Scripture Daily

Context No. 1191 of 4322 · Sirach

Context · Reflection

Sirach 19:17-30: in context

17Reprove your neighbor before you threaten him; and give place to the law of the Most High. 20All wisdom is the fear of the Lord. In all wisdom is the doing of the law. 22The knowledge of wickedness is not wisdom. The prudence of sinners is not counsel. 23There is a wickedness, and it is an abomination. There is a fool lacking in wisdom. 24Better is one who has little understanding, and fears God, than one who has much intelligence and transgresses the law. 25There is an exquisite subtlety, and it is unjust. And there is one who perverts favor to gain a judgment. 26There is one who does wickedly, who hangs down his head with mourning; but inwardly he is full of deceit, 27bowing down his face, and pretending to be deaf in one ear. Where he isn’t known, he will take advantage of you. 28And if for lack of power he is hindered from sinning, if he finds opportunity, he will do mischief. 29A man will be known by his appearance. One who has understanding will be known by his face when you meet him. 30A man’s attire, grinning laughter, and the way he walks show what he is.

Ben Sira reflects on true and false wisdom. All wisdom, he says, is the fear of the Lord, and in all wisdom is the keeping of the law. The knowledge of how to do wickedness is not wisdom, and the shrewdness of sinners is not good counsel. Better a person of little understanding who fears God than one of great intelligence who breaks the law. He goes on to describe the deceiver who feigns humility and mourning while inwardly full of deceit, and observes that a person's true character shows in their bearing, their walk, their face.

The line that cuts through everything is this: better one with little understanding who fears God than one with much intelligence who transgresses the law. Ben Sira draws a sharp distinction that our culture tends to blur, between intelligence and wisdom. A person can be brilliant, clever, shrewd, and use every bit of it for evil; the cunning of a skilled sinner is not wisdom at all, and their cleverness leads only to more sophisticated wrongdoing. Real wisdom, Ben Sira insists, begins with the fear of the Lord and shows itself in doing what is right, so that a simple person who reveres God is wiser than a genius who defies him. It is a needed corrective in an age that worships intelligence and achievement. Brains without the fear of God are not wisdom; they are just a better-equipped folly. The measure of a life is not how clever it is but whether it fears God and keeps his ways. And Ben Sira adds the shrewd observation that character eventually leaks out, in how a person carries themselves, so that the deceiver's polished humility cannot hide the deceit forever. What we truly are shows.

Do I prize intelligence and cleverness over the fear of God, when scripture calls the simple person who reveres him wiser than the genius who defies him?

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