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Sirach describes wisdom as a cosmic figure who emerges from God's mouth and fills creation. The Christian theologian Ambrose of Milan cites this passage in a theological argument about Jesus, demonstrating how he used Sirach as an authoritative source.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 24:3
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
1 Wisdom will praise her own soul, and will proclaim her glory in the midst of her people. 2 She will open her mouth in the congregation of the Most High, and proclaim her glory in the presence of his power. 3 “I came out of the mouth of the Most High, and covered the earth as a mist. 4 I lived in high places, and my throne is in the pillar of the cloud. 5 Alone I surrounded the circuit of heaven, and walked in the depth of the abyss.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Early Christian
If, then, we enquire into His natural pre-eminence, we find it to consist in being begotten. To deny that the Son of God is begotten [of God] is to deny that He is God's own Son, and to deny Christ to be God's own Son is to class Him with the rest of mankind, as no more a Son than any of the rest. If, however, we enquire into the distinctive property of His generation, it is this, that He came forth from God. For while, in our experience, to come out implies something already existent, and that which is said to come out seems to proceed forth from hidden and inward places, we, though it be presented but in short passages, observe the peculiar attribute of the Divine Generation, that the Son does not seem to have come forth out of any place, but as God from God, a Son from a Father, nor to have had a beginning in the course of time, having come forth from the Father by being born, as He Himself Who was born said: I came forth from the mouth of the Most High.
Date: 390–395 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The Book of Ecclesiasticus [Sirach] has been honored still more highly among the Christians, being cited in the Epistle of James (Edersheim, in Wace, 'Apocrypha,' p. 21), the Didache (4:5), and the Epistle of Barnabas (19:9), while Clement of Alexandria and Origen quote from it repeatedly, as from a γραφή, or holy book. In the Western Church, Cyprian frequently appeals to it in his 'Testimonia,' as does Ambrose in the greater number of his writings. In like manner the Catalogue of Cheltenham, Damasus I., the Councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), Pope Innocent I., the second Council of Carthage (419), and Augustine all regard it as a canonical book. This is contrary, however, to the opinions of the Council of Laodicea, of Jerome, and of Rufinus of Aquileia, which authorities rank it among the ecclesiastical books. It was finally declared canonical by the Council of Trent; and the favor with which the Church has always regarded it has preserved it in its entirety. ..."
Crawford Howell Toy, The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach (Jewish Encyclopedia, 2021), 1–10.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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