Texts in Conversation
Genesis describes God create humans in his image. The Wisdom of Solomon uses this language to mock an idol-maker who carves a wooden god to resemble a human, describing them shaping a god in their own image.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 1:26
Hebrew Bible
25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the cattle according to their kinds, and all the creatures that creep along the ground according to their kinds. God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.” 27 God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.
Wisdom of Solomon 13:13
Deuterocanon
12 and burn the cast-off pieces of his work to prepare his food, and eat his fill. 13 But a cast-off piece from among them, useful for nothing, a stick crooked and full of knots, he takes and carves with care in his leisure, and shapes it with skill gained in idleness; he forms it in the likeness of a human being, 14 or makes it like some worthless animal, giving it a coat of red paint and coloring its surface red and covering every blemish in it with paint;
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Notes and References
… The irony in the book of Wisdom, as Luca Mazzinghi explains, has to be distinguished from sarcasm and parody or satire, for in contrast to these, it is not aimed at excoriating or ridiculing the adversary; it is based on an authentic quest for truth. In this sense, in Wisdom 2:9 the author puts a citation in the mouth of the wicked that undermines their claims; similarly, in Wisdom 13:10–19 the idolaters become the object of the author’s irony; in Wisdom 14:22 instead, according to Mazzinghi one may locate an ironic critique of the Pax Romana. Often, these ironies rely on subtle allusions that the reader is expected to recognize. By doing so, one may appreciate the theological insights that the author wants to communicate by means of irony …
Häner, Tobias and Virginia Miller
"Introduction: Reading Irony in Ancient Texts" in Häner, Tobias and Virginia Miller (eds.) Irony in the Bible: Between Subversion and Innovation
(p. 8) Brill, 2023
* 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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