✕
What's New
✕
July 2026
New article: “The Book of Revelation” (Revelation).
New article: “The Letters to the Seven Churches” (Revelation).
New article: “The Liturgy of Heaven” (Revelation).
New article: “The Woman, the Dragon, and the Lamb” (Revelation).
New article: “Babylon and the Judgment” (Revelation).
New article: “The New Jerusalem” (Revelation).
New article: “The Catholic Letters” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letter of James” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letters of Peter” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letters of John” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letter of Jude” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Book of Acts” (Acts).
New article: “Pentecost” (Acts).
New article: “The Church of the First Days” (Acts).
New article: “The Gospel to the Nations” (Acts).
New article: “To the Ends of the Earth” (Acts).
New article: “The Book of Hosea” (Hosea).
New article: “The Book of Micah” (Micah).
New article: “The Book of Jonah” (Jonah).
New article: “The Book of Habakkuk” (Habakkuk).
New article: “The Book of Zephaniah” (Zephaniah).
New article: “The Book of Malachi” (Malachi).
New article: “The Book of Daniel” (Daniel).
New article: “Faith in the Trial” (Daniel).
New article: “The Kingdoms That Pass” (Daniel).
New article: “The Son of Man and the Resurrection” (Daniel).
New article: “Susanna and the Wisdom of God” (Daniel).
New article: “The Book of Jeremiah” (Jeremiah).
New article: “Jeremiah, the Tested Prophet” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The New Covenant” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The Fall of Jerusalem and the Lamentations” (Jeremiah).
New article: “Baruch and the Hope of Exile” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The Song of Songs” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Movement of Love” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Garden of Symbols” (Song of Songs).
New article: “Love Strong as Death” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Senses of the Song” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Book of Job” (Job).
New article: “The Prologue and the Trial” (Job).
New article: “Job and His Friends” (Job).
New article: “God’s Answer” (Job).
New article: “My Eyes Have Seen You” (Job).
New article: “The Book of Ecclesiastes” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Quest for Happiness” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “A Time for Everything” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Joy That Is God’s Gift” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “Remember Your Creator” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Book of Wisdom” (Wisdom).
New article: “The Righteous, the Wicked, and Immortality” (Wisdom).
New article: “Wisdom, the Breath of God” (Wisdom).
New article: “Wisdom, Guide of History” (Wisdom).
New article: “Knowing God and the Folly of Idols” (Wisdom).
New article: “The Book of Sirach” (Sirach).
New article: “The Fear of the Lord, Source of Wisdom” (Sirach).
New article: “Wisdom and the Law” (Sirach).
New article: “The Choice of Life and Everyday Wisdom” (Sirach).
New article: “The Praise of the Ancestors” (Sirach).
New article: “The Book of Proverbs” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Fear of the Lord and the Two Ways” (Proverbs).
New article: “Personified Wisdom” (Proverbs).
New article: “Wisdom for Daily Life” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Valiant Woman” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Psalter, Prayer of Israel” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Supplication and Trust” (Psalms).
New article: “The Royal and Messianic Psalms” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Ascents and Wisdom” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms on the Lips of Christ” (Psalms).
New article: “The Crisis and the Profanation of the Temple” (1 Maccabees).
New article: “Eleazar and the Seven Brothers” (2 Maccabees).
New article: “Judas Maccabeus and the Dedication of the Temple” (1-2 Maccabees).
New article: “Jewish Independence” (1 Maccabees).
New article: “Tobit” (Tobit).
New article: “Judith” (Judith).
New article: “Esther” (Esther).
New article: “The Return and the House of God” (Ezra).
New article: “Ezra and the Return to the Law” (Ezra, Nehemiah).
New article: “Nehemiah and the Rebuilt City” (Nehemiah).
New article: “Samuel and the Rise of Kingship” (1-2 Samuel).
New article: “Saul and the Rise of David” (1 Samuel).
New article: “David, the Covenant, and the Promise” (2 Samuel).
New article: “Solomon and the Temple” (1 Kings).
New article: “The Schism and the Northern Kingdom” (1-2 Kings).
New article: “Judah until the Exile” (2 Kings, 2 Chronicles).
New article: “The Entry into the Promised Land” (Joshua).
New article: “The Division of the Land and the Covenant at Shechem” (Joshua).
New article: “The Time of the Judges” (Judges).
New article: “In Those Days There Was No King” (Judges).
New article: “Ruth the Moabite” (Ruth).
New article: “Abraham, Father of Believers” (Genesis).
New article: “Isaac and Jacob” (Genesis).
New article: “Joseph” (Genesis).
New article: “The Creation and the Rest” (Genesis).
New article: “The Garden and the Fall” (Genesis).
New article: “From Cain to Babel” (Genesis).
New article: “Personal Responsibility” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Ministry of the New Covenant” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “The Collection for the Saints” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “Strength in Weakness” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “The Decalogue.”
New article: “The Law of the Neighbor.”
New article: “The Law of Worship and Holiness.”
New article: “The Law and Christ.”
New article: “The Law, Gift of the Covenant.”
New article: “Freedom and idols” (1 Corinthians 8-10).
New article: “The charisms and the assembly” (1 Corinthians 12 and 14).
New article: “The Cardinal Virtues”.
New article: “Prudence”.
New article: “Temperance”.
The French Bible of the site is now the Chérubin translation, with section headings in the reader.
New article: “Resentment and Forgiveness”.
New article: “Judging One’s Neighbour”.
New article: “The New Temple and the River of Life” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Restoration of Israel” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Oracles Against the Nations” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Symbolic Actions and the Judgment of Jerusalem”.
New article: “Ezekiel, the Prophet of the Exile”.
New article: “Anger and Meekness”.
New article: “Love”.
New article: “The Desire to Feel the Spirit”.
New article: “The Dark Night of the Soul”.
June 2026
New article: “Consolation and Desolation”.
New article: “Discerning the Movements of the Heart”.
New article: “The Fall of Nineveh”.
New article: “The God Who Judges and Who Saves”.
New article: “Nahum and the Assyrian Empire”.
New article: “Justice, the Day of the Lord, and Hope”.
New article: “The Visions and the Rejected Worship”.
New article: “The Judgment of the Nations and of Israel”.
New article: “Amos, the Shepherd Prophet”.
New article: “The Glory of the Second Temple”.
New article: “The Four Oracles”.
New article: “Haggai and the Rebuilding of the Temple”.
New article: “The Expansion of Christianity”.
New article: “All Under Sin”.
New article: “The Epistle to the Romans”.
New article: “Sinai and the covenant”.
New article: “The deliverance”.
New article: “The bondage and the call”.
New article: “The oracles against the nations”.
New article: “Sadness”.
New article: “Fear”.
New article: “The finger of God”.
New article: “The baptism of Christ”.
New article: “The Resurrection and the Glorification”.
New article: “Holy Week”.
New article: “The third year: the opposition”.
New article: “The second year: popularity”.
New article: “The first year: the inauguration”.
New article: “The preparation for the ministry”.
New article: “The prologues and the coming of Christ”.
New: the “Memorise” tool.
New article: “The Real Presence.”
New article: “The four Servant Songs”.
New article: “Trito-Isaiah”.
New article: “Deutero-Isaiah”.
New article: “Proto-Isaiah”.
New article: “Predestination”.
New article: “The Angel of the Lord”.
New article: “Wars of Extermination in the Bible”.
New article: “Slavery in the Bible”.
New article: “The Nature of God”.
New article: “The Age of the Martyrs”.
New article: “The Abode of the Dead”.
New article: “The Canon and the Deuterocanonical Books”.
New article: “The Deacon”.
New article: “The Priest”.
New article: “Sola Scriptura”.
New article: “The Angels”.
New article: “Sola Fide”.
New article: “Once Saved, Always Saved”.
New article: “Elijah at Horeb”.
New article: “Turning the Other Cheek”.
New article: “Buy a Sword”.
New article: “Let the Dead Bury Their Dead”.
New article: “Jesus before Pilate”.
New article: “Jesus and Nicodemus”.
New article: “Invincible Ignorance”.
New article: “The Prophet and His Time”.
New article: “The Eight Night Visions”.
New article: “Joshua, the Branch and the Crown”.
New article: “Fasting and Restoration”.
New article: “First Oracle: The King Who Comes”.
New article: “The Book of Obadiah”.
New article: “Second Oracle: The Pierced One”.
New article: “The Day of the Lord”.
New article: “The Plague and the Day of the Lord”.
New article: “Conversion and the Spirit Poured Out”.
New article: “The Judgment of the Nations and the Salvation of Zion”.
New article: “The Three Ways of the Interior Life”.
New article: “Freedom and Responsibility”.
New article: “The Moral Conscience”.
New article: “Doubt and the Moral Systems”.
New article: “Doing Evil for a Good”.
New article: “Adoration and Praise”.
New article: “Why God Asks for Adoration”.
New article: “Faith and Science”.
New article: “The Theory of Evolution”.
New article: “The Woes of Isaiah”.
New article: “The Dwelling, the Priesthood and the Sacrifices”.
New article: “The Forty Years in the Desert”.
New article: "The Discourses of Moses".
New article: "The Death of Moses".
✕
Sign in
or

The Praise of the Ancestors

The book ends with a vast fresco: Ben Sira surveys the whole history of Israel through its great figures, from Enoch to the high priest Simon. Let us praise famous men, our ancestors. This gallery, unique in the Old Testament, reads the history of salvation as one continuous line of God’s faithfulness: each ancestor is a link in the chain of the Covenant, a witness of the God who acts through men. It rises like a liturgy and culminates in the worship of the Temple. The Church recognizes here the first form of the communion of saints: the living memory of those who went before us in faith.

Let us praise famous men

Ben Sira opens his praise with a solemn call: “Let us now praise famous men, our ancestors, generation by generation.” Sirach 44:1 But he does not praise them for their own glory. What he celebrates in them is the work of God: “The Lord brought forth great glory in them.” Sirach 44:2 Their memory endures, and the assembly proclaims their praise from age to age. Here is a way of reading history: not as a series of human exploits, but as the theatre where God unfolds his faithfulness, through men he chooses, forms, and sends. The praise is not a roll of honor, it is a thanksgiving.

From the origins to the patriarchs

The gallery goes back to the first just men. Enoch, who pleased God and was taken up, opens the march as a sign of hope: “Enoch pleased the Lord and was taken up, a model of conversion for the generations.” Sirach 44:16 Then comes Noah, found just in the time of the flood, through whom a remnant was saved: “Noah was found perfect and just; in the time of wrath he was the ransom of the world.” Sirach 44:17 Then Abraham, father of a multitude of nations, of whom Ben Sira first recalls his faithfulness to the Law and the Covenant: “he kept the law of the Most High and entered into covenant with him.” Sirach 44:20 From man to man, the Covenant is handed on and grows: the God who had bound himself to Noah binds himself to Abraham, and the promise runs through the generations without ever breaking.

Moses, Aaron, and the priesthood

At the center of history stands Moses, beloved of God and men, to whom the Law was given: “beloved of God and of men, Moses, whose memory is a blessing.” Sirach 45:1 Then Ben Sira, a man of the Temple, dwells at length on the priesthood. Aaron, brother of Moses, clothed in the robe of glory, receives the everlasting priesthood: “He made with him an everlasting covenant and gave him the priesthood of the people.” Sirach 45:7 And Phinehas, third in glory, who by his zeal made atonement for Israel and in turn received a covenant of peace: “Phinehas, son of Eleazar, is third in glory, for having shown his zeal in the fear of the Lord.” Sirach 45:23 This weight given to the priesthood is not by chance: the Covenant of the altar runs through the whole praise and prepares its summit, the glory of worship in the Temple.

The kings and the prophets

After the founders come the kings and the prophets. Joshua and the Judges win and keep the land. David above all, whom Ben Sira presents as the singer of the Lord: in all his works he gave thanks to the Most High, “with all his heart he sang hymns and loved the One who made him.” Sirach 47:8 He is the king of the psalms, whose repentant heart runs through the whole Psalter. Then Solomon, filled with wisdom, who reigned in peace and built the house of God: “Solomon reigned in days of peace.” Sirach 47:13 Come at last the prophets, and first Elijah, the man of fire who brought the people back to God: “Then arose Elijah, a prophet like fire, whose word burned like a torch.” Sirach 48:1 Elisha his successor, then the great prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, who consoled and warned. Kings, singers, and prophets, the whole life of the people is thus gathered and offered up in praise.

The high priest Simon

The gallery culminates neither in a king nor in a prophet, but in a priest: Simon, son of Onias, the high priest of Ben Sira’s own day, who repaired the Temple and fortified the city: “Simon, son of Onias, the high priest, repaired in his lifetime the house of the Lord.” Sirach 50:1 Ben Sira paints him in the splendor of the liturgy, coming out of the sanctuary radiant with glory: “Like the morning star amid the clouds.” Sirach 50:6 And at the summit of the poem, the gesture that gathers up all of history: the high priest blessing the assembled people. “raised his hands over the whole assembly of the sons of Israel, to give from his lips the blessing of the Lord.” Sirach 50:20 All the history of salvation thus flows into worship: the meaning of the Covenant is a people gathered before God and blessed in his name. This is the summit to which Ben Sira wanted to lead his reader.

The praise of the ancestors and the communion of saints

The Church reads this gallery as far more than a history lesson. It sees in it first the history of salvation read at a single glance, as one continuous work of God, the very one the New Testament will take up when it speaks of the cloud of witnesses that surrounds us. Each ancestor lived by faith and handed on the promise, until it reached its fullness in Christ, son of David, true Priest greater than Aaron, true Prophet greater than Elijah. It then recognizes here the first form of what it calls the communion of saints: the living remember those who went before them, give thanks to God for them, and know themselves bound to them in one people across the generations. Ben Sira’s "Let us praise famous men" becomes the memory the Church keeps of her saints, whose names she holds and whose intercession she asks. And the high priest who blesses the people, at the summit of the praise, calls to one greater than himself: the eternal Priest who, having entered once for all into the sanctuary, blesses his people forever.