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Rabbinic tradition in Pirkei Avot quotes Sirach to teach the importance of humility. The similarity suggests that elements of the book, likely based on the earliest Hebrew version, were incorporated into early Rabbinic teaching.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 7:17
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
15 Don’t hate hard labor or farm work, which the Most High has created. 16 Don’t number yourself among the multitude of sinners. Remember that wrath will not wait. 17 Humble your soul greatly, for the punishment of the ungodly man is fire and the worm. 18 Don’t exchange a friend for something, neither a true brother for the gold of Ophir. 19 Don’t deprive yourself of a wise and good wife, for her grace is worth more than gold.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Pirkei Avot 4:4
Mishnah
Rabbinic
2 Ben Azzai said: Be as quick in performing a minor commandment as a major one, and flee from transgression; for one commandment leads to another commandment, and transgression leads to another transgression; for the reward for performing a commandment is another commandment, and the reward for committing a transgression is a transgression. 3 He used to say: do not despise any man, and do not discriminate against anything, for there is no man who does not have his hour, and no thing that does not have its place. 4 Rabbi Levitas a man of Yavneh said: be exceedingly humble in spirit, for the end of man is the worm. Rabbi Yohanan ben Berokah said: whoever profanes the name of Heaven in secret will be punished in the open. Unwittingly or wittingly, it is all one in profaning the name.
Date: 190–230 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... When discussing rabbinic knowledge of Ben Sira, the earliest rabbinic source to which modern scholars point is a passage of the Mishnah that appears to cite Ben Sira, though without attribution. Mishnah Avot 4:44 reads ... This closely corresponds to Ben Sira 7:17, which is preserved in two Hebrew manuscripts (MS A and MS C) ... The minor differences between Ben Sira and R. Levitas of Yavneh derive from the latter’s use of more rabbinic Hebrew phrasing. He opens with the prescriptive verb ״הוי״ which introduces prescriptive statements at least thirteen times in Tractate Avot alone ... All this, and the citation is still very close to Ben Sira. Later, in the amoraic period, there are two more examples of verses from Ben Sira cited in the name of a specific rabbi without attribution to Ben Sira, and there are also several examples of Ben Sira cited in amoraic literature as though it were a tannaitic source. Once in the Babylonian Talmud, it is even cited as though it were part of the hagiography ..."
Jenny R. Labendz, “The Book of Ben Sira in Rabbinic Literature,” AJSR 30 (2006): 347–392.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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