Texts in Conversation
James echoes Sirach 12 and 29, sharing rare Greek vocabulary for corrosion and rust. The overlap in vocabulary and themes, including silver, gold, and treasure, shows how James adapted Sirach’s cautionary view of wealth and its corrupting influence.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 12:10
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
8 A man’s friend won’t be fully tried in prosperity. His enemy won’t be hidden in adversity. 9 In a man’s prosperity, his enemies are grieved. In his adversity, even his friend leaves. 10 Never trust your enemy, for his wickedness is like corrosion in copper. 11 Though he humbles himself and walks bowed down, still be careful and beware of him. You will be to him as one who has wiped a mirror, to be sure it doesn’t completely tarnish. 12 Don’t set him next to you, lest he overthrow you and stand in your place. Don’t let him sit on your right hand, lest he seek to take your seat, and at the last you acknowledge my words, and be pricked with my sayings.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
James 5:3
New Testament
1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are coming on you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you. It will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure! 4 Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 5 You have lived indulgently and luxuriously on the earth. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
Date: 80–90 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Much evidence suggests that James is adapting his language from a specific Jewish tradition (Sirach 12:10–11; 29:8–12) that similarly condemns the static hoarding of wealth. The high likelihood that James is interacting with Sirach is based on the following evidence: (1) the verb “to corrode” occurs in the Greek Bible only in Sirach 12:10–11 and James 5:3. (2) The noun “rust” is rare, occurring in only two other contexts in the Greek Bible: Epistle of Jeremiah 1:10, 23 and Ezekiel 24:6–12. The verbal form “to rust” occurs only in Sirach 12:10; 29:10. Thus, the rare word group occurs in only five contexts total in the Greek Bible, with three being James 5:3, Sirach 12:10, and Sirach 29:10. (3) Like James 5, Sirach 12 and 29 teach about the use of wealth. (4) The terms silver, gold, and treasure all occur in James 5:2–3 and Sirach 29:10–11. This linguistic and thematic evidence suggests that James is interacting with Sirach’s teaching on wealth and poverty ..."
Todd Scacewater, “The Dynamic and Righteous Use of Wealth in James 5:1–6,” Journal of Markets & Morality 20.2 (2017): 227–242.
* 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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