Texts in Conversation
The Wisdom of Solomon and 1 Enoch 102 reflect a developing Jewish tradition that expresses skepticism toward wealth and those who act unjustly. Both describe sinners enjoying their wealth and prosperity while disregarding the righteous.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 102:9
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
8 And what will they receive and what will they see forever? Look, they too have died, and from now on they shall never see light.' 9 I say to you, you sinners, you are content to eat and drink and rob and sin and strip people bare and accumulate wealth and see good days. 10 Have you observed the righteous how their end transpires, that no violence is found in them until their death?
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Wisdom of Solomon 2:6
Deuterocanon
4 Our name will be forgotten in time. No one will remember our works. Our life will pass away as the traces of a cloud, and will be scattered as is a mist, when it is chased by the rays of the sun, and overcome by its heat. 5 For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow, and our end doesn’t retreat, because it is securely sealed, and no one turns it back. 6 “Come therefore and let’s enjoy the good things that exist. Let’s use the creation earnestly as in our youth. 7 Let’s fill ourselves with costly wine and perfumes, and let no spring flower pass us by. 8 Let’s crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither.
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The author portrays the sinners’ understanding of reward as misconstrued (compare Wisdom of Solomon 2:6–12). The sinners’ perspective is not the consequence of wisdom or piety, but rather comes at the expense of others. If there is no distinction between the righteous and wicked in death, then they might as well sin if it means this will bring them prosperity (as e.g. the caricature of the sinners in Proverbs 1:11–14). However, the opponents’ view would not have necessarily been an open manifesto to engage in sin per se, but rather for them would have been an acceptable sapiential tradition ..."
Loren T. Stuckenbruck, 1 Enoch 91–108 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2007), 510.
* 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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