Translation of Sirach 15:14: "God in the beginning created human beings and made them subject to their own free choice." (15:14 NABRE)
Brenton LXX: "He himself made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his counsel"
In Thomas Aquinas' Summa Thelogica (Summa Theologiae), I.83.1, we find these words in the sed contra part of the question:
"On the contrary, It is written (Sirach 15:14): 'God made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his own counsel'; and the gloss adds: 'That is of his free-will.'"
Then as part of Aquinas' response, he argues:
But man acts from judgment, because by his apprehensive power he judges that something should be avoided or sought. But because this judgment, in the case of some particular act, is not from a natural instinct, but from some act of comparison in the reason, therefore he acts from free judgment and retains the power of being inclined to various things. For reason in contingent matters may follow opposite courses, as we see in dialectic syllogisms and rhetorical arguments. Now particular operations are contingent, and therefore in such matters the judgment of reason may follow opposite courses, and is not determinate to one. And forasmuch as man is rational is it necessary that man have a free-will.
Aquinas uses the term "free will/free-will" in a technical manner, but suffice to say that he interprets Sirach 15:14 as support for the concept. Much has been written about this passage. However, the salient issue for now is how we might understand Sirach 15:14, and to what extent it teaches free will.
Further Reading: https://www.academia.edu/40987000/_Book_Section_Determinism_in_Ben_Sira_Notions_of_Time_in_Deuterocanonical_and_Cognate_Literature._Edited_by_Stefan_Fischer._DCLS._Berlin_De_Gruyter_2021._In_Preparation
Did Adam do anything bad prior to the fruit? I suppose the better question is would Adam have known if he could have done anything bad prior to the tree?
ReplyDeleteIsn't free will when you know you have a choice to make or can make a choice?
"As Boccaccini (2008:36) notes, Ben Sira downplays the idea that evil should be attributed to external factors such as angels or the Satan (Sir 15:11-20; 21:27). The chief adversary is the self and the failure to follow the law of life."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2074-77052017000100017
Many definitions exist for free will, but it's commonly defined as the capacity for choosing between genuine alternatives or the capacity to choose an action or to refrain from choosing an action.
ReplyDeleteFrom an article regarding Sirach:
ReplyDeleteFor Sirach, τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ is used to indicate the whole process of creation, which is in line with his usage of the term elsewhere.13 In 15:14, Ben Sira states 'He himself created humankind from the beginning [αὐτὸς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐποίησεν ἄνθρωπον], and he left them in the power of their own free choice'. In the wisdom hymn in 24:9, wisdom states, 'Before the ages, in the beginning [ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς], he created me, and for all the ages I shall not cease to be'. For Sirach, the creation account in Genesis actually tells about how everything came into existence, as every created thing lies within the beginning of the creation age.
In Sirach 17:7b, the phrase 'good and evil' (ἀγαθὰ καὶ κακὰ) alludes to 'the tree of knowledge of good and evil' in Genesis 2:17 and 3:5, 22. Ben Sira does not use this phrase to evoke the aspect of Adam and Eve's testing and disobedience. As Collins (1997:59) puts it, 'there is no suggestion, however, that they were forbidden to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil'. In the Genesis story, man only came to know the real effects of good and evil in a sense becoming like God after eating of the prohibited tree. According to Sheppard (1980:79-80), 'the knowledge of good and evil is made a witness to the presence of wisdom in the garden of Eden' as it is linked with 'discretion [שׁכל] and insight [בינה]', which are cornerstones of wisdom. However, Ben Sira also seems to be suggesting that man already had the capability to distinguish between good and evil and it was not something that came as a consequence of man's disobedience. For Ben Sira, humankind from the beginning always had the free will to keep God's commandments or to disobey, to choose between life and death (Sir 15:14-17). However, the freedom of choice was not meant to be a license to sin (Sir 15:20). The idea of fear put in the heart of man in Sirach 17:8 is probably meant to allude to the theme he had already dealt with thoroughly in Sirach 1:1-2:17, concerning wisdom and the fear of the Lord:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; she is created with the faithful in the womb. She made among human beings an eternal foundation, and among their descendants she will abide faithfully. (Sir 1:14-15)
See http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2074-77052017000100017
It's interesting that the use of διαβουλίου αὐτοῦ, and Aquinas's own tying of free will to reason seems to imply that one can ratioanally choose the wicked (as opposed to what for example Plato thought). I would tend to agree in so far as one can follow a will not guided towards God, and follow such a will rationally, but ultimately a will must be, in a certain sence, created ex-nihilo to be truely free (and not just a mistake based on limited, or faulty knowledge).
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