Texts in Conversation
The Christian theologian Ambrose uses the Wisdom of Solomon as an authoritative source for teaching theology, quoting its description that the Spirit of God fills all things and knows what everyone says and thinks.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Wisdom of Solomon 1:7
Deuterocanon
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. 8 Therefore no one who utters unrighteous things will be unseen; neither will Justice, when it convicts, pass him by. 9 For in his counsels the ungodly will be searched out, and the sound of his words will come to the Lord to bring his lawless deeds to conviction;
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Early Christian
But so that they do not object that this was said according to the flesh, though He alone from Whose flesh went forth virtue to heal all, was more than all; yet, as the Lord fills all things, so, too, we read of the Spirit: For the Spirit of the Lord filled the whole world. And you find it said of all who had consorted with the Apostles that, filled with the Holy Spirit they spoke the word of God with boldness. You see that the Spirit gives both fullness and boldness, Whose operation the archangel announces to Mary, saying: The Holy Spirit shall come on you.
Date: 390–395 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... While the nineteen chapters comprising this work provided a well of wisdom for the Fathers to plumb (Augustine alone refers to Wisdom of Solomon more than eight hundred times), Wisdom of Solomon 7:22-8:1 in particular proved to be a favorite text for early Christian writers. In this passage wisdom is personified and characterized by twenty-one attributes, including such theologically provocative statements as “For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness” and, “For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty”. On hundreds of occasions early Christian writers linked Wisdom 7 with such christologically significant New Testament passages as Colossians 1:15, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Hebrews 1:4, and John 14:9, 10. This christological correspondence became especially important in the fourth century with the rise of Arianism, and the Arian debate also raised pneumatological questions to which the Wisdom of Solomon could speak. For example, Ambrose linked Wisdom of Solomon 7:22-23 with 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 to explain the Holy Spirit’s role in dispensing and developing wisdom and discernment within the Church. The Donatist theologian Tyconius, a contemporary of Ambrose, made this same textual connection as well ..."
Charles Kannengiesser, Handbook of Patristic Exegesis: The Bible in Ancient Christianity (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 305–306.
* 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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