Texts in Conversation
The Christian teacher Clement of Alexandria uses Sirach as an authoritative guide to teach about temptation and lust, demonstrating how the Jewish wisdom text influenced early Christian teaching and tradition.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 9:8
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
6 Don’t give your soul to prostitutes, that you not lose your inheritance. 7 Don’t look around in the streets of the city. Don’t wander in its deserted places. 8 Turn your eye away from a beautiful woman, and don’t gaze at another’s beauty. Many have been led astray by the beauty of a woman; and with this, passion is kindled like a fire. 9 Don’t dine at all with a woman who has a husband, or revel with her at wine, lest perhaps your soul turn away to her, and with your spirit you slide into destruction. 10 Don’t forsake an old friend; for a new one is not comparable to him. A new friend is like new wine: if it becomes old, you will drink it with gladness.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 3.11
Paedagogus
Early Christian
But, above all, it seems right that we turn away from the sight of women. For it is sin not only to touch, but to look; and he who is rightly trained must especially avoid them. Let your eyes look straight, and your eyelids wink right. For while it is possible for one who looks to remain steadfast; yet care must be taken against falling. For it is possible for one who looks to slip; but it is impossible for one, who looks not, to lust. For it is not enough for the chaste to be pure; but they must give all diligence, to be beyond the range of censure, shutting out all ground of suspicion, in order to the consummation of chastity; so that we may not only be faithful, but appear worthy of trust. For this is also consequently to be guarded against, as the apostle says, that no man should blame us; providing things honourable, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. But turn away your eyes from a graceful woman, and contemplate not another's beauty, says the Scripture. And if you require the reason, it will further tell you, For by the beauty of woman many have gone astray, and at it affection blazes up like fire; the affection which arises from the fire which we call love, leading to the fire which will never cease in consequence of sin.
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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