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 8 about?

Prudence in dealing with others shapes the chapter, which warns against quarreling with the powerful, the rich, the reckless, or the aged. Ben Sira advises the reader not to lend beyond his means, not to stand surety past his strength, and not to kindle the anger of a sinner. He commends listening to the counsel of the old, who received their wisdom from their fathers. Caution and respect are set forth as the practical shape of a God-fearing life.

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 8
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 8

Sirach Chapter 8
8
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What is Sirach 8 about?

Prudence in dealing with others shapes the chapter, which warns against quarreling with the powerful, the rich, the reckless, or the aged. Ben Sira advises the reader not to lend beyond his means, not to stand surety past his strength, and not to kindle the anger of a sinner. He commends listening to the counsel of the old, who received their wisdom from their fathers. Caution and respect are set forth as the practical shape of a God-fearing life.