Texts in Conversation
Sirach criticizes offerings placed on graves by comparing them to food given to someone who cannot eat. Tobit, in contrast, instructs his son to place offerings on the graves of the righteous after giving to the poor.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Tobit 4:17
Deuterocanon
15 And what you yourself hate, do to no man. Do not drink wine to drunkenness, and do not let drunkenness go with you on your way. 16 Give of your bread to the hungry, and of your garments to them that are naked: of all your abundance give alms; and do not let your eye be grudging when you give alms. 17 Pour out your bread and your wine on the tomb of the just, and do not give to sinners. 18 Ask counsel of every man that is wise, and do not despise any counsel that is profitable. 19 And bless the Lord your God at all times, and ask of him that your ways may be made straight, and that all your paths and counsels may prosper: for every nation has not good counsel; but the Lord will give to them all good things; and whom he will the Lord humbles to the nethermost Hades. And now, child, remember these commandments, and do not let them be blotted out of your heart.
Date: 225–175 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 30:18
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
16 There is no wealth better than health of body. There is no gladness above the joy of the heart. 17 Death is better than a bitter life, and eternal rest than a continual sickness. 18 Good things poured out upon a mouth that is closed are like food offerings laid upon a grave. 19 What does an offering profit an idol? For it can’t eat or smell. So is he who is punished by the Lord, 20 seeing with his eyes and groaning, like a eunuch embracing a virgin and groaning.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... many translations hide the meaning of the phrase. It is clear that a grave offering is meant in the manner that Hellenistic Greeks practiced. In Greek Hellenistic burial practice on the third day after the funeral, food offerings were left at the grave, and again on the ninth day, which was commonly the end of the mourning period. See Kurtz (1971). Ben Sirach 30:18 implies that this was also a Hebrew custom, ‘Dainties set before one who cannot eat are like food offerings placed before a tomb.” See also Deuteronomy 26:14 and Psalm 106:28. We know that offerings of food for the dead were regularly made by the Egyptians. Given the general practices of the time, it seems clear that Tobit is referring to a custom that must have existed among the Hebrews of the time ..."
Robert J. Littman, Tobit: The Book of Tobit in Codex Sinaiticus (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 93.
* 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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