6. Be swift in thy listening Let every man be swift to hear (ταχὺς ἐν ἀκροάσει σου); and (ταχὺς εὶς τὸ ἀκοῦσαι), slow with patience give answer (v. 11). to speak, slow to wrath (i. 19).
7. Thou shalt be to him as one that He is like unto a man beholding hath wiped a mirror (ἔσοπτρον), his natural face in a mirror (ἐν and shalt know that it is not ἐσόπτρῳ).... Your gold and your rusted (κατίωται) for ever silver are rusted (κατίωται); (xii. 11). and their rust (ἰός) shall be a testimony against you Like as bronze rusteth (ἰοῦται), (i. 23; v. 3). so is his wickedness (xii. 10).
Lose money through a brother and a friend, and let it not rust (ἰωθήτω) under the stone unto loss (xxix. 10).
8. He that looketh in He that looketh into (ὁ παρακύπτων) through her (ὁ παρακύψας) the perfect windows, _i.e._ the windows of law (i. 25). wisdom (xiv. 23).
A fool peepeth in (παρακύπτει) at the door (xxi. 23).
9. A prey of lions are wild asses But ye have dishonoured the poor in the wilderness; so the fodder of man (τὸν πτωχόν). Do not the the rich are the poor (οὕτω νομαὶ rich (οἱ πλούσιοι) oppress you, πλουσίων πτωχοί: xiii. 19. Comp. and themselves drag you before the xiii. 3, 17, 18). judgment-seats? (ii. 6).
It will be observed that of these nine examples all come out of the first two chapters of St. James, and six are from the first two chapters of Ecclesiasticus. This fact is worth considering in estimating the probabilities of St. James being under the influence of this earlier and popular book. Owing to recent reading, or some other cause, he seems to have been specially familiar with the opening chapters of Ecclesiasticus. Probably most persons who study these coincidences will be of the opinion that Bernhard Weiss is needlessly cautious and sceptical when he refuses to assent to the common opinion that in some portions of the Epistle St. James closely follows the Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach. The strongest coincidence is the seventh in the table. The word for "to rust" (κατιόω) occurs nowhere else either in the Septuagint or in the New Testament, and the passages in Ecclesiasticus and St. James "are the only Biblical passages in which the figure of rust as affecting unused silver and gold occurs" (Edersheim). The fifth instance is also very striking.
Let us now look at some of the coincidences between the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon and the Epistle of St. James.