As for this one, no, it's not the Wisdom Books. That refers to several things, like Proverbs, Job, and Psalms. This refers to one book - the Book of Wisdom - that's only found in the Catholic Bible.
CHAPTER 1
Well, according to the into notes, the Book of Wisdom was
written about 50 years before Jesus Christ, making it I assume the more
recently written work in the Old Testament.
It was originally written in Greek (and hence not in the Protestant or Jewish
Bibles, and only in Catholic
Bibles). It’s believed that the author
was part of the Jewish community in Egypt, and had a thorough knowledge of the
Holy Scripture before him.
This first chapter, as you’d probably expect from a book
called Wisdom, is about how wonderful wisdom is. A few scattered thoughts. …
Wisdom here is clearly tied to godliness. I find that interesting, given that the
super-wise Solomon wasn’t always very godly.
We’re told, “wisdom is a kindly spirit, yet she does not acquit
blasphemous lips.” That sounds more
like wishing thinking. Again – Solomon was wise and Solomon worshipped the
wrong gods later on.
We also get a Holy Spirit reference: “For the holy spirit of
discipline flees deceit.” So welcome,
big time Christian term! (Also, the
footnote tells me that the author sometimes uses “discipline” as another name
for wisdom, so it’s the Holy Spirit of wisdom.
Two thoughts: I wonder how Jews would translate. Is this a translator’s decision to make it
“holy spirit” or is that an actual straightforward translation of the ancient
Greek?
Second: it makes sense that we’d have Christian terms come
up. Christ didn’t show up totally out
of context, but as a result of the context he was born into. It would make sense if some of the key
Christian terms that aren’t in much of the Old Testament were floating around
as we approach the year zero. The
intellectual life of people moves on, it doesn’t just end with the prophets
around 500 BC or so.
Also, there is a big to-do here about how God knows your
“inmost self” so don’t think you can hide from him. Thus you should also act on the up-and-up – act wisely. But here’s the part I found fascinating –
all this talk about how God knows your innermost self, but he’s only judging you
by what you do and say. We’re
repeatedly told to watch what we say, because God is “the listener to the
tongue,” and “those who utter wicked things will not go unpunished,” and “the
sound of their words shall reach the Lord,” and “guard against profitless
grumblings” OK, OK – God knows
everything we say.
But notice what the Bible isn’t getting involved with here:
your thoughts. Strangely enough for a
section that God knows our inmost self, God doesn’t really get inside our
heads. It’s only our exterior
actions. We’ve got some right to
privacy, apparently.
CHAPTER 2
OK, I initially misinterpreted – badly misinterpreted – this
one.
The very end of Chapter 1 begins a new section: The Wicked
Reject Immortality and Righteousness Alike.”
(Actually, it’s an amazingly poorly timed chapter break, as the very
last verse – and only that last verse of Chapter 1 falls in this section, then
all of Chapter 2 does. Chapter 3 is
another section. Bible – maybe you flip
that verse into Chapter 2, what do you say?)
Anyhow, the first verse of Chapter 2 says (in some many
words) – here is how the wicked thing.
Then verse 2-20 is a big, long, unbroken quote from inside the mind of a
sinner. Only I didn’t realize that when
I began reading. So from my point of
view ..
The Bible is saying that our lives and brief and troubled,
then we die – and no one ever comes back Hades. OK, I thought, so far Judaism has been very much an earth-bound
religion so this fits in with that.
Then it says we were born by mere chance – and that strikes
me as an odd thing. Well, maybe this
writer has his own slant on religion.
In Chapter 1 he noted that, “God did not make death” which also struck
me as curious. (And that wasn’t any
sort of weird quote from another point of view. The author just associates God with life, not death).
The next part of Chapter 2 I thought was downright
beautiful. Look, we all die and life is
cut short. When we die, our name will
be forgotten, and all our deeds will be forgotten. “So our life will pass away like the traces of life.” This struck me as a very effective statement
about how transitory life itself is. I
figure it’s coming to a big point about how important it is to love God and
wisdom.
It keeps on in this vein for a while, noting: “For our
lifetime is the passing of a shadow; and our dying cannot be deferred.” Again, that’s very well done. Right now, I’m intrigued and really enjoying
things.
Then it takes a turn for the unexpected. Instead of talking about loving God, we’re
told, “Come, therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are here, let us have
our fill of costly wind and perfumes.”
Wait – what? It was at this
point that I went back and looked at the opening of the chapter again. Oh, that’s right – we’re looking at it from
the point of view of bad guys.
The funny thing is – the “bad guy” point of view made a lot
of sense to me.
But it completely goes off the rails from here. It turns into an open celebration of
self-love, and from there disdaining helping the poor, the widow, and the
weak. Instead, let’s hurt them! In fact, let’s find someone religious and
kidnap, torture, and kill him! Then
we’ll see how real his God is.
The writer here … wow, does he ever have a negative view of
non-believers. Just because you don’t
believe in God means you’ll be a completely amoral sociopath. But that’s the road he takes everyone down.
I still find it interesting that he makes the opening lines sound persuasive
and then completely takes you on a train wreck later on.
CHAPTER 3
There is some afterlife talk here, which I find interesting
– and rather out of place with most of the rest of the Old Testament. We’re told that those who lead good lives
will be with God. But those who
don’t? Doomed. So you get the origins of the idea of heaven
and hell here.
There are some nice turns of phrases here, too. We’re told of the worthy, that: “because God
tried them and found them worthy of himself.”
That’s a nice sense of why they’ll earn life after death. Also, we’re told, “as sacrificial offerings,
[God] took them to himself.” Again –
that’s poetic. We’ve seen all along how
you give offerings to God, and how it should always be the best beef. So it makes sense that God will take the
best people for himself, for they are the worthiest. That is a nice analogy to explain this afterlife belief in line
with Jewish traditions.
I can see why the Catholics want this in their Bible. Frankly, it makes more sense that the
Protestant idea of keeping it out so far. (I know, the Protestants keep it out
because it was first written in Greek, not any Jewish languages. I know it wasn’t left out for theological
purposes. But in terms of theology, it works better for Christians to remember
it).
The last part of the chapter is on childlessness, and rather
surprisingly, the Bible has no problem with it. Remember the notion of “be fruitful and multiply”? Well this writer doesn’t. Instead, you should focus on morality. That way you will achieve immortality with
God. Now this makes a lot of sense for
Catholics to Bible-ize it. After all,
they have the celibate clergy.
The down side is the chapter has a theme of punishing
children for the sins of their parents.
At one point we’re told that the wicked will have wicked children,
“accursed their blood.” Later on the
book tells us that the children of adulterers are screwed. That’s not fair. People should be judged on their own merits, not on their
parents.
CHAPTER 4
The theme of Chapter 4 is taking ideas too far.
At the outset, we’re still talking childlessness. The writer is pressing his point so far that
he seemingly condemns people who have children. Lines like “their spurious offshoots shall not strike deep root”
and “Their twigs shall be broken off untimely” litter the opening section. His point is the offshoots of the sinners
will be snipped out in time, but there’s nothing about how the children of the
godly will thrive. It’s just noting
it’s OK for the godly to lack kids and screw the descendents of the bad. It never specifically condemns having
children by the contrast of good people without kids versus bad guys with kids
is pushed further than it needs to.
After that, we get talk on early death. The basic notion is that many good die
young; that gray hair doesn’t make you worthy.
That’s nice, but it gets pressed too far again. There is a definite feeling of “only the
good die young” which is sweet, if unbelievable. But then it gets silly with revenge stories of how the good who
die young will be with the Lord judging the old baddies. Again, it gets pressed too far so it almost
sounds like living long means you suck, and dying young means you’re OK. Like with childlessness, the passage never
actually goes that far, but it gets pressed so far that if you’re only hazily
reading it, you might think that’s the point.
CHAPTER 5
Not-so-great moments in Biblical chapter division presents –
the break between Chapters 4 and 5 of Wisdom!
The very last verse of Chapter 4 begins a new section – “The Judgment of
the Wicked.” It takes that one verse in
Chapter 4 and then all of Chapter 5.
Then a new section begins with the start of Chapter 6. What – the Bible people didn’t realize they
should start Chapter 5 one verse earlier?
C’mon!
It’s a big revenge fantasy.
He imagines the bad guys quaking with fear when their day of judgment
comes. And who shall be among the
judgers? The good people they
mocked! The good people can confront
their old oppressors now.
I think we’re learning about the writer of Wisdom here. He’s a guy who got picked up. A guy who was maltreated. The way he pressed his points too far in
Chapter 4 and the way this one begins, I get the feeling the writer is a lot
more at home with theology and books than in the public square with
people. Hell, any social awkwardness
would explain why he pushed his points too far in Chapter 4.
Now he wants his revenge.
It reads like a junior high kid sick of being bullied. That’s relatable (all too relatable, for me
anyway), but it’s not the most inspiring bit of theology. Shouldn’t you grow out of this phase at some
point? Move on with life.
There are some nice turns of phrase – this guy is at home
with the written word – but it all strikes me as a silly adolescent revenge
fantasy; by someone who should be too old to really think too much about this
stuff.
Near the end, it has the phrase “A mighty wind.” I wonder if that’s where Christopher Guest
got it from? Probably not, but who
knows?
CHAPTER 6
This is directed at kings.
It tells them to take heed. They
are only the ministers of God’s kingdoms so they should follow his laws … or
else. Look, the lowly and weak might be
pardoned by God for their misdeeds, but not the kings.
They should follow God’s laws and look up to wisdom.
Apparently, wisdom first begins with disciplining yourself to follow God’s
laws.
I don’t really have much to say about it. This one just left me flat.
CHAPTER 7
This entire chapter is from the point of view of
Solomon. (Which is something that
actually began at the tale end of Chapter 6, but it’s all of Chapter 7 – and
apparently beyond).
There really isn’t much to say about it. This is just a love poem to wisdom. Odd, but perhaps even odder is how it fits
right in with this section of the Bible.
At one point, the Bible says, “For God loves nothing so much as one who
dwells with Wisdom.” As was the case in
Proverbs, I find that a fascinating and telling notion. It isn’t obedience to
God. That’s big in the Torah, but here
it’s not the cardinal virtue. It’s not
even faith in God. It’s wisdom. Sure, the idea is that wisdom comes from
knowing the rules of God, but wisdom itself is centered more on the powers of
the human mind. For all the talk of the
ancient Greeks being the originators in rational thought, you get some of that
here from the Solomonic tradition.
(Then again, I wonder how much Greek influence is here. The reason this book isn’t in the Protestant
and Jewish Bibles, after all, is because the oldest copy of it is in Greek, not
Hebrew or Aramaic).
CHAPTER 8
This one starts one as a flat-out love poem to wisdom. In fact, wisdom is idealized as a female,
and we’re told of it (er, her): “Her I loved and sought after from my youth; I
sought to take her for my bride and was enamored of her beauty.” Yep, that’s a love poem al right.
It segues into something more philosophical, but it’s just
more generalized words of praise of wisdom.
Folks, this gets old. Give me
something more concrete to hold on to.
Otherwise, it’s less about wisdom and more about how many flowery
phrases the writer can come up with.
Look at the quote in the previous paragraph. While it’s he can make an effective analogy between wisdom and a
woman, it really doesn’t tell you anything about wisdom at all. He could be talking about a girl. Or a car.
Or anything that means a lot to him.
We’re learning about the writer, not his subject. He loves wisdom, but at a certain point in
time, when a person is so enamored with something so much, the object itself
doesn’t matter. It’s just the person’s
feelings for it that matter overall.
That’s what Luis Bunuel was thinking when he made his movie,
“That Obscure Object of Desire” (a film about a man who loves a woman, and
midway through a completely different actress plays the same part, with no difference. The object doesn’t matter, it’s the desire
that matters).
Yeah, I know I’m off on a tangent. But there really isn’t much to say about this, now is there?
CHAPTER 9
This is a prayer of Solomon – a prayer to God, but it’s a
prayer to God about wisdom. God
established all things in his wisdom, and Solomon requests wisdom to rule
wisely. It’s through wisdom that all is
made and all is possible. God is the
driver, but wisdom is the vehicle.
CHAPTER 10
This chapter recounts the main events of Genesis and the
opening half of Exodus, but giving all credit to wisdom. It’s wisdom that aided Adam and Noah and
Abraham and Lot and Jacob and Joseph and Moses. And wisdom went away from Cain.
Click here for the rest of the book.
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