NOTES for Sir 1:1-10

What is wisdom? What does it consist in, and where should it be sought? Many have tried to answer this question, and the biblical sages are no exception. But what should be understood by wisdom? For us today, wisdom is often associated either with deep insight into the mysteries of the universe and the human heart, or with rich life experience. Both suppose contemplation, reflection, and study. For the ancient Hebrews, however, as for some other peoples contemporary with them, wisdom was more an art or skill than knowledge, more practice than theory. Even a craftsman could be called wise if he was good at his craft and was a true master of his work. In court circles, however, among politicians and statesmen, wisdom was considered first of all the skill of judgment and state governance (this is the very wisdom for the granting of which Solomon asked God). Later still, already in the post-exilic period, or perhaps shortly before the exile, wisdom came to mean the art of righteous living, the skill of following the Torah, the commandments of God. Of course, the authors of the biblical books do not look at righteousness as they look at a craft or the art of governing a state. Righteousness is first of all God's work, and only then human work. But insofar as it is human, one can speak of the art of righteousness. Indeed, to live the life of a righteous person in a fallen world is almost the same as walking a tightrope over an abyss. There is no doing without skill and training. But does such a tightrope walker have a safety line? It turns out that he does, and that safety line is the sacred awe, the reverence before God, which Russian translations usually call, perhaps not very successfully, the fear of God. When a person is threatened by spiritual collapse, it is precisely this that can help him stop at the very last moment. But in order to experience such sacred awe, God Himself must let a person feel His majesty. Without such revelation, the fear of God will remain something, at best, speculative, and at worst, distorted. Yet the experience of the true fear of God really does prove to be that on which a person's whole spiritual life can rest, even when he has no other spiritual support.