Sirach is part of what is considered the Apocrypha / Deuterocanonical scripture and appears in the Old Testament of Catholic Bibles and is one of the “wisdom” books. Except for some Episcopal or Lutheran Bibles, Sirach and other books of the Apocrypha do not appear in Protestant Bibles. Apocrypha means ‘hidden’ and Deuterocanonical means ‘second-listed’. Books of the Apocrypha were generally written in the roughly 400 years between the composition of the books in the Old and New Testaments, the so-called inter-testamental period. Also known as Eccelesiasticus, Sirach is one of 12 – 15 books generally recognized as comprising the Apocrycha.
Controversy surrounds the Apocrypha regarding whether these books are from God or divinely-inspired. For example, some biblical scholars point out that Jesus never quoted any verses from the Apocrypha, although He did so with great frequency from many Old Testament books. Many books of the Apocrypha contain historical or geographical inaccuracies and teach false doctrines (e.g., the Book of Tobit claims good works lead to salvation). Plus, Jewish scripture never accepted any of these documents as sacred writings.
In response to developments caused by “The Reformation”, the Catholic Church, after centuries of not acknowledging these writings fully, canonized the Apocrypha at the Council of Trent in 1546 in part to provide ‘biblical’ justification for some doctrines not found in originally canonized works, e.g., praying for the dead, purgatory, salvation by almsgiving, etc. It was during the Reformation that doctrine validity was judged against the principle of “Sola Scriptura” (by scripture alone). So, by accepting writings in the Apocrypha that mentioned the above practices not found in original, biblical scripture, the Catholic Church could support its theological position during this tempestuous time.
Jesus, son of Eleazar, Son of Sirach. is believed to have authored this book between 200 – 175 B.C. This work possesses a wealth of varied expressions of wise and foolish behavior reminiscent of the Book of Proverbs. Many of its verses have Old Testament antecedents, especially from the Book of Proverbs (dozens of related verses) and the Pentateuch, which is comprised of the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). Portions of Sirach are used today in Catholic Church liturgy.
While most of this book tracks with long-standing, sound biblical doctrine, there are several tenets which conflict significantly with Christian (Protestant) beliefs. In several places, Sirach implies our actions can bring favor upon ourselves, mitigate our sin in God’s eyes, and anticipate reciprocal responses from those we assist in their time of need (Chapters 3, 7, 12, 17, and 22). This is in stark contrast, to being a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7), being saved through faith and not actions/works (Galatians 2:15), and Jesus’ exhorting our giving without expecting anything in return (Matthew 6:3).
Providing readers precise Sirach citations (chapter and verse, as with the Bible) is highly problematic, as a firm numbering construct apparently does not exist. For example, in The New American Bible (Catholic Bible Press, 1987) and The Aprocrypha (God’s Word Translation, Baker Books, 2009), there are several instances where both the numbering of verses as well as total number of chapter verses differ. As a result, only Sirach chapters are referenced above.
Used by permission from GotQuestions.org.
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