Texts in Conversation
In Matthew 12, Jesus echoes a saying from Sirach that compares speech to fruit that shows if a tree is healthy. The image illustrates how language reveals inner character and is used often in Jewish, Rabbinic, and Greco-Roman moral traditions.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 27:4
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
1 Many have sinned for profit. He who seeks to multiply wealth will turn his eye away. 2 As a nail will stick fast between the joinings of stones, so sin will thrust itself in between buying and selling. 3 Unless a person holds on diligently to the fear of the Lord, his house will be overthrown quickly. 4 In the shaking of a sieve, the refuse remains, so does the filth of man in his thoughts. 5 The furnace tests the potter’s vessels; so the test of a person is in his thoughts. 6 The fruit of a tree discloses its cultivation, so is the utterance of the thought of a person’s heart. 7 Praise no man before you hear his thoughts, for this is how people are tested.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Matthew 12:33
New Testament
33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is known by its fruit. 34 Offspring of vipers! How are you able to say anything good, since you are evil? For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart. 35 The good person brings good things out of his good treasury, and the evil person brings evil things out of his evil treasury. 36 I tell you that on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every worthless word they speak. 37 For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Date: 70–90 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Evans finds numerous parallels in the rabbinic literature to Matthew 12:34, but this saying is absent from Matthew 7:15-23 and Luke 6:43-45. Betz cites several Greek moral writers as having parallel sayings to Jesus’ proverbs, but most notably, he mentions Aristotle, Aesop, and Diogenes. Nolland also cites Plutarch in his list, “Epict., Diss. 2.20.18-19; Plut., Tranq. an. 13; Mor. 472F; Seneca, Ep. 87.25,” and sees some parallel to Sirach 27:6 and the Testament of Naphtali 2:6. When citing his parallels for Matthew 7, Luz claims that “There are no direct Jewish sources” and he describes Evan and Nolland’s allusion to Sirach 27:6 as only “Somewhat similar.” However, when citing parallels for Matthew 12, Luz sees some parallel to Sirach 27:6 (as does Turner) and the Testament of Naphtali 2:6 ..."
Ronald M. Rothenberg, A Virtue Ethical View of Trinitarian Sanctification: Jesus' Roles as Teacher, Example, and Priest (Fontes, 2019), 144.
* 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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