Texts in Conversation
Sirach describes a prayer for protection from lust, a prayer the Christian theologian Augustine echoes in the Confessions when reflecting on his struggle with desire, highlighting how he used Sirach as an authoritative source for teaching.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 23:6
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
4 O Lord, Father and God of my life, don’t give me a haughty eyes, 5 and turn away evil desire from me. 6 Let neither gluttony nor lust overtake me. Don’t give me over to a shameless mind. 7 Listen, my children, to the discipline of the mouth. He who keeps it will not be caught. 8 The sinner will be overpowered through his lips. By them, the insulter and the arrogant will stumble.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Augustine, Confessions 10.31
Early Christian
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." See here a soldier of the heavenly army; not the sort of dust we are. But remember, Lord, "that we are dust" and that you created man out of the dust, and that he "was lost, and is found." Of course, he [the apostle Paul] could not do all this by his own power. He was of the same dust—he whom I loved so much and who spoke of these things through the afflatus of your inspiration: "I can," he said, "do all things through him who strengthens me." Strengthen me, so that I too may be able. Give what you command, and command what you will. This man [Paul] confesses that he received the gift of grace and that, when he glories, he glories in the Lord. I have heard yet another voice praying that he might receive. "Take from me," he said, "the greediness of the belly." And from this it appears, my holy God, that you give it, when what you command to be done is done.
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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