This is an important book and Skehan explains it very well.
The book “The Wisdom of Ben Sira” was composed around the year 180 BCE by Yeshua ben (son of) Eleazar ben (son of) Sira, a generation before the period of the Chanukah story. It is a book that the rabbis did not include in the Hebrew Bible despite respecting it immensely and quoting from it some 82 times with approval in the Talmud and other rabbinical writings. The author Yeshua is called after his grandfather Sira. His book is also called “Ecclesiasticus.” The book is included in the Catholic Bible, but not the Jewish Hebrew Scriptures nor the Protestant New Testament. It comprises 51 chapters and is the longest volume in the Catholic Bible. It is part of what scholars call the Wisdom literature of Israel, together with Job, Proverbs, Qohelet (Ecclesiastes), the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon, and some of the Psalms that are called wisdom Psalms because of what they teach.
General content
The Ben Sira book is pragmatic, not theological, and reflects the traditional Jewish mentality of the Hellenistic world of second century BCE Jerusalem, Israel, where Ben Sira lived. The author was a teacher in Jerusalem, and his book, generally written in poetry, addresses subjects such as showing proper honor to one’s father and mother and the beneficial results of that behavior, humility, almsgiving, true and false friendships, proper behavior to neighbors, advice concerning wicked and virtuous women, the use of wealth, as well as many other subjects such as malice, anger vengeance, loans, eating, wine, servants, and the like.
Life after death and women
Significantly, Ben Sira did not believe in life after death. All rewards and punishments occur during the lifetime of the actor. He also had the terrible ideas about women rampant in his age, and which have not been totally resolved even in the twenty first century.
Wisdom
But of most interest to many and this reviewer is his views about wisdom and the fear and love of God, which Ben Sira felt were related to each other and to wisdom. Ancient Jews believed that the world was created with wisdom. Proverbs 8:22 has wisdom say: “The Lord begot me as the firstborn of the ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago.” Ben Sira reflects this view at the start of his book in 1:4, “Before all things wisdom was created, and prudent understanding from all eternity.” In his autobiographical poem, in 51:13-14, he stresses the importance of wisdom: “When I was young and innocent I kept seeking wisdom. She came to me in her beauty, and until the end I will cultivate her.”
What is wisdom? In 6:18-37, Ben Sira encourages his readers to strive for wisdom, as he did, and he identifies wisdom with the Law: people can obtain wisdom by fearing and loving God and keeping the divine commandments. “The whole of wisdom is fear of the Lord; complete wisdom is the fulfillment of the Law” 19:20. By so doing, people are living out God’s wisdom, which is revealed in the Law, and will obtain many benefits.
Curiously, while he disparages women, Ben Sira personifies wisdom as did the author of Proverbs as a woman; as a teacher (4:11-19), mother and wife (14:20-15:8), and lover to be wooed (51:13-21).
Fear and Love God
To Ben Sira, fear and love of God are synonyms and neither expresses an emotion. He equates fear and love of God with wisdom; they are all three the same. I understand “fear” and “love” of God suggesting a high degree of respect for nature that God created.
He is saying seek wisdom by doing two things. First, obey the Law, and by Law he means the Torah, for the Torah contains wisdom, and wisdom brings personal and social benefits. This is also the view of Maimonides (1138-1204) who in his Guide of the Perplexed 3:28 described three purposes of the Torah: to teach some truths and to aid people in improving themselves and society. Second, by the words fear and love he is suggesting, as did Maimonides, that we need to study the universe because it reveals even more than the Torah how we can improve ourselves and others.
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