupposes a text less perfect than the preceding one; it contains omissions and paraphrases, and harmonizes readings with the less pure form of the Greek.
In the Vulgate, the ancient Latin version is preserved, not even revised by St. Jerome; it derives from a Greek codex of the second form, fairly heavily interpolated. In the course of time it underwent additions, duplications, and glosses. Once emended, however—with the assistance of the Fathers’ citations—it often offers excellent readings (Vaccari).
The E. is among the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament, that is, among the few sacred books whose canonicity was at one point subject to doubts because there was no definition concerning it on the part of the Church. The cause of such doubts was the exclusion of the E. from the Jewish canon, fixed by the Pharisees toward the end of the first century A.D., on the grounds that after the men of the “Great Synagogue,” following whom prophecy had ceased, no further sacred books could have appeared. This was a futile and arbitrary argument, since Ecclesiastes, for example, dates from the third–second century B.C., whereas the cessation of prophecy had conventionally been placed in the fourth century. The attitude of Protestants, therefore, who stop at the Jewish canon, is unjustified. Sirach itself presents itself as prophetic and inspired (cf. 24:33; 39:12; 51:16; etc.), and in the prologue the translator places the E. alongside the other sacred books and attests to the use made of it by the Jews of Palestine.
Moreover, the E. is used as a divine book by Enoch, by the Psalms of Solomon, and by the Jewish liturgy (in the Eighteen Benedictions and in the Hymn for the end of the Sabbath), and especially by the Talmud, which cites it even with the solemn formula “it is written” (Bērāhāth, 482). Some have, without foundation, detected a Sadducean coloring in the E. (cf. Spicq, p. 536 ff.) and maintain that the Pharisees excluded it for this reason as well.
Il Nuovo Testamento non cita esplicitamente l'E.,
ma ad esso ha importanti riferimenti: cf. Mt. 11, 25-50 =
Eccl. 51, 13 sgg.; I Cor. 15, 8-10 = Eccl. 53, 16 sg.;
I Cor. 7, 36 = Eccl. 42, 9; ecc. (Spicq, p. 546); così ancora nella Epistola Barnabae o Didache (cf. S.-M. Zarb,
De historia canonia, Roma 1934, p. 130 sg.). I Padri
pongono esplicitamente l'E. tra i Libri Sacri, eccettuati
i pochi (s. Anatasio, s. Cirillo di Gerusalemme [sec. IV],
s. Girolamo [sec. V]), che riconoscono il valore dottrinale
e morale dell'E., anzi lo citano come Scrittura Sacra
(s. Atanasio, Contra arianos, 2, 79; PG 26, 313; s. Girolamo, Epist. ad Iulian.: PL 22, 961; In It., 3, 13;
PL 24, 67), ma quando si tratta di dare ai catecamenti
un elenco indiscusso dei libri sacri (o, per s. Girolamo,
sotto l'influsso dei suoi rabbini), danno la lista dei soli
protocanonici, confermata dal canone giudaico. Questi
dubbi, sorti al sec. IV nelle chiese più a contatto con i
Giudei, presto svanirono.
I moderni son d'accordo sulla non ispirazione del
prologo (fa eccezione lo Spicq).
BIBLI: Introduzioni: A. Vaccari, Institutiones bibl. Vet. Test.,
II, 2ª ed., Roma 1935, pp. 44 sg., 54-65; H. Höpfl, Intr. spec.
in Vet. Test., 5ª ed., ivi 1946, pp. 371-81; C. Spicq, L'Ecclésiastique (La S. Bible, ed. L. Firot-A. Clamer, 6), Parigi 1946,
pp. 531-56. - Per il testo ebraico: N. Peters, Liber Iesu filii
Sirach, sive Ecclesiasticus hebraica, Friburgo in Br. 1905; R.
Smend, Die Weisheit des Jesus Sirach, hebräisch und deutsch,
Berlin 1906; I. Lévy, Un nouveau fragment de Bon Sira, in Revue
des études juives, 95 (1932), pp. 136-45; G. R. Driver, Hebrew
notes of the wisdom of Jesus Bon-Sirach, in The journal of biblical
literature, 53 (1934), p. 273 sgg. - Versione greca: J. H. A. Hart,
Ecclesiasticus. The Greek text of Codex 448, Cambridge 1900;
A. Rahlfs, Septuaginta, II, Stoccarda 1935, pp. 377-471. - Versione latina: D. de Bruyne, Etude sur le texte latin de l'Ecclésiastique, in Revue bénédictine, 40 (1928), pp. 5-48. Ottima
la versione italiana dall'originale: A. Vaccari, I libri postici...
Roma 1925, pp. 327-408. - Tra i commenti: R. Smend, op.
cit.; N. Peters, Das Buch Jesus Sirach, Münster 1912; G. H.
Box e W. O. E. Oesterley, in R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and
Pseudopigrapha of the Old Testament, Oxford 1913, pp. 268-317;
A. Eberharter, Bonn 1925; B. Alfrink, Brugge 1935; A. D. Power,
Londra 1939; C. Spicq, op. cit., pp. 557-841. - Per il cap. 24: A.
Vaccari, Il concetto della Sapienza nell'Ant. Test., in Gregorianum,
1 (1920), pp. 219-51; B. Bette, La Sousse dans les livres sapientiaux, in Revue de sciences philosophiques et théologiques, 10 (1930), pp. 83-94; P. von Imschoot, La Sousse dans l'Ant. Test, est-elle une hypnotie?, in Coll. Gondarennes, 21 (1934), pp. 80-92; id., Sousse et esprit dans l'Ant. Test, in Revue biblique, 47 (1938), pp. 34-49; P. Campens, De conceptus Sapientiae divinae in libris didactici Ant. Test, in Angelicum, 12 (1935), pp. 332-34; H. Renard, Le livre des Proverbes (S. Bible, ed. L. Pitre-A, Clamet, 6), Parigi 1943, p. 78 sp. - Altri studi: W. Baumparthor, Die literarischen Gattungen in der Weisheit des Jesus Strauch, in Zeitschrift f. d. nitros. Wissenschaft, 34 (1912), pp. 164-98; S. Liebermann, Ben-Sira à la lumière du Jernachalmi, in Rev. des et. livres, 97 (1934), pp. 50-57; T. Vargha, De Psalmo hebraico Ecclesiastici, in Antoninum, 10 (1935), pp. 1-10; P. Szczypick, Daniel et Judith in libre Strauch, in Praeglad Bibl., 1 (1937), pp. 117-47; K. Fruhstorfer, Des Weisen curriculum vitae nach Strauch (39, 1-15), in Theologisch-publishe Quartalschrift, 94 (1941), pp. 140-42; T. Gallus, A malirex julius peccati et per illum omnes mortum (Str. 25, 24-75), in Verbum Domini, 23 (1943), pp. 272-77; C. Selmer, Traces of the Sapiens of the Seven Sages in the Liber Ecclesiasticus, in The Catholic Bibl. Quarterly, 8 (1943), pp. 264-74; id., A study of Eccl., 22, 10-19, ibid., 8 (1946), pp. 368-14; L. Santoro, L'inno al Creatore di Gesù Ben Sirae, in Città di Vita, 2 (1947), pp. 253-61. Francesco Spadafora