this world and the next (see Jn 3:14–21). 2. The reality of free choice is made clear in the book of Sirach (15:11–20), written when Jewish faith came in contact with Greek culture. In general, Greek thought did not accept free choice, and under its influence Jews were tempted to evade moral responsibility by thinking of divine, creative causality as being like the fate in which pagans believed. Sirach rejects this mistake: We cannot blame God for our sins. Writing about two centuries before Jesus,