Ecclesiasticus

ECCLESIASTICUS. The book of Ecclesiasticus is so called in Latin, perhaps to distinguish it from that of Ecclesiastes, or to show that it contains, as well as the former, precepts and exhortations to wisdom and virtue. The Greeks call it the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach, or the Panaretos of Jesus the son of Sirach. This word Panaretos signifies a book that treats of all sorts of virtues. The Author has herein made a very large collection of maxims and instructions, useful in all states and conditions of life.

Some of the Ancients¹ have ascribed this work to Solomon, but it is certain that the Author of it is much more modern than Solomon. He speaks in it of several persons, who lived after this Prince. He himself mentions his own name in Chap. l. verse 29.² I Jesus the son of Sirach have written in this book the instruction of understanding and knowledge. The list chapter is inscribed, A Prayer of Jesus the son of Sirach. The Interpreter who translated it out of Syriac or Hebrew into Greek, says at the beginning, that his grand-father Jesus composed it in Hebrew.

As to the Translator, Athanasius, Epiphanius, and Joan. Damascenus were of opinion, that Jesus the son of Sirach had a son of the same name, and a grandson too, who was called Jesus, and surnamed the son of Sirach, who translated this book out of Hebrew into Greek. This is certain, that we have no authentick monument, whereby we may know the name of the Translator; for the title of the preface, which calls him Jesus, is not read so with this name in the Greek of the Roman Edition.

Some Rabbins think Ben-sira, a Jewish writer, from whom we have two alphabets of Proverbs, is the same with our Jesus the son of Sirach: this opinion was adopted by several Christian Authors; and there is indeed a great conformity to be observed in the sentences of these two writers. They who have the curiosity, may see a parallel of them drawn up by Cornelius a Lapide, and prefixed to his Comment upon Ecclesiasticus. But if it be true, as the Jews will have it, that Ben-sira was Jeremiah’s nephew, and the father of one Uziel, he cannot be said to be the same as Jesus the son of Sirach, who lived long after the Jews returned from their captivity, and since the Monarchy of the Ptolemies in Egypt.

We do not know exactly in what time the Author of this book lived. He makes an encomium on the High-priest Simon, and speaks of him as not then living. But as there were more High-priests than one of this name, the difficulty still continues in full force. Nevertheless it is very probable, that he means Simon II. after whose death all those calamities befel the Jews, which might induce the son of Sirach to say, what we read in the xxxvith and lth chapters. He who translated it into Greek, came into Egypt in the thirty eighth year of Ptolemy VII. who was surnamed Euergetes, the second of that name, as he himself tells us in his Preface. But as to the Author of the Latin translation made from the Greek, he is intirely unknown. St. Jerom did not touch this book, and we have it as it was when the Old Fathers were acquainted with it, and as they cited it, in very barbarous Latin.

As to the admittance of this Book into the Canon, whether it ever had a place there or not, has been much disputed. There are several old Catalogues of the Canonical Books, wherein we do not find this. St. Jerom³ says, the Church receives it for the edification, which may be had from it, but not with a design to authorize by it any point of doctrine in Religion. Ad ædificationem plebis, non ad authoritatem Ecclesiasticorum dogmatum confirmandam. But at present it is a received opinion in the Catholick Church, that this book was placed in the Canon of the Holy Scriptures ; and it may be demonstrated by the testimony of several Fathers in all ages, and by the tradition of all Christian Churches, that it has at all times been reverenced and quoted by a great number of Ecclesiastical Writers, as inspired by the Holy Ghost. And if some of the Ancients did not insert it in their Catalogue, it was because they had confined themselves to place such writings only in their lists, which were not contested, and were unanimously admitted by both Jews and Christians.

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