Timeline

Fictive Kinship

A fictive kinship refers to the social bonds described through family language but not based on biological relationships. These relationships, such as calling fellow members of a community “brothers” or describing a covenant people as “children” of God, use kinship terms to convey loyalty, obligation, and shared identity.

Timeline

Sirach 2:1 / James 1:2
1. 195–180 BCE
  
  Sirach 2:1
  
  Deuterocanon
  
  1 My son, if you come to serve the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation. 2 Set your heart aright, constantly endure, and don’t make haste in time of calamity. 3 Cling to him, and don’t depart, that you may be increased at your latter end. 4 Accept whatever is brought upon you, and be patient when you suffer humiliation. 5 For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. 6 Put your trust in him, and he will help you. Make your ways straight, and set your hope on him. 7 All you who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy. Don’t turn aside, lest you fall.
2. 80–90 CE
  
  James 1:2
  
  New Testament
  
  1 From James, a slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings! 2 My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything. 5 But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind.
Sirach 23:7 / James 3:9
1. 195–180 BCE
  
  Sirach 23:7
  
  Deuterocanon
  
  7 Listen, my children, to the discipline of the mouth. He who keeps it will not be caught. 8 The sinner will be overpowered through his lips. By them, the insulter and the arrogant will stumble. 9 Don’t accustom your mouth to an oath, and don’t be accustomed to naming the Holy One, 10 for as a servant who is continually scourged will not lack bruises, so he also who swears and continually utters the Name will not be cleansed from sin. 11 A man of many oaths will be filled with iniquity. The scourge will not depart from his house. If he offends, his sin will be upon him. If he disregards it, he has sinned doubly. If he has sworn falsely, he will not be justified, for his house will be filled with calamities. 12 There is a manner of speech that is clothed with death. Let it not be found in the heritage of Jacob, for all these things will be far from the godly, and they will not wallow in sins. 13 Don’t accustom your mouth to gross rudeness, for it involves sinful speech. 14 Remember your father and your mother, for you sit in the midst of great men, that you not be forgetful before them, and become a fool by your bad habit; so you may wish that you had not been born, and curse the day of your birth.
2. 80–90 CE
  
  James 3:9
  
  New Testament
  
  6 And the tongue is a fire! The tongue represents the world of wrongdoing among the parts of our bodies. It pollutes the entire body and sets fire to the course of human existence—and is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature is subdued and has been subdued by humankind. 8 But no human being can subdue the tongue; it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people made in God’s image. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. These things should not be so, my brothers and sisters. 11 A spring does not pour out fresh water and bitter water from the same opening, does it? 12 Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a vine produce figs? Neither can a salt water spring produce fresh water.
Romans 9:25 / Kiddushin 36a
1. 55–58 CE
  
  Romans 9:25
  
  New Testament
  
  22 But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And what if he is willing to make known the wealth of his glory on the objects of mercy that he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he also says in Hosea: “I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, ‘My beloved.’” 26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” 27 And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved, 28 for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly.”
2. 450–550 CE
  
  Kiddushin 36a
  
  Rabbinic
  
  The Gemara asks: And both Abaye and Rava, what do they derive from this verse: “You are the sons to the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 14:1)? According to the first explanation of Isi’s opinion, the exclusion of women is derived from this phrase, whereas they derive that halakha from a different source. The Gemara answers: This verse is necessary for that which is taught in a baraita: The verse: “You are the sons to the Lord your God,” indicates that when you act like sons and cleave to the Holy One, Blessed be He, you are called sons, but when you do not act like sons you are not called sons. This is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda. And Rabbi Meir says: Either way you are still called sons, as it is stated: “They are foolish sons” (Jeremiah 4:22). And it also states: “Sons in whom there is no faithfulness” (Deuteronomy 32:20). And it states: “A seed of evildoers, sons who deal corruptly” (Isaiah 1:4). And it states: “And it shall come to pass that, instead of what was said to them: You are not My people, it shall be said to them: Sons of the living God” (Hosea 2:1).
Mark 3:34 / Mishnah Bava Metzia 2:11
1. 60–75 CE
  
  Mark 3:34
  
  New Testament
  
  31 Then Jesus’ mother and his brothers came. Standing outside, they sent word to him, to summon him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him and they said to him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you.” 33 He answered them and said, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking at those who were sitting around him in a circle, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
2. 190–230 CE
  
  Mishnah Bava Metzia 2:11
  
  Rabbinic
  
  If one finds his lost item and his father’s lost item, tending to his own lost item takes precedence. Similarly, if one finds his lost item and his teacher’s lost item, tending to his own lost item takes precedence. If one finds his father’s lost item and his teacher’s lost item, tending to his teacher’s lost item takes precedence, as his father brought him into this world, and his teacher, who taught him the wisdom of Torah, brings him to life in the World-to-Come. And if his father is a Torah scholar, then his father’s lost item takes precedence. If his father and his teacher were each carrying a burden and he wants to assist them in putting down their burdens, he first places his teacher’s burden down and thereafter places his father’s burden down. If his father and his teacher were in captivity, he first redeems his teacher and thereafter redeems his father. And if his father is a Torah scholar, he first redeems his father and thereafter redeems his teacher.
1 John 3:1 / Pirkei Avot 3:14
1. 90–100 CE
  
  1 John 3:1
  
  New Testament
  
  1 (See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called God’s children—and indeed we are! For this reason the world does not know us: Because it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. 3 And everyone who has this hope focused on him purifies himself, just as Jesus is pure). 4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; indeed, sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that Jesus was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
2. 190–230 CE
  
  Pirkei Avot 3:14
  
  Rabbinic
  
  13 Rabbi Akiva said: Merriment and frivolity accustom one to sexual licentiousness; Tradition is a fence to the Torah; Tithes are a fence to wealth; Vows are a fence to abstinence; A fence to wisdom is silence. 14 He used to say: Beloved is man, for he was created in the image of God. Especially beloved is he, for it was made known to him that he had been created in the image of God, as it is said: "for in the image of God He made man" (Genesis 9:6). Beloved are Israel, in that they were called children to the All-Present. Especially beloved are they, for it was made known to them that they are called children of the All-Present, as it is said: "you are children to the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 14:1). Beloved are Israel, in that a precious vessel was given to them. Especially beloved are they, for it was made known to them that the desirable instrument with which the world had been created was given to them, as it is said: "for I give you good instruction; forsake not my teaching" (Proverbs 4:2). 15 Everything is foreseen, yet freedom of choice is granted. The world is judged with goodness, and everything depends on the preponderance of deeds.