Texts in Conversation
Sirach urges people not to indulge desire and urges self-control, a theme the Christian theologian Augustine echoes in the Confessions. His use of Sirach, sometimes closer to the Greek rather than the Latin version, shows its authority.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 18:30
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
28 Every man of understanding knows wisdom. He will give thanks to him who found her. 29 They who were of understanding in sayings also became wise themselves, and poured out apt proverbs. 30 Don’t go after your lusts. Restrain your appetites. 31 If you give fully to your soul the delight of her desire, she will make you the laughing stock of your enemies. 32 Don’t make merry in much luxury, and don’t be tied to its expense.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Augustine, Confessions 10.31
Early Christian
Many things that we pray for you give us, and whatever good we receive before we prayed for it, we receive it from you, so that we might afterward know that we did receive it from you. I was never a drunkard, but I have known drunkards made into sober men by you. It was also your doing that those who were never drunkards have not been—and likewise, it was from you that those who have been might not remain so always. And it was likewise from you that both might know from whom all this came. I heard another voice of yours: "Do not follow your lusts and refrain from your pleasures." And by your favor I have also heard this saying in which I have taken much delight: "If we eat, we are no better; and if we do not eat, we are no worse." This is to say that neither will the one make me abound, nor the other make me wretched. I heard still another voice: "For I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content with it. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. . .. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
Date: 397–400 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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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.
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