Texts in Conversation
The Didache uses the language of Sirach to teach that you should give your charity with wisdom and discernment, demonstrating how emerging Christian tradition relied on established Jewish wisdom texts and traditions to shape its teachings.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 12:1
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
1 If you do good, know to whom you do it, and your good deeds will have thanks. 2 Do good to a godly man, and you will find a reward— if not from him, then from the Most High. 3 No good will come to him who continues to do evil, nor to him who gives no alms. 4 Give to the godly man, and don’t help the sinner. 5 Do good to one who is lowly. Don’t give to an ungodly man. Keep back his bread, and don’t give it to him, lest he subdue you with it; for you would receive twice as much evil for all the good you would have done to him.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Didache 1:6
Early Christian
5 Give to everyone who asks of you, and do not ask for it back, for the Father's will is that we give to all from the gifts we have received. Blessed is the one who gives according to the commandment, for they are innocent. Woe to the one who receives: if someone receives because they are in need, they are innocent, but those who receive without need will be questioned as to why they took and for what purpose. They will be examined for their deeds while in prison, and they will not be released until they pay the last penny. 6 Regarding this matter, it was also said, let your gift to the poor sweat in your hands until you know to whom you are giving.
Date: 90–120 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In his careful study of the sources of the Didache, Pere J. P. Audet examines again Didache 1:6 and its relation to Sirach 12:1 which he cites as its source. By the postillae of Hugh of St. Cher he is enabled to place the quotation and the various Latin forms of it, seemingly independent of the Didache, in juxtaposition with Sirach 12:1a, to be cited below. Evidence from Stephen Langton reinforces his argument. On the strength of this occurrence in the Didache, he is able to affirm the existence somewhere in Syria-Palestine, by at least the middle of the first century A. D., of what is usually known as the secondary Greek recension of Sirach, which occurs in scattered ms evidence, and underlies the Latin forms of the work. This Greek text in turn he relates to a Hebrew text somewhat evolved from the original ..."
Patrick Wm. Skehan, “Didache 1,6 and Sirach 12,1.,” Bib 44.4 (1963): 533–536.
* 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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