Book of Sirach 6-20

Sirach 6 has great advice concerning friends, including the "a faithful friend is a sturdy shelter" passage.

8: "Do not slight the discourse of the sages, but busy yourself with their maxims; because from them you will gain instruction and learn how to serve great men."  It's interesting, that at least from this perspective, smart people are not themselves fit to be rulers, or great men, apparently.  I suppose it makes sense.

10: Pride was not created for me, no fierce anger for those born of women."  Another interesting perspective.

12 preaches to distance yourself from sinners, which is the opposite of how Jesus would later live his life.

13 is extremely cynical about the motives of rich people.  It's true that we as a society today are skeptical of the rich, and we have plenty of reasons to be, but now I'm wondering how much of that is because we were always told to distrust them.  If we're told to keep our distance, and they keep their distance, that certainly won't help matters, either, is what I'm saying.

All the personification of wisdom both here in Sirach and elsewhere starts to feel very similar to Jesus calling himself the "bread of life."

17 seems to suggest that God showed Adam the difference between good and evil.  I may be reading it wrong, because the chapter is yet another where biblical history is repeated but more in allusion than in specifics.  But it would certainly be an interesting variation.  Everyone just kind of accepts that Genesis explains the Judeo-Christian position on how that happened (and handily blames it on a woman).  Maybe that's not what the faith always said, at least uniformly.

18: "He rebukes and trains and teaches them, and turns them back, as a shepherd his flock."  The same shepherd analogy Jesus would later use himself, done differently (Jesus was the good shepherd, you'll recall), in a more direct fashion.  The same relationship God has been illustrated as having with his people all along, but worded just differently enough...That seems to be the theme of Sirach.  When they say something like "the inspired word of God," I think this would be the stuff they're talking about.  I'm not saying you need to believe all of it, because it's still the fallible work of fallible man, inspired or not, suited to the needs and understanding of the time it was written, but it's helpful.  That's what the whole Bible should be, right?  A guidebook of sorts.

19: "Wine and women lead intelligent men astray."  Although even Sirach is beholden to the idea that women in general are the "other" of society, not necessarily included in any of these thoughts, and must constantly be warned about.  Of wine and women, there are many more concerns about women than wine in the Bible.  Maybe at the time women really were always trying to lead men astray.  Or perhaps more likely, being the "other" they were simply considered the primary source of sexual thoughts.  If the perspective is male, of course they would be.  In a female-oriented culture, that line would read "wine and men lead intelligent men astray," with all the same implications.  It would be nice if we could just get past that already.  Women are people too.  And so let's move along.