Bullard and Hatton (UBS Handbook) on Sirach 21:27 and the Ontological Existence of a Supernatural, Personal "Satan"

  

RSV	GNT
When an ungodly man curses his adversary,p he curses his own soul	When a wicked person curses his enemyb he is cursing himself.
p Or curses Satan	b his enemy; or Satan.

 

When an ungodly man curses his adversary, he curses his own soul: For curses see the comments on 3.9. The problem in this verse is that the Greek word translated adversary could be rendered “Satan,” as the footnotes in the RSV and GNT indicate. In our opinion that is how it should be translated. Surely ben Sira’s grandson (who translated the book into Greek) understood it that way; otherwise he would have used ere a Greek noun for “enemy” rather than a form of the Hebrew word satan. What ben Sira seems to be saying is that we cannot put the blame for our sin on Satan; Satan is just an excuse that ungodly people have for not blaming themselves. We suggest the following model for this verse:

 

·       When a wicked person curses Satan, he is going nothing more than cursing himself.

 

Perhaps a better model is:

 

·       When a wicked person tries to put blame on Satan, he is really blaming no one but himself. (Roger A. Bullard and Howard A. Hatton, A Handbook on Sirach [UBS Handbook Series; New York: United Bible Societies, 2008], 440)

 

On Sirach 3:9 and the meaning of “curse(s)”:

 

But a mother’s curse uproots their foundations: Curse here means more than just “saying evil words against someone,” but rather calling upon a supernatural power to inflict harm on a person. A curse was thought to have its own power to cause harm to the individual who was cursed. What was said in verse 8 about a blessing applies as well, in a negative manner, to a curse. For a parent to pronounce a curse over a child would be a terrible fate for that child. The parent would be setting in motion events that would work for the destruction of the child and that child’s own home and future. Even though the author is not talking about houses as buildings, he can speak of the foundations, meaning that upon which a family or home is built, and that which holds it together. . . . Ben Sira is telling his readers here what they already knew . . . a curse from parents would be the severest condemnation someone could think of. (Ibid., 77)

 

This is important as it would seem to indicate that Sirach 21:27 is not using "Satan" as a synonym for the "evil impulse" but a personal, supernatural Satan. For more, see:

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