Texts in Conversation
Augustine uses Sirach to interpret Habakkuk, where Habakkuk describes bondage that could be interpreted as a form of slavery, Augustine instead says that Habakkuk is similarly describing wisdom as a good type of bondage.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 6:24
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
23 Give ear, my son, and accept my judgment. Don’t refuse my counsel. 24 Bring your feet into her fetters, and your neck into her chain. 25 Put your shoulder under her and bear her. Don’t be grieved with her bonds. 26 Come to her with all your soul. Keep her ways with your whole power. 27 Search and seek, and she will be made known to you. When you get hold of her, don’t let her go.
Augustine, City of God 18.32
On the City of God Against the Pagans
Early Christian
“And in fury You shall cast down the nations;” for in punishing those who exalt themselves You dash them one against another. “You went out for the salvation of Your people, to save Your Christ; You have sent death on the heads of the wicked.” None of these words needs explanation. “You have lifted up the bonds, even to the neck.” This may be understood even of the good bonds of wisdom, so that the feet may be put into its fetters, and the neck into its collar. “You have struck off in amazement of mind the bonds” must be understood for, He lifts up the good and strikes off the bad, about which it is said to Him, “You have broken my bonds,” and that “in amazement of mind,” that is, wonderfully. “The heads of the mighty shall be moved in it;” that is, in that wonder.
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Notes and References
“... Perhaps because Church Fathers made wide use of the Greek and Latin versions of the book, the Hebrew work mostly dropped out of usage in rabbinic Judaism. [...] Within early Christianity, the Letter of Barnabas echoes Sir 5:12–14 about the danger of a double tongue, as well as the warning in Sir 4:31 against an ungenerous attitude (Barn. 19:7–9). Origen (d. 254 ce) quotes Ben Sira as scriptural when commenting on several OT passages (Gen 12:5; Josh 15:6; Jer 16:6). Clement of Alexandria (d. 215 ce) quotes about eighty Sirach verses, while John Chrysostom (d. 407 ce) includes about three hundred citations from the book. Augustine (d. 430 ce) not only cites Sirach about 300x, but also preached sermons on Sirach passages. Rabanus Maurus (d. 856 ce), abbot of Fulda in Germany, composed the earliest surviving Latin commentary on Sirach. ...”
Corley, Jeremy
"Sirach" in Oegema, Gerbern S. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Apocrypha
(p. 300) Oxford University Press, 2021
* 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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