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Jesus Ben Sira

Sirach

Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus

About this book

Honor for Father and Mother

Chapter 3

1 Hear me, your father, my children, and do what you hear, so that you all may be safe. 2 For the Lord honors the father over the children, and has confirmed the judgment of the mother over her sons.⁠ 3 He who honors his father will make atonement for sins.⁠ 4 He who gives glory to his mother is like someone who stores up treasure. 5 Whoever honors his father will have joy in his own children. He will be heard when he prays. 6 He who gives glory to his father will live a long life. He who listens to the Lord will bring rest to his mother, 7 and will serve his parents as masters.

8 Honor your father in action and word, so that his blessing may come on you. 9 For the blessing of the father establishes the houses of children, but the curse of the mother uproots the foundations. 10 Don’t glorify yourself at your father’s dishonor, for your father’s dishonor is no glory to you. 11 For the glory of a man is from the honor of his father, and a mother in dishonor is a disgrace to her children.

12 My son, help your father in his old age, and don’t grieve him as long as he lives. 13 If he fails in understanding, have patience with him. Don’t dishonor him in your full strength. 14 For the kindness to your father will not be forgotten. Instead of sins it will be added to build you up. 15 In your day of distress it will be remembered for you, your sins will melt away like ice in warm weather.⁠ 16 He who abandons his father is like a blasphemer. He who provokes his mother is cursed by the Lord.

Humility and the Limits of Knowledge

17 My son, carry out your business humbly, and you will be loved by a person who is acceptable to God.⁠ 18 The greater you are, the more you should humble yourself, and you will find favor with the Lord. 20 For the power of the Lord is great, and he is glorified by those who are lowly.

21 Don’t seek things that are too hard for you, and don’t investigate things that are beyond your ability.⁠ 22 Think about the things that have been commanded to you, for you have no need of the things that are secret. 23 Don’t be overly busy in tasks that are beyond you, for more things are shown to you than people can understand. 24 For the conceit of many has led them astray. Bad ideas have led their judgment astray.

Stubbornness and Generosity

26 A stubborn heart will do badly at the end. He who loves danger will die in it.⁠ 27 A stubborn heart will be burdened with troubles. The sinner will pile sin on sin. 28 There is no cure for the disaster that strikes the proud, for a weed of wickedness has taken root in him.

29 The heart of the prudent will understand a proverb. A wise man desires the ear of a listener. 30 Water will quench a flaming fire, and giving to the poor will make atonement for sins.⁠ 31 Anyone who repays kindness thinks of what comes afterward. When he falls, he will find support.

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Texts in conversation

Compare Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 3:2 and Hierocles, On Parents

Deuterocanon · Classical

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Summary

Sirach says God places a father above his children and supports the mother’s authority over them. The Stoic philosopher Hierocles similarly calls parents earthly gods more deserving of honor than the gods themselves, reflecting a similar family ethic.

Passages

Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 3:2

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
1 Hear me, your father, my children,
and do what you hear, so that you all may be safe. 2 For the Lord honors the father over the children,
and has confirmed the judgment of the mother over her sons. 3 He who honors his father will make atonement for sins. 4 He who gives glory to his mother is like someone who stores up treasure.
195–175 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach

Hierocles, On Parents

Classical · How One Should Behave toward One's Parents
After speaking of the gods and our country, what person deserves to be mentioned more than, or prior to our parents? Hence it is requisite that we should discourse about them. He, therefore, will not err who says, that they are certain secondary and terrestrial Gods; since on account of their proximity to us, they are, if it be lawful so to speak, more to be honored by us than the gods themselves. But it is necessary, previously, to assume, that the only measure of gratitude towards them is a perpetual and unremitting promptitude to repay the benefits we have received from them; since, though we should perform many things for their sake, yet they will be far less than what they deserve. At the same time, also, it may be said, that these our deeds are nearly theirs, because they produced us by whom they are performed. As therefore, if the works of Phidias and of other artists should themselves produce certain other things, we should not hesitate to say that these latter, also, were the works of the artists; thus, likewise, it may be justly said, that our performances are the deeds of our parents; through whom we likewise derived our existence.
120 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Hierocles, On Parents

References

... argument concerning wife and children precedes that concerning parents, the latter argument, nevertheless, begins by pointing out that one’s duties toward parents must be treated immediately after those due to country, and so before those due to wife and children: ‘After the discourse concerning gods and country, what other person could one mention first if not one’s parents? Hence we must speak about these, whom one would not err in calling as it were second and terrestrial gods, and indeed because of their nearness, if it is lawful to say so, even more to be honored than the gods.’ Further, at the end of the discussion of duties toward one’s country, a kind of parity in rank seems to be recognized between country and parents, in that one is supposed to honor the former more than the latter but venerate the latter more than the former: ‘This reasoning, indeed, suggests that we honor our country, which is one, on a par with our two parents, so as in fact to prefer our country to either one of those who bore us, and not even to honor the two together more than it, but rather to hold them in equal respect’ ...
Ilaria Ramelli, Hierocles the Stoic: Elements of Ethics, Fragments, and Excerpts, ed. Translated by David Konstan (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009), lxxx.

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 3:2 and Hierocles, On Parents

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