Opening the text

The books of the Apocrypha : $b their origin, teaching and contentsOesterley, W. O. E. (William Oscar Emil)

Religion

The books of the Apocrypha : $b their origin, teaching and contents

Name: The books of the Apocrypha : $b their origin, teaching and contents
Author: Oesterley, W. O. E. (William Oscar Emil)

Oesterley, W. O. E. (William Oscar Emil)

Bible. Apocrypha -- Introductions

All these things (i.e. the things concerning Wisdom) are in
            the book of the covenant of God Most High,
      The Law which Moses commanded as an heritage for the assemblies
            of Jacob,
      Which filleth men with Wisdom, like Pison,
        And like Tigris in the days of new fruits....

And again in xix. 20:

      All Wisdom is the fear of the Lord,
        And all Wisdom is the fulfilling of the Law.

Although Wisdom is the free gift of God,

      Without measure doth He grant her to them that love Him (i. 26),

yet man is not able to utilize it without earnest effort; he has an
irksome discipline to go through which will test his sincerity:

      But I will walk with him in disguise,
        And at first I will try him with temptations.
      Fear and dread will I bring upon him,
        And I will torment him with chastisements (iv. 17);

but to the persevering the reward is great; this Ben-Sira expresses
in a passage full of poetical beauty:

      For at length thou wilt find her rest,
        And she shall be turned for thee into gladness.
      And her fetters shall become a stay of strength for thee,
        And her bands for robes of glory.
      An ornament of gold is her yoke,
        And her fetters a cord of blue.
      Thou shalt array thee with her as with robes of glory,
        And crown thee with her as with a crown of beauty (vi. 28-31).

It will have been noticed that in several of the passages just quoted
the personification of Wisdom is graphically expressed; there are
many others in this book in which this is taught[316]; an interesting
one is i. 15, where Wisdom is described in taking up her abode among
men:

      With faithful men is she, and she hath been established from
              eternity,
          And with their seed shall she continue.

In another passage Wisdom invites men to come and abide with her:

      Come unto me, ye that desire me,
        And be ye filled with my produce;
      For my memorial is sweeter than honey,
        And the possession of me than the honey-comb (xxiv. 19, 20).

This thought of Wisdom abiding among men is illustrated in another
way; Ben-Sira, in desiring to show the superiority of the wisdom of
Israel over that of the Greeks, represents Wisdom as having sought
a resting-place among the nations of the world, but found that none
were worthy of her; thereupon God commanded her to abide in Israel
where she would find a permanent home:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The books of the Apocrypha : $b their origin, teaching and contentsOesterley, W. O. E. (William Oscar Emil)

Religion

The books of the Apocrypha : $b their origin, teaching and contents

Oesterley, W. O. E. (William Oscar Emil)

Bible. Apocrypha -- Introductions

All these things (i.e. the things concerning Wisdom) are in
            the book of the covenant of God Most High,
      The Law which Moses commanded as an heritage for the assemblies
            of Jacob,
      Which filleth men with Wisdom, like Pison,
        And like Tigris in the days of new fruits....

And again in xix. 20:

      All Wisdom is the fear of the Lord,
        And all Wisdom is the fulfilling of the Law.

Although Wisdom is the free gift of God,

      Without measure doth He grant her to them that love Him (i. 26),

yet man is not able to utilize it without earnest effort; he has an
irksome discipline to go through which will test his sincerity:

      But I will walk with him in disguise,
        And at first I will try him with temptations.
      Fear and dread will I bring upon him,
        And I will torment him with chastisements (iv. 17);

but to the persevering the reward is great; this Ben-Sira expresses
in a passage full of poetical beauty:

      For at length thou wilt find her rest,
        And she shall be turned for thee into gladness.
      And her fetters shall become a stay of strength for thee,
        And her bands for robes of glory.
      An ornament of gold is her yoke,
        And her fetters a cord of blue.
      Thou shalt array thee with her as with robes of glory,
        And crown thee with her as with a crown of beauty (vi. 28-31).

It will have been noticed that in several of the passages just quoted
the personification of Wisdom is graphically expressed; there are
many others in this book in which this is taught[316]; an interesting
one is i. 15, where Wisdom is described in taking up her abode among
men:

      With faithful men is she, and she hath been established from
              eternity,
          And with their seed shall she continue.

In another passage Wisdom invites men to come and abide with her:

      Come unto me, ye that desire me,
        And be ye filled with my produce;
      For my memorial is sweeter than honey,
        And the possession of me than the honey-comb (xxiv. 19, 20).

This thought of Wisdom abiding among men is illustrated in another
way; Ben-Sira, in desiring to show the superiority of the wisdom of
Israel over that of the Greeks, represents Wisdom as having sought
a resting-place among the nations of the world, but found that none
were worthy of her; thereupon God commanded her to abide in Israel
where she would find a permanent home:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The books of the Apocrypha : $b their origin, teaching and contents

The books of the Apocrypha : $b their origin, teaching and contents

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