24For they went far astray on the paths of error,
accepting as gods those animals that even their enemiesj despised;
they were deceived like foolish infants.
25Therefore, as though to children who cannot reason,
you sent your judgment to mock them.
26But those who have not heeded the warning of mild rebukes
will experience the deserved judgment of God.
27For when in their suffering they became incensed at those creatures that they had thought to be gods, being punished by means of them,
they saw and recognized as the true God the one whom they had before refused to know.
Therefore the utmost condemnation came upon them.
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a Gk slaughterers
b Meaning of Gk uncertain
c Or children
d Or hornets
e Or nature
f Or all things
g Meaning of Gk uncertain
h Other ancient authorities lack and indulgence; others read and entreaty
i Or children
j Gk they
12.3–18 An attempt to justify the Israelite conquest of Canaan. In Jewish-Hellenistic apologetics, this issue occupied no small place. The author of Jubilees rewrote Genesis to prove that the land of Canaan was originally allotted to Shem and illegally seized by Canaan (8.8–11; 9.14–15; 10.29–34; cf. Genesis Rabbah 56.14), and Philo’s account of the conquest of Canaan is openly apologetic (Hypothetica 6.5; Special Laws 2.170).
12.3 Holy land. For this designation, see Zech 2.12; 2 Macc 1.7; 2 Esd 13.48; Ps.-Philo, Biblical Antiquities 19.20; 2 Apocalypse of Baruch 63.10; Testament of Job 33.5, where it is a metaphor for heaven.
12.5 Slaughter of children. The sacrifices of Molech described in the Bible (Lev 18.21; 20.2–5) are identical with the molk sacrifices in North Africa and were kept up for a very long time. There is also evidence of human sacrifice in Egypt during the Roman period. Sacrificial, lit. “entrail-devouring.” The charge of feasting on human flesh and blood appears to be an exaggeration and turns the tables on those who, like Damocritus and Apion, had hurled the charge of cannibalism against the Jews.
12.8 Wasps. See text note d; see also Ex 23.28, text note a.
12.10 Their origin was evil. A similar notion is found in 2 Esd 4.30.
12.11 Accursed race refers to the curse laid upon Canaan (Gen 9.25–27), but there is no hint in the biblical text of a curse that entails moral degeneracy. Cf. Wis 3.12–13; Sir 33.12; Jubilees 22.20–21.
12.12 See Job 9.12; Eccl 8.4; Dan 4.32; Rom 9.20; Genesis Rabbah 1.2.
12.23–27 These verses return to the second antithesis and the idea of measure for measure found in 11.15–16. The emphasis is on the foolishness of Egyptian animal worship.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON 13
The Foolishness of Nature Worship
1For 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;
2but 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 rule the world.
3If through delight in the beauty of these things people assumed them to be gods,
let them know how much better than these is their Lord,
for the author of beauty created them.
4And if peoplea were amazed at their power and working,
let them perceive from them
how much more powerful is the one who formed them.
5For from the greatness and beauty of created things
comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.
6Yet these people are little to be blamed,
for perhaps they go astray
while seeking God and desiring to find him.
7For while they live among his works, they keep searching,
and they trust in what they see, because the things that are seen are beautiful.
8Yet again, not even they are to be excused;
9for 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?
The Foolishness of Idolatry
10But miserable, with their hopes set on dead things, are those
who give the name “gods” to the works of human hands,
gold and silver fashioned with skill, and likenesses of animals,
or a useless stone, the work of an ancient hand.
11A skilled woodcutter may saw down a tree easy to handle
and skillfully strip off all its bark,
and then with pleasing workmanship
make a useful vessel that serves life’s needs,
12and burn the cast-off pieces of his work
to prepare his food, and eat his fill.
13But a cast-off piece from among them, useful for nothing,
a stick crooked and full of knots,
he takes and carves with care in his leisure,
and shapes it with skill gained in idleness;b he forms it in the likeness of a human being,
14or makes it like some worthless animal,
giving it a coat of red paint and coloring its surface red
and covering every blemish in it with paint;
15then he makes a suitable niche for it,
and sets it in the wall, and fastens it there with iron.
16He takes thought for it, so that it may not fall,
because he knows that it cannot help itself,
for it is only an image and has need of help.
17When he prays about possessions and his marriage and children,
he is not ashamed to address a lifeless thing.
18For health he appeals to a thing that is weak;
for life he prays to a thing that is dead;
for aid he entreats a thing that is utterly inexperienced;
for a prosperous journey, a thing that cannot take a step;
19for money-making and work and success with his hands
he asks strength of a thing whose hands have no strength.
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a Gk they
b Other ancient authorities read with intelligent skill
13.1–15.19 The theme of Egyptian animal worship leads the author to a second, long excursus (see note on 11.15–16.4) on idolatry, whose major components are clearly discernible in the analogous passages in Philo (On the Decalogue 52–81; Special Laws 1.13–31). Both accounts probably derive from a common Jewish-Hellenistic apologetic tradition. See Rom 1.18–32.
13.1–9 Worship of nature rather than of nature’s creator.
13.1 The one who exists, lit. “he who exists,” derived from Ex 3.14. Unlike Philo, who uses both the personal masculine form (Greek ho on) and the impersonal neuter (to on), the author of the Wisdom of Solomon uses only the former.
13.5 This is a well-known Stoic argument (already used by Plato and Aristotle and repeated by Philo): we form the concept of divinity from our awareness of the world’s beauty, since no beautiful thing happens by chance but is the product of creative art.
13.6 While seeking God, a widespread motif (Philo, On Abraham 124–30; Bhagavad Gita 7.16).
13.7 Nature worshipers are overly impressed by what they see, whereas the ultimate reality is invisible (cf. Heb 11.3; Plato, Sophist 246A–B; Philo, On Abraham 69; Testament of Orpheus 4–5).
13.9 Investigate the world, better “infer the universe.”
13.10–15.17 This satire of idolatry seems to have a chiastic, or concentric, structure: 13.10–14.2 (A) and 15.7–13 (Á) are respectively about the carpenter and wooden images and the potter and clay images; 14.3–11 (B) and 15.1–6 ($$$$$) both begin as apostrophes to God; 14.12–
31 (C) is the central section describing the origins and evil consequences of idolatry.
13.10–14.2 The carpenter and wooden image making (A; see note on 13.10–15.17). See Isa 44.13–17.
13.10 Useless stone. Philo of Byblos defined the bethels, rough stones regarded as the residence of a god, as “animate stones” the animate quality referred to is magnetism, very common in meteorites.
13.12 To prepare his food. See Isa 44.16; Apocalypse of Abraham 5; Mekilta on Ex 20.3.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON 14
Folly of a Navigator Praying to an Idol
1Again, 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.
2For it was desire for gain that planned that vessel,
and wisdom was the artisan who built it;
3but it is your providence, O Father, that steers its course,
because you have given it a path in the sea,
and a safe way through the waves,
4showing that you can save from every danger,
so that even a person who lacks skill may put to sea.
5It is your will that works of your wisdom should not be without effect;
therefore people trust their lives even to the smallest piece of wood,
and passing through the billows on a raft they come safely to land.
6For even in the beginning, when arrogant giants were perishing,
the hope of the world took refuge on a raft,
and guided by your hand left to the world the seed of a new generation.
7For blessed is the wood by which righteousness comes.
8But the idol made with hands is accursed, and so is the one who made it—
he for having made it, and the perishable thing because it was named a god.
9For equally hateful to God are the ungodly and their ungodliness;
10for what was done will be punished together with the one who did it.
11Therefore there will be a visitation also upon the heathen idols,
because, though part of what God created, they became an abomination,
snares for human souls and a trap for the feet of the foolish.
The Origin and Evils of Idolatry
12For the idea of making idols was the beginning of fornication,
and the invention of them was the corruption of life;
13for they did not exist from the beginning, nor will they last forever.
14For through human vanity they entered the world,
and therefore their speedy end has been planned.
15For a father, consumed with grief at an untimely bereavement,
made an image of his child, who had been suddenly taken from him;
he now honored as a god what was once a dead human being,
and handed on to his dependents secret rites and initiations.
16Then the ungodly custom, grown strong with time, was kept as a law,
and at the command of monarchs carved images were worshiped.
17When people could not honor monarchsa in their presence, since they lived at a distance,
they imagined their appearance far away, and made a visible image of the king whom they honored,
so that by their zeal they might flatter the absent one as though present.
18Then the ambition of the artisan impelled
even those who did not know the king to intensify their worship.
19For he, perhaps wishing to please his ruler,
skillfully forced the likeness to take more beautiful form,
20and the multitude, attracted by the charm of his work,
now regarded as an object of worship the one whom shortly before they had honored as a human being.
21And this became a hidden trap for humankind,
because people, in bondage to misfortune or to royal authority,
bestowed on objects of stone or wood the name that ought not to be shared.
22Then it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God,
but though living in great strife due to ignorance,
they call such great evils peace.
23For whether they kill children in their initiations, or celebrate secret mysteries,
or hold frenzied revels with strange customs,
24they no longer keep either their lives or their marriages pure,
but they either treacherously kill one another, or grieve one another by adultery,
25and all is a raging riot of blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury,
26confusion over what is good, forgetfulness of favors,
defiling of souls, sexual perversion,
disorder in marriages, adultery, and debauchery.
27For the worship of idols not to be named
is the beginning and cause and end of every evil.
28For their worshipersb either rave in exultation,
or prophesy lies, or live unrighteously, or readily commit perjury;
29for because they trust in lifeless idols
they swear wicked oaths and expect to suffer no harm.
30But just penalties will overtake them on two counts:
because they thought wrongly about God in devoting themselves to idols,
and because in deceit they swore unrighteously through contempt for holiness.
31For it is not the power of the things by which people swear,c
but the just penalty for those who sin,
that always pursues the transgression of the unrighteous.
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a Gk them
b Gk they
c Or of the oaths people swear
14.1 Calls upon a piece of wood. The divine twins, Castor and Pollux, the youths of Zeus (Dioscuri), were especially popular as rescuers from danger at sea. St. Elmo’s fire, the electric discharge from the ship’s mast during a thunderstorm, was regarded as their corporeal epiphany. According to Cyril of Alexandria (commenting on Acts 28.11), it was especially an Alexandrian custom to have pictures of the twins to right and left of the ship’s prow.
14.3–11 Apostrophe to God and the evil of idol worship (B; see note on 13.10–15.17).
14.3 Your providence…that steers, Platonic/Stoic terminology.
14.5 Works of your wisdom should not be without effect. God wishes to allow for a better distribution of nature’s products (cf. Euripides, Suppliant Women 209; Philo, On Providence 2.65).
14.6 The hope of the world, Noah and his family (cf. 4 Macc 15.31).
14.7 Wood, Noah’s ark. The church fathers applied this verse either directly or symbolically to the cross.
14.12–31 The origins (vv. 12–21) and evil consequences (vv. 22–31) of idolatry (C; see note on 13.10–15.17). To bolster his attack on idolatry, the author argues that it did not exist from the beginning but arose in the course of time through human error. The two explanations adduced for its origins probably derive from a pagan Hellenistic source, a highly rationalized euhemeristic account of the origins of the idol cult.
14.13 Idols will not last forever. See Isa 2.18; Ezek 30.13; Mic 5.12; Zech 13.2; Let Jer 50–73.
14.14 Human vanity, better “empty imagining,” an Epicurean term. Since the origin of idols is rooted in total emptiness, their speedy end has been planned, i.e., the moment their vacuous character is disclosed, idolatry will evaporate into thin air and completely disappear (cf. Jer 16.19; Gospel of Truth 26.25).
14.15 Fulgentius provides an Egyptian analogue to the explanation given in this verse, and we have a reference to it in Mekilta on Ex 12.30 (cf. Cicero, To Atticus 12.35–36).
14.17 Perhaps a reference to the cult of the distant Roman emperor.
14.21 Ought not to be shared. See Isa 42.8.
14.22 Call such great evils peace. Cf. Jer 6.14; Tacitus, Agricola 30. The theme of war-in-peace was common in the Cynic-Stoic philosophical discourses of the first century CE (see Ps.-Heraclit
us, Epistle 7).
14.26 Sexual perversion, lit. “alteration of generation,” i.e., all nonprocreative sexual activities. See Rom 1.26–27.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON 15
Benefits of Worshiping the True God
1But you, our God, are kind and true,
patient, and ruling all thingsa in mercy.
2For even if we sin we are yours, knowing your power;
but we will not sin, because we know that you acknowledge us as yours.
3For to know you is complete righteousness,
and to know your power is the root of immortality.
4For neither has the evil intent of human art misled us,
nor the fruitless toil of painters,
a figure stained with varied colors,
5whose appearance arouses yearning in fools,
so that they desireb the lifeless form of a dead image.
6Lovers of evil things and fit for such objects of hopec
are those who either make or desire or worship them.
The Foolishness of Worshiping Clay Idols
7A potter kneads the soft earth
and laboriously molds each vessel for our service,
fashioning out of the same clay
both the vessels that serve clean uses
and those for contrary uses, making all alike;
but which shall be the use of each of them
the worker in clay decides.
8With misspent toil, these workers form a futile god from the same clay—
these mortals who were made of earth a short time before
and after a little while go to the earth from which all mortals are taken,
when the time comes to return the souls that were borrowed.
9But the workers are not concerned that mortals are destined to die
or that their life is brief,
but they compete with workers in gold and silver,
and imitate workers in copper;
and they count it a glorious thing to mold counterfeit gods.
10Their heart is ashes, their hope is cheaper than dirt,
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