#26 Sirach Review

Sirach is a book about right living. What is written in it seems very similar to proverbs and Ecclesiastes. There seems to be a lot of quotes from Proverbs. Such as “the fear of the Lord.” The point of Sirach seems to be that true wisdom is faith in God. The foundation of which is of course the fear of the lord which is the beginning of wisdom. When reading Sirach, I find myself wondering why it is not in the bible. From my research it seems it is not in the bible since we don’t have a copy of the text in the original Hebrew rather than a translation into Greek. So the text may be somewhat corrupted.

The text of Sirach seems to contain a lot of good advice. Somewhat similar to that of proverbs. But while proverbs was written in generalities by lots of people over a 1000 years, Sirach was written by one man and addresses specific topics. With wisdom being the topic at hand Sirach expounds on the nature of wisdom in regard to the fear of the lord. “The root of wisdom is to fear the Lord, and the branches thereof are long life.” (Sirach 1:20) Why does wisdom bring long life? I think this is because in general following the way of wisdom causes you to not do things that may lead to death. While also causing you to do things that make your life better. Why is Wisdom described as a woman? Is it because wisdom can grow on its own? Is it because “to fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and it was created with the faithful in the womb.” (Sirach 1:14) shows us that wisdom is given in the womb.

Other than what I mentioned before I find it hard to comment on Sirach or even to summarize due to its similarity to scripture. Proverbs is my favorite book of the Bible. As such when I read Proverbs, I find myself wanting to look up the history of every word, and how it is used in other places throughout the book. I find the same thing happening here. I am not sure what else to say about this book.