Texts in Conversation
Sirach echoes Psalm 8, asking why God notices humans in a vast creation, using the question to frame reflection on weakness and humility. By speaking in the voice of the Psalms, he places his teaching within Israel’s tradition and claims its authority.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Psalm 8:4
Hebrew Bible
2 From the mouths of children and nursing babies you have ordained praise on account of your adversaries, so that you might put an end to the vindictive enemy. 3 When I look up at the heavens, which your fingers made, and see the moon and the stars, which you set in place, 4 Of what importance is the human race, that you should notice them? Of what importance is mankind, that you should pay attention to them? 5 You made them a little less than the heavenly beings. You crowned mankind with honor and majesty. 6 you appoint them to rule over your creation; you have placed everything under their authority,
Date: 600–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 18:8
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
6 As for the wondrous works of the Lord, it is not possible to take from them nor add to them, neither is it possible to explore them. 7 When a man has finished, then he is just at the beginning. When he stops, then he will be perplexed. 8 What is mankind, and what purpose do they serve? What is their good, and what is their evil? 9 The number of man’s days at the most are a hundred years. 10 As a drop of water from the sea, and a pebble from the sand, so are a few years in the day of eternity.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The formula performs a consistent semantic function: “It poses a question in element a, then abases the noun or pronoun subject by an implied answer to the question. On the basis of the implied answer, the verb in element b is negated.” One could paraphrase, on the model of Psalm 8:4, which through Job, stands behind the 'Niedrigkeitsdoxologien': “What is a mortal that you should care for him? You should not, for he is insignificant.” This form is much better suited to the de-historicized and thoroughly anthropological nature of the Hodayot’s concerns. Perhaps we can call these statements in which the Doxologies of Lowliness take part the “anthropological interrogatives.” (Compare also 4Q301 4:3; 5:3; Sirach 18:8; 4 Ezra 8:34; 2 Baruch 48:14–17) ..."
Nicholas A. Meyer, Adam’s Dust and Adam’s Glory in the Hodayot and the Letters of Paul: Rethinking Anthropogony and Theology (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 35.
* 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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