It contains some things not in harmony with the analogy of faith.
It contains some things not in harmony with the analogy of faith.
(3) There are some things in this book that are not in harmony with the analogy of faith. In Sirach 1:3, Wisdom is said to have been “created before them all” (
). In Sirach 24:9, Wisdom says, “I was created from the beginning, before the ages” (
). In Sirach 3:30: “As water quenches fire, so almsgiving [atones for] sin.” We must interpret this suitably, lest it be repugnant to the analogy of faith that attributes such efficacy solely to the merit of Christ, namely, that God mitigates corporal punishment for sins when someone practices love toward the needy out of genuine penitence and faith. In Sirach 46:23, what ought to be attributed to the devil’s illusion is attributed to Samuel. Sirach 48:10 proposes the Judaic error that Elijah the Tishbite, who once was carried off into heaven by fiery horses and chariot, “is going to return to these lands.” In his commentary, Jansenius responds: “Even if it is the opinion of the ancients that Elijah would return, yet it is not proved incontestably from this passage. You see, one can say that the Ecclesiasticus wrote this according to the opinion held at his time, by which people believed from the words of Malachi that Elijah truly would come in his own person before the Messiah.” Some people try to show from the Greek text that the author is speaking about past acts of Elijah the Tishbite rather than about his future return. Sirach 49:5 says that all the rest of the kings went astray except David, Hezekiah, and Josiah. By this explanation, he makes the good and devout King Jehoshaphat an idolater.