“The wise man does not conquer by the sword, but by the intelligence that dispels the darkness.”

— Maximum alexandrina based on Wisdom 7-9

Comprehensive study: Wisdom of Solomon (Book of Wisdom)

1) Identity, authorship, date, and place

• What is: work wise jewish written Greek and preserved in the canon of alexandria (LXX). Is deuterocanónica for catholics and orthodox, jews and most protestants classified as apocryphal.
• Authorship: is in the voice of Solomon (literary device), but the consensus academic attributed to a jewish hellenistic Alexandria. There is No original Hebrew; the Greek is of high rhetoric. Dating majority: the I century a. C. (with proposals ranging between c. 100. C. and the beginning of I d. C.).
• Context: jewish community of Alexandria under domination ptolemaic/roman, in tension with the greco-roman culture, and with controversy anticulta idolatrous egyptian (final section).

2) canonical Status, and transmission of textual

• Canonicidad: accepted into the canons of the catholic and orthodox; excluded from the Tanakh and most of Bibles and protestant.
• Manuscripts: transmitted in the great codices greeks: Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus (and witnesses as Ephraemi and Venetus). The text of Vaticanus it is generally considered very reliable.
• Roll of the Dead Sea: no it was found in Qumran (among the apocrypha, there attested are Sirach, Tobit, and Letter of Jeremiah).

3) Language and style

• Attic Greek–koine with periods rhetorical, vocabulary and philosophical figures of the prose of praise and speech call; strong intertextuality LXX.

4) literary Structure (macro-sections)

1. Cap. 1-5 – Justice, immortality and judgment: destiny of the righteous/wicked, “the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God” (3:1-9); vindication eschatological.
2. Cap. 6-9 – Praise and prayer for Wisdom: Solomon as the narrator; the Wisdom (Σοφία) personified guide kings and rulers (6:1-11); prayer 9:1-18.
3. Cap. 10-19 – History of salvation and controversial anti-idolatrous: Wisdom in the history of Israel, with a focus on Exodus and pests; satire of idolatry (13-15).

5) Topics of theological and philosophical key

• Immortality and retribution: affirms the immortality of the righteous and the compensation post-mortal, with remarkable development in respect of the OT Hebrew (3:1-9; 5:15-16).
• Wisdom personified: almost hipostatizada (7:22-8:1), the mediator of creation and providence; dialogue with traditions of Proverbs/Sirach and with categories hellenistic.
• Monotheism and the critique of idolatry: argument “from creation” (natural theology) against the idolatry of stars and animals (13-15).
• Creation: 11:17 mentions the “field report” (ἐξ ἀμόρφου ὕλης). The text has been interpreted in different ways in the debate creatio ex nihilo (for some echo of Gen 1:2; for others, it suggests the pre-existence of matter). It is a item discussed in the doctrinal history.
• Pneumatology: “The Holy spirit of discipline” that flee the hoax (1:5-7), anticipating a language that later will resonate in christianity, hellenistic.
• Ethics and policy: exhortation to rulers (6:1-21) to seek Wisdom as the basis of justice.

6) Wisdom of Solomon, and the New Testament

• There are strong parallel with Romans 1-2 (natural theology, idolatry): studies argue that Paul dialogues with Wis 13-15 (accepting and at the same time reencuadrando the argument).
• Echoes likely in Hebrews (wisdom/creation), and affinities of the conceptual with the Prologue of John (Wisdom/Logos), but without direct dependence demonstrable.

7) historical and cultural Context (Alexandria)

• Jewish alexandrians immersed in paideia griega; the book uses gender rhetorical hellenistic (praise, speech parenético) for to strengthen the jewish identity in front of the assimilation.

8) Comment summary block

Caps. 1-5: Justice and immortality

• 1:1-15: premise ethics—Wisdom does not come in perverse soul.
• 2:1-24: portrait of the logic cynical of the wicked; reference to the “envy of the devil” (2:24) as the source of death.
• 3:1-9: programmatic thesis on the righteous in peace; paradigm funeral and eschatological hope.
• 5: scene forensic judgment: investment of honor/dishonor.

Caps. 6-9: Praise and Prayer of Solomon

• 6: Wisdom as a criterion of the good governance.
• 7:22-8:8: catalog in 21 attributes (“intelligent, holy, unique,...”), with echoes stoics/platonic in the lexicon.
• 9: Prayer asking for Wisdom; key hermeneutics of the book.

Caps. 10-19: History and controversy

• 10: Wisdom guide Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses.
• 11-12: Theodicy pests: pedagogy and proportionality of the punishment.
• 13-15: Idolatry: the admiration of the nature of his divinity; a satire of the craftsman-idolatrous.
• 16-19: counterpoint penalties/benefits (mana vs. snakes, darkness vs. light to Israel); close with miracle of the Sea.

9) Profile and literary sources

• Biblical sources: strong use of LXX Isaiah, Exodus, Psalms, Proverbs).
• Gender: hybridization between biblical wisdom and Greek rhetoric (commendation, exhortation).

10) historical Reception

• Fathers of the Church: extensive use (e.g., Augustine) and liturgical reading in ancient traditions; its canonical status was consolidated in the Latin Church and in the East.
• Liturgical use: common in lectionaries of funerals by 3:1-9 (“the souls of the righteous...”).

11) critical Issues and debates

• Dating and unity: although there were theories of multiple authors/stages, is dominated by the reading as work unit author of a hellenistic tardorrepublicano/augusteo.
• Creation “ex nihilo”: Sab 11:17 quote so much to please as against the author hold explicitly ex nihilo; the doctrine will be defined fully newly centuries later. Conclusion: verse don't ditch the debate; should be read in its rhetoric of praise to the almighty power.

12) Input theological distinctive

• Articulates personal immortality with divine justice beyond death.
• It offers a natural theology preparing ground for dialogue post-judaism–christianity–philosophy.
• Deepens a personification of Wisdom as a principle of order, justice and creation.

Conclusion

Wisdom of Solomon it is a defense gloss of the jewish faith in key hellenistic: exalting the divine Wisdom, promises immortality to the righteous, denounces the idolatry with philosophical arguments and re-reads the Exodus as a paradigm of historical justice. Written in Alexandria (first century a. C.), his influence reaches to the NT (especially Romans) and the entire christian tradition, where it is deuterocanónica.