Texts in Conversation
Deuteronomy describes Israel as God’s holy ones held in his hand, receiving his words as a sign of protection and belonging. The Wisdom of Solomon echoes this language to declare that the souls of the righteous are safely in God’s hand.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Deuteronomy 33:3
Hebrew Bible
1 This is the blessing Moses the man of God pronounced upon the Israelites before his death. 2 He said: “The Lord came from Sinai and revealed himself to Israel from Seir. He appeared in splendor from Mount Paran, and came forth with ten thousand holy ones. With his right hand he gave a fiery law to them. 3 Surely he loves the people; all your holy ones are in your hand8. And they sit at your feet, each receiving your words. 4 Moses delivered to us a law, an inheritance for the assembly of Jacob. 5 The Lord was king over Jeshurun, when the leaders of the people assembled, the tribes of Israel together.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Wisdom of Solomon 3:1
Deuterocanon
1 But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will touch them. 2 In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died. Their departure was considered a disaster, 3 and their travel away from us ruin, but they are in peace. 4 For even if in the sight of men they are punished, their hope is full of immortality. 5 Having borne a little chastening, they will receive great good; because God tested them, and found them worthy of himself.
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Fourth Maccabees 17:19 recites a line from LXX Deuteronomy 33:3 as a piece of evidence from ancient authority for the author’s claims concerning the destiny and current location of the martyrs (17:5, 18). Being located “under (ὑπό) God’s hands” (or “in God’s hands,” in the Hebrew text) is an image of protection. The author of Deuteronomy 33 wrote these words as part of a remembrance of God’s leadership and protection of the Hebrews through their wilderness journey. The author of 4 Maccabees, however, reads this typologically as an indication of God’s protection of God’s faithful ones - those who consecrate themselves to God through obedience to Torah, such as the martyrs - on their journey to their eternal home in God’s presence and as an affirmation of their arrival there in God’s presence. In other words, he reads the text much more in keeping with the sentiments of Wisdom of Solomon 3:1 (“the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God”) than with the original story of the exodus generation ..."
David A. DeSilva, 4 Maccabees: Introduction and Commentary on the Greek Text in Codex Sinaiticus, SEPT (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 248–249.
* 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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