Wisdom of Solomon

by Mark Giszczak, Mary Healy (Editor), Peter Williamson (Editor)

The 17 New Testament volumes in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series have been widely acclaimed. Now the series editors offer readable Old Testament commentaries that integrate the best of contemporary biblical scholarship with the traditional understanding of the Old Testament books as prophesying and prefiguring Christ.

Written from a standpoint of faith in the Holy Spirit's inspiration of Scripture, CCSS Old Testament commentaries are designed for preaching, teaching, and applying Scripture to Christian life today. Accessibly written yet substantive, they include quotes from church documents, church fathers, and saints and are packed with features that make them particularly useful to those doing ministry in Catholic parishes.

General editors for the series are Mary Healy (Sacred Heart Major Seminary), Mark Giszczak (Augustine Institute), and Peter S. Williamson (Sacred Heart Major Seminary).

208 pages, Paperback

Published February 13, 2024

Reviews

[Kristjan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a Catholic commentary on the [apocryphal] Book of Wisdom [of Solomon], which is organized on the three parts of the scripture: The Book of Eschatology, The Book of Wisdom and the Book of History. This is preceded by an extensive Introduction covering the history, structure and form of this scripture (with a summary of important connections with the New Testament). Each part is further divided into pericopes with references to the Old Testament, New Testament, Catechism and Lectionary (where applicable) before a brief summary and verse by verse [roughly] commentary. Where possible (as cited in the Introduction) there is a reflection/application or a discussion on the connections with the Gospel/New Testament to end a section. The commentary itself is fairly straight forward with few surprises, but it does a decent job of providing context as well as textual analysis. The Book of Wisdom is not really something a lot of folks spent much time on; probably why there were not a lot of commentaries for it … so given all that we get here along with the excellent organization, this work gets top marks.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

Part 1. Life and Death (1:1-6-21)
- Love Righteousness (1:1-15)
- Ungodly Reasoning Wisdom (1:16-2:24)
- The Just and the Unjust Wisdom (3:1-4:20)
- The Judgement of the Ungodly and the Reward of the Righteous (5:1-23)
- Honor Wisdom (6:1-21)
Part 2. Solomon’s Pursuit of Wisdom (6:22-9:18)
- Solomon’s Quest for Wisdom (6:22-8:1)
- Solomon’s Love for Wisdom (8:2-21)
- Solomon’s Prayer for Wisdom (9:1-18)
Part 3. Book of History (10:1-19:22)
- Prologue: Wisdom from Adam to Moses (10:1-21)
- Water from the Rock versus River of Blood (11:1-14)
- Excursus: God’s Mercy toward Egyptians and Canaanites (11:15-12:27)
- Excursus: Against Idol Worship (13:1-15:19)
- Unappetizing Animals versus Delicious Quail (16:1-4)
- Lethal Creatures versus Saving Bronze Serpent (16:5-14)
- Storms of Wrath versus Manna from Heaven (16:15-29)
- Plague of Darkness versus Pillar of Light (17:1-18:4)
- Death of the Firstborn versus Israel’s Deliverance from Death (18:5-25)
- Drowning in the Sea versus Being Saved by the Sea (19:1-9)
- Epilogue: Summary and Doxology (19:10-22)

Some of the other points that really got my attention are:

In its essence, wisdom has three distinct yet related meanings: (1) God’s perfect knowledge, (2) the knowledge of causes that human beings can come to possess, and (3) the habitual seeking of knowledge with integrity of heart.

Since the Wisdom of Solomon owes a debt to Greek philosophy, it contains many unique doctrinal perspectives that are only latent in the other books of the Old Testament. These ideas resurface in the New Testament and are incorporated into Christian teaching.

The Wisdom of Solomon stands at the very end of the Old Testament era and on the cusp of the New. It is the last Old Testament book to be written. Its meditation on salvation history allows us to take a deep breath and look back on the Old Testament before proceeding to the New.

Building on the imagery of Isa 59:16–17, the author describes the Lord putting on battle armor to mete out punishment on the ungodly. Each piece of armor is given a metaphorical meaning: the armor is zeal; the breastplate is righteousness; the helmet is justice (Greek krisis, “judgment”); the shield is holiness; and the sword is wrath.

Wisdom will grant Solomon not only virtue or honor but two kinds of †immortality—a personal immortality of the soul, as presented earlier (1:15; 3:1, 4; 4:1), and an everlasting remembrance, in which his memory will be held in honor by those who come after him (compare Sir 39:9–11).

The final verse of the prayer highlights the powerful effects of wisdom: (1) setting right one’s path—giving humans a sure route to living for God; (2) teaching humanity—likely a reference to the law of Moses; and (3) saving humanity. James Reese explains that “Lady Wisdom is a personification of God’s saving grace at work in the world.”

The idea corresponds to the wider biblical theology of retribution, that “those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same” (Job 4:8). Wisdom’s view of retribution also corresponds to the legal version of this concept, the so-called lex talionis, the “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” (Exod 21:24), wherein legal penalties are designed to be proportionate and befitting.

Though Wisdom teaches that God’s immortal spirit is in all things, it does not teach †pantheism (that concept that the universe is God), but rather it reasserts the biblical teaching that the “breath of life” that sustains all creatures comes from God (Gen 2:7; Job 27:3; Ps 104:29–30; Eccles 12:7).

Wisdom counters that God did not want to hurt them but wanted to save them. The bronze serpent then was not an animal idol (although some Israelites later treated it as one, 2 Kings 18:4) but a token of deliverance or “sign of salvation” (Wis 16:6 NABRE).

Instead of receiving the Hebrews as honored guests, they enslaved them. To explain how terrible their wicked acts are, the author compares them to others, the despicable men of Sodom (Gen 19:1–11), a biblical comparison for emphasizing the gravity of a sin (Lam 4:6; Matt 10:15).

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#WisdomOfSolomon #CCSS #NetGalley

[Julie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've really loved the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series covering the New Testament. The one thing I wished was that they would also cover the Old Testament. My wish is coming true as this commentary on the Book of Wisdom is the first in their planned OT series.

I will say that it was illuminating in two areas. The first is how much this book is a bridge between the Old Testament and the coming of Christ. It was likely written sometime between 31 BC and 37 AD. I hadn't realized before just how it overlapped with Christ's time. It combined Greek philosophy with God's revelation to Israel, in an attempt to convince cosmopolitan Alexandrian Jews to hold true to their faith and be able to intellectually defend it. I was fascinated by how many ways it showed ideas that surface strongly in the New Testament and Christian teaching.

The second is just how little the arguments made in "The Book of History" mattered to me. I can see that they were very important at the time for their audience. However, they didn't have much relevance for me, other than showing what the author was up against in battling a strongly pagan culture with the Jewish faith. That part was interesting strictly from a historical viewpoint.

This is an excellent commentary and exploration into religious thought right before the coming of Christ. I probably won't reread it because one of my discoveries is that I personally don't get much from the Wisdom of Solomon. However, it was worth reading just to find that out and see all the connections mentioned above.

[Darlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

This commentary on the Wisdom of Solomon is packed full of information. The structure is somewhat disorganized and disorienting. Overall, I found it difficult to focus on for long for more than a few pages. It is more just disseminating information than diving deep into the meaning.

[Richard Grebenc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally! CCSS is now delving into the OT! Fortunately, I followed up again on if they were going through with the OT and found out about this first offering. I devoured it as soon as it came out. In the pattern of the entire NT series, Giszczak does a wonderful job with commentary, sidebars, illustrations, and maps. A bit thinner volume than what we are used to with the NT books, but still indispensable for the Catholic scholar or anyone interested in the book of Wisdom. Looking forward to more volumes as they are released. Check out https://www.catholiccommentaryonsacre... to keep up with releases.