Library/Deuterocanon
Wisdom of Solomon
Personified Wisdom, the immortality of the righteous, a retelling of the plagues, and a critique of idolatry. Greek philosophy in a Jewish register. Death entered the world by the devil’s envy — a sentence that later Christian demonology will not forget.
- Status
- Catholic & Orthodox deuterocanon
- Date
- 1st century BCE – 1st century CE, Alexandria
- Languages
- Greek
- Setting
- A royal speaker addresses pagan kings
What it contains
- Immortality of the just
- The figure of Wisdom
- Idols
- A midrash of the Exodus
Why it sits outside most canons
Greek original, philosophical tone, no Hebrew original recovered for the canon of Jamnia’s heirs.
Themes
- Wisdom
- Immortality
- Idolatry
- Exodus
- Devil
Passages
Wisdom 2:24
By the envy of the devil death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it.