The Origin of Wisdom

Chapter 1

1 All wisdom comes from the Lord, and is with him forever.⁠ 2 Who can count the sand of the seas, the drops of rain, and the days of eternity?⁠ 3 Who will search out the height of the sky, the breadth of the earth, the deep, and wisdom? 4 Wisdom has been created before all things,⁠ and the understanding of prudence from everlasting. 6 To whom has the root of wisdom been revealed? Who has known her shrewd counsels? 8 There is one wise, greatly to be feared, sitting upon his throne: the Lord. 9 He created her. He saw and measured her. He poured her out upon all his works.⁠ 10 She is with all flesh according to his gift. He gave her freely to those who love him.

Reverence for God and Wisdom

11 The fear of the Lord is glory, exultation, gladness, and a crown of rejoicing. 12 The fear of the Lord will delight the heart, and will give gladness, joy, and length of days. 13 Whoever fears the Lord, it will go well with him at the last. He will be blessed in the day of his death. 14 To fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It was created together with the faithful in the womb. 15 She laid an eternal foundation with men. She will be trusted among their offspring. 16 To fear the Lord is the fullness of wisdom. She inebriates men with her fruits. 17 She will fill all her house with desirable things, and her storehouses with her produce. 18 The fear of the Lord is the crown of wisdom,⁠ making peace and perfect health to flourish. 19 He both saw and measured her. He rained down skill and knowledge of understanding, and exalted the honor of those who hold her fast. 20 To fear the Lord is the root of wisdom. Her branches are length of days. 21 [The fear of the Lord drives away sins.⁠ Where it resides, it will turn away all anger.] 22 Unjust wrath can never be justified, for his wrath tips the scale to his downfall.⁠ 23 A man that is patient will resist for a season, and afterward gladness will spring up to him. 24 He will hide his words until the right moment, and the lips of many will tell of his understanding. 25 A wise saying is in the treasures of wisdom; but godliness is an abomination to a sinner. 26 If you desire wisdom, keep the commandments and the Lord will give her to you freely; 27 for the fear of the Lord is wisdom and instruction. Faith and humility are his good pleasure.⁠ 28 Don’t disobey the fear of the Lord. Don’t come to him with a double heart. 29 Don’t be a hypocrite in men’s sight. Keep watch over your lips. 30 Don’t exalt yourself, lest you fall and bring dishonor upon your soul. The Lord will reveal your secrets and will cast you down in the midst of the congregation, because you didn’t come to the fear of the Lord and your heart was full of deceit.

Texts in conversation

Compare Sirach 1:9 and Athanasius, Discourse Against the Arians 2 79:1

Deuterocanon · Early Christian

Summary

The Christian theologian Athanasius uses Sirach as a source of teaching, with his use of this text in a theological argument showing how Sirach functioned as an authoritative source to determine theology and practice.

Passages

Sirach 1:9

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus

6 To whom has the root of wisdom been revealed? Who has known her shrewd counsels? 8 There is one wise, greatly to be feared, sitting upon his throne: the Lord. 9 He created her. He saw and measured her. He poured her out upon all his works. 10 She is with all flesh according to his gift. He gave her freely to those who love him. 11 The fear of the Lord is glory, exultation, gladness, and a crown of rejoicing.

195–180 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Sirach

Athanasius, Discourse Against the Arians 2 79:1

Early Christian

But if this too fails to persuade them, let them tell us themselves whether there is any wisdom in the creatures or not. If not, how is it that the Apostle complains, 'For since, in the Wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God'? Or how is it, if there is no wisdom, that a 'multitude of wise men' is found in Scripture? For 'a wise man fears and turns away from evil'; and 'by wisdom a house is built'; and the Preacher says, 'A man's wisdom makes his face shine'; and he rebukes the headstrong this way: 'Do not say, Why were the former days better than these? For you do not ask about this in wisdom.' But if, as the Son of Sirach says, 'He poured her out on all His works; she is with all flesh according to His gift, and He has given her to those who love Him,' and this outpouring is a mark not of the Essence of the true and Only-begotten Wisdom, but of the wisdom that is imaged in the world, how is it unbelievable that the All-creating and true Wisdom Itself, whose impression is the wisdom and knowledge poured out in the world, should say, as I have already explained, as if of Itself, 'The Lord created me for His works'? For the wisdom in the world is not creative, but is what is created in the works, according to which 'the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.' If people have this within them, they will acknowledge the true Wisdom of God, and will know that they are truly made in God's Image. Consider a king's son, when his father wished to build a city: he might have his own name stamped on each of the works as they rose, both to assure them that the works would last, because his name appeared on everything, and to make them remember him and his father from the name; and when he had finished the city and was asked how it was made, he would answer, 'It is made securely, for according to my father's will I am imaged in each work, for my name was placed in the works.' But in saying this he does not mean that his own essence is created, but the impression of himself by means of his name. In the same way, to apply the illustration, the true Wisdom answers those who admire the wisdom in the creatures, 'The Lord created me for the works,' for My impression is in them, and I have condescended in this way for the making of all things.

355–360 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Athanasius, Discourse Against the Arians 2

References

"... But to this first terminus ante quem we can now add a second, even more precise one— that is, the sending of Athanasius’s Festal Letter 39 on the occasion of Easter in 367. In this letter the patriarch makes a clear distinction between the biblical books, truly “inspired by God,” to be read by the faithful, and “the so-called apocrypha,” which are but “an invention of heretics,” to be proscribed. To the first category belong not only the writings “that have been canonized” (i.e., the “twenty-two books of the Old Testament” and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, listed at §§ 17–18), but also the books “appointed to be read,” that is, the apocryphal / deuterocanonical books of the Septuagint (the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Esther, Judith, and Tobit), to which Athanasius adds the Teaching of the Apostles (most probably, the Didache) and the Shepherd of Hermas. As for the second group, in spite of the intentionally generic tone he uses, the reference Athanasius makes to the different writings attributed to Enoch, Moses, or Isaiah, written with the purpose of “deceiving the simple folk” (§ 21), seems to perfectly apply to 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the Ascension of Isaiah, the three most significant pseudepigrapha translated into Ethiopic. If these texts, apparently popular among Egyptian monks, were officially forbidden by the inflexible bishop of Alexandria in 367, it is difficult to imagine that they would still have been sent to Aksum or elsewhere for translation after that date ..."

Pierluigi Piovanelli, “Ethiopic,” in A Guide to Early Jewish Texts and Traditions in Christian Transmission, ed. Alexander Kulik, Gabriele Boccaccini, Lorenzo DiTommaso, David Hamidović, and Michael E. Stone (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 35–47.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

The Origin of Wisdom

Reverence for God and Wisdom

Sirach52 chapters

Compare Sirach 1:9 and Athanasius, Discourse Against the Arians 2 79:1

Summary

Passages

Sirach 1:9

Athanasius, Discourse Against the Arians 2 79:1

References

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