The Book of Wisdom

The Old Testament Book of Wisdom is part of the Catholic bible, but not included in Protestant bibles. I think that is very sad and the loss of some wonderful scriptural insight, because the Book of Wisdom was written about a hundred years before the coming of Christ. To quote from my St. Joseph New Catholic Edition Bible:

"Its author, whose name is not known to us, was a member off the Jewish community at Alexandria in Egypt. He wrote in Greek, in a style patterned on that of Hebrew verse. At times he speaks in the person of Solomon, placing his teachings on the lips of the wise king of Hebrew tradition in order to emphasize their value. His profound knowledge of the earlier Old Testament writings is reflected in almost every line of the book, and marks him, like Ben Sirach, as an outstanding representative of religious devotion and learning among the sages of post-exilic Judaism."

Lawrence Boadt in his fine book "Reading the Old Testament" makes these observations about the Book of Wisdom:

"(it) is known only in Greek and may be the last book of the Old Testament to be written"

"the first ten chapters are quite conservative in seeing the goodness of wisdom in creation as a gift of God that has been specially revealed to Israel"

"the main interest of the author is to reassure the Jewish community living in Egypt that keeping their faith is worthwhile despite the hardships in a pagan land"

"(it) tries to use deep philosophical terms but succeeds in making wisdom so abstract that it clashes with the Israelite tradition of wisdom as practical and concrete"

"its intense concern with two themes: (1) salvation history as a lesson for learning wisdom, and (2) immortality as an explanation of how God rewards the suffering of the just"

Many passages from the Book of Wisdom are included in Catholic liturgy. I do think that some of its power of consolation and encouragement plus the lifting of wisdom into a more spiritual gloss are of great value and insight, which is overlooked by those who neither have access to this book in Protestant bibles, or is not studied as deeply as it might be. My feeling is that it is not a coincidence that this book was written a mere one hundred years before Jesus Christ lived, and that it was written by a pious Jew who wanted to encourage those who wearied in pagan persecution. If one reads the Book of Wisdom with that thought, there is much in it that is like the Holy Spirit reflected some light in advance to illuminate the time of Jesus Christ - and we are somewhat in these times today, weary of the persecution and diminishing of the world through secular oppression.

I hope to quote some parts of the Book of Wisdom in this blog and add my thoughts about how to take to heart those scripture readings.