Bradley C. Gregory, «Slips of the Tongue in the Speech Ethics of Ben Sira», Vol. 93 (2012) 321-339
This article examines the references to slips of the tongue in the speech ethics of Ben Sira. Against the background of Proverbs, this characterization of accidental speech errors represents a new development. Its origin can be traced to the confluence between sapiential metaphors for mistakes in life and the idea of a slip of the tongue in the Hellenistic world. Ben Sira’s references to slips of the tongue are generally coordinated with a lack of discipline, though at least two verses seem to suggest that slips are not always sinful and that they represent a universal phenomenon, found even among the wisest sages.
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regrettable 4. If anything, the wise cannot help but speak wisely
and judiciously.
II. The Ability to Control the Tongue in Ben Sira
When turning to the Wisdom of Ben Sira, written at least a century
after the book of Proverbs, many of the same concerns regarding the
control of the tongue are present 5. To a large degree Ben Sira is in
continuity with Proverbs, evidenced through a sustained concern to
be circumspect in speaking. Realizing that a person’s tongue can be
his downfall (5,13), he contrasts the carelessness of babblers with
the reserved caution of the prudent (21,25) and explicitly commands
his students to guard what comes out of their mouths:
Do not be a hypocrite before others,
and guard your lips. (1,29)
Be concise; say much in few words;
be as one who is knowledgeable, yet can be silent. (32,8)
This is unsurprising and standard advice, found in both Proverbs
and non-biblical texts throughout the ancient world (e.g. Ahiqar
Sayings, 14-16; Inst. Ankh. 15,16; Isocrates To Dem. 41). Yet, in
comparison to Proverbs a new element emerges in that Ben Sira
4
I do think it is unlikely that the sages had a “black and white†view of
the world. Surely people fall on a spectrum between absolute wisdom and
absolute folly such that in “real life†there is a mixture of uses of the tongue
for any one person. I am simply highlighting that this gray area, where slips
of the tongue happen, is not addressed by Proverbs since the book basically
parses out speech ethics into the categories of wise and foolish.
5
By its very nature, the book of Proverbs is difficult to date, though it is
evident from internal evidence that the individual sayings reflect a wide swath
of cultural and social concerns. The date for the completion of the book is
often placed in the Persian period, though Fox has pointed out that an early
Hellenistic dating is quite possible. In any case, the final form of the book
must have been settled well before Ben Sira which is unanimously dated to
the first quarter of the second century BCE. See M.V. FOX, Proverbs 1-9 (AB
18A; New Haven, CT 2000) 6, 48-49. For a helpful discussion of the status
quaestionis see K. DELL, The Book of Proverbs in Social and Theological
Context (Cambridge 2006).
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