Rulers, Pride, and Honor

READING ECCLESIASTICUS/SIRACH

PART IX

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Ecclesiasticus/Sirach 9:17-11:1

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Realtors speak of “location, location, and location.”  Likewise, serious students of the Bible understand the necessity of remembering “context, context, and context.”  Recall, O reader, a proverbial drum I have been beating since Part I of this series:  Ben Sira addressed the sons of elites of Jerusalem circa 175 B.C.E.  Some of the fathers were magistrates.  Some of the sons were to become magistrates.  And Jerusalem lay within the frontiers of the Seleucid Empire, the new king of which was Antiochus IV Epiphanes (r. 175-164 B.C.E.), whose name lives in infamy.

Even in other contexts, we understand that the decisions of those in power affect the lives of many people.  So, who decides matters at least as much as the decisions.  To quote a Greek saying,

Character is destiny.

The ruler’s character is the destiny of both the ruler and the ruled.  That may be a sobering and terrifying thought, depending upon the context.

Then Ben Sira wrote of the sovereignty of God.  Rulers work for God, even if they do not understand that they do.  Arrogance and hubris before God is both an individual and a collective sin.  Awe of God is a virtue both individually and collectively.  Ben Sira valued the social hierarchy, but he treasured awe of God more:

The nobleman, and the judge, and the ruler will be honored,

but none of them is greater than the man who fears the Lord.

Free men will be at the service of a wise servant,

and a man of understanding will not grumble.

–10:24-25, Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition (2002)

After all, the rich and the poor alike are “dust and ashes.”  10:9 asks how dust and ashes can be proud.  Yet dust and ashes are frequently proud.  Monuments to the egos of powerful people (usually men) dot the landscape.  Nevertheless, as Ben Sira reminds us down the corridors of time, the dead

will inherit creeping things, and wild beasts, and worms.

–10:11, Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition (2002)

Hubris begins with a departure from God (10:12). And hubris is ubiquitous, even in the company of some politicians court the votes of devout people.  Hubris is also vain in every sense of that adjective.  As much as I critique Ben Sira for attitudes outmoded in 2023, I acknowledge that he sought to glorify God, not himself.  May all of us–individually and collectively–succeed, by grace, in glorifying God, not ourselves.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 16, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF JOHN DIEFENBAKER AND LESTER PEARSON, PRIME MINISTERS OF CANADA; AND TOMMY DOUGLAS, FEDERAL LEADER OF THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF CANADA

THE FEAST OF SAINT ALIPIUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF TAGASTE, AND FRIEND OF SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

THE FEAST OF JOHN COURTNEY MURRAY, U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND THEOLOGIAN

THE FEAST OF JOHN JONES OF TALYSARN, WELSH CALVINISTIC METHODIST MINISTER AND HYMN TUNE COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF MATTHIAS CLAUDIUS, GERMAN LUTHERAN WRITER

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