The Universalization of Torah: Sirach 24:23 as a Resource for Jewish-Christian Dialogue

Contained within the great wisdom traditions of Israel are many sage counsels about how to live a good life “marked by length of days, prosperity, and prestige.”[1] Israel was certainly not the sole pursuer of wisdom; wisdom was, rather, as James Kugel notes, an “international pursuit” among the peoples of the ancient Near East.[2] Certainly there are commonalities between Israel’s wisdom traditions and those of other nations, but there is also something unique. Situated within a monotheistic framework, the attainment of wisdom was often connected to God and, more precisely, to the fear of God and the observance of his commandments.[3] Yet, there is more that makes Israel’s wisdom tradition distinct, and this leads us to the Book of Sirach (or Ben Sira) and his celebrated poetic discourse on wisdom in chapter 24. Here, wisdom is personified as a female figure like in Proverbs 8. Ben Sira, however, does something striking when he takes the image of wisdom a step further and equates her with the Torah of Moses. Sir 24:23 reads as follows: “All this is the book of the covenant of the Most High God, the law that Moses commanded us as an inheritance for the congregations of Jacob” (NRSV). Suddenly, wisdom is no longer some sort of independent pursuit, but is, in fact, what God has already given the people of Israel in his revelation to Moses. Sir 24:23 is a direct allusion to Deut 33:4: “This is the Law (or Instruction) that Moses appointed for you as a possession of the congregation of Jacob.”[4]