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Jesus Ben Sira

Sirach

Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus

About this book

Wise Government

Chapter 10

1 A wise judge will instruct his people. The government of a man of understanding will be well ordered.⁠ 2 The officials of a people are like their judge. A city’s inhabitants are like its ruler. 3 An undisciplined king will destroy his people. A city will be established through the understanding of the powerful. 4 The government of the earth is in the Lord’s hand. At the right time, he will raise up the right person to rule over it.⁠ 5 A man’s prosperity is in the Lord’s hand. He will bestow his honor on the scribe.

Pride and Its Consequences

6 Don’t be angry with your neighbor for every wrong. Do nothing through violence. 7 Pride is hateful to the Lord and people. Arrogance is abhorrent in the judgment of both. 8 Sovereignty is transferred from nation to nation because of injustice, violence, and greed for money. There is no one more wicked than a greedy man, for he offers his own soul for sale.⁠ 9 Why are dirt and ashes proud? Because in life, my body decays.⁠ 10 A long disease mocks the physician. The king of today will die tomorrow. 11 For when a man is dead, he will inherit maggots, vermin, and worms.

12 Pride begins when a man turns away from the Lord. His heart has departed from him who made him.⁠ 13 For the beginning of pride is sin.⁠ Anyone who clings to it will overflow with detestable acts.⁠ For this reason the Lord brought extraordinary disasters on them and utterly overthrew them. 14 The Lord overturned the thrones of rulers and set the lowly in their place.⁠ 15 The Lord pulled up the roots of nations and planted the lowly in their place. 16 The Lord overthrew the lands of nations and destroyed them to the foundations of the earth. 17 He took some of them away and destroyed them, and erased their memory from the earth. 18 Pride has not been created for humans, or raging anger for the offspring of women.

Honor and Reverence

19 Whose offspring has honor? Human offspring who fear the Lord. Whose offspring has no honor? Human offspring who break the commandments. 20 Among relatives, their ruler has honor. Those who fear the Lord have honor in his eyes. 22 The rich man, the honorable, and the poor all boast in the fear of the Lord. 23 It is not right to dishonor a poor man who has understanding. It is not fitting to glorify a man who is a sinner. 24 The prince, the judge, and the powerful man will be honored. None of them is greater than someone who fears the Lord. 25 Free men will serve a wise servant. A man who has knowledge will not complain.

Humility and Self-Respect

26 Don’t flaunt your wisdom in doing your work. Don’t boast in the time of your distress. 27 Anyone who works and has plenty of everything is better than someone who boasts but lacks bread. 28 My son, glorify your soul in humility, and give yourself honor in keeping with your worth. 29 Who will justify him who sins against his own soul? Who will honor him who dishonors his own life?

30 A poor man is honored for his knowledge. A rich man is honored for his riches. 31 If someone is honored in poverty, how much more will he be honored in wealth? If someone is dishonored in wealth, how much more will he be dishonored in poverty?

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Texts in conversation

Compare Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 10:13 and John Chrysostom, Homily 29 on Acts

Deuterocanon · Early Christian

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Summary

The Christian theologian John Chrysostom uses Sirach as an authoritative source for teaching when he echoes its warning that pride leads to ruin. He adopts Sirach’s contrast between arrogance and humility to illustrate how power corrupts.

Passages

Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 10:13

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
11 For when a man is dead,
he will inherit maggots, vermin, and worms. 12 Pride begins when a man turns away from the Lord.
His heart has departed from him who made him. 13 For the beginning of pride is sin.
Anyone who clings to it will overflow with detestable acts.
For this reason the Lord brought extraordinary disasters on them
and utterly overthrew them. 14 The Lord overturned the thrones of rulers
and set the lowly in their place. 15 The Lord pulled up the roots of nations
and planted the lowly in their place.
195–175 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach

John Chrysostom, Homily 29 on Acts

Early Christian
I beg and urge you not to think it enough to have invaded the Church, but to leave having taken something, some medicine to cure your own illnesses. If not from us, at least from the Scriptures you have the remedies appropriate to each. Is someone hot-tempered, for example? Let him pay attention to the Scripture readings, and he will certainly find such remedies, either in history or in exhortation. In exhortation, when it says, The surge of his fury is his destruction; and, A hot-tempered man does not behave respectably, and similar things. Again, A man full of words will not prosper; and Christ again, Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause; and again the Prophet, Be angry and do not sin; and, Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce. In histories, you hear of Pharaoh full of anger, and the Assyrian. Again, is someone held captive by the love of money? Let him hear that There is nothing more wicked than a greedy man, for this man puts even his own soul up for sale; and how Christ says, You cannot serve God and wealth; and the Apostle, The love of money is a root of all evils; and the Prophet, If riches flow in, do not set your heart on them, and many similar sayings. From the histories you hear of Gehazi, Judas, the chief scribes, and that gifts blind the eyes of the wise. Is someone else proud? Let him hear that God resists the proud; and, Pride is the beginning of sin; and, Everyone with an arrogant heart is impure before the Lord. In the histories, the devil and all the rest. In a word, since we cannot recount everything, let each person choose from the Divine Scriptures the remedies for his own wounds.
387–400 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in John Chrysostom, Homily 29 on Acts

References

"... The golden age of Greek patristic literature, that is, the fourth and fifth centuries, are no exception as far as the popularity of Sirach. Besides John Chrysostom, nearly all of the most prominent authors of this period cite from Sirach, including, inter alia, Clement of Alexandria, Ambrose, and Augustine. Clement of Alexandria even believed that Sirach had influenced the Greek philosopher Heraclitus (Stromata 2:5). Sirach was also popular with authors such as Tertullian, Origen and Cyprian. Jerome, however, rejected the canonical status of Sirach. The first full commentary on Sirach was only completed in the ninth century by Rabanus Maurus. The citations in John’s homilies are often sporadic proof-texts. But what is interesting is the constant repetition of certain citations, citations that seem to have remained in John’s memory. The homilies on the books of the New Testament come in the guise of a sermonic commentary, with verse-by-verse expositions. But inside these expositions one finds many other citations which were probably quoted from memory and not necessarily from a text. It is therefore problematic to speculate from which text or version a citation originates, since John probably memorized many Sirachic proverbs during his monastic retreat or ministerial period. This obviously does not rule out the possibility that John probably had a written text at his disposal (which he may have read for study and devotion). Some proverbs are cited or alluded to more often than others. The more popular citations, which occur frequently in the homilies, are Sirach 1:22; 5:6; and 18:16-17. Other citations occurring more than once include Sirach 2:4; 3:30; 4:8; 9:9, 13, 15; 10:9, 12-13; 11:3; 13:15; 15:9; 16:3, 12; 18:30; 19:10-11; 21:2; 23:10, 17; 28:3; and 34:23. There are a total of 65 individual verses cited from Sirach in John’s New Testament homilies, only slightly fewer than the 77 verses cited from Proverbs ..."
Chris de Wet, “John Chrysostom's Use of the Book of Sirach in His Homilies on the New Testament,” (2010): 1–6.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 10:13 and John Chrysostom, Homily 29 on Acts

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