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The Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria uses Sirach as an authoritative source to teach about thoughtfulness in speech, demonstrating how the Jewish wisdom text influenced early Christian teaching and tradition.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 9:18
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
16 Let righteous people be companions at your table. Let your glorying be in the fear of the Lord. 17 A work is commended because of the skill of the artisan; so he who rules the people will be considered wise for his speech. 18 A loudmouthed man is dangerous in his city. He who is reckless in his speech will be hated.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 2.7
Paedagogus
Early Christian
For dreadful in his destruction is a loquacious man. And it is with triflers as with old shoes: all the rest is worn away by evil; the tongue only is left for destruction. So Wisdom gives these most useful exhortations: Do not talk trifles in the multitude of the elders. Further, eradicating frivolousness, beginning with God, it lays down the law for our regulation somewhat thus: Do not repeat your words in your prayer. Chirruping and whistling, and sounds made through the fingers, by which domestics are called, being irrational signs, are to be given up by rational men. Frequent spitting, too, and violent clearing of the throat, and wiping one's nose at an entertainment, are to be shunned. For respect is assuredly to be had to the guests, lest they turn in disgust from such filthiness, which argues lack of restraint. For we are not to copy oxen and asses, whose manger and dunghill are together. For many wipe their noses and spit even while supping.
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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