greek · wisdom

Wisdom of Solomon

c. 100 BCE – 50 CE · Hellenistic Judaism (2nd–1st century BCE) · Alexandria, Egypt (probably)

Chapter I — On Loving Righteousness

1Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth:

2think of the Lord with a good heart, and in simplicity of heart seek him.

3For he will be found of them that tempt him not;

4and sheweth himself unto such as do not distrust him.

5For froward thoughts separate from God:

6and his power, when it is tried, reproveth the unwise.

7For into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter;

8nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin.

9For the holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit,

10and remove from thoughts that are without understanding,

11and will not abide when unrighteousness cometh in.

12For wisdom is a loving spirit;

13and will not acquit a blasphemer of his words:

14for God is witness of his reins, and a true beholder of his heart,

15and a hearer of his tongue.

16For the Spirit of the Lord filleth the world:

17and that which containeth all things hath knowledge of the voice.

Chapter II — The Ungodly Speak

18For the ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright,

19"Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy:

20neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave.

21"For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been:

22for the breath in our nostrils is as smoke,

23and a little spark in the moving of our heart.

24"Which being extinguished, our body shall be turned into ashes,

25and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air.

26"Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present:

27and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth.

28"Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments:

29and let no flower of the spring pass by us.

30"Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered."

The Reasoning of the Ungodly Rebuked

31Such things they did imagine, and were deceived:

32for their own wickedness hath blinded them.

33As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not:

34neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness,

35nor discerned a reward for blameless souls.

36For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.

37Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world:

38and they that do hold of his side do find it.

Chapter III — On the Righteous Dead

39But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,

40and there shall no torment touch them.

41In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die:

42and their departure is taken for misery,

43and their going from us to be utter destruction:

44but they are in peace.

45For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality.

46And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded:

47for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself.

48As gold in the furnace hath he tried them,

49and received them as a burnt offering.

Chapter VII — Solomon Prays for Wisdom

50For she is more beautiful than the sun,

51and above all the order of stars: being compared with the light, she is found before it.

52For after this cometh night: but vice shall not prevail against wisdom.

53For she goeth about seeking such as are worthy of her,

54sheweth herself favourably unto them in the ways,

55and meeteth them in every thought.

56For to be allied unto wisdom is immortality;

57and great pleasure it is to have her friendship;

58and in the works of her hands are infinite riches;

59and in the exercise of conference with her, prudence;

60and in talking with her, a good report.

Chapter VIII — Wisdom the Companion

61I loved her, and sought her out from my youth,

62I desired to make her my spouse,

63and I was a lover of her beauty.

64In that she is conversant with God, she magnifieth her nobility:

65yea, the Lord of all things himself loved her.

66For she is privy to the mysteries of the knowledge of God,

67and a lover of his works.

68If riches be a possession to be desired in this life;

69what is richer than wisdom, that worketh all things?

Chapter IX — Prayer for Wisdom

70"O God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy,

71who hast made all things with thy word,

72and ordained man through thy wisdom,

73that he should have dominion over the creatures which thou hast made,

74"And order the world according to equity and righteousness,

75and execute judgment with an upright heart:

76Give me wisdom, that sitteth by thy throne;

77and reject me not from among thy children."

notes

The Wisdom of Solomon (Sapientia Salomonis) is a Jewish wisdom text composed in Greek, probably in Alexandria in the last centuries BCE. It is preserved in the Septuagint and is included in the canonical Old Testament by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches, but is classed as Apocrypha by Protestant traditions and is not present in the Jewish Tanakh. Though pseudonymously attributed to Solomon, the work is manifestly Hellenistic. It combines the wisdom-literature tradition of the Hebrew Bible (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job) with the philosophical vocabulary of Greek philosophy — the immortality of the soul, the personification of Wisdom (Sophia) as a divine feminine principle, an argument against idolatry that echoes Plato's critique of images. The text's influence on early Christianity was substantial: passages on the "spotless mirror" of divine glory (7:26) were read by Paul as prophecy of Christ; the description of the ungodly plotting against the righteous man (2:12–20) was read as a prediction of the Passion. The Book of Wisdom's meditations on the immortality of the souls of the righteous (Chapter III), against the Epicurean-flavoured despair of the ungodly (Chapter II), articulate one of the earliest Jewish arguments for the soul's survival of death, contrasting with the older Hebrew view (found in Ecclesiastes and the Psalms) that the dead descend to Sheol. Translation: King James Version Apocrypha, 1611. Public domain.

ChristianApocryphaPhilosophy

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