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Jesus Ben Sira

Sirach

Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus

About this book

Faithfulness in Trials

Chapter 2

1 My son, if you come to serve the Lord, prepare your soul for testing.⁠ 2 Set your heart right and endure steadily. Do not be hasty in a time of disaster. 3 Cling to him, and do not leave him, so that you may prosper at the end. 4 Accept whatever is brought on you, and be patient when you suffer humiliation.⁠ 5 For gold is tested in the fire, and people who are acceptable to God in the furnace of humiliation.⁠ 6 Put your trust in him, and he will help you. Make your ways straight, and set your hope on him.

Trust in God’s Mercy

7 All you who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy. Do not turn aside, so that you do not fall.⁠ 8 All you who fear the Lord, put your trust in him, and your reward will not fail. 9 All you who fear the Lord, hope for good things, and for eternal gladness and mercy. 10 Look at the generations of the past and see. Who ever put their trust in the Lord, and was put to shame? Or who continued to fear him and was abandoned? Or who called on him and was neglected? 11 For the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. He forgives sins and saves in time of distress.⁠

Warnings against Faithlessness

12 How terrible for fearful hearts, to powerless hands, and to the sinner who follows two paths! 13 How terrible for the fainthearted! For they do not believe, so they will not be protected. 14 How terrible for you who have lost your patience! And what will you all do when the Lord comes to you?

Those Who Fear the Lord

15 Those who fear the Lord will not disobey his words. Those who love him will keep his ways. 16 Those who fear the Lord will seek his good pleasure. Those who love him will be filled with the law. 17 Those who fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and will humble their souls in his sight. 18 We will fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of people, for his mercy is as great as his majesty.

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Texts in conversation

Compare Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 2:11 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 60:1

Deuterocanon · Early Christian

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Summary

The epistle of 1 Clement appeals to God’s mercy using the language of Sirach, highlighting how early Christian authors used Jewish wisdom texts such as Sirach when teaching and making theological arguments.

Passages

Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 2:11

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
9 All you who fear the Lord, hope for good things,
and for eternal gladness and mercy. 10 Look at the generations of the past and see.
Who ever put their trust in the Lord, and was put to shame?
Or who continued to fear him and was abandoned?
Or who called on him and was neglected? 11 For the Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
He forgives sins and saves in time of distress. 12 How terrible for fearful hearts, to powerless hands,
and to the sinner who follows two paths! 13 How terrible for the fainthearted!
For they do not believe, so they will not be protected.
195–175 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach

Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 60:1

Early Christian · First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
1 “You made the everlasting structure of the world visible through Your works. You, Lord, created the earth. You who are faithful throughout all generations, righteous in Your judgments, marvelous in strength and excellence, You who are wise in creating and prudent in establishing what You have made, who are good in the things that are seen and faithful to those who trust in You, merciful and compassionate, forgive us our iniquities and our unrighteous acts and our transgressions and shortcomings.” 2 “Do not count against us every sin of Your servants and Your maidservants, but cleanse us with the cleansing of Your truth, and guide our steps to walk in holiness and righteousness and sincerity of heart, and to do what is good and pleasing in Your sight and in the sight of our rulers.”
90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Clement of Rome, 1 Clement

References

"... The earliest Apostolic Fathers (90-150 CE), those writings closest in chronology to the New Testament writings, have a number of even more striking parallels, quotations, and allusions to noncanonical literature. Notice, for example, that Clement of Rome (90-95 CE) cites Sirach 2:11 in 1 Clement 60:1, Wisdom of Solomon 12:10 in 1 Clement 7:5, and Wisdom of Solomon 12:12 in 1 Clement 27:5 (perhaps also alluded to in 3:4 and 7:5). In 1 Clement 55:4-6 both Judith (8) and Esther (7 and 4:16) are cited authoritatively or scripturally. The author of 2 Clement (150 CE) has a number of quotations, allusions, and references from unknown and non-biblical sources (see 11:2-7, and 13:2) as well as a quote from Tobit 16:4. Barnabas (90-130) employs quotations from Wisdom of Solomon (20:2), 1 Enoch (16:5), 4 Ezra (12:1), and from unknown 'scripture' as in 7:3, 8, and 10:7. The Didache (70-90 CE) makes use of Wisdom of Solomon in 5:2 and 10:3 as well as an unknown quote in 1:6. Polycarp cites Tobit 4:10 (see also 12:9) in Martyrdom 10.2 ..."
Lee Martin McDonald, Forgotten Scriptures: The Selection and Rejection of Early Religious Writings (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2009), 136.

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 2:11 and Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 60:1

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