Texts in Conversation
The Letter of Aristeas gives the golden rule as advice to a king on how to treat his subjects. Sirach 31 applies a form of the same rule to manners at a banquet, telling the guest to judge his neighbor's feelings by his own.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Letter of Aristeas 1:207
Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
man must obey Him.' The king praised him and then asked another How he could maintain the truth? In reply to the question he said, 'By recognizing that a lie brings great disgrace on all men, and more especially on kings. For since they have the power to do whatever they wish, why should they resort to lies? In addition to this you must always remember, Your Majesty, that God is a lover of the truth.' The king received the answer with great delight and looking at another said, 'What is the teaching of wisdom?' And the other replied, 'As you wish that no evil should happen to you, but to be a partaker of all good things, so you should act on the same principle towards your subjects and offenders, and you should mildly admonish the noble and good. For God draws all men to himself by his benignity.'
Sirach 31:15
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
12 Do you sit at a great table? Don’t be greedy there. Don’t say, “There is a lot of food on it!” 13 Remember that a greedy eye is a wicked thing. What has been created more greedy than an eye? Therefore it sheds tears from every face. 14 Don’t stretch your hand wherever it looks. Don’t thrust yourself with it into the dish. 15 Consider your neighbor’s feelings by your own. Be discreet in every point. 16 Eat like a human being those things which are set before you. Don’t eat greedily, lest you be hated. 17 Be first to stop for manners’ sake. Don’t be insatiable, lest you offend.
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Notes and References
“... The perfect testimony for this embrace at home and abroad is the presence of the rule both in the Letter of Aristeas (written in Greek, most likely in Alexandria) and in the deuterocanonical/apocryphal books of Tobit and Ben Sira (both written in Palestine in Hebrew, or more likely in Aramaic in the case of Tobit). [...] As we have already seen, Ben Sira applies the Golden Rule or a reasonable facsimile thereof to the specific case of table etiquette (Sir 31:12–32:13). He reminds the guest at a banquet (31:15): “Know your neighbor as your own soul [i.e., realize that your neighbor feels as you do], and bear in mind what you yourself hate.” ...”
Meier, John P.
A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume 4: Law and Love
(pp. 554-555) Yale University Press, 2009
* 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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