All right, well we made it. This is the seventh and final lesson on Sirak, for the Lord. It's entitled, In Praise of Wise Men. We're going to be looking at chapters 44 to 51.
A good stretch of material here, but it's very, very focused in its themes on salvation history. We're doing a big switch here from what we've seen in the previous 43 chapters. I'm talking about wisdom and praising wisdom in her self and her origins and encouraged beautiful poems on encouraging everyone to seek wisdom and find her and cherish her and marry her and, you know, lady wisdom themes and all that. So all really beautiful, lots of topics on practical wisdom and how to live wisdom in your day to day life.
This is going to be very, very different here. We're on a big shift as we move into this last and final section of the book. So there is a, there is a transition I want you to be aware of. So in the last lesson, we ended on chapter 43.
In the very last verse of chapter 43 verse 33 says, For the Lord has made all things and to the godly, He has granted wisdom. And that's the segue for this next section on looking at wisdom in the lives of all these superheroes, you can call them, or, you know, the Hall of Famers of the Old Testament. So the Lord has made all things and to the godly, He has granted wisdom. And that's the segue because now we're going to be talking about a whole bunch of godly people that have received God's wisdom in their lives to be part of God's providence, right, part of salvation history.
So this is a flow from the last section here to this final section of the book where now he's, Sirak, Jesus, been Sirak is moving from praising wisdom and creation as we saw a lot of poems on creation, especially in the last lesson. And now he's going to be praising wisdom in redemption, the lives of God's saints. So moving in the first two parts, wisdom and creation to now wisdom and redemption throughout salvation history. And that's really beautiful.
And so that begins chapter 44 verse one where he says, let us now praise famous men, the godly that he has granted wisdom like we saw in the last verse. All right, now when it says here, famous men, literally it's men of mercy or development. In fact, when he says men of mercy, that's found a little farther down in chapter 44 verse 10, he says, these were men of mercy, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten. So I really like that a lot focusing on the men of mercy aspect here, because you can kind of look at it in two ways.
These are men of mercy, meaning that they've been transformed by God's mercy. And they're also men of mercy, and they're men who live for God's mercy. And they also they receive God's mercy and they show God's mercy to the neighbor. So it's kind of like a love of God and love of neighbor kind of aspect.
And I really like that a lot. These are men who are quote unquote famous because they're devout and because they have so beautifully been transformed by God's mercy in their lives. Now on that point here, there's a really brief one line quote here from Haydak who says, he had given rules for all the virtues. So Sirak had given rules for all the virtues.
And now Sirak sets before us those who had put them into practice. All right, that's awesome. That's exactly the segway right here. We've been praising for 43 chapters, all the various rules for wisdom and living a virtuous and holy life.
And I was giving us examples of many men, and not of course all the men and women for that matter, who have lived the virtues, but he's gonna list some of them. And that is a good aspect for us to keep in mind that this is not all just theoretical. This is possible. And when we talk about virtue and righteousness and holiness, we talk about pursuing wisdom of all things and and clinging to her and being disciplined by her, then you're living under her yoke, etc.
Like we've talked about in previous lessons, this is something that we should we all can do. We see this in the examples of all these Old Testament Hall of Famers, superheroes that Sirak discusses one after another. And so I think that's really, really important. They are role models for us.
And they're cheering us on, as Saint Paul famously says in Hebrews 12 verse one, because we'll get there in just a second. And Hebrews, that's gonna be a great list of Hall of Famers as well. Hold on to that thought. So we talk about all these different Old Testament Hall of Famers.
This particular slew of this list of these men is the most extensive survey of salvation history in the Bible. All right, now there's a whole bunch of lists as well. You can find in your notes as well as from different commentaries. Judges five has or Judith, excuse me, has some few Psalms 78 105 106 135 136 going through the Hall of Famers and the Old Testament.
Wisdom 10 is very popular, very famous. It's a good list of salvation history Hall of Famers. And there's a small one in 1st Maccabees chapter 2 when Metathias, the grand the grandpapa patriarchal figure of the Maccabean brothers before he dies and sets off this whole famous story of the the re-seasing of the city and reclaiming of the temple that great story of the Hanukkah story. He has a little bit of a few verses of Hall of Famers telling his sons, look, be like these great men, be zealous for the law, be faithful.
Very, very famously, Stephen, to Saint Stephen, Deacon Stephen, at Acts chapter 7 where he's just laying this, the Smackdown on the Sanhedrin. He goes through the Hall of Famers as well telling the Sanhedrin, they're a bunch of rebellious hard-hearted knuckleheads and they're acting no differently persecuting Christians as their forefathers persecute of the prophets. So that's very famous. Then of course, I was mentioning a moment ago in Hebrews chapter 11, Saint Paul goes through a whole bunch of people who have been transformed by faith in God's grace too.
Then he then he ends that list of famous men in the Old Testament with chapter 12 verse 1 in Hebrews where he says, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us persist in our race. And that's really, really important here, which I'll get to in just a second. All these Hall of Famers and superheroes, they are part of the great cloud of witnesses who cheer us on. So they're not just role models, they're cheering us on as well in our battle for the faith.
All right, so, but still, after all those examples, I just gave you here in Sirat chapter 44, all the way to 50 is a fantastic, pretty detailed summary of these great men who have been transformed by mercy, like their famous men or devout men like we just said. All right, so very good. Now in chapter 44, let's go back to chapter 44, verse 1, we already saw that, let us now praise famous men and our fathers and our generations, the Lord apportioned to them great glory, his majesty from the beginning. And then here it goes on to list of various categories of these wise men that he's going to unpack, right?
So each of these categories that he mentions and passing, he's going to give names to these categories as we go through the rest of these chapters. So it goes on, for example, I won't read the whole thing, it says in verse 3, there were those who ruled in their kingdoms, it's obviously like the kings, David and Solomon, for example, there were men renowned for their power, that's going to be like Elijah and Alicia, giving counsel by their understanding and proclaiming prophecies, that's going to talk about a lot of different prophets, leaders of the people and their deliberations and understanding of learning for the people, wise in the words of instruction, those who composed musical tongues and set forth verses and writing, rich men, furnished with resources living peaceable in their habitations, these are just various categories that he's going to go through 12 of them to be precise. And I think 12 is important because that's the 12 tribes of Israel, right? It's going to be typological, of course, the 12 apostles later on in the future.
But all these categories of wise men that he lists briefly, he's going to unpack here in verses 16 and following. However, there is one little line here, as he mentions all these categories, in verse 9 he says something interesting. And there are some who have no memorial, who have perished as though they had not lived, they became as though they had not been born, and so have their children after them. That verse 9 there, there's a couple of ways to look at that, two possibilities that good commentaries will tell you.
So these people who have no memorial, who have no name, their either, first option is, forgotten holy men, because I'm obviously serious, I can't go through the entirety of the Old Testament, talking about all the holy men and holy women who have lived wisdom and mercy in their lives. He can't do that. So he might be referring to all these people that he didn't name. That's possible, but it's probably not likely.
More probably, he's talking about the unrighteous men who are not remembered because of their sins. That seems to be the case. And that's very evocative to me, at least a personal thought of mine, that I haven't seen in commentaries, but it makes sense is from time to time you see, like in the Pentateuch, especially in Revelation, the whole concept of God's saints' names being written in the book of life. If your name is written in the book of life, your name is remembered, right?
For all eternity. But if your name is not written in the book of life, you're basically forgotten, and that's a sign that you're going to be separated from God exiled from heaven for all eternity. And of course, the place we know as hell, which is just eternal spiritual exile. So I think that's what's going on here, right?
These men's names are remembered, along with so many other people in the Old Testament. But there are many, many people who do not have good names, because they're not good people. They're not righteous people. They have not sought wisdom.
They went after, as Proverbs says, Lady Folly, and they're violent, and they're corrupt, and they're immoral, and so on and so forth. I think that's what's going on right there. They're not remembered because of their sins. All right, now this is basically the introduction before we get into the list of all these names.
Now, what I want you to keep in mind here, and this is a fantastic survey, and honestly, chapter 51, the very last chapter is a wonderful conclusion to the entire book. I'm very much looking forward to getting there with you after we look at the survey. I have a lot of personal thoughts about chapter 51 that I'm excited to share with you. But this introduction tees it up very, very nicely as we look at these Old Testament Hall of Famers.
But as I mentioned before in Hebrews chapter 12, 1, Paul, after his list of Old Testament Hall of Famers, he says, we're surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses. That's the whole concept of the communion of saints. All right, so when we praise the wise ancestors with Cyrac or with the book of wisdom or Maccabees or the Psalms or Judah or Saint Stephen or Paul or whomever, we have to remember that we are part of this great communion of saints ourselves. And so as one quick quote here says in the Nivar Bible, these admirable lives that we're going to study here are in the last analysis, further evidence of the greatness of God.
In the church, the same teaching applies in the case of the saints. So I couldn't not share with you at least one paragraph from the Catechism on the teaching of the communion of the saints. Because not only are we just going to review salvation history here, but these are truly our ancestors, our wise ancestors, these men of mercy, devout men, who are role models for us. But again, they're part of the great cloud, which I didn't say this earlier, but it's the Shekianach, it's the glory cloud of God's presence.
And if their witnesses, they are witnessing our race. That's very important for the Catholic teaching on the communion of saints. So here's what the Catechism says, just I can only give you one paragraph, but that whole section is really important. And paragraph 950 says it says this, it's really quoting the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Jensim.
So it says, it is not merely by the title of example that we cherish the memory of those in heaven. So yes, they're great examples for us, but it's more more than that. It goes on saying we seek rather that by this devotion, the communion of saints, to the exercise of fraternal charity, the union of the whole church and the spirit may be strengthened, the whole church, not just those living now on earth, but those in heaven and also those who aren't purgatory for that matter. It goes on exactly as Christian communion among our fellow pilgrims brings us closer to Christ.
So our communion with the saints joins us to Christ, from whom as from its fountain and head issues all grace and the life of the people of God itself. In quotes, that's a really beautiful quote, a great little paragraph from the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Jensim. There's a lot of good rich lines in there. And it expresses what our belief is.
So when the Bible itself looks at these famous men in the New Old or the Old Testament, we are part of that admiration. And we ask for their continued assistance in their prayers that we can run the race and finish what we began. And the New Testament completes that. And also the same thing applies, I should say, obviously, to all the various holy men and women of church history.
For the past two thousand years, you've got all kinds of incredible saints, res of the zoo, or Teresa of Avila, or St. Francis de Seos, St. Augustine, and to God, St. Thomas Aquinas.
I mean, literally there are thousands of holy men and women who are also men of mercy or women of mercy. And we praise them very much in line like C. R. Act is doing.
So as we get into this next section or this final section of the book, it's very, very much a support for the community of saints. And as Catholic men and women, Christian men and women in general, we not only look to those who went before us as role models, but we look to them as those who strengthen and encourage us to join them in being men and women of mercy. So now our names also might be written in the book of life too. All right, very good.
So that's enough about this introduction here to the books. Now, for the next, I don't even know, 45 minutes or so, or give or take, let's look at the highlights of some of these famous men, these men of mercy. Can't look at them all, but there's a few things here and there I want to bring to your attention that I think are beautiful. And on that point, I would encourage you for sure to check out my Salvation History course where we go.
We spent 40 lessons going through a Salvation History in the Old 16. Enoch, please the Lord was taken up. He was an example of repentance to all generations. That's it.
One line here. Now, it's interesting. We don't know a lot about Enoch at all. You go back to Genesis 5 verse 24, it just simply says that Enoch walked with God and then God took him, right?
There's not much content at all. And here in Cirech it tells us he was this example of repentance here, yeah, right there in verse 16. He was an example of repentance. Well, what exactly does that mean?
So there's a couple of quotes I want to share with you here because it's a little strange as you look at this verse with some other verses that are dedicated to Enoch, especially in the book of So one quote that comes from the Catholic study Bible says, Ben-Cirech's view that he Enoch was an example of repentance represents a theological development as there is no record and earlier texts of Enoch's sinning and repenting. The Hebrews called him a miracle of knowledge to all generations. Other traditions say that God took him to preserve him from sin. Not that he did sin, but that he was preserved from sin.
And that's actually found in the book of wisdom. I'm going to actually flip back there right now and read that for you so it's fresh in your mind. In the book of wisdom, chapter 4 verse 10 and following, this is what it says about Enoch. Doesn't name him as kind of the tradition of the book of wisdom.
All kinds of dudes are mentioned by their lives, but not their names. Kind of like a who-done-its game that he plays with us. Very clearly interesting. Wisdom 4 10 says this.
It's about Enoch. There was one who pleased God and was loved by him while living among sinners he was taken up. That's obviously Enoch. Verse 11, he was caught up, lest evil changes understanding or guile to see his soul.
For the fascination of wickedness obscures what is good and roving desire perverts the innocent mind. Being perfected in a short time, he fulfilled long years. For his soul was pleasing to the Lord, therefore he took him quickly from the midst of wickedness. All right, so this description in wisdom says that Enoch didn't sin.
He was perfected in a short time. He reached the height of sanctity and holiness and being faithful to God's law, natural law. And then God took him lest he should fall into sin. So what's going on here in the book of Cyrek where he says he's an example of repentance.
Did he himself repent of sin? Well, I think just personal reflections here with you. Yes and no. Of course, every man has got a repent of their sins, especially the concept of original sin which comes to us through a Pauline theology building on the Old Testament for sure.
He repented. But it's not that he fell into grave grave sins as a repentant of that. I think the example of repentance is the example that he gave for other people and when he calls them to repent. And on that point here, here's a bit of an older quote that highlights I think very, Christian theology of Enoch's future role.
And so it says this is from Heydach. The Latin fathers, church fathers, suppose that Enoch was translated to heaven or to the earthly paradise. I'll just pause really quickly. So Enoch, as well as Elijah, when they were taken up into heaven, they didn't go up into heaven as we now think of it like the beatific vision.
That's not where they went. They went to some sort of heavenly or earthly paradise where they're alive and they're just chilling, drinking bourbon and smoking cigars with each other, just kind of waiting for the appointed time where God would send them back. So let me finish the quote. It says it goes on, in the tradition of both Jews and Christians, he said he is still alive.
He is still alive and will come to oppose the Antichrist when that's Apocalypse, the book Revelation chapter 11. You guys remember, in the book of Revelation, God is going to send two witnesses to preach against the sinners at the end of time. So that's what it's talking about here. So he is going to come to oppose the Antichrist as one of the two witnesses in the book of Revelation chapter 11, when he's going to preach repentance chiefly to the Gentiles and Elijah is going to address himself to the Jews.
So that's very, very fascinating here. And this is a very complicated Christian tradition here, which I'm not going to dedicate a lot of time to, but broad strokes is that Enoch and Elijah were taken up into heaven and they are going to be the two witnesses that are going to preach against sinners at the end of time. So it's interesting that Enoch is going to preach to Gentiles, right, because really the Israelites didn't exist during his time. The Israelites don't exist until the second half of the book of Genesis, but Elijah is going to preach to the Jews.
So Gentiles will hear from Enoch and the Jews will hear from Elijah. That's really interesting. So I think a better understanding of this line that he is an example of repentance is that it's talking about this tradition that's come to us throughout all the ages that Enoch is going to preach repentance to the Gentile centers. That's the idea of what's going on.
So of course he repented himself as all good holy men and women do, but mostly we're talking about his future mission at the end of time. I think that's pretty fascinating. So hopefully that made sense. So there's that one line that we have there on Enoch and then it goes on to speak about Noah next.
Hey, this is Doc Neck. Thank you so much for listening to this course sample. If you enjoyed it and want to listen to the entire lesson, please become a student over at scripture and tradition.com where you can listen to this entire course, but also all the other courses that we have available in the S&T audio library where you can listen to them on demand however, and whenever you want. So thank you so much.
God bless you and keep setting your Bible.