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The Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria uses Sirach to teach moderation in drinking. By repeating its view that wine can bring joy when used wisely but harm when abused, he shows how Sirach influenced early Christian tradition.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 31:29
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
27 Wine is as good as life to men, if you drink it in moderation. What life is there to a man who is without wine? It has been created to make men glad. 28 Wine drunk in season and in moderation is joy of heart and gladness of soul: 29 Wine drunk excessively is bitterness of soul, with provocation and conflict. 30 Drunkenness increases the rage of a fool to his hurt. It diminishes strength and adds wounds. 31 Don’t rebuke your neighbor at a banquet of wine. Don’t despise him in his mirth. Don’t speak a word of reproach to him. Don’t distress him by making demands of him.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.2
Paedagogus
Early Christian
And before tragedy, Wisdom cried, Much wine drunk abounds in irritation and all manner of mistakes. So most people say that you ought to relax over your cups, and postpone serious business till morning. I however think that then especially ought reason to be introduced to mix in the feast, to act the part of director (pædagogue) to wine-drinking, lest conviviality imperceptibly degenerate to drunkenness. For as no sensible man ever thinks it requisite to shut his eyes before going to sleep, so neither can any one rightly wish reason to be absent from the festive board, or can well study to lull it asleep till business is begun. But the Word can never quit those who belong to Him, not even if we are asleep; for He ought to be invited even to our sleep. For perfect wisdom, which is knowledge of things divine and human, which comprehends all that relates to the oversight of the flock of men, becomes, in reference to life, art; and so, while we live, is constantly, with us, always accomplishing its own proper work, the product of which is a good life.
Date: 198 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The eighty-fifth of the Apostolical Canons gives a list of the books of the Hebrew Canon, and adds the first three books of the Maccabees and the Wisdom of Sirach; these last four are not, however, included in the Canon, though the Wisdom of Sirach is specially recommended for the instruction of the young. Again, in the Apostolical Constitutions, 6:14, 15, quotations from Sirach are given with the same formula as those from the books of the Hebrew Canon, but in the list given in 2:57 of the same work, there is no mention of any of the books of the Apocrypha ... The evidence of Clement of Alexandria is conflicting; in his Paedagogus he quotes very often from Sirach, and speaks of it as 'scripture', from which it would evidently appear that he regarded it as canonical Scripture; but, according to Eusebius, Clement reckoned Sirach among the 'Antilegomena', for in speaking of Clement's works he mentions the Stromateis, or 'Medleys', and says: 'He quotes in them passages from the disputed Scriptures, the so-called Wisdom of Solomon, for example, and of Jesus the son of Sirach, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, and those of Barnabas, Clement, and Jude ..."
R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (Oxford University Press, 1913), 299.
* 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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