Texts in Conversation
James begins with a reference to Sirach, encouraging patience and joy in difficult times. Like Sirach, it sees struggle and suffering as a test that refines faith, comparing the faithful to gold purified by fire.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 2:1
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
1 My son, if you come to serve the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation. 2 Set your heart aright, constantly endure, and don’t make haste in time of calamity. 3 Cling to him, and don’t depart, that you may be increased at your latter end. 4 Accept whatever is brought upon you, and be patient when you suffer humiliation. 5 For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. 6 Put your trust in him, and he will help you. Make your ways straight, and set your hope on him. 7 All you who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy. Don’t turn aside, lest you fall.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
James 1:2
New Testament
1 From James, a slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. Greetings! 2 My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything. 5 But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind.
Date: 80–90 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The Letter of James is undoubtedly the New Testament writing that comes closest to the Book of Ben Sira. Although it would be an exaggeration to speak of literary dependence, there are numerous points of contact that merit closer study. Prominent among these is the literary, thematic and contextual affinity between Sirach 2:1-18 and James 1:2-12. Both are exhortations belonging to the same biblical tradition, as Frankemölle has demonstrated. In both texts, various trials (sent by the Lord) may serve, even for a faithful and law-abiding person, as a means of interior purification, further growth in faith, and a cause for deep joy (compare Genesis 22:1; Exodus 15:25; Deuteronomy 8:2; Job 1–2; Tobit 12:14; Wisdom of Solomon 3:5; Matthew 6:13; Luke 11:4) ..."
Núria Calduch-Benages, “Amid Trials: Ben Sira 2:1 and James 1:2,” in Intertextual Studies in Ben Sira and Tobit: Essays in Honor of Alexander A. Di Lella, O.F.M., ed. Jeremy Corley and Vincent Skemp, CBQMS 38 (Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2005), 255–263.
* 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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