Texts in Conversation
Sirach 13 quotes Aesop’s fable of the Two Pots, using its image of a fragile vessel shattered by contact with a stronger one. Both teach to avoid unequal companionship, where the weak are harmed by the powerful.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Aesop, Fables The Two Pots
Classical
Two Pots, one of brass and the other of clay, stood together on the hearthstone. One day the Brass Pot proposed to the Earthen Pot that they go out into the world together. But the Earthen Pot excused himself, saying that it would be wiser for him to stay in the corner by the fire. "It would take so little to break me," he said. "You know how fragile I am. The least shock is sure to shatter me!" "Don't let that keep you at home," urged the Brass Pot. "I shall take very good care of you. If we should happen to meet anything hard I will step between and save you." So the Earthen Pot at last consented, and the two set out side by side, jolting along on three stubby legs first to this side, then to that, and bumping into each other at every step. The Earthen Pot could not survive that sort of companionship very long. They had not gone ten paces before the Earthen Pot cracked, and at the next jolt he flew into a thousand pieces. Equals make the best friends.
Date: 620–540 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 13:2
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
1 He who touches pitch will be defiled. He who has fellowship with a proud man will become like him. 2 Don’t take up a burden above your strength. Have no fellowship with one who is mightier and richer than yourself. What fellowship would the earthen pot have with the kettle? The kettle will strike, and the pot will be dashed in pieces. 3 The rich man does a wrong and threatens. The poor is wronged and apologizes. 4 If you are profitable, he will exploit you. If you are in need, he will forsake you. 5 If you own something, he will live with you. He will drain your resources and will not be sorry. 6 Does he need you? Then he will deceive you, smile at you, and give you hope. He will speak kindly to you and say, “What do you need?” 7 He will shame you by his delicacies until he has made you bare twice or thrice, and in the end he will laugh you to scorn. Afterward he will see you, will forsake you, and shake his head at you.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Search:
Notes and References
"... There is, on the contrary, evidence that the Jews after Biblical times adopted fables either from Greece or from India. In Sirach 13:20 there is a distinct reference to the fable of the two pots, which is known in classical antiquity only from Avian (9), though it occurs earlier in Indian sources ('Panchatantra,' iii. 13, 14). There is a later reference to the same fable in the rabbinic proverb, 'If a jug falls on a stone, woe to the jug! If a stone falls on the jug, woe to the jug!" (Esther Rabbah). For the later spread of Aesopic and Indian fables among the rabbis of the Talmud, see Aesop ..."
Isidore Singer, ed., The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1912), 5:324.
* 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.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,