Texts in Conversation
The Wisdom of Solomon uses the Greek Septuagint translation of Genesis to describe humans as “earthborn” and “first-formed.” This language may reflect an interpretation that death was not a punishment but a natural result of being formed from the earth.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Genesis 2:7
Septuagint
6 But there rose a fountain out of the earth, and watered the whole face of the earth. 7 And God formed the man of dust of the earth, and breathed upon his face the breath of life, and the man became a living soul. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and placed there the man whom he had formed.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Wisdom of Solomon 7:1
Deuterocanon
1 I myself am also mortal, like everyone else, and am a descendant of one formed first and born of the earth. 2 I was molded into flesh in the time of ten months in my mother’s womb, being compacted in blood from the seed of man and pleasure of marriage. 3 I also, when I was born, drew in the common air, and fell upon the kindred earth, uttering, like all, for my first voice, the same cry.
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The focus on mortality in Wisdom of Solomon 7:1 is entirely dependent on the J creation account. The rare substantive adjective “first-formed,” for example, is a nominalized form of the verb from LXX Genesis 2:7. Additionally, Adam is described as “earthborn” since he was formed “from the earth” (LXX Genesis 2:7). Like Ben Sira, the author of Wisdom of Solomon sees mortality in the creation account of Genesis 2, apart from any reference to Adam’s transgression. The implied logic of Wisdom of Solomon 7:1 is explicitly stated by Philo in the Exposition on the Law. Mortality and perishability are inherent to being “earthborn” (Special Laws 2.124; On the Creation of the World 82; see also Questions and Answers on Genesis 1.51). Interpreting Genesis 2:7, Philo argues that a human being is a “composite” creature, a result of combining an “earthy,” “mortal” body with the “divine breath,” which is the “immortal” soul (On the Creation of the World 135; see also Plato, Phaedo 79b–80a). As Karina Martin Hogan argues concerning Wisdom of Solomon 7:1, “The universality of physical mortality [...] is associated with the fact that the first man was formed from the earth (Genesis 2:7).” ..."
Tyler Allen Stewart, “‘The Present Evil Age’: The Origin and Persistence of Evil in Galatians” (diss., Marquette University, 2019), 92–93.
* 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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