NOTES for Sir 17:28

²⁸Thanksgiving perisheth from the dead, as from one that is not: the living and sound in heart shall praise the Lord.

Reading the Bible, it is easy to notice that the biblical books tell us almost nothing of after death. Nothing or almost nothing is said either about a life after death, or about a posthumous reward in the Bible. And “almost” leads to this experience, which exists to the other peoples of the Middle-Eastern cultural region. It is about the world of darkness, about the kingdom of the dead, where man is, when the strength of life leaves him.

In this dark world, man is transformed into shadow, and the existence there can be called life only with big rigor. It remains in man neither the will, nor memory, his mind barely glimmers, so it can’t be a question of thoughts and feelings. It is not surprising that the author of the book denies a possibility of glorification of God by the deaths: existence in this world of darkness (in the Bible it is named is in the Jew way "she’ol", and In Greek "Hades") is incompatible with any spiritual life.

Representations on the posthumous rewards and on the good of the after death in the Middle East existed in the antiquity only in Egypt and Greece, and there, and there they appeared late and had no effect on the yahvisme. On the other hand they had an undeniable influence in the Middle Ages on Christian representations of the after death and the posthumous reward, engendering the doctrine of paradise and hell.

All the hope for the reward in the yahvisme, and later in the Judaism was only connected in the day of judgment and the general resurrection, representation of which already in the Hellenistic period had become wide-spread everywhere and accepted by all in the synagogue. And it was already no more questions here about after death, nor of "half-life": God returns to everyone life in all its plenitude, if only man is able to accept it and to enter into the Kingdom of God, becoming its inhabitant.

God does not agree for something smaller, even if man would have accepted half-measures. Such is the biblical answer on the question of death: the resurrection and a complete victory over death, as over this evil, which is not compatible with the Kingdom in general.

Other notes

For Sir 17:28-29

²⁸Thanksgiving perisheth from the dead, as from one that is not: the living and sound in heart shall praise the Lord.

²⁹How great is the lovingkindness of the Lord our God, and his compassion unto such as turn unto him in holiness!

The authors of the pre-Christian era say nothing about the original sin in this sense, of which for example Paul says in his epistles. They do not think that man is born sinner, the only chance which - the Savior, without help of Whom we shall not free ourselves from the original sin... Read more

But they also recognize that everything is well with man, besides not only as regards to the concrete sins which he committed, but also as regards to his nature, as such. The tendency of man ("by flesh and blood") for evil was too obvious, that this could not be noticed. Certainly, the tendency for sin in itself was not imputed to sin, but it was looked cautiously, what is not surprising.

Besides, its presence must have engendered pessimism known in what concerned the public life and the general course of historical events. Indeed, if righteousness is possible in such a situation, then only as an exception, and exceptions as known only prove the rule. The general rule says that in the life of humanity, the measure of evil will always exceed the measure of good, exactly because righteous men by definition are in minority.

It is not surprising that the author of the book arrives at the conclusion of the non-intervention of God in earthly affairs: at such situation one could probably assume that God only proposes to us the Torah, the commandments, the path of righteousness, but insists on nothing, leaving everything for our free choice.

And since the choice of the majority is made on the benefit of evil, God just moves away from people and goes where nobody will say “no” to Him. A dark glance, but unfortunately, quite realistic. Only the coming of the Messiah could change the situation radically, but it still remains to it, apparently, not less than a century.

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NOTES for Sir 17:28

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