More Apocryphal Wisdom: Chapters 3-4
It is pretty clear why the rabbis eventually rejected a book whose third chapter begins with a promise of immortality for the just:
But the souls of the just are in God’s hands, and no torment, in death itself, has power to reach them. 2 Dead? Fools think so; think their end loss, 3 their leaving us, annihilation; but all is well with them. 4 The world sees nothing but the pains they endure; they themselves have eyes only for what is immortal; 5 so light their suffering, so great the gain they win! God, all the while, did but test them, and testing them found them worthy of him. 6 His gold, tried in the crucible, his burnt-sacrifice, graciously accepted, they do but wait for the time of their deliverance; 7 then they will shine out, these just souls, unconquerable as the sparks that break out, now here, now there, among the stubble.
Note how neatly the author shifts the metaphor of gold int the crucible to a burnt offering to a shining light to the sparks that burn the stubble/
Very interesting is the revision of the OT view of collected and inherited guilt, which is usually the result of some intentional or even accidental act of impiety. Here instead it is an extended metaphor of adultery and the resultant bastardy that causes the sins of the fathers to be visited upon their offspring.
The declaration that it is better to have no children and to have virtue is not a condemnation of child-bearing and child-rearing but a rhetorical figure of a type common in Greek poetry. Water, as Pindar declares is best/a fine thing, gold is like shook fire, but an Olympic victor lives a life sweet as honey. Having children is a good thing, but virtue is better, though the two are not incompatible.
Also interesting is the view that length of years does confer old age but wisdom. That is to say, the wisdom of maturity and old age are perhaps the most desirable qualities of human life but it is not the length of years but the depth of wisdom and maturity that matter
“the wisdom of maturity and old age are perhaps the most desirable qualities of human life but it is not the length of years “
I was recently wondering why some people never retire from public life and if this is a recent phenomenon or a return to some normal state of affairs. Regardless of how feeble or burdened, however pathetic and diminished their mental state, they continue to cling and grasp for roles until the very end. Joe Biden, Mitch McConell, Diane Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, etc while others, perhaps wiser public servants, retire to dignified lives of private ladies and gentlemen.
Robert, have you seen the movie “Chinatown?” Near the end, Jake Gittes asks the elderly moneybags Noah Cross (played by John Huston) why he doesn’t stop and rest on his laurels. After all, he had way more money than he could ever spend in what years remained in his life. He could afford the best of everything. And Cross tells him exuberantly: “The future, Mr Gitz, the future!!” (something to that effect.)
They can never retire from that high stakes Risk Game in which they’re embedded. Their future immortality hangs in the balance. Or so they think.
Thank you, I will certainly take a look Mr Rosenberg. As the disintegration continues from one manifest image to another and a right to any and all, the sources for wonder are rich. This summer I was thinking of the older wealthy men in Aspen attempting another run through the days of their youth with the younger cupcakes.
Also I was wondering a couple of years ago about the sometimes contemptuous condescension between Architects and contractors. The meanness and relentless efforts of contractors doing shoddy work for a few dollars more and the architect’s reluctance to point to more than a few in any given project. . One of the things I enjoy about getting older and slower is musing on all these observations and this ceaseless changing of the guards. I will look forward to another careful look at Chinatown too.
‘Forget it, Jake (Robert); it’s Chinatown.”