Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 10:56:18 -0600
From: "William Hagen" <william_hagen-AT-mail.okbu.edu>
Subject: Noted in Joyce's Portrait


I'm not a Joyce scholar, but would be interested
in knowing whether the Biblical
reference in the first sermon in Chapter 3 of
Joyce's Portrait of the Artist...
is a deliberate or unintentional mistake,
according to scholars. 

The first sermon in Chapter 3 cites a verse
attributed to Ecclesiastes 7:40--"Remember only
thy last things and thou shalt not sin for ever
--"  

It seemed a strange verse for the Preacher in
Ecclesiastes to be uttering, and I didn't remember
the chapters in Ecclesiastes running that long.  
Sure enough,  there are only 29 verses in Chapter
7 and none of them expresses similar thoughts.  A
colleague suggested to me that it might be 
Ecclesiasticus, also known as the Wisdom of Jesus
ben Sirach, or simply Sirach, one of the
apocryphal books.  In his edition he located the
verse in Chapter 7.  The last verse, 36, reads: 
"In all you do, remember the end of your life, and
then you will never sin."  

So was this a deliberate or unintentional
mistake?  If intentional, was Joyce slyly
undercutting the authority of Father Arnall, since
this is his first Scriptural citation?  

Bill Hagen
Oklahoma Baptist University