Texts in Conversation
Sirach says the cries of widows and orphans reach heaven and cannot be ignored. Luke echoes this when Jesus tells of a widow whose repeated pleas move an unjust judge. The story shows that God, who is a just judge, will hear and help those who suffer.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 35:17
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
14 Don’t plan to bribe him with gifts, for he will not receive them. 15 Don’t set your mind on an unrighteous sacrifice, For the Lord is the judge, and with him is no respect of persons. 16 He won’t accept any person against a poor man. He will listen to the prayer of him who is wronged. 17 He will in no way despise the supplication of the fatherless or the widow, when she pours out her tale. 18 Don’t the tears of the widow run down her cheek? 19 Isn’t her cry against him who has caused them to fall? 20 He who serves God according to his good pleasure will be accepted. His supplication will reach to the clouds.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Luke 18:3
New Testament
1 Then Jesus told them a parable to show them they should always pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. 3 There was also a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but later on he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, 5 yet because this widow keeps on bothering me, I will give her justice, or in the end she will wear me out by her unending pleas.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unrighteous judge says! 7 Won’t God give justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay long to help them? 8 I tell you, he will give them justice speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
Date: 75–85 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... This parable is deeply embedded in traditional Middle Eastern public chivalry toward women, and needs to be compared to a similar account composed more than two hundred years earlier in a book titled the Wisdom of Ben Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus). This book is often referred to as deutero-canonical and is read as Scripture by Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Christians ... Clearly, there are similarities and differences between the words of Sirach and Jesus ... the Jewish tradition expected that the masal (the parable) should be accompanied by its nimsal (that extra bit of information that the listener/reader needed to understand the parable) ..."
Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2008), 261–268.
* 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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