Texts in Conversation
1 Enoch and Sirach use similar language to discuss the benefits of living a life full of wisdom, describing how it leads to a life of righteousness, peace, and humility.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 5:8
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
6 In those days, your names will become a curse forever to all the righteous, and all who curse will use your name, and all the sinners and the godless will swear by your name. And all the righteous will rejoice, and there will be forgiveness of sins, and every kind of mercy and peace and tolerance: There will be salvation for them, a splendid light. And for you sinners, there will be no salvation, but a curse will remain on you all. 7 And for you, the godless, there will be a curse. But for the chosen, there will be light, joy, and peace, and they shall inherit the earth. 8 And then wisdom will be granted to the chosen, and they will all live and never sin again, neither through ungodliness nor through pride; but those who are wise will be humble.
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Sirach 50:28
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
26 Those who sit on the mountain of Samaria, the Philistines, and the foolish people who live in Shechem. 27 I have written in this book the instruction of understanding and knowledge, I Jesus, the son of Sirach Eleazar, of Jerusalem, who out of his heart poured forth wisdom. 28 Blessed is he who will exercise these things. He who lays them up in his heart will become wise. 29 For if he does them, he will be strong in all things, for the light of the Lord is his guide.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... There is also a similar openness in the respective wisdom traditions. Enoch’s testament is apologetic literature that openly offers life. The author of the Epistle invites his readers to choose an elect life (1 Enoch 94:4) and expects Enochic wisdom to be attractive to outsiders (100:6; 105:1–2). Ben Sira has packaged wisdom as attractively as possible (the lover) and likewise summons his readers to choose life (Sirach 15:17). The formulas and vocabulary relating the function of wisdom are remarkably similar, yet the two conceptions of life imparted by wisdom are radically different. The revealed wisdom of Enoch promises eschatological life, salvation at the final judgment (1 Enoch 5:9). This life transcends death (81:4; 82:3). Ben Sira never speaks of life in this sense. For him, wisdom promises an improved quality of life, a happy and secure life, in the present time (Sirach 4:12–13; 15:4–6; 24:22) ..."
Randal A. Argall, 1 Enoch and Sirach: A Comparative Literary and Conceptual Analysis of the Themes of Revelation, Creation and Judgment, EJL 8 (Atlanta: Scholar's, 1995), 97.
* 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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