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The Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria draws from the Jewish wisdom of Sirach as an authoritative source for teaching about divine justice, using its description of how God's mercy and judgment are perfectly balanced.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 16:12
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
10 or in like manner, the six hundred thousand footmen who were gathered together in the hardness of their hearts. 11 Even if there is one stiff-necked person, it is a marvel if he will be unpunished; for mercy and wrath are both with him who is mighty to forgive, and he pours out wrath. 12 As his mercy is great, so is his correction also. He judges a man according to his works. 13 The sinner will not escape with plunder. The perseverance of the godly will not be frustrated. 14 He will make room for every work of mercy. Each man will receive according to his works.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 1.8
Paedagogus
Early Christian
For He who placed some on the right hand, and others on the left, conceived as Father, being good, is called that which alone He is — good; but as He is the Son in the Father, being his Word, from their mutual relation, the name of power being measured by equality of love, He is called righteous. He will judge, He says, a man according to his works, — a good balance, even God having made known to us the face of righteousness in the person of Jesus, by whom also, as by even scales, we know God. Of this also the book of Wisdom plainly says, For mercy and wrath are with Him, for He alone is Lord of both, Lord of propitiations, and pouring forth wrath according to the abundance of His mercy. So also is His reproof. For the aim of mercy and of reproof is the salvation of those who are reproved.
Date: 198 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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