Texts in Conversation
In 2 Maccabees, a mother urges her sons to stay faithful by saying she did not give them life because the creator shapes all things. This recalls Ecclesiastes, which says people cannot know how bones form in the womb and views this mystery as God’s work.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Ecclesiastes 11:5
Hebrew Bible
3 If the clouds are full of rain, they will empty themselves on the earth, and whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, the tree will lie wherever it falls. 4 He who watches the wind will not sow, and he who observes the clouds will not reap. 5 Just as you do not know the path of the wind or how the bones form in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. 6 Sow your seed in the morning, and do not stop working until the evening; for you do not know which activity will succeed—whether this one or that one, or whether both will prosper equally. 7 Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for a person to see the sun.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
2 Maccabees 7:22
Deuterocanon
20 But above all, the mother was marvelous and worthy of honorable memory; for when she watched seven sons perishing within the space of one day, she bore the sight with a good courage because of her hope in the Lord. 21 She exhorted each one of them in the language of their fathers, filled with a noble spirit and stirring up her woman’s thoughts with manly courage, saying to them, 22 “I don’t know how you came into my womb. It wasn’t I who gave you your spirit and your life. It wasn’t I who brought into order the first elements of each one of you. 23 Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the first origin of man and devised the first origin of all things, in mercy gives back to you again both your spirit and your life, as you now treat yourselves with contempt for his laws’ sake.”
Date: 160–63 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The involvement of Yahweh with the formation of the fetus seems to be well established in such passages as Psalm 139:13–18; Job 10:10–12; Ecclesiastes 11:5; Psalm 22:9–10; 2 Maccabees 7:22–23; Wisdom of Solomon 7:1–3; see also the Egyptian Hymn of Aton. If this interpretation is correct, the verse means that the suppliant does not claim to be simply a victim of circumstance (verse 7) but confesses that no time in his or her existence as a human being has been without the gifting of divine truth and wisdom. Thus the verse serves to strengthen the rightness of God’s judgment of the speaker’s sin in verse 6b. The verse is far too uncertain, however, for much confidence in any interpretation ..."
Marvin E. Tate, Word Biblical Commentary: Psalms 51-100 (Dallas: Word, 2000), 45.
* 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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