It is, however, impossible for any church or priesthood to be maintained on any such principles. Where mankind believe with Koheleth that whatever God does is forever, that nothing can be superadded to it nor aught be taken away; and that God has so contrived that man must fear Him; they will have no use for any paraphernalia for softening the irrevocable decrees of a Judgment Day already past. But Koheleth's arrows, feathered with wit and eloquence, were logically shot from the Jahvist arquebus. It was Jahveh himself who proudly claimed that he created good and evil, and that if there were evil in a city it was his work. It was Jahveh's own prophet, Isaiah, who cried (lxiii. 17), "O Lord, why dost Thou make us to err from Thy ways, and hardenest our heart from Thy fear?" What then could Jahvism say when a time arrived wherein it must defend itself against a Jahveh-created world? CHAPTER XI WISDOM (ECCLESIASTICUS). It was necessary that Koheleth should be answered, but who was competent for this? A fable had been invented of a Solomonic serpent who had tempted Eve to taste the fruit of knowledge which, when the man shared it, brought a curse on the earth, but the canonical prophets do not appear to have heard of it, and at any rate it was too late in the day to meet fact with fable. Nor had Jahveh's whirlwind-answer to Job proved effectual. However, some sort of answer did come, and significantly enough it had to come from Koheleth's own quarter, the Wisdom school. Pure Jahvism had not brains enough for the task. The apocryphal book "Ecclesiasticus" is the antidote to Ecclesiastes. (These are the Christian names given to the two books.) This book, bearing the simple title "Wisdom," compiled and partly written by Jesus Ben Sira early in the second century B. C., is as a whole much more than an offset to Koheleth. It is a great though unintentional literary monument to Solomon, and it is the book of reconciliation, or so intended, between Solomonism and Jahvism,--or, as we should now say, between philosophy and theology. The newly discovered original Hebrew of Ecclesiasticus xxxix. 15, xlix. 11, published by the Clarendon Press in 1897, enables us to read correctly for the first time the portraiture of Solomon in xlvii., with the assistance of Wace and other scholars: 12. After him [David] rose up a wise son, and for his [David's] sake he dwelt in quiet. 13. Solomon reigned in days of prosperity, and was honoured, and God gave rest to him round about that he might build an house in his name, and prepare his sanctuary for ever. 14. How wast thou wise in thy youth, and didst overflow with instruction like the Nile! 15. The earth (was covered by thy soul) and thou didst celebrate song in the height. 16. Thy name went far unto the islands, and for thy peace thou wast beloved. 17. The countries marvelled at thee for thy songs, and proverbs, and parables, and interpretations.