Texts in Conversation
Sirach uses Malachi’s language to picture Elijah returning to calm divine wrath, reconcile families, and restore Israel. Luke follows this when describing John the Baptist and uses similar language about turning hearts and bringing the people together.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 48:10
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
3 By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens. He brought down fire three times. 4 How you were glorified, O Elijah, in your wondrous deeds! Whose glory is like yours? 5 You raised up a dead man from death, from Hades, by the word of the Most High. 6 You brought down kings to destruction, and honorable men from their sickbeds. 7 You heard rebuke in Sinai, and judgments of vengeance in Horeb. 8 You anointed kings for retribution, and prophets to succeed after you. 9 You were taken up in a tempest of fire, in a chariot of fiery horses. 10 You were recorded for reproofs in their seasons, to pacify anger, before it broke out into wrath, to turn the heart of the father to the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob. 11 Blessed are those who saw you, and those who have been beautified with love; for we also shall surely live.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Luke 1:17
New Testament
14 Joy and gladness will come to you, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. 16 He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go as forerunner before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him.”
Date: 75–85 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The reference to this task of Elijah in Luke 1:17 seems to be a cocktail of elements from Malachi 3:24 and Sirach 48:10. As already noted by Raymond Brown, the Hebrew of these passages has a singular noun for heart and a plural noun for sons/children, while the Greek translation has two singular nouns. Luke has the same verb as the Greek version of Sirach 48:10 but has two plural nouns (fathers and children). Although clearly not a formal quotation, the explicit mention of Elijah and his spirit gives it the allure of a quite specific allusion. The next phrase recalls the mediating function of Elijah as mentioned in the other references to Elijah’s eschatological task. Instead of turning the heart of a man to his neighbor (as in LXX Malachi), John the Baptist will inspire the disobedient to follow the thoughts of the just. And while in Sirach 48:10 Elijah’s second task was to restore the twelve tribes of Israel, John the Baptist as an eschatological Elijah will work for the unity of the people: he will make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:17). Whereas in Malachi 3:23 (LXX) and in Sirach 48:10 (LXX) the admonition is about the father-son relation, Luke 1:17 declares that John the Baptist will turn the hearts of the fathers to the (“children” = “boys and girls”). Like Malachi 3:23 (LXX) and Sirach 48:10, Luke 1:17 has no appeal addressed to the sons/children ..."
Bart J. Koet, “Elijah as Reconciler of Father and Son,” in Rewriting Biblical History: Essays on Chronicles and Ben Sira in Honor of Pancratius C. Beentjes, ed. Pancratius Cornelis Beentjes et al. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2011), 173–190.
* 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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