Texts in Conversation
Augustine’s use of the Wisdom of Solomon shows how early Christian teaching incorporated Hellenistic Jewish traditions. His citation shows familiarity and trust in Wisdom as an authoritative source that could guide teaching and shape belief.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Wisdom of Solomon 8:21
Deuterocanon
19 Now I was a clever child, and received a good soul. 20 Or rather, being good, I came into an undefiled body. 21 But perceiving that I could not otherwise possess wisdom unless God gave her to me— and to know by whom the grace is given was itself a mark of understanding— I pleaded with the Lord and implored him, and with my whole heart I said:
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Augustine, Confessions 10.29
Early Christian
My whole hope is in your exceedingly great mercy and that alone. Give what you command and command what you will. You command continence from us, and when I knew, as it is said, that no one could be continent unless God gave it to him, even this was a point of wisdom to know whose gift it was. For by continence we are bound up and brought back together in the One, whereas before we were scattered abroad among the many. For anyone who loves, along with you, something else that he does not love for your sake loves you too little, Love, you who burn forever and are never quenched. Love, my God, kindle me! You command continence; give what you command, and command what you will.
Date: 397–400 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... the West, further from the home of the Hebrew canon, and knowing the Old Testament chiefly through the Latin version of the LXX, did not scruple to mingle non-canonical books with the canonical. Hilary and Ruffinus were doubtless checked, the one by the influence of Eastern theologians, the other by the scholarship of Jerome; but Hilary mentions that there were those who wished to raise the number of the canonical books to twenty-four by including Tobit and Judith in the canon. From the end of the fourth century the inclusion of the non-canonical books in Western lists is a matter of course. Even Augustine has no scruples on the subject; he makes the books of the Old Testament forty-four (de doctr. Chr. ii. 13 "his xliv libris Testamenti Veteris terminatur auctoritas"), and among them Tobit, Judith, and two books of Maccabees take rank with the histories; and the two Wisdoms, although he confesses that they were not the work of Solomon, are classed with the Prophets. His judgement was that of his Church ("sunt canonicae scripturae Salomonis libri quinque ... Tobias, Judith ... Machabaeorum libri duo"). The African Church had probably never known any other canon, and its belief prevailed wherever the Latin Bible was read ..."
Henry Barclay Swete, An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek: With an Appendix Containing the Letter of Aristeas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1900).
* 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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