Texts in Conversation
The Letter of Aristeas says Moses taught that nothing people do in private escapes God's knowledge, even what is still to come. Sirach 23 makes the same point with an adulterer who thinks the dark hides him, not knowing that God's eyes see everything.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Letter of Aristeas 1:132
Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
punishments inflicted by God on the guilty. For he proved first of all that there is only one God and that his power is manifested throughout the universe, since every place is filled with his sovereignty and none of the things which are done in secret by men on the earth escapes His knowledge. For all that a man does and all that is to come to pass in the future are manifest to Him. Working out these truths carefully and having made them plain he showed that even if a man should think of doing evil - to say nothing of actually effecting it -
Sirach 23:19
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
18 A man who goes astray from his own marriage bed says in his heart, “Who sees me? Darkness is around me, and the walls hide me. No one sees me. Of whom am I afraid? The Most High will not remember my sins.” 19 The eyes of men are his terror. He doesn’t know that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, seeing all the ways of men, and looking into secret places. 20 All things were known to him before they were created, and also after they were completed. 21 This man will be punished in the streets of the city. He will be seized where he least expects it.
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Notes and References
“... Ps.-Aristeas says that Moses has demonstrated God’s omniscience “throughout the entire legislation.” We find this same idea – that God sees and knows all – in other early Jewish texts. It is an important aspect of God in Sirach, the quintessential statement of which is 23:18–20 where Ben Sira speaks about the adulterer: 18. There is a person who transgresses against this bed, saying in his soul, ‘Who will see me? Darkness surrounds me, and the walls will hide me, and no one sees me. Why am I discreet? The Most High will never remember my sins.’ 19. And people’s eyes are his fear, and he was unaware that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, as they look upon all the ways of human beings and as they look into obscure parts. 20. Before all things were created, they were known to him, so also after they were completed (NETS). ...”
Wright, Benjamin G., III
The Letter of Aristeas: ‘Aristeas to Philocrates’ or ‘On the Translation of the Law of the Jews’
(p. 254) De Gruyter, 2015
* 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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