Sirach 14:5
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
3 Riches are inappropriate for a small-minded person; and of what use is wealth to a miser? 4 What he denies himself he collects for others; and others will live in luxury on his goods. 5 If one is mean to himself, to whom will he be generous? He will not enjoy his own riches. 6 No one is worse than one who is grudging to himself; this is the punishment for his meanness. 7 If ever he does good, it is by mistake; and in the end he reveals his meanness.
Date: 195-175 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Augustine City of God 21.27
On the City of God Against the Pagans
Patristic
For they suppose that by giving to the poor a small fraction of the wealth they acquire by extortion and spoliation they can propitiate Christ, so that they may with impunity commit the most damnable sins, in the persuasion that they have bought from Him a license to transgress, or rather do buy a daily indulgence. And if they for one crime have distributed all their goods to Christ's needy members, that could profit them nothing unless they desisted from all similar actions, and attained charity which works no evil He therefore who does almsdeeds proportioned to his sins must first begin with himself. For it is not reasonable that a man who exercises charity towards his neighbor should not do so towards himself, since he hears the Lord saying, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, and again, Have compassion on your soul, and please God. He then who has not compassion on his own soul that he may please God, how can he be said to do almsdeeds proportioned to his sins? To the same purpose is that written, He who is bad to himself, to whom can he be good? We ought therefore to do alms that we may be heard when we pray that our past sins may be forgiven, not that while we continue in them we may think to provide ourselves with a license for wickedness by almsdeeds.
Date: 426 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Notes and References
"... As to Augustine’s use of the Book of Ecclesiasticus, it is striking that more than once he quotes a text that is somewhat different from the Vetus Latina, which for the Book of Ben Sira, serves as the traditional Latin text. Since Augustine’s quotations from the Book of Ben Sira have more than once been brought in line with the Greek translation, a thorough investigation into this phenomenon is needed in order to find out whether he had (some) knowledge of the Greek text of the Book of Ecclesiasticus. Apart from Speculum in which Augustine for his quotations from the Book of Ben Sira usually follows the Latin, in his other works he rather frequently appears to correct the Latin Ben Sira quotations according to the Greek. An investigation into this intriguing question would be very useful. Such an in depth inquiry should also take into full consideration whether, and to what extent, St. Augustine has been influenced by a text type of Ecclesiasticus that was already used by St. Cyprian and has even been given its own siglum (K) by Thiele ..."
Beentjes, Pancratius C.
"Saint Augustine's Sermons 38-41 on the Book of Ben Sira" in Menken, M.J.J. (ed.) The Scriptures of Israel in Jewish and Christian Tradition: Essays in Honour of Maarten J.J. Menken
(pp. 81-94) Brill, 2013
* 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.
Your Feedback:
User Comments
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.