Texts in Conversation
Sirach’s praise of wisdom mirrors the language and imagery of Proverbs, which describes wisdom as a guardian who gives honor and life. By echoing these earlier sayings, Sirach places itself in continuity with Israel’s wisdom traditions.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Proverbs 4:8
Hebrew Bible
6 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will guard you. 7 Wisdom is supreme—so acquire wisdom, and whatever you acquire, acquire understanding! 8 Esteem her highly and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. 9 She will place a fair garland on your head; she will bestow a beautiful crown on you.” 10 Listen, my child, and accept my words so that the years of your life will be many.
Date: 600–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 11:1
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
1 The wisdom of the lowly will lift up his head, and make him sit in the midst of great men. 2 Don’t commend a man for his good looks. Don’t abhor a man for his outward appearance. 3 The bee is little among flying creatures, but what it produces is the best of confections. 4 Don’t boast about the clothes you wear, and don’t exalt yourself in the day of honor; for the Lord’s works are wonderful, and his works are hidden among men. 5 Many kings have sat down upon the ground, but one who was never thought of has worn a crown.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Source (1) is from Ben Sira 3:21–22. These lines appear in the name of R. Eleazar (a third-generation Palestinian Amora) in the Yerushalmi and in Bereshit Rabba. The tradition appears in a related context in the Babylonian Talmud in the name of an Amora known to cite Palestinian traditions (see above), and this source can therefore be considered secondary to the two Palestinian traditions, not an essentially Babylonian tradition. The closeness between all three of these rabbinic traditions and its two extant Hebrew versions in Ben Sira is striking. In fact, the second clause varies slightly both between the manuscripts of Ben Sira and between the rabbinic versions, but the rest of the text is almost identical in all five witnesses ..."
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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