by different authors, or whether they are both from the same author writing at different periods of his life, it is quite clear that the presentation of the doctrine of God in each is entirely different; the first part (i.-xi. 1) is more Greek than Jewish, and “in nothing,” says Holmes, “is this more clearly shown than in the idea of God presented by the two parts respectively. The idea of God in part i. is that of Greek philosophy, a transcendent God Who has no immediate contact with the world. It is true that in the later parts of the Old Testament the writers had largely abandoned the conception of Jahveh as a God Who had direct dealings with mankind.... God gradually became thought of as more and more remote, though even in Daniel the scene where the Ancient of Days sits in judgement on the nations shows that God could be still thought of as having immediate dealings with mankind. In Wisdom, however, in chapters i.-x. we find that the author conceives God to be so remote, that He performs His will by means of an intermediary, whom He sends forth into the world (ix. 10). This intermediary is Wisdom, and possesses all the attributes of Deity. She is omnipotent (vii. 27), omniscient (viii. 8 and ix. 11), and puts these attributes into action; she administers all things well (viii. 1).”[328] In the second half of the book God is again and again spoken of as interfering personally in the affairs of men; a striking example is given in xiv. 1 ff., which speaks of the folly of a navigator who prays for safety to an idol before embarking upon his vessel: For that vessel the hunger for gain devised, And an artificer by his wisdom built it; And Thy providence, O Father, guideth it along, Because even in the sea Thou gavest a way, And in the waves a sure path; Showing that Thou canst save out of every danger.... In other respects also the second part of this book represents the Old Testament doctrine, more especially in its insistence upon the need of right worship, and in the way in which it deals with the mercy and justice of God. (_b_) _The Doctrine of the Law._ In Ecclesiasticus much stress is laid upon the importance of the Law both from the ethical and ritual point of view, a fact which shows this book to be a valuable link between the Judaism of post-exilic times and Rabbinical Judaism. The first point to note is the nature of the Law as taught by Ben-Sira; it is eternal, and it is divine, for it has been given by God, the Eternal One. The existence of the Law before the beginning of the world is involved by Ben-Sira’s identification of it with Wisdom. This is a conception which, so far as is known, occurs here for the first time; but the way in which this identification seems to be taken for granted shows that it cannot have been wholly new to Ben-Sira’s hearers; in speaking about the search for Wisdom he says, for example, in xv. 1: