Readings:
1 Chronicles 7-9
Sirach 1
James 3

Sirach 1

Sirach is a book that is very unique, in that it is written originally in Hebrew but translated into Greek by the author’s grandson while living in Egypt. We know this because it’s actually included in the text as a prologue to the book.

The writer is a scribe named Jesus Ben Sira, although there’s a dozen other ways his name has been transmitted into various languages. He was a scribe, so an expert in mosaic law and likely a priest or Levite. Written sometime between 200 and 175BC and was translated into Greek sometime after 138BC. This Greek translation was included into the Septuagint (the greek version of the Old Testament mostly quoted by the apostles and Jesus) and comes down to us today from that text.

This book is one of the wisdom books and as such it includes many sayings and proverbs. Very similar in structure and composition to the wisdom of Solomon and the Book of Proverbs. As such, I’ll mostly just include it in the listed readings but offer little to no commentary as this forward is the only context that we know, and the rest of the sayings in the book are easily to read and comprehend.

James 3

James dedicates this chapter to talking about the difficulty, but also the importance, of taming our tongues. The tongue can sing hymns to God and then curses towards men, all in a short span of time. Of all our body parts it has the potential to cause us the most trouble, and easily endanger our souls if left unchecked.

We’ve all found ourselves in trouble because of things we’ve said. Maybe it was in school as a child, or among our friend groups as young adults, or even in workplace settings. Most people learn to control their tongues as they mature in the world, and James is telling us we have to do that not just for interpersonal relationships, but also for our relationship with God. Things we say can even rise to the level of mortal sins sometimes, so that’s definitely things we need to be aware of and to avoid.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
1 Chronicles 10-12
Sirach 2
James 4