7 - Virtue (The Wooing of Wisdom)

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Introduction

At the end of Ecclesiasticus (or The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach), in the Apocrypha of the Old Testament, there is a curious poem (51.13ff.) in which the author describes how he pursued and cultivated wisdom and exhorts his readers to do the same. In the Ancient Versions (on which the conventional English translations are based) and likewise in the Hebrew paraphrase discovered, at the close of the nineteenth century, in the Cairo Genizah, the tone of this poem is somewhat solemn and priggish, resembling nothing so much as one of those polite moralistic 'recitations' which Victorian school children were encouraged to inflict on their captive parents and friends at the annual prize-giving ceremonies.

Qumran, however, has brought a surprise. Included in what has come to be known as the Psalms Scroll—really, a more extensive liturgical compendium—is a portion of the same poem in its original form, and it there appears as a series of artful double-entendres (1) (composed as an alphabetical acrostic) each of which possesses an erotic as well as a moralistic sense. To be sure, the thing is no Kama Sutra or Ovidian Ars Amatoria but still an edifying piece of exhortation-else it could never have found place in the liturgical repertoire of a community of ascetics—and the author therefore takes care to point out that, for all his ardor, he did indeed observe the proprieties. Nevertheless, the imagery is far more sexual than has hitherto appeared.

(a) The poet begins by saying that already in his childhood, before he had 'gone a-roving', he went in quest of Wisdom, and whenever he gained access to her, he explored her shapely form 'to the (lit. her) limit'. Here is referring, on the one hand—with a sly erotic undertone

—to a children's game like our own 'blind man's buff', (2) in which the 'catch' is identified by 'feel', and on the other

—in a less sensual vein—to searching for Wisdom and studying it, or to praying for it and obtaining it, the words 'seek' (b-q-sh) and 'explore' (d-r-sh) being also technical terms for these more innocent pursuits. Moreover, the allusion to 'going a-roving' bears the double sense of leave-ing home and of straying from the path of virtue.

(b) Then, he continues, during his own adolescence, when the comely lass had blossomed into womanhood-, 'when the buds became berries and the grapes grew ripe and luscious'—he still kept company with her, but, because he had known her from childhood, he kept to the straight and narrow and did not let himself be swept off his feet The relationship was strictly platonic; he enjoyed and profited from her companionship and conversation (dulce loquentem Lalagen amabo, dulce ridentem). The doublet entendre, however, again obtrudes itself: what he ob-tained from her is described by the Hebrew word, leqah, which means at once 'learned discourse' and 'captivating charms'.

(c) In the succeeding stage the lady served him virtually as a nursing mother (Heb. 'alah): he drank in Wisdom The fusion of erotic and moralistic nuances is, however again apparent, and the image is admirably illustrated both by the famous remark of Juliet's nurse, 'Were I not thine only nurse/I would say thou hadst sucked wisdom from thy teat', (3) and by the philological connection of the word 'sapience' and 'sap'. (4)

For this benefit, adds our author, he duly 'rendered his meed of hod to his tutor'. The phrase is derived from Prov 5.9, which warns, en revanche, against forfeiting that quality by consorting with loose women. Normally mean ing 'honor, dignity', it here bears the added nuance of 'thanks' (like the post-Biblical hoda'ah, which is indeed substituted for it in the Genizah paraphrase), and it is no impossible-seeing that Greek was a second vernacular in Palestine at the time when the Dead Sea Scrolls were composed—that it carries also the nuance of the Greek time, 'honor', in the specific sense of 'remuneration paid to a teacher', i.e., 'honorarium'.

(d) Next comes the awakening of sexual desire. The poet has now 'acquired a zest for pleasure'-a stage expressed by words which bear at the same tune the more innocent meaning of 'developing a zeal for goodness'. He plans to 'take his fun without ever turning back' (or, according to a variant reading in the Versions and the Cairo paraphrase, 'unabashedly'). He becomes inwardly 'on fire' for the lady, and pursues her unremittingly. He perseveres in quest of her favors, the Hebrew word which is employed, viz. tar<ah>tl, (5) denoting at once the assiduous pursuit of his amours and—again more innocently—painstaking absorption in study. He does not 'keep lolling on her heights' —an exquisitely chosen expression suggesting, on the one hand, a supine indolence like that of the amorous goatherds in the Idylls of Theocritus or the Eclogues of Vergil and, on the other, a lingering on the rarefied heights where Wisdom dwells (cp. Sirach 24.4), i.e., a preoccupation with philosophical abstractions in preference to practical application.

(e) The poet then declares, 'My hand opened [her gates]'. (6) On the literal and erotic level, the reference is, of course, to breaking down her defenses. The metaphor is taken from a military assault on a city, and is pertinently illustrated by the familiar lines of Ovid: ille (miles) graves urbes, hic (amans) durae limen amicae/ Obsidet; hic portas frangit, at ille fores (Soldiers lay siege to firm-defended cities; lovers to the thresholds of hard-hearted ladyloves. The one breaks down gates; the other, doors). (7) On the figurative level, however, the words obviously refer to eventual entry into the penetralia of Wisdom, as contrasted with mere superficial dalliance on the periphery. (8)

The phrase is followed by words which describe the Poet's intent (see below), viz. 'that I might perceive her hidden secrets'. These words too contain a patent double-entendre. Every adult male (except, perhaps, a superannuated theologian) knows what they mean on the literal level. Figuratively, however, the reference is to fathoming Wisdom au fond, the same expression recurring in the Hebrew text of Sirach 42.18, where the writer speaks of God's 'perceiving the hidden secrets' of men's hearts.

(f) A strange note is now sounded. After thus describing rather starkly his aggressive pursuit of more intimate intercourse with his beloved, the poet suddenly observes, 'I kept my hands clean'. Apparently, the moralistic intent of his discourse now takes over completely. He loses his erotic nerve, and his frankness deserts him, for from this point on—as the extant sequel in the Versions attests-the piece peters out into a pious exhortation. For this reason it seems to me that the verb should be understood as a pluperfect, i.e., '(Nevertheless) I had kept my hands clean', and that in the preceding clause the correct translation is (as given above), 'that I might perceive her hidden secrets', rather than 'I perceived' them, thus indicating intent rather than performance. As John Donne put it, 'If ever beauty I did see,/which I desired and got, 'twas but a dream of thee'. (9)

As observed above, the Ancient Versions and the Hebrew paraphrase discovered in the Cairo Genizah (10) bowdlerize the erotic nuances of our poem. By less sensual interpretation of the terms used, the allusion to the physical exploration of Lady Wisdom's contours in a childhood game of blind man's buff becomes a reference to seeking and finding her, in early youth, through prayer and intellectual study; while the passage which describes her as suckling her devotee is grotesquely distorted—one might say that the milk runs dry—by interpreting the word for 'nurse', viz. 'alah, as though it were a noun (otherwise unattested) from the root '-l-h, 'ascend, advance', bearing the sense (akin to the rabbinic 'illui, 'advanced student, genius') of making progress in studies! Similarly, instead of planning to 'take his fun' with her, the poet merely for the lady in a more innocuous vein, and instead of being 'on fire' for her, he grapples with her intellectually, the relevant verb being twisted into the sense which it bears in the reflexive conjugation. The ardent amorous pursuit and the reference to 'not lolling on her heights'-a phrase which may also possess a sexual connotation-are likewise toned down, as is also the desire to 'contemplate her hidden parts'. In a word, Mrs. Grundy, that obtrusive chaperone, has the situation well in hand.

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In the following translation, I have tried especially, even at the risk of paraphrastic license, to bring out the form and flavor, and particularly the sustained double-entendre of this basically merry poem. Without the latter, the whole piece falls flat.

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Notes

1. On double-entendre as a feature of Old Testamen and Arabic poetry see: E. Konig, Stilistik, Rhetorik, Poetik (1900), pp. 10-12; J. Finkel in Joshua Starr Memorial Volume (1963), pp. 32ff.

2. On the antiquity of this game see: Alice B. Gomme The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ire land (1894-98), ii.37ff.; W. W. Newell, Games and Songs of American Children (repr. 1963), No. 108

3. Wm. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, I, iii.71-72.

4. See: R. B. Onians, The Origins of European Though About the Body, etc. (1951), pp. 51ff.

5. For this emendation, see below n. 9 to the translation ,6. The text is incomplete and is here restored from the Genizah paraphrase.

7. Ovid, Amores, I.ix, 18-20. A similar imagery under lies John Suckling's well-known poem, The Siege (R. Aldington, ed., The Viking Book of Poetry [1941], pp. 416f.).

8. See also n. 10 to the translation.

9. The Good Morrow, lines 6-7.

10. The Genizah text is not the author's original. It seems to have been based largely on the Syriac Version.

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The Wooing Of Wisdom (Sirach 51.13fl)

1(13) Already in early childhood,
ere I had roved astray,
I used to seek-her-and-find-her
in games of childish play;

2(14) But I read her lines to the limit
whenever she came my way. (1)

3(15) Came the time when the buds turned to berries,
when the grapes grew luscious and round; (2)

{4} Due to our childhood friendship,
I kept my feet on the ground. (3)

5(16) Even when only lightly
my ear unto her I inclined,
charm and learning (4) a-plenty
readily did I find.

6(17) Feverishly what she gave me
like mother's milk I drank, (5)
and never was I unmindful
my tutor to honor and thank. (6)

7(18) Gripped by a passion for pleasure
at last, 'I will take my fun',
thought I, 'and never turn backward
when once I have begun!' (7)

8(19) Heated like fire I became; (8)
my face never turned away:

{9} I grew busy, (9) and on the uplands
lolled not the livelong day.

{10} [Kept shut though they were,] I forced open
her gates, (10) having only in mind
to set my eyes on the treasures
which surely lay hidden behind. (11)

11(20) [Lusty enough was my ardor,]
yet clean did I keep my hands; (12)

23b(30) duly get your reward. (13)

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Notes

1. Literally, (When) I was but a child, I used to go looking for her; (when) she came to me in her shapely form, I would search her out to the/her limit. The primary reference is, I think, to a game of blind man's buff; for the figurative sense, cp. Sirach 4.12. The allusion to 'roving' likewise bears a double sense: in I Kings 3.7, the characteristic of a child is that it does know 'to go out and come in', but for roving in search of wisdom, cp. Sirach 34.11; 39.4. 'Look for' (b-q-sh) is also a technical term for 'petition in prayer' (e.g., TB, Ber. 16b) and 'search out' (d-r-sh) for 'study'. Not impossibly, the phrasing also carries a legalistic connotation, for 'come to' is an expression used of securing a claim: cp. Gen. 43.23; Num. 32.19; and see Y. Muffs, in Gaster Festschrift (1973), pp. 287ff. The words, to her limit, are a clever variation on the colloquial to the end, in the sense of 'utterly', as in Dan. 4.8, 19; 6.27. Cp. similarly Greek eis telos, LXX Gen. 46.4; Amos 9.8.

2. The phrasing derives from Gen. 40.10: 'as soon as it (sc. the vine) budded, it blossomed and its clusters ripened into grapes' (NEB). The word here rendered, turned to berries, is g-r-', which occurs in this technical sense in Mishnah, Sheb. iv. 10. For 'bud' in the figurative sense, cp. Catullus xvii.14: cum sit viridissimo nupta flore puella and Ellis' note; ib., lxii.46. Cp. also Song of Songs 7.8 and a modern Palestinian Arab folksong cited in G. Dalman, Palastinensischer Diwan (1901), p. 239. Cp. also John Gay's Ads and Galatea, where a young girl is described as 'ripe as the melting cluster'. Note too that in Greek, omphax, 'unripe grape', is used of a girl who has not yet reached maturity. (In light of such parallels, it is plain that the words refer to the girl, not to her suitor, as supposed in the editio princeps!) For 'luscious' the Hebrew has, that rejoice the heart'—a phrase derived from Ps. 104.15.

3. Literally, Because I had known her since my childhood, my foot trod on level ground, i.e., I did not let myself be 'swept off my feet'. In place of yedi'tiha, 'I had known her', the Versions seem to have read re'itiha, I had cultivated/been friends with her'. The same error appears in the Masoretic text of Hos. 13.5.

4. The Hebrew word, leqah, means both 'learning, lesson, discourse' and 'captivating ways'; for the latter, cp. Prov. 7.21; Sirach 26.9 (LXX); and v. D. W. Thomas, in 'Wisdom in Israel and the Ancient Near East' (Rowley Festschrift, VTS 3[1955]), p. 284.

5. Literally, 'She was/became a wetourse unto me'. For a variation on the metaphor cp. Sirach 15.2-3. What is implied in general is a kind of Abelard-and-Heloise situation, though the lady is here the teacher.

6. The word for 'my tutor' is in the masculine gender, although the specific reference is to Wisdom portrayed as a woman. Hence it is apparent that the poet is quoting a popular tag.

7. Or, according to the Versions and the Cairo Hebrew paraphrase: Gripped by a passion for pleasure/ 'I will take my pleasure', thought I,/ 'now at long last and no longer/ continue bashful (and shy)!' The difference rests on reading the Hebrew word, 'a sh u b, by transposition of letters, as 'ebosh. A similar variation exists in the texts of Sirach 42.1. (The Masoretic text of Ps. 25.3 is possibly to be corrected in the same way.)

8. Heb. hariti. The Versions gave to the verb the sense which it bears in the reflexive conjugation, viz., Vie, grapple with'.

9. The manuscript reads t-r-t-i, which makes no sense. My emendation, t-r<h>-t-i, is based on the antithetical sh-l-h, 'be at ease, loll', in the succeeding clause and on the fact that in post-Biblical Hebrew t-r-h b- is indeed used of assiduous study.

10. Not impossibly, these words also continue the military metaphor, the meaning being that the assailant does not linger on the heights surrounding the city but makes straight for the gates—the Roman succedere portis. (The form be-rumeha, in place of the more usual bi-mfromeha, would have been chosen as lending itself more readily to the metaphorical nuance.) It may perhaps be suggested that there is also an allusion to the Graeco-Roman custom whereby young blades used to make the rounds ('go epi komon') after dinner battering on the doors of their lady-loves. If the latter refused them admission, the ardent suitors would often force entry; see fully Headlam-Knox, Herodas (1925), pp. 85f. The Versions squeamishly substitute, / spread my hands to heaven!

11. The conventional rendering (RSV), and lamented my ignorance of her, rests on a lamentable ignorance of the fact that the Greek Version's I lamented (epenthesa) is simply a corruption (and what a corruption!) of a very similar word (viz. epenoesa) meaning I contemplated. (This, however, is itself a mistaken rendering of the Hebrew, which really means, that I might contemplate.)

12. For the moralizing tone of these lines, cp. Erasmus' description of Thomas More in his celebrated letter to Ulrich Hutten: 'When he was of an age for it, he was not averse to love-affairs with young women, but kept them honorable, preferring the love that was offered to that which he must chase after, and was more drawn by spiritual than by physical intercourse' (tr. Barbara Flower, in J. Huizinga, Erasmus of Rotterdam [1952], p. 235).

13. This is the end of the pious exhortation into which our merry poem so dismally peters out.

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