False Security and Delayed Repentance

Chapter 5

1 Don’t set your heart on your possessions. Don’t say, “They are sufficient for me.” 2 Don’t follow your own mind and your strength by pursuing your heart’s desires.⁠ 3 Don’t say, “Who will have power over me?” for the Lord will surely take vengeance on you.

4 Don’t say, “I sinned, and what happened to me?” for the Lord is patient.⁠ 5 Don’t be so confident of atonement that you add sin on sin. 6 Don’t say, “His compassion is great. He will be appeased over my many sins,” for mercy and anger are with him, and his fury will rest on sinners. 7 Don’t wait to turn to the Lord. Don’t put it off from day to day,⁠ for suddenly the anger of the Lord will come on you, and you will die in the time of vengeance. 8 Don’t set your heart on dishonest gains, for you will profit nothing on the day of disaster.⁠

Consistency in Speech

9 Don’t winnow with every wind. Don’t walk in every path. This is what the sinner who speaks with two tongues does. 10 Be steadfast in your understanding. Let your speech be consistent. 11 Be quick to listen and answer with patience.⁠ 12 If you have understanding, answer your neighbor, but if not, put your hand over your mouth.⁠ 13 Glory and dishonor come through speech. A man’s tongue may be his downfall.⁠ 14 Don’t be called a gossip. Don’t lie in wait with your tongue, for shame is on the thief, and an evil condemnation is on anyone who speaks with two tongues.⁠ 15 Don’t be ignorant in a great or small matter.

Texts in conversation

Compare Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 5:11 and Pirkei Avot 1:15

Deuterocanon · Rabbinic

Summary

Sirach advises being quick to hear and careful in answering, teaching that speech can bring either honor or shame. Rabbinic tradition in Pirkei Avot offers similar guidance by urging restraint in words and greater emphasis on actions.

Passages

Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 5:11

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus

9 Don’t winnow with every wind.
Don’t walk in every path.
This is what the sinner who speaks with two tongues does. 10 Be steadfast in your understanding.
Let your speech be consistent. 11 Be quick to listen
and answer with patience. 12 If you have understanding, answer your neighbor,
but if not, put your hand over your mouth. 13 Glory and dishonor come through speech.
A man’s tongue may be his downfall. 14 Don’t be called a gossip.
Don’t lie in wait with your tongue,
for shame is on the thief,
and an evil condemnation is on anyone who speaks with two tongues. 15 Don’t be ignorant in a great or small matter.

195–175 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach

Pirkei Avot 1:15

Rabbinic · Mishnah

15 Shammai used to say: make your [study of the] Torah a fixed practice; speak little, but do much; and welcome everyone with a friendly expression. 16 Rabban Gamaliel used to say: appoint for yourself a teacher, avoid doubt, and do not make a habit of tithing by guesswork. 17 Shimon, his son, used to say: I have grown up among the sages all my life, and I have found nothing better for a person than silence. Study is not the most important thing, but actions; whoever talks too much brings about sin.

200–300 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Pirkei Avot

References

"... We cannot be sure from which of the earlier wisdom sayings James has acquired the insights he expresses in the first half of the verse, but it is clear he has formulated a new aphorism of his own. His aphorism succinctly combines the advice previously expressed less concisely and never in a single aphorism. Moreover, his aphorism, despite the remarkable conciseness of its first part, achieves a more precise meaning, by associating rash speech with impetuous anger, the two topics which are the subject of distinct aphorisms in previous wisdom. The motive clause in the second half of the verse (which was most probably formulated originally as an independent aphorism) then gives a reason for the advice without precedent in the tradition. This is a fine example of the way the sage, making the wisdom of the tradition his own, expresses it in an apt proverb of his own formulation, not only transmitting but adding to the wisdom of the tradition ... Compare also Mishnah Avot 1:15 (‘say little and do much’: attributed to Shammai); 2:10 (‘be not easily provoked’: attributed to R. Eliezer b. Hyrcanus); 5.12 (‘quick to hear and slow to forget’); 4Q420 1:2:1–3 (‘He will not answer before he hears, and he will not speak before he understands, and with patience he will give a reply’); Job 11:2–3 LXX (‘The one who speaks much should also hear much ... Do not be profuse in speech’), quoted in 1 Clement 30:4–5 ..."

Richard Bauckham, James: Wisdom of James, Disciple of Jesus the Sage, New Testament Readings (London: Routledge, 1999), 83–84.

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

False Security and Delayed Repentance

Consistency in Speech

Sirach52 chapters

Compare Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 5:11 and Pirkei Avot 1:15

Summary

Passages

Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 5:11

Pirkei Avot 1:15

References

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