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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: WIL-YAK |
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WISDOM, BOOK OF, or WISDOM OF SOLOMON (Sept. Io4ia IaXwwvos; Lat. Vulg. Liber sapientiae) , an apocryphal book of the " Wisdom Literature " (q.v.), the most brilliant production of pre-Christian Hebrew philosophical thought, remarkable both for the elevation
The first part (ch. i.-ix.) falls also into two divisions, the first (i.-v.) dwelling on the contrast between the righteous and the wicked, the second (vi.-ix.) setting forth the glories of wisdom. After an exhortation to the judges of the earth to put away evil counsels and thus avoid death, the author declares that God has made no kingdom of death on the earth, but ungodly men have made a covenant with it: certain sceptics (probably both Gentile and Jewish) holding this life to be brief and without a future, give themselves up to sensuality and oppress the poor and the righteous; but God created man to be immortal (ii. 23), and there will be compensation and retribution in the future: the good will rule (on earth), the wicked will be hurled down to destruction, though they seem now to flourish with long life and abundance of children (ii.-v.). At this point Solomon is introduced, and from the following section (vi.-ix.) the book seems to have taken its title. Solomon reminds kings and rulers that they will be held to strict account by God, and, urging them to learn wisdom from his words, proceeds to give his own experience: devoting himself from his youth to the pursuit of wisdom he had found her to be a treasure that never failed, the source and embodiment of all that is most excellent and beautiful in the worldthrough her he looks to obtain influence over men and immortality, and he concludes with a prayer that God would send her out of his holy heavens to be his companion and guide. The second part of the book (x.-xix.) connects itself formally with the first by a summary description of the role of wisdom in the early times: she directed and preserved the fathers from Adam
judgments on the Canaanites were executed gradually (so as to give them time to repent), is followed by a dissertation on the origin, various forms, absurdity and results of polytheism and idolatry (xiii.-xv.): the worship of natural objects is said to be less blame-worthy than the worship of imagesthis latter, arising from the desire to honour dead children and living kings (the Euhemeristic theory), is inherently absurd, and led to all sorts of moral depravity. In the four last chapters the author, returning to the history, gives a detailed account of the provision made for the Israelites in the wilderness and of the pains and terrors with which the Egyptians were plagued.i President VanHise (b. 1857) graduated at the university of Wisconsin in 1879, became instructor in geology there in 1883, in 1897 became consulting geologist of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, and in 1900 became geologist in charge of the Division of Pre-Cambrian and Metamorphic Geology, U.S. Geological Survey. He wrote Correlation PapersArchaean and Algonkian (1892), Some Principles Controlling the Deposition of Ores (19o1). A Treatise on Metamorphism (1903) and several works with other authors on the different iron regions of Michigan. It is not easy to determine whether the book is all from the same author. On the one hand, it may be said that one general themethe salvation and final prosperity of the righteousis visible throughout the work, that God is everywhere represented as the supreme moral governor of the world, and that the conception of immortality is found in both parts; the second part, though differing in form from the first, may be regarded as the historical illustration
prose
Both parts of the book ignore the Jewish sacrificial cult. Sacrifices are not mentioned at all; a passing reference to the temple is put into Solomon's mouth (ix. 8). Moses is described (xi. 1) not as the great lawgiver, but as the holy prophet through whom the works of the people were prospered. (It may be noted, as an illustration
The book appears to teach individual ethical immortality, though its treatment of the subject is somewhat vague. On the basis of Gen. i.-iii. it is said (ii. 23 f.) that God created man for immortality (that is, apparently, on earth) and made him an image of his own being, but through the envy of the devil death came into the world, yet (iii. 1-4) the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and, though they seem to die, their hope is full of immortality. The description, however, appears to glide into the conception of national immortality (iii. 8, v. 16), especially in the fine sorites in vi. 17-20: the beginning of wisdom is desire for instruction, and devoted regard to instruction is love, and love is observance of her laws, and obedience to her laws is assurance of incorruption, and incorruption brings us near to God, and therefore desire for wisdom leads to a kingdom (but the nature of the kingdom is not stated). The individualistic view is expressed in xv. 3: the knowledge of God's power (that is, a righteous life) is the root of immortality. This passage appears to exclude the wicked, who, however, are said (iv. 20) to be punished hereafter. The figurative nature of the language respecting the future makes it difficult to determine precisely the thought of the book on this point; but it seems to contemplate continued existence hereafter for both righteous and wicked, and rewards and punishments allotted on the basis of moral character. Angels are not mentioned; but the serpent of Gen. iii. is, for the first time in literature, identified with the devil (" Diabolos," ii. 24, the Greek translation of the Hebrew " Satan ") ; the role assigned him (envy) is similar to that expressed in " Secrets of Enoch," xxxi. 3-6; he is here introduced to account for the fact of death in the world. In iii. 4 the writer, in his polemic against the prosperous ungodly men of his time, denies that death, short life and lack of children are to be considered 750 misfortunes for the righteousover against these things the possession of wisdom is declared to be the supreme good. The ethical standard of the book is high except in the bitterness displayed towards the " wicked," that is, the enemies of the Jews. The only occurrence in old Jewish literature (except in Ecclus. xiv. 2) of a word for "conscience " is found in xvii. 11 (evesihnrns) : wickedness is timorous under the condemnation of conscience (the same thought in Prov. xxviii. I). The book is absolutely monotheistic, and the character ascribed to the deity is ethically pure with the exception mentioned above. The style shows that the book was written in Greek, though naturally it contains Hebraisms. The author of the first part was in all probability an Alexandrian Jew; nothing further is known of him; and this is true of the author of the second part, if that be a separate production. As to the date, the decided Greek colouring (the conception of wisdom, the list
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