Texts in Conversation
Sirach reshapes the command in Deuteronomy to love God with heart and strength by connecting devotion to God with honor for the priests. Each act for God is mirrored with an obligation to the priests, showing how Sirach elevates priestly authority.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Deuteronomy 6:5
Hebrew Bible
3 Pay attention, Israel, and be careful to do this so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in number—as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to you, you will have a land flowing with milk and honey. 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! 5 You must love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength. 6 These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind, 7 and you must teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 7:29
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
27 Honor your father with your whole heart, and don’t forget the birth pangs of your mother. 28 Remember that you were born of them. What will you repay them for the things that they have done for you? 29 Fear the Lord with all your soul; and revere his priests. 30 With all your strength love him who made you. Don’t forsake his ministers. 31 Fear the Lord and honor the priest. Give him his portion, even as it is commanded you: the first fruits, the trespass offering, the gift of the shoulders, the sacrifice of sanctification, and the first fruits of holy things.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Notes and References
"... We find Ben Sira’s views about the priesthood articulated most succinctly in 7:29–31. In this passage he adapts the language of Deuteronomy 6:5 in order to encourage that the priests get their due. He says, “With all your heart fear the Lord and regard his priests as holy. With all your might love your maker and do not forsake his servants. Give glory to God, honor the priest, and give them their portion as you are commanded.” It is striking here that each action intended for God has a parallel one for the priests. Ben Sira employs Deuteronomy to give significant symbolic and rhetorical weight to how important honoring the priests is." ..."
Benjamin G. Wright, “1 Enoch and Ben Sira: Wisdom and Apocalypticism in Relationship,” in The Early Enoch Literature, ed. Gabriele Boccaccini and John J. Collins (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 159–176.
* 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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