Some of the many ethical teachings
of Jesus son of Sirach are intriguingly similar to those of Jesus of Nazareth.
Consider the following:
Jesus son of Sirach: “Do
not reject a suppliant in distress, or turn your face away from the poor; Do
not avert your eye from the needy and give no one reason to curse you” (Sirach
4:4-5, NRSV). Jesus of Nazareth: “Give to all that ask you; and do not
turn away the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:42).
Jesus son of Sirach: “Stretch
out your hand to the poor, so that your blessing may be complete” (Sirach
7:32); Jesus of Nazareth: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is
the Kingdom of Heaven” (Luke 6:20).
Jesus son of Sirach: “The
Lord overthrows the thrones of the rulers, and enthrones the lowly in their
place” (Sirach 10:14); Jesus of Nazareth: “The first will be last and
the last first” (Matthew 20:16).
Jesus son of Sirach: “The
greater you are, the more you must humble yourself, so you will find favor in
the sight of the Lord” (Sirach 3:18); Jesus of Nazareth: “Everyone who
humbles themselves will be exalted and the exalted will be humbled” (Luke
14:11).
Jesus son of Sirach: “Someone
becomes rich through diligence and self denial . . . and he says ‘I have found
rest, and now I shall feast on my goods!’ He does not know how long it will be
until he leaves them to others and dies” (Sirach 11:18-19); Jesus of
Nazareth [speaking about the “rich fool” who builds bigger and better barns
for all his produce and says]: “’Soul, you have ample good laid up for many
years; relax, eat, drink, be merry’ but God says to him ‘You fool! This very
night your life is being demanded of you’” (Luke 12:16-21).
Jesus son of Sirach: “Do
not delay to return back to the Lord and do not postpone it from day to day;
for suddenly the wrath of the Lord will come upon you and at the time of
punishment you will perish” (Sirach 5:6-7). Jesus of Nazareth: “The time
is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the
good news” (Mark 1:15); “At that time there will be great suffering, such as has
not been form the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. . .
. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things
have taken place” (Matthew 14:21, 34).
Clearly these teachings are not
identical, and many of Ben Sira’s teachings are not found in the Gospels or
Jesus’s teachings in Sirach. My point is that the two had very similar
emphases, along with distinctive twists of their own, as had other Jewish teachers
are the time. (Bart D. Ehrman,
Love Thy Stranger: How Jesus Transformed Our Moral Conscience [London:
Oneworld Publications Ltd., 2026], 82-84)
