And now for something (completely) different. A major component of the Apocrypha is a lot of extra wisdom literature. The wisdom material that made it into the canon is very different from the rest of the Bible, hard to digest in large lumps (think of Proverbs) and contains one or two quite unique theological ideas. I’m thinking of the personification of Wisdom that occurs in Proverbs, where she sounds at one moment like the pre-incarnate Christ, and at another like the Holy Spirit. For a monotheistic religion, this sails close to the wind of introducing another deity. Am I going to find intriguing ideas like this in the Wisdom of Solomon?
The first words are aimed at foreign rulers. This is an unusual start - some of the prophets speak to foreign nations, but you get the idea that although the prophet is talking about other countries,m it was the Jews who read his words. But Wisdom launches in with a direct command to “Love Justice.” And it’s Justice with a capital J - immediately a personification! Justice is called “He.” The second paragraph introduces Wisdom, who is a “She.”
She is identified with the Holy Spirit, said to be everywhere, and said to miss nothing.
Verse 12 is extraordinary: “God did not invent death.” This makes explicit the belief that death was not an original part of God’s creation, but entered through human sin. Paul in the New Testament picks up on this, but even he never states it as plainly as this.
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