Texts in Conversation
Sirach compares the firing of pottery in a kiln to the testing of a person through speech, describing how language reveals character. The Christian theologian Augustine quotes this, showing how he uses its wisdom as an authoritative source.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 27:5
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
3 Unless a person holds on diligently to the fear of the Lord, his house will be overthrown quickly. 4 In the shaking of a sieve, the refuse remains, so does the filth of man in his thoughts. 5 The furnace tests the potter’s vessels; so the test of a person is in his thoughts. 6 The fruit of a tree discloses its cultivation, so is the utterance of the thought of a person’s heart. 7 Praise no man before you hear his thoughts, for this is how people are tested.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Augustine, City of God 21.26
On the City of God Against the Pagans
Early Christian
1 Corinthians 7:33 “Each one's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it,”— the day, no doubt, of tribulation — “because,” he says, “it shall be revealed by fire.” 1 Corinthians 3:13 He calls tribulation fire, just as it is elsewhere said, “The furnace tests the vessels of the potter, and the trial of affliction tests righteous men.” Sirach 27:5 And “The fire shall test each one's work to show what sort it is. If anyone's work endures” — for a man's care for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord, endures — “which he has built on it, he shall receive a reward,”— that is, he will reap the fruit of his care.
Date: 426 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Search:
Notes and References
"... As to Augustine’s use of the Book of Ecclesiasticus, it is striking that more than once he quotes a text that is somewhat different from the Vetus Latina, which for the Book of Ben Sira, serves as the traditional Latin text. Since Augustine’s quotations from the Book of Ben Sira have more than once been brought in line with the Greek translation, a thorough investigation into this phenomenon is needed in order to find out whether he had (some) knowledge of the Greek text of the Book of Ecclesiasticus. Apart from Speculum in which Augustine for his quotations from the Book of Ben Sira usually follows the Latin, in his other works he rather frequently appears to correct the Latin Ben Sira quotations according to the Greek. An investigation into this intriguing question would be very useful. Such an in depth inquiry should also take into full consideration whether, and to what extent, St. Augustine has been influenced by a text type of Ecclesiasticus that was already used by St. Cyprian and has even been given its own siglum (K) by Thiele ..."
Pancratius C. Beentjes, “Saint Augustine's Sermons 38-41 on the Book of Ben Sira,” in The Scriptures of Israel in Jewish and Christian Tradition: Essays in Honour of Maarten J. J. Menken, ed. Bart Koet, Steven Moyise, and Joseph Verheyden, NovTSup 148 (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 81–94.
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,