Texts in Conversation
The Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria quotes the Wisdom of Solomon as an authoritative source on creation and divine care. By using its description of a world sustained by mercy and love, he helps bridge Jewish and Greek thought.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Wisdom of Solomon 11:24
Deuterocanon
22 Because the whole world before you is as a grain in a balance, and as a drop of dew that comes down upon the earth in the morning. 23 But you have mercy on all men, because you have power to do all things, and you overlook the sins of men so that they may repent. 24 For you love all things that are, and abhor none of the things which you made; for you never would have formed anything if you hated it. 25 How would anything have endured unless you had willed it? Or that which was not called by you, how would it have been preserved? 26 But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Sovereign Lord, you who love the living.
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 1.8
Paedagogus
Early Christian
At this stage some rise up, saying that the Lord, by reason of the rod, and threatening, and fear, is not good; misapprehending, as appears, the Scripture which says, And he that fears the Lord will turn to his heart; and most of all, oblivious of His love, in that for us He became man. For more suitably to Him, the prophet prays in these words: Remember us, for we are dust; that is, Sympathize with us; for You know from personal experience of suffering the weakness of the flesh. In this respect, therefore, the Lord the Instructor is most good and unimpeachable, sympathizing as He does from the exceeding greatness of His love with the nature of each man. For there is nothing which the Lord hates. For assuredly He does not hate anything, and yet wish that which He hates to exist.
Date: 198 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The most ancient of the Fathers to use Wisdom was Clement of Rome who quoted Wisdom 11:22 and 12:12 mixing both from memory (Ep. I ad Cor. 27:5). Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History 5:6) said that Irenaeus used Wisdom. From the time of Clement of Alexandria, the Fathers continually used Wisdom and often called it inspired. Athanasius, Eusebius, Cyprian, and Augustine (though not whole-heartedly) cited it as Scripture, that is, they regarded it as canonical and inspired (and written by Solomon), Origen, Didymus, Ephraem Syrus, Hippolytus Romanus, Chrysostom, and others referred to it in proof of doctrines in the same manner as they referred to the rest of the Bible. The views found in Wisdom are advanced beyond the Old Testament and contain many thoughts found in the New Testament. Perhaps its union of Jewish and Greek ideas explains its anticipation of doctrines and language found in the New Testament ..."
Phillip W. Berwick, The Way of Salvation in the Wisdom of Solomon (Boston University, 1958), 141.
* 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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