Wisdom of Solomon Complete Overview

The Wisdom of Solomon doesn't name Solomon as its author, but in the center of the text, it reveals that he is the speaker asking God for wisdom on how to rule. This makes the text a pseudepigraphon: a later book written as if it were by a popular character from the Old Testament. So while Solomon did not write the book, it is inspired by the wisdom tradition associated with him and develops key ideas found in his works. Take for example, Proverbs 8: Wisdom was at the beginning of creation with God bringing order and life to the world. The Wisdom of Solomon simply assumes that the reader already knows this and explores how this same Wisdom relates to God and how it worked in stories in the Torah. The Wisdom of Solomon was not a part of the Old Testament that Jesus and the Apostles read but was very important for them and even influenced some of their writings. The book is broken up into three main movements:

CHAPTERS 1-5

The book opens up addressing kings and rulers. It calls them to love wisdom and justice and let it guide them in their every decision. God did not create evil or death so anyone who does evil cannot expect to receive wisdom from God but to create death and destruction for themselves. However the wisdom with which God first created and ordered the world is still observable and available to anyone who He finds to be right today.

Next, we see how the evil think: life is short and sad, we are only alive because of random chance, and when we die, nothing that we did will matter. So the evil plan how to take advantage of the little time they have left: they will spend all they have to live in luxury and pleasure and they will oppress those that are poor and lower in society. They say that those that do what is good and right are inconvenient for them and hate him for calling them out for doing evil and claiming to be a child of God. So they plan to insult and attack him and kill him shamefully. But the evil are unaware of God’s plans: that humans will live forever and are all important images of God.

The wise and just people, however, are protected by God. Even though they may seem to suffer, they know that they have hope in God - That He will save them from their suffering. They learn from discipline and become better. They will even be made glorious and be rulers over nations. When people trust in God, they know that He has ultimate control and the last word and they are enabled to live faithfully to His wisdom. In the end, God will punish the evil and rescue the just and give them immortality.

CHAPTERS 6-9

The next section opens up with an address to kings to listen to and love wisdom similar to the opening of the first section. Kings have been given their authority over their nations by God and can do justice for the poor and oppressed by searching out the wisdom of God and relying on it and living by it. When they live by wisdom, they become the just person. Wisdom is personified as a beautiful woman who desires to teach anyone who is willing to hear from her. When they seek her out, they can rescue others and sustain order in their kingdom much like God in sustaining the order of the world.

Then, it is made clear that it is Solomon who is the speaker: he is just an ordinary person like everyone else who was born vulnerable. But Solomon prayed and asked God to give Him wisdom (see 1 Kings 3:4-14 and 2 Chronicles 1:6-12). He loved wisdom more than money or other good things. Knowing that he would become king, He asked for God to guide him and show him how to rule with justice. He recognizes that God rules the world in justice and desires to understand the meaning behind His way so he can rule just like God.

Now remember how God created the world in wisdom in Proverbs 8? The Wisdom of Solomon takes this one step forward in saying “She is the breath of God’s power and a pure reflection of the glory of the Almighty” (8:25) and “She is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the work of God, and image of His goodness” (8:26). Wisdom is paradoxically portrayed as an attribute distinct from God yet coming from God’s very self and reflecting His essence at the same time.

This section is concluded with another prayer of Solomon asking for God to give him the same wisdom that He used to create the world: “O God of my ancestors and Lord of mercy, who have made everything by Your word, and by Your wisdom have formed humanity to have dominion over the creatures You made, and rule the world in holiness and righteousness, and pronounce judgment in uprightness of soul, give me the wisdom that sits by Your throne, and do not reject me from among Your servants.” (9:1-4).

CHAPTERS 10-19

The final section of the book applies the ideas found earlier to the Torah to explain what wisdom looked like in the stories of the Bible. It shows how God brought deliverance to the just and judgment on the wicked according to their deeds - But instead of saying God did it, it simply says it was Lady Wisdom! Remember how God created humans in God’s image - That was actually Wisdom! The judgment of Cain and the Nephilim in Genesis 6 - Wisdom! Abraham, Lot, Isaac, Jacob, and all of Israel coming out of Egypt - It's all Wisdom! It's as if Wisdom was the one acting on God’s behalf in administering justice and acting in the world and it goes even further in-depth on how Wisdom does that through exploring the stories found in Israel’s Exodus and wilderness stories.

The way that Wisdom administers justice is by granting to Israel the needs that were taken away from the Egyptians on account of their evil. “For through the very things by which their enemies were punished, they themselves received benefit in their need.” (11:5). So, for example, the Egyptians were punished with their water being made undrinkable when it was turned into blood while Israel enjoyed water coming from a rock when they were thirsty in the wilderness. He sent animals to destroy Egypt in the plagues but those same animals also went in front of Israel to win their wars against other nations ahead of them. Again, animals tormented the Egyptians but were miraculously provided as food for Israel. Wisdom rained down fire and hail over Egypt but heavenly bread over Israel. There was an intense darkness over Egypt that caused terror but a bright light where Israel was and a pillar of fire to guide their way out of Egypt. This last section is full of other examples of Wisdom using one thing to bring punishment for the evil people and protection and life for Israel.

Another extremely interesting part of this whole section is how Wisdom is presented as punishing the wicked. The wicked do evil against the just but, through Wisdom, that same evil that they do against the just comes upon themselves. All of this is highlighted from these same stories and especially the ten plagues. For example, the Egyptians were evil in drowning all of the male Israelite babies in the Nile and so Wisdom reversed that by turning the Nile to blood and in destroying Egypt in the Reed Sea. The Egyptians worshiped animals, so Wisdom sent animals against them to attack and punish them. The Egyptians destroyed all the firstborn of Israel and so Wisdom destroyed their firstborn.

The Wisdom of Solomon explores how the Wisdom of God has been alive and active throughout history. It shows how Wisdom guides those that fear and follow God by giving them hope for the life to come. On the other hand, Wisdom gives over to those that do evil the natural consequences of the evil that they do to others. This is how Wisdom works throughout the world to do justice and rightly respond to the evil and good in the world: its the very evil that the wicked do to the good that God brings upon themselves as their punishment and simultaneously uses that same evil as an agent of salvation for those who fear Him. That’s the Wisdom of Solomon.

COMPARE TO JESUS BEN SIRAH'S FOCUS ON WISDOM MADE MANIFEST IN THE TORAH!