Texts in Conversation
Sirach describes creation as a balance of opposites like life and death or good and evil, all under divine control. Augustine echoes this view in City of God, showing how he used this Jewish wisdom book as an authoritative source for teaching.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 33:15
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
13 As the clay of the potter in his hand, all his ways are according to his good pleasure, so men are in the hand of him who made them, to give to them according to his judgment. 14 Good is the opposite of evil, and life is the opposite of death; so the sinner is the opposite of the godly. 15 Look upon all the works of the Most High like this, they come in pairs, one against another. 16 I was the last on watch, like one who gleans after the grape gatherers. 17 By the Lord’s blessing I arrived before them, and filled my winepress like one who gathers grapes.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Augustine, City of God 11.18
On the City of God Against the Pagans
Early Christian
This is quite plainly stated in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, in this way: “Good is set against evil, and life against death: so is the sinner against the godly. So look on all the works of the Most High, and these are two and two, one against another.”
Date: 426 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Within early Christianity, the Letter of Barnabas echoes Sirach 5:12–14 about the danger of a double tongue, as well as the warning in Sirach 4:31 against an ungenerous attitude (Barnabas 19:7–9). Origen (d. 254 ce) quotes Ben Sira as scriptural when commenting on several Old Testament passages (Genesis 12:5; Joshua 15:6; Jeremiah 16:6). Clement of Alexandria (d. 215 CE) quotes about eighty Sirach verses, while John Chrysostom (d. 407 CE) includes about three hundred citations from the book. Augustine (d. 430 CE) not only cites Sirach about 300x, but also preached sermons on Sirach passages. Rabanus Maurus (d. 856 CE), abbot of Fulda in Germany, composed the earliest surviving Latin commentary on Sirach ..."
Jeremy Corley, “Sirach,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Apocrypha, ed. Gerbern S. Oegema (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021), 284–305.
* 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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