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Acts includes a saying from Jesus that it is better to give than to receive, a teaching not found in the gospels but is similar to Jewish wisdom traditions such as Sirach, which urges people to be generous when it is time to give.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 4:31
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
26 Don’t be ashamed to confess your sins. Don’t fight the river’s current. 27 Don’t lay yourself down for a fool to tread upon. Don’t be partial to one who is mighty. 28 Strive for the truth to death, and the Lord God will fight for you. 29 Don’t be hasty with your tongue, or slack and negligent in your deeds. 30 Don’t be like a lion in your house, or suspicious of your servants. 31 Don’t let your hand be stretched out to receive, and closed when you should repay.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Acts 20:35
New Testament
31 Therefore be alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning each one of you with tears. 32 And now I entrust you to God and to the message of his grace. This message is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I have desired no one’s silver or gold or clothing. 34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine provided for my needs and the needs of those who were with me. 35 By all these things, I have shown you that by working in this way we must help the weak, and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” 36 When he had said these things, he knelt down with them all and prayed.
Date: 70–90 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Acts 20:35 gives a similar saying as being a word of the Lord Jesus ... 1 Clement 2:1 also combines this material with a reference to Christ. The style of the macarism is strikingly similar to that used by Jesus in the Beatitudes although it need not derive from Jesus himself. Such teaching was typical of Jewish proverbial expression ... Didache 4:5 ... this seems to be based on Sirach 4:31 ... The influence of Sirach is seen also in 1:6. It should be noted that in both cases the citations of Sirach are in a form different to LXX. This seems to be true of all Didache's citations of the OT, and indicates that the Didache rests on a tradition originally formulated in Hebrew or Aramaic. Similar teaching can be found in Rabbinic writings, eg. Pirkei Avot 5:13; Sifre Deuteronomy 116 to 15:17. For the Qumran attitude on almsgiving, see Damascus Document 6:21; 14:12-20, and the notes on 1:5 above. Community members only are to be assisted by almsgiving ..."
Jonathan Alfred Draper, “A Commentary on the Didache in the Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Documents” (PhD diss., University of Cambridge, 1983), 23–33.
* 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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