Texts in Conversation
Sirach criticizes the rich person who refuses to be generous, describing this behavior as self-defeating. The Christian theologian Augustine quotes this in the City of God, showing how he treated Sirach as an authoritative source.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 14:5
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
3 Riches are not appropriate for a stingy person. What would a miser do with money? 4 He who gathers by denying himself gathers for others. Others will revel in his goods. 5 If one is mean to himself, to whom will he be good? He won’t enjoy his possessions. 6 There is none more evil than he who is grudging to himself. This is a punishment for his wickedness. 7 Even if he does good, he does it in forgetfulness. In the end, he reveals his wickedness.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Augustine, City of God 21.27
On the City of God Against the Pagans
Early Christian
And if they for one crime have distributed all their goods to Christ's needy members, that could profit them nothing unless they desisted from all similar actions, and attained the love which works no evil. Whoever, therefore, gives alms proportioned to his sins must first begin with himself. For it is not reasonable that a man who shows charity toward his neighbor should not do so toward himself, since he hears the Lord saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” Matthew 22:39 and again, “Have compassion on your soul, and please God.” How, then, can the one who has no compassion on his own soul so that he may please God be said to give alms proportioned to his sins? To the same effect it is written, “He who is bad to himself, to whom can he be good?”
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
,