drian critics. Some, like the Books of the Maccabees, are attempts, more or less exact, at contemporary or nearly contemporary history. Some, like the Psalter of Solomon, have never gained an entrance even into this outer court of the sacred writings. Some, like the Second Book of Esdras and the Book of Enoch, have attained a Biblical authority, but only within a very limited range. But there are two which tower above the rest, and which, even by those who most disparage the others, are held in reverential esteem. The one is the recommendation of the theology of Palestine to Alexandria- the Wisdom of the Son of Sirach'; the other is the recommendation of the theology of Alexandria to Palestine the Wisdom of Solomon.'

They are both in the same class of literature. They both attach themselves in the Hebrew Scriptures, not to the Prophetical or Historical or Poetical portions, but to those writings on which the influence of the external world had already made itself felt-the books which bear the name of Solomon.1 They both furnish links which connect the earlier Hebrew literature with that final outburst of religious teaching which is recorded in the Gospels and Epistles. The Parables and Discourses beside the Galilean Lake, the Epistles of James, of John, and of the unknown author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, have hardly any affinity with the style of Daniel or Malachi, of Tobit or of the Rabbinical schools, but they are the direct continuation, although in a more exalted form, of those two Apocryphal Books of Wisdom. The Wisdom of Joshua (or, as the Greeks called him,

See Lecture XXVII.

2 It is strange that any doubt should have ever arisen on the date of Ecclesiasticus. The comparison of Haggai i. 1; ii. 1; Zech. i. 7; vii. 1; 1 Macc. xiii. 42; xiv. 27, makes it certain that ἐν τῷ ὀγδοῷ καὶ τριακοστῷ ἔτει ἐπὶ τοῦ Εὐεργέτου βασιλέως in the

Prologue can only mean in the thirtyeighth year of King Euergetes;' and as the first Euergetes only reigned twentyfive years the date of the translation is thus fixed to the thirty-eighth year of the second Euergetes, B.C. 132. The indication from the mention of Simon in chap. 1. 1, is less certain. But the

Wisdom of

Jesus), the Son of Sirach, was the first of those writings which, The from the sanction given to them by the Church, were called the Son of 'Ecclesiastical' as distinct from Canonical,' and thus took Sirach.

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to itself the name Ecclesiasticus,' which properly belonged to them all. It was for the Jews of Alexandria first, and then for the Christians, The Church Book;' the favourite 'book of ecclesiastical edification; the Whole Duty of 'Man,'' the Imitation '-the 'summary of all virtues,' 2 as it was called in its original title.

B.C. 180.

It must have early acquired this reputation. The grandson of its author arrived in Alexandria in the close of the troubled reign of Ptolemy Physcon-the second of those B.C. 132. kings who were renowned amongst the Gentiles for bearing, seriously or ironically, the name of benefactor' (Euergetes). When, amongst his countrymen in the foreign land, he discovered 'no slight difference of education,' and at the same time a keen desire to become instructed in the customs of their fathers, he found no task more worthy of his labour, knowledge, and sleepless study than to translate into Greek this collection of all that was most practical in the precepts and most inspiring in the history of his people.

It is, perhaps, the only one of the Deuterocanonical 3 books composed originally, not in Greek, but in Hebrew; and the translator well knew the difficulty of rendering the peculiarities of his native tongue into the fluent language of Alexandria. It is the first reflection which we possess on the Old Testament Scriptures after the commencement of the formation of the Canon. The Law and the Prophets' were already closed. books' were, as the phrase

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The other great probability in favour of identifying him with Simon II. agrees with the conclusion to be drawn from the interval between the grandfather who wrote and the grandson who translated, and this would place the original work about B.C. 180.

A fierce attack upon it, as favouring Arianism, necromancy, and Judaic error, was published by Reynolds in 1666.

2 Panaretos.

3 The First Book of Maccabees and Judith may also perhaps be exceptions.

implies, still regarded as an appendix, capable of additions, yet already beginning to be parted by an intelligible though invisible line, from those of later date. The Son of Sirach had given himself much to their perusal; he was, as we may say, the first Biblical student; but he felt that he had still something new to add, something old to collect. He was, like a great teacher of later times, as one born out 'of due time.2 He had awakened up last of all, as one that 'gathereth after the grape-gatherers3; by the blessing of the 'Lord he profited,' and 'filled his winepress like a gleaner of grapes.' It was a noble ambition, alike of the grandfather and the grandson, to carry into the most minute duties of daily life the principles of their ancient law-labouring not 'for himself only, but for all who seek learning.'

It is one of the largest books in the whole Bible. It contains the first allusions to the earlier records of the Jewish race. The Psalms, and occasionally the Prophets, had touched on the history of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel. But neither in Psalms or Prophets, neither in Proverbs or history, is there the slightest reference to the mystic opening of the Book of Genesis, which in Christian times has been the battlefield of so many a strife, theological, scientific, and critical. It is the Son of Sirach, in his passing allusions to the creation of Adam, and to the old giants, who is the first precursor of the Pelagian controversy, of the Paradise Lost,' of the Elohistic and Jehovistic theories.

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Jerusalem is still the centre, and Palestine the horizon, of his thoughts. The Priesthood, with their offerings, their dues, and their stately appearance, are to him the most prominent figures of the Jewish community. Nor is the

He draws his

modern institution of the Scribes forgotten.' images of grandeur from the cedars of Lebanon and the firtrees that clothe the sides of Hermon, from the terebinth2 with its spreading branches—his images of beauty from the palmtrees in the tropical heat of Engedi, or from the roses and lilies and fragrant shade by the well-watered gardens of Jericho. The drops of bitterness which well up amidst his exuberant flow of patriotic thanksgiving are all discharged within that narrow range of vision which fixed his whole theological and national animosity on the three hostile tribes that penned in the little Jewish colony-the Edomites on the south, the Philistines on the west, and the Samaritans on the north.3 And in accordance with this local and almost provincial limitation is the absence of those wider Oriental or Western aspects which abound in other Canonical or Deuterocanonical books of this period. It is, after Malachi, the one specimen. of a purely Palestinian treatise during this period.

But the grandson, through whose careful translation alone it has been preserved, was not wrong in thinking that it had a sufficiently universal character to make it suitable for the vast complex world in which he found himself in the capital of Alexander's dominions. Even although hardly any direct Alexandrian influence can be detected in its style, yet it is evident that the breath of the Grecian spirit has touched it at the core, and raised it out of its Semitic atmosphere. The closed hand of the Hebrew proverb has opened (thus to apply a well-known metaphor) into the outstretched palm of Grecian rhetoric. The author, although his birthplace and his home were Jerusalem, was yet a traveller in foreign lands -he knew the value, even if he had not had the actual experience, of serving among great men and before

1 Ecclus. x. 5.

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2 Ecclus. xxiv. 13–19; 1. 8-12.

Ecclus. 1. 26. For Samaria read Seir, and possibly for the foolish

people' (uwpós) read the Amorites', (Grimm, ad loc.)

See especially Ecclus. xxxviii.

24; xxxix. 11.

princes; he had tried the good and the evil among

In some respects the Book of the Son of Sirach is but a repetition of the ancient writings of Solomon. In some of its maxims it sinks below the dignity of those writings by the homeliness of its details 2 for guidance of behaviour at meals, of commercial speculations, of social advancement, But its general tone is worthy of that first contact between the two great civilisations of the ancient world, and breathes a spirit which an Isaiah would not have condemned, nor a Sophocles or a Theophrastus have despised. There is not a

word in it to countenance the minute casuistries of the later Rabbis, or the metaphysical subtleties of the later Alexandrians. It pours out its whole strength in discussing the conduct of human life, or the direction of the soul to noble aims. Here first in the sacred books we find the full delineation of the idea of education-the slow, gradual process, at first by 'crooked ways, then will she return the straight way, and 'comfort him, and show him her secrets.'

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'At the last thou

Here

'shalt find her rest, and that shall be turned to thy joy. Then 'shall her fetters be a strong defence for thee, and her chains 'a robe of glory.' Here is a pointed warning against spoiled children: Cocker thy child, and he shall make thee afraid, 'play with him and he will bring thee to heaviness." is the measure of true nobleness: It is not meet to despise 'a poor man that hath understanding, neither is it convenient to magnify a sinful man. Great men and judges and poten'tates shall be honoured, yet is there none of them greater 'than he that feareth the Lord. To the slave that is wise 'shall they that are free do service, and he that hath know

Ecclus. xxxix. 4; li. 13.

2 Ecclus. viii. 11-19; xi. xiii. 2; xix. 1; xxix.; xxxvii. 11. Ecclus. xxxi. 16.

Ecclus. iv. 17.

10;

5 Ecclus. vi. 28.

6 Ecclus. xxx. 9.