"Wisdom of Solomon" Francysk Skaryna 1518
Intro
The Wisdom of Solomon is one of the two wisdom books in the Apocrypha, the other being "Sirach" also known as "Ecclesiasticus". This book seems to be extensively quoted in the New Testament (see list below). Some have argued that this book was removed from the Jewish canon because of its messianic prophecies.
The LDS Bible dictionary has the following to say.
https://www.abibleaday.com/bible-books/wisdom/The Book of the Wisdom of Solomon. Written in praise of “Wisdom” and in condemnation of those who willfully rejected her. It purports to be addressed by the Israelite king Solomon to the kings and rulers of the earth. Many scholars feel it is of 1st century A.D. origin, in the Greek language. It shows traces of the influence of Greek philosophy. The most famous passages are those containing the description of “the righteous man” (4:7–18) and the picture of “Wisdom” (Wisdom 7–9).
The object of the book is to warn Alexandrian Jews against abandoning the religion of their fathers. The “Wisdom” of the book of Proverbs, “the fear of the Lord,” is asserted to be the basis of all true happiness.
Wikipedia, with "CE"s removed.The book of Wisdom, sometimes called “The Wisdom of Solomon” is patterned after the other wisdom literature in the Bible. Wisdom is an Apocrypha book and not included in all versions of the Bible.
The New Jerusalem Bible, Revised Standard Version (RSV), New American Bible (NABRE), Wycliffe Bible (WYC), Common English Bible (CEB), Good News Translation (GNT), and Douay-Rheims (DRA) all include the book of Wisdom. Interestingly, the original Authorized King James Version (KJV) contains Wisdom, but the text was removed almost two centuries later. The Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures, which was widely used in Jesus’s day, also includes the book of Wisdom.
Origen in the 2nd century refers to uncertainty about the Book of Wisdom. Melito of Sardis (possibly) in the 2nd century AD, Augustine. (c. 397 AD) and Pope Innocent I (405 AD) considered Wisdom of Solomon as part of the Old Testament. Athanasius writes that the Book of Wisdom along with three other deuterocanonical books, while not being part of the Canon, "were appointed by the Fathers to be read". Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 385 AD) mentions that the Wisdom of Solomon was of disputed canonicity. According to the monk Rufinus of Aquileia (c. 400 AD) the Book of Wisdom was categorized as "ecclesiastical" rather than "canonical".
The Book of Wisdom was listed as canonical by the Council of Rome (382 AD), the Synod of Hippo (393), the Council of Carthage (397) and the Council of Carthage (419), the Council of Florence (in 1442) and the Council of Trent (in 1546).
Name
This book has a variety of names, and is sometimes confused with a number of Pseudigraphical works (i.e. ones that do not exist in the western or eastern canons) which are attributed to Solomon. Some of the names given to this book include:
* The Book of Wisdom
* The Wisdom of Solomon
* Solomon
The usual abbreviation is "Wisdom".
Structure, genre and content
(Italics taken from Wikipedia)
The 19 chapters of the work can be grouped into three sections:
* Book of Eschatology
* exhortation to justice
* speech of the impious, contrasts of the wicked and the just
* exhortation to wisdom
* Book of Wisdom
* Solomon's speech concerning wisdom, wealth, power and prayer
* Book of History
* introduction, followed by diptychs of plagues
* digression on God's power and mercy
* digression on false worship and further plagues
* recapitulation and concluding doxology.[4]
The book is addressed to the rulers of the earth (verse 1:1), urging them to love righteousness and seek wisdom; the wicked think that all is chance and that they should enjoy each day, but they are deluded. In the second section Solomon (not explicitly named, but strongly implied) tells of his search for wisdom.
The Wisdom of Solomon can be linked to several forms of ancient literature, both Jewish and non-Jewish, but it clearly belongs with biblical Wisdom books such as the Book of Job, one of only five such books among ancient Jewish literature. In terms of classical genre it has been identified as an encomium and with the Greek genre of the "exhortatory discourse", by which a teacher attempts to persuade others to a certain course of action.
New Testament references
Stolen from the following website. (Be warned, the blog in general has some anti-Mormon content.)
https://sovereignjesus.net/bibles-and-v ... testament/
These are not generally taken from the KJV. DRB is Douay-Rheims, a Roman Catholic Bible translation.
Matthew 13:43 cf Wisdom 3:1, 7 – “But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them….In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks in the stubble”
*Matthew 27:42-43 cf Wisdom 2:12-20 – a prophecy of Jesus on the cross. “Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training. He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord. He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange. We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father. Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life; for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hands of his adversaries. Let us test him with insult and torture, so that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance. Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected”.
*John 1:1; 1 John 5:7 and Revelation 19:13 cf Wisdom 18:14-16 – a prophecy of Jesus who is the Word of God: “For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and the night in its swift course was now half gone, your-all powerful word leapt from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed, a stern warrior carrying the sharp sword of your authentic command, and stood and filled all things with death, and touched heaven while standing on the earth”.
John 3:14-15 cf Wisdom 16:7 – “For the one who turned towards it [the fiery serpent – Numbers 21:1-9] was saved, not by the thing that was beheld, but by you, the Saviour of all”.
John 17:3 cf Wisdom 15:3 – “For to know you is complete righteousness, and to know your power is the root of immortality”.
Acts 10:28-29 cf Wisdom 6:7 (v. 8 in DRB) – “For the Lord of all will not stand in awe of anyone, or show deference to greatness; because he himself made both small and great, and he takes thought for all alike”.
Romans 1:18-23 cf Wisdom 12:24-13:9 – “For they went far astray on the paths of error, accepting as gods those animals that even their enemies despised; they were deceived like foolish infants. Therefore, as though to children who cannot reason, you sent your judgment to mock them….For all people who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature; and they were unable from the good things that are seen to know the one who exists, nor did they recognize the artisan while paying heed to his works; but they supposed that either fire or wind or swift air, or the circle of the stars, or turbulent water, or the luminaries of heaven were the gods that ruled the world…Yet again, not even they are to be excused; for if they had the power to know so much that they could investigate the world, how did they fail to find sooner the Lord of these things?”
Romans 2:4 cf Wisdom 11:23 – “But you are merciful to all, for you can do all things, and you overlook people’s sins, so that they may repent”.
Romans 5:12 cf Wisdom 2:24 – “….but by the envy of the devil, death entered the world…” (DRB).
1 Corinthians 1:18 cf Wisdom 14:7 – “For blessed is the wood [the cross] by which righteousness comes” See 1 Peter 2:24 below.
1 Corinthians 6:2 cf Wisdom 3:1, 8 – “….the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God….They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them for ever”’
1 Corinthians 10:19-21 cf Baruch 4:7 – “For you provoked the one who made you by sacrificing to demons and not to God”.
Ephesians 2:1-3 cf Wisdom 2:24 – “….but through the devil’s envy, death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it”.
Ephesians 6:10-17 cf Wisdom 5:17-21 – “The Lord will take his zeal as his whole armour, and will arm all creation to repel his enemies; he will put on righteousness as a breastplate, and wear impartial justice as a helmet; he will take holiness as an invincible shield, and sharpen stern wrath for a sword, and creation will join with him to fight against his frenzied foes….”.
2 Timothy 4:8; James 1:12; 1 Pet 5:4; Revelation 2:10; 3:11 cf Wisdom 5:16 – “But the righteous live for ever, and their reward is with the Lord; the Most High takes care of them. Therefore they will receive a glorious crown and a beautiful diadem from the hand of the Lord….”.
James 1:12; 2 Timothy 4:8; 1 Peter 5:4; Rev 2:10; 3:11 cf Wisdom 5:15-16 – “But the righteous live for ever, and their reward is with the Lord; the Most High takes care of them. Therefore they will receive a glorious crown and a beautiful diadem from the hand of the Lord….”.
James 3:4 cf Wisdom 14:1 – “….one preparing to sail and about to voyage over raging waves calls upon a piece of wood more fragile than the ship that carries him”.
1 Peter 1:6-7 cf Wisdom 3:5-6; Sirach 2:5 – “Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself; like gold in the furnace he tried them, and like a sacrificial burnt-offering he accepted them” (Wisdom 3:5-6).
1 Peter 2:24 cf Wisdom 14:7 – “For blessed is the wood by which righteousness comes”. Wisdom 14:7 and 10:4 prophesy the cross. Justin Martyr says the Jews renounced the LXX [Septuagint/Greek Old Testament] because of this and other passages which prophesied Jesus, and removed them from their copies. He said he had seen such vandalised copies.
1 Peter 4:17-18 cf Wisdom 12:20-21 – “For if you punished with such great care and indulgence the enemies of your servants and those deserving of death, granting them time and opportunity to give up their wickedness, with what strictness you have judged your children, to whose ancestors you gave oaths and covenants full of good promises!”.
1 Peter 5:4; 2 Timothy 4:8; James 1:12; Revelation 2:10 cf Wisdom 5:15-16 – “But the righteous live for ever, and their reward is with the Lord; the Most High takes care of them. Therefore they will receive a glorious crown and a beautiful diadem from the hand of the Lord….”.
2 Peter 3:9 cf Wisdom 1:13 – “…because God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things so that they might exist…”.
*1 John 5:7; John 1:1; and Revelation 19:13 cf Wisdom 18:14-16 – a prophecy of Jesus who is the Word of God: “For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and the night in its swift course was now half gone, your-all powerful word leapt from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed, a stern warrior carrying the sharp sword of your authentic command, and stood and filled all things with death, and touched heaven while standing on the earth”.
*Revelation 19:13, John 1:1 and 1 John 5:7 cf Wisdom 18:15 – the Word is God: see John 1:1
Wisdom of Solomon audiobook (KJV) - 1 hour and 13 minutes
This is part of my ongoing series on Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical works:
1 Esdras inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?p=1343974
2 Esdras (the most relevant book in the Apocrypha?) inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?p=1344302
1 Maccabees
viewtopic.php?t=69454
2 Maccabees
viewtopic.php?p=1347024
3 Maccabees
viewtopic.php?t=69496
4 Maccabees
viewtopic.php?p=1348046
Book of Baruch and the Epistle of Jeremy/Jeremiah
viewtopic.php?t=69433
Book of Tobit inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?p=1341501
Apocryphal additions to Esther inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?p=1343414
Bel and the Dragon (quoted in full, KJV; inc audiobook link)
viewtopic.php?t=69261
Prayer of Azarias and Hymn of the Three Children (quoted in full KJV, inc. audiobook link)
viewtopic.php?p=1341611
Book of Judith and the Book of Mormon, inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?t=69402
Book of Susanna inc. audiobook link
viewtopic.php?t=69386
Book of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus
viewtopic.php?t=69412
Prayer of Mannases (aka Mannaseh; quoted in full KJV, inc. audiobook link)
viewtopic.php?t=69263
Psalm 151 (quoted in full, NRSV)
viewtopic.php?t=63875
Epistle to the Laodiceans (NT, quoted in full Wycliffe's translation, )
viewtopic.php?t=64025
The Book of Odes - this is an Eastern Orthodox work of limited interest, but included for the sake of completeness.
viewtopic.php?t=69470
Outside the Western and Eastern Orthodox Canon...
The Ethiopian canon. This includes brief info on the books of Sinodos, Ethiopian Clement, Ethiopian Covenant, and Didascalia as well as a list of other works in the canon.
viewtopic.php?t=69540
The Book of Jubilees aka Leptogenesis or Little Genesis
viewtopic.php?p=1348962
3 Corinthians (Armenian canon)
viewtopic.php?t=69567