Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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Manuscript witnesses 2 ▾
Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325
What is Sirach 12 about?

Discernment in kindness runs through the chapter, which counsels giving to the godly while withholding aid that only strengthens a sinner. Ben Sira distinguishes the friend who stands by in adversity from the one who vanishes with prosperity, and warns sharply against trusting an enemy however sweetly he speaks. However an adversary may flatter or bow low, his malice remains, and the wise man keeps his guard. Prudence about whom to help and whom to fear is offered as a mark of practical wisdom.

Historical backdrop

Ben Sira taught in Jerusalem around 180 BC, in the last calm before the storm. Judea had passed from Ptolemaic to Seleucid hands, Greek ways pressed in from every side, and the second temple still stood in the glory the high priest Simon had restored, the Simon whose splendor the book remembers. Within a generation Antiochus would defile that temple, and the grandson who carried the work to Egypt and turned it into Greek wrote in the aftermath, for the Jews of Alexandria.

The Church Fathers on Sirach 12
Deuterocanon (Catholic & Orthodox) · Accepted as canonical Scripture by the Catholic and Orthodox traditions and included in the original 1611 KJV (between the Old and New Testaments). Not in the Protestant 66-book canon. Read with the same care you bring to other Scripture, conscious that Protestants and Catholics weigh its authority differently.

Sirach 12

Sirach Chapter 12
12
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What is Sirach 12 about?

Discernment in kindness runs through the chapter, which counsels giving to the godly while withholding aid that only strengthens a sinner. Ben Sira distinguishes the friend who stands by in adversity from the one who vanishes with prosperity, and warns sharply against trusting an enemy however sweetly he speaks. However an adversary may flatter or bow low, his malice remains, and the wise man keeps his guard. Prudence about whom to help and whom to fear is offered as a mark of practical wisdom.