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The Christian theologian Origen uses the Wisdom of Solomon as an authoritative source for teaching and theology, quoting its emphasis that divine wisdom will not stay with a person who does not tell the truth.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Wisdom of Solomon 1:5
Deuterocanon
3 for crooked thoughts separate from God. His Power convicts when it is tested, and exposes the foolish; 4 because wisdom will not enter into a soul that devises evil, nor dwell in a body that is enslaved by sin. 5 For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and will depart from thoughts that are without understanding, and will be ashamed when unrighteousness has come in. 6 For wisdom is a spirit who loves man, and she will not hold a blasphemer guiltless for his lips, because God is witness of his inmost self, and is a true overseer of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue. 7 Because the spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together knows what is said.
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Origen, Contra Celsum 7.8
Against Celsus
Early Christian
I do not know what led Celsus, when saying, But what things were spoken or not spoken in the land of Judea, according to the custom of the country, to use the words or not spoken, as though implying that he was incredulous, and that he suspected that those things which were written were never spoken. In fact, he is unacquainted with these times; and he does not know that those prophets who foretold the coming of Christ, predicted a multitude of other events many years beforehand. He adds, with the view of casting a slight upon the ancient prophets, that they prophesied in the same way as we find them still doing among the inhabitants of Phœnicia and Palestine. But he does not tell us whether he refers to persons who are of different principles from those of the Jews and Christians, or to persons whose prophecies are of the same character as those of the Jewish prophets. However it be, his statement is false, taken in either way. For never have any of those who have not embraced our faith done anything approaching to what was done by the ancient prophets; and in more recent times, since the coming of Christ, no prophets have arisen among the Jews, who have confessedly been abandoned by the Holy Spirit on account of their impiety towards God, and towards Him of whom their prophets spoke. Moreover, the Holy Spirit gave signs of His presence at the beginning of Christ's ministry, and after His ascension He gave still more; but since that time these signs have diminished, although there are still traces of His presence in a few who have had their souls purified by the Gospel, and their actions regulated by its influence. For the holy Spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and remove from thoughts that are without understanding.
Date: 248 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Patristic writers cited the work frequently, especially in formulating Christological and trinitarian doctrine. Thus Ignatius applied to Christ language from 7:29–30 about Wisdom, and from 18:14–15 about the logos (Ephesians 18.2–3; Magnesians 8.2). Origen cited Wisdom’s attributes to support the eternal generation of the Son by the Father and the sharing of the Father and Son in the same essence. Augustine used the same passage to argue for the full equality of the persons of the trinity. Augustine also drew often on 9:15–17, according to which the perishable body weighs down the soul and spiritual insight requires the gift of the spirit, to formulate his anthropology; and he saw in the portrayal of the persecuted righteous one in 2:12–20 a prediction of Christ’s passion. Ambrose, among others, found a foreshadowing of the crucifixion in the reference to the saving wood of Noah’s ark: “Blessed is the wood by which righteousness comes” ..."
Randall D. Chesnutt, “Wisdom of Solomon,” in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Wisdom Literature, ed. Samuel L. Adams and Matthew Goff (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2020), 104–121.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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