Texts in Conversation
The Christian theologian Origen uses Sirach as an authoritative source for teaching, calling it scripture while repeating its comparison of those who lack wisdom with those who talk nonsense, showing how it was influenced by Jewish traditions.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 21:18
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
16 The chatter of a fool is like a burden in the way, but grace will be found on the lips of the wise. 17 The utterance of the prudent man will be sought for in the congregation. They will ponder his words in their heart. 18 As a house that is destroyed, so is wisdom to a fool. The knowledge of an unwise man is talk without sense. 19 Instruction is as fetters on the feet of an unwise man, and as manacles on the right hand. 20 A fool lifts up his voice with laughter, but a clever man smiles quietly.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Origen, Contra Celsum 7.12
Against Celsus
Early Christian
He thinks, besides, that those who support the cause of Christ by a reference to the writings of the prophets can give no proper answer in regard to statements in them which attribute to God that which is wicked, shameful, or impure; and assuming that no answer can be given, he proceeds to draw a whole train of inferences, none of which can be allowed. But he ought to know that those who wish to live according to the teaching of sacred Scripture understand the saying, The knowledge of the unwise is as talk without sense, and have learned to be ready always to give an answer to every one that asks us a reason for the hope that is in us. And they are not satisfied with affirming that such and such things have been predicted; but they endeavour to remove any apparent inconsistencies, and to show that, so far from there being anything evil, shameful, or impure in these predictions, everything is worthy of being received by those who understand the sacred Scriptures. But Celsus ought to have adduced from the prophets examples of what he thought bad, or shameful, or impure, if he saw any such passages; for then his argument would have had much more force, and would have furthered his purpose much better. He gives no instances, however, but contents himself with loudly asserting the false charge that these things are to be found in Scripture. There is no reason, then, for us to defend ourselves against groundless charges, which are but empty sounds, or to take the trouble of showing that in the writings of the prophets there is nothing evil, shameful, impure, or abominable.
Date: 248 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The Hebrew of Ben Sira was not included in the Jewish biblical canon. Testimony to its survival, however, is found in the numerous quotations of the book in rabbinic literature. Of course, the medieval manuscripts discovered in the Cairo Genizah constitute prima facie evidence for its continued existence in Hebrew. The Greek translation seems to have been influential in early Christianity, and it eventually was included in the Christian Old Testament (only to be excised by Protestants in the sixteenth century). Sirach is not cited explicitly in the New Testament, and scholars differ as to how much influence it had on the New Testament writings. Those who see broad influence have argued for it primarily in Matthew, Luke, some of Paul’s letters and the Epistle of James (compare Harrington, Invitation, p. 90; Schürer, History, vol. III.1, pp. 205–208). In other early Christian literature, Didache 4:5 and Barnabas 19:9 bear a very close resemblance to, and perhaps are taken from, Sirach 4:31. If these texts do depend on Sirach, they would be the earliest examples of direct Christian use of the book. A healthy number of Greek and Latin church fathers, including Clement of Alexandria, Origen, John Chrysostom, Tertullian, Jerome and Augustine, use Sirach in their writings, and as early as Clement of Alexandria Sirach is cited as scripture, demonstrating the high regard the book came to have in Christian tradition ..."
Daniel Ryan, “Sirach (Ecclesiasticus),” in The T&T Clark Companion to the Septuagint, ed. James K. Aitken, Bloomsbury Companions (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015), 410–424.
* 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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