Enough has been said of the contents of the book to give a general idea of its moral and religious position. Let us now consider its outward form. The work, as we have seen, was originally written in Hebrew. This indeed was to have been expected. For although the influence of the Seleucidæ had greatly strengthened the hold of Aramaic on the Jewish population of Palestine, Hebrew was still, and for a long time afterwards remained, the language of scholars and littérateurs. The author of the ‘Wisdom of Sirach’ was both. He was thoroughly penetrated with the spirit and style of the Scriptures, especially of those of the Khokma, and he would have thought it as much a descent to lavish his great powers on Aramaic as Dante did at first to write in Italian. Is this Hebrew original still extant? Alas! no; Hebrew literature, so scantily represented for this period, has to mourn this great loss. A page of fragments, gathered from the Talmud and the Midrāshīm,[[279]] is all that we can, with some occasional hesitation, plausibly regard as genuine. There is indeed a small work, called the Alphabet of Ben Sira, consisting of two series of proverbs, one in Aramaic, and one in Hebrew. But no significance can be attached to this. The genuineness of many of the Hebrew proverbs is guaranteed by their occurrence in the Talmud, but the form in which the alphabetist quotes them is often evidently less authentic than that in the Talmud. The original work must have been lost since the time of Jerome, if we may trust his assurance[[280]] that he had found it in Hebrew, and that it bore the name ‘Parables’ (m’shālīm). Of the ancient versions, the Syriac and the Old Latin are (after the Greek) the most important; the former is from the Hebrew, the latter from a very early form of the Greek text. Neither of them is always in accordance with the Greek as we have it, but such differences are often of use in restoring the original text. All the versions appear to contain alterations of the text, dictated by a too anxious orthodoxy, and in these the one may be a check upon the other. Bickell indeed goes further than this, and states that an accurate text of Sirach can only be had by combining the data of the Greek and the Syriac. Lowth, in his 24th Lecture, strongly urges the retranslation of Sirach into Hebrew. Such an undertaking would be premature, if Bickell’s judgment be correct that the book consists of seven-syllabled verses or στίχοι, grouped in distichs,[[281]] except in the alphabetic poem on wisdom (li. 13-20). The latter, consisting of 22 στίχοι, he has translated into German from his own corrected text, dividing it into four-lined strophes, as also the preceding, ‘alphabetising’ poem, consisting of 22 distichs (li. 1-12), in the Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie, 1882, pp. 326-332.
We must reserve our opinion on Bickell’s theory till the appearance of a complete edition from his pen. Meantime three passages (xxiv. 27, xxv. 15, xlvi. 18) may be referred to as giving striking proof of the Hebrew original of the work. In xxiv. 27 the translator seems to have found in his Hebrew copy כאר, i.e. properly כַּיְאׂר ‘as the Nile’ (the weak letter י being elided in pronunciation as in כאר, Am. viii. 8), but as he supposed כָּאוׂר ‘as the light.’ In xxv. 15, he found ראשׁ, which in the context can only mean ‘poison,’ but which he inappropriately rendered ‘head.’ In xlvi. 18, the Hebrew had צרים, i.e. צָרִים ‘enemies,’ but, according to the translator, צֹרִים ‘Tyrians.’ Compare also in this connection the allusions to the meanings of Hebrew words in vi. 22 (‘wisdom’) and xliii. 8 (‘the month’). There are still questions to be decided which can only be adverted to briefly here. Did the translator make use of the Septuagint, and more particularly of the portion containing the prophets? He certainly refers to a translation of the Scriptures in his preface, but Frankel thinks that a Targum may be meant, and even doubts the genuineness of the passage; he explains the points of contact with the Septuagint which are sometimes so interesting[[282]] in the Greek version of Sirach by Ueberarbeitung, i.e. the ‘working over’ of the version by later hands.[[283]] This seems to me a forced view. It is more probable that a Greek version is meant, or perhaps we may say Greek versions; no special honour is given to any one translation. Next, as to the position accorded to the Wisdom of Sirach. It is often cited in the Talmud with formulæ which belong elsewhere to the Scriptures, and was therefore certainly regarded by many as worthy to be canonical (see [Appendix]). In strict theory, this was wrong. According to the Tosephta Yadayim, c. 2, the book of Ben Sira, though much esteemed, stood on the border between the canonical and extraneous or non-canonical books. Such books might be read cursorily, but were not to be studied too much.[[284]] Sirach neither claimed the authorship of a hero of antiquity, nor was it, according to the rising Pharisaic school, orthodox; thus perhaps we may best account for the fact that a work, regarded in itself in no way inferior to the Book of Proverbs, was left outside the sacred canon.
No certain allusions to our book are traceable in the New Testament; the nearest approach to a quotation is James i. 19; comp. Ecclus. v. 13. Clement of Alexandria is the first Christian writer who quotes directly from Sirach. From its large use in the services of the Church the book received the name Ecclesiasticus, to distinguish it perhaps from the canonical book which was also often called ‘Wisdom.’ In later times, it half attracted, but—owing to the corrupt state of the text—half repelled, the great Hellenist Camerarius, the friend of Melancthon, who published a separate edition of Sirach (the first) at Basle in 1551. It appears from his preface that it was highly valued by the reformers from an educational point of view. Bullinger proposes it as a less dangerous text book of moral philosophy than the works of Plato and Aristotle, and Luther admits it to be a good household book, admired however too much by the world, which ‘sleepily passes by the great majestic word of Christ concerning the victory over death, sin, and hell.’
No impartial critic will place the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach on the same literary eminence with the so-called Wisdom of Solomon. It is only from its greater fidelity to the Old Testament standard, or at least to a portion of this standard, that it can claim a qualified superiority. A few noble passages of continuous rhetoric it no doubt contains, especially the noble Hymn of Praise on the works of creation (xxxix. 16-xliii. 33); and a few small but exquisite gems especially the sayings on friendship (counterbalanced, I admit by those on the treatment of one’s enemies, xii. 10-12, xxv. 7, xxx. 6), e.g.—
Forsake not an old friend,
for the new is not comparable to him.
A new friend is as new wine,
when it is old, thou wilt drink it with pleasure (ix. 10),
with which we may bracket the noble passage on the treatment of a friend’s trespass (xix. 13-17). One of the fine religious passages has been quoted already (xliii. 27; comp. Job xxvi. 14); we may couple this[[285]] with it—
As a drop from the sea, and a grain of sand,