Is The Book of Wisdom Scripture?

Is the Book of Wisdom Scripture? 

The Church has often disagreed about the list of books that would make up the OT canon. While some books enjoyed little acceptance in the early church, some have a high amount of approval. Such is the case with the Book of Wisdom, also known as the Wisdom of Solomon. The present analysis argues that this book is not inspired but could be helpful for the faithful. 

The text suggests that the author of Wisdom is Solomon. For example, we are told, You have chosen me to be king of your people and to be judge over your sons and daughters. You have given command to build a temple on your holy mountain, and an altar in the city of your habitation, a copy of the holy tent that you prepared from the beginning (Wisdom 9:7-8, NRSV-CI). The only Hebrew Bible character this could refer to is Solomon. Despite this claim; however, the text was likely written in the first century BC. It was probably composed by an Alexandrian Jew. This Jew was influenced by Greek thought and thus can be considered Hellenistic (Kohler, n.d). 

Zurawski (2021) states, “The book is divided into three parts, unique in their focus although consistent in purpose and themes” (p. 335). The text is addressed to rulers who have gone astray, asking them to return to wisdom. The three divisions are, “...righteousness and immortality (chapters 1–5), the nature of wisdom (chapters 6–9), and wisdom’s role in the early history of Israel (chapters 10–19)” (Harrington, 2010, para. 1). There are several major themes throughout the work. The theme of Wisdom is pervasive. The author writes in the spirit of the Solomonic wisdom tradition. This is clear not just from Solomon's asking for wisdom to be expanded (1 Kgs 3:1-15; Wis 9:4-18), but also from wisdom personified as a female (Prov 1:20-33; Wis 9:9). Righteousness, judgment, and so on are all themes as well. Wisdom is the overarching theme and principle of the text. By wisdom we attain righteousness, just rule, and salvation (Wis 9). He retells some Old Testament stories, making omissions and additions to fit his purposes (Glicksman, 2010).

There are Biblical and extra-Biblical influences in the text. For example, Pseudo Solomon is influenced by platonic thought (Barrier, 2023). One example is the idea that the soul exists before the body. Barrier (2023) uses ethics and physics as examples of the usage of this thought. Chapter five is apocalyptic and borrows imagery from prophetic portions of Isaiah (Atkins, 2021). In chapter 10, the author begins to interpret the Old Testament text. In doing so, he makes additions and omissions to his retelling (Glicksman, 2010). 

There are different reasons why the book should not be considered scripture. There is the issue of authorship. A text that tells falsehoods about its authorship cannot rightly be viewed as inspired. Yet, as noted before, the date of composition does not match the supposed author of the work. As Winston (1992) states, “It was written in Greek by a learned and profoundly Hellenized Jew of Alexandria, after that city’s conquest by Rome in 30 B.C.E.” (Para. 1). This immediately causes issues for those who want to affirm this text's inspiration. The influence of Greek thought is not a problem in and of itself, as Paul is also a Hellenistic Jew (Acts 17:28; 1 Cor 15:33; Titus 1:12). However, the particular teachings it conveys using Greek philosophy are troublesome. 

For instance, we are told, “As a child, I was naturally gifted, and a good soul fell to my lot; or rather, being good, I entered an undefiled body” (Wis 8:19-20). This verse teaches that souls exist before the body of said person exists. Kuo & Gordley (2016) remark, “To the author, the soul is more important than the body…” (section: Pre-existence of the Soul). According to pseudo-Solomon, “for a perishable body weighs down the soul” (Wis 9:15). The soul is better than the body and exists before the body (Attebury, 2024). This is extremely problematic for a few reasons. While some have held this view in church history, The fifth Ecumenical counsel condemned this belief (Attebury, 2024). The body is less than the soul also seems to be the very philosophy that the New Testament authors refute (1 Cor 6:19-20; Rom 12:1; Middleton, 2014). Middleton (2014) states, “In contrast to the Platonic view is the Old Testament vision of a good creation; God made the cosmos (including materiality and embodiment) and pronounced it “very good” (Gen 1:31)” (Para. 4). Old Testament theology also requires us to affirm the goodness of the body. The hope Christians have is not just the entrance to Heaven but also divinized bodies (1 Cor 15:42-58). The body cannot be less important than the soul in Christian theology. 

There are also philosophical and practical challenges to this idea. The disregarding of the body becomes practically problematic as well. Why care about the body when it is truly the soul that is good, eternal, and ultimately matters? The idea causes us to lose the concept of free will (Keser, 2016; Josh 24:14-15; Jer 18:1-10). If the individual chooses our bodies, then one must conclude that some souls choose a body with difficulties and defects like missing limbs, mental illnesses, genetic anomalies, etc. This would cause us to blame the victim of these difficulties because now it must be said you choose this lot in life. Some have said God chooses what body the souls inhabit. Two issues arise with that idea. Presuming that these souls are with God when they are made, why run the risk of having the soul reject him, thus leading to damnation? Furthermore, we ascribe unnecessarily, evil to God since he forced them to be in bodies where they would suffer these difficulties, which seems cruel. Perhaps there are answers one could make in defense of these issues, but they nonetheless are difficulties with the doctrine of preexistent souls. 

The book presents a reinterpretation of the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. That alone would not be a problem because the New Testament adds commentary and ideas to the Hebrew Bible (Jude 5; Heb 11:19). That said, Pseudo Solomon ascribes the origins of human wickedness to Cain, not Adam, in keeping with other ideas about Cain and wickedness at the time (Winston, 1979). Adam does sin according to the author, but he is saved by wisdom and given the ability to rule while Cain is not. The text makes this repeated effort to contrast a righteous figure with an unrighteous one. Glicksman (2010) elaborates, “he presents the positive examples in chap. 10 as wholly righteous and the negative examples as entirely wicked” (P. 254). The author omits Adams' punishment for disobedience. Due to that literary feature, we should conclude that Adam is ultimately righteous while Cain is the evil one. The author of Wisdom also blames Cain's wickedness for the flood (Wis 10:3-4; Winston, 1979). This reinterpretation of Pseudo Solomon gives runs against several Scriptures. It is written, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people because all sinned” (Romans 5:12, NIV). While Wisdom wants to blame Cain for human wickedness, the apostle Paul blames Adam. Cain is the first recorded murderer in the text (Gen 4), and the people during the flood are guilty of tremendous violence (Gen 6:11), but the text makes no correlation between the people of the flood and Cain. The people of the flood are guilty of their sin and thus deserve punishment, it is not due to Cain and his sin like Wisdom claims. 

The Book of Wisdom cannot be scripture because the 66 books that Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians accept have material that contradicts Wisdom. That said, good content does exist in the work. Ultimately, the church should put this into a category of writing that, though not inspired by God, can be useful for edification among some of the body, perhaps a second Tier or Ecclesiastical category.

References: 

Atkins, S. C. (2021). The Justice of the Cosmos: Philosophical Cosmology and Apocalyptic Eschatology in the Wisdom of Solomon. New Testament Studies, 67(4) 598 - 612 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0028688521000114

Attebury, J. (2024, January 3). The Pre-existence of the Soul in Wisdom 8:19-20. 

https://jamesattebury.wordpress.com/2024/01/03/the-pre-existence-of-the-soul-in-wisdom-819 -20/

Barrier, W. J. (2023). Middle Platonism in the Wisdom of Solomon: A Comparison of Wisdom to Plutarch of Chaeroneia. Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Vol. 32(3) 244–269 DOI: 10.1177/09518207221140559 

Feser, E. (2016, November 13). Edward Feser: The pre-existence of the soul. Edward Feser. http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-pre-existence-of-soul.html 

Glicksman, T. A. (2010). Wisdom of Solomon 10: A Jewish Hellenistic Reinterpretation of Early Israelite History through Sapiential Lenses. Catholic University of America. 

https://cuislandora.wrlc.org/islandora/object/etd%3A24/datastream/PDF/view 

Harrington, J. D. (Sept 13, 2010). Wisdom of Solomon. Oxford Bibliographies. 

https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-978019539 3361-0129.xml 

Image by Rod Long on Unsplash

Kohler, K. (n.d). WISDOM OF SOLOMON, BOOK OF THE (LXX. Σοφία Σολομῶνος; Vulgate, "Liber Sapientiæ"): Jewish Encyclopedia. 

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14951-wisdom-of-solomon-book-of-the 

Kuo & Gordley. (2016). Wisdom of Solomon, Book of. In John D. Barry et al (Ed.), The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press.

Middleton, J. R. (2014, October 23). Paul on the “soul”—Not what you might think. CREATION to ESCHATON. 

https://jrichardmiddleton.com/2014/10/23/paul-on-the-soul-not-what-you-might-think 

Winston, D. (1979). Anchor Bible Commentary: Wisdom of Solomon. Yale University Press. Winston, D. (1992). Solomon, Wisdom of. In D. N. Freedman et al (Eds.), Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. Yale University Press. 

Zurawski, M. J. (2021). Oxford Handbook to the Apocrypha. Oxford University Press. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=JuEsEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA335&dq=wisdom +of+solomon&ots=xBSxlP9jn4&sig=AwmQJm2PIVOaSEGgBIzPd-Q9xTc#v=onepage&q=wisdom% 20of%20solomon&f=false

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