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The Christian theologian Athanasius uses the Wisdom of Solomon as an authoritative source of theology when he repeats its teaching that death entered the world through the envy of the devil, showing how it was influenced by Jewish traditions.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Wisdom of Solomon 2:24
Deuterocanon
21 Thus they reasoned, and they were led astray; for their wickedness blinded them, 22 and they didn’t know the mysteries of God, neither did they hope for wages of holiness, nor did they discern that there is a prize for blameless souls. 23 Because God created man for incorruption, and made him an image of his own everlastingness; 24 but death entered into the world by the envy of the devil, and those who belong to him experience it.
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word 5:2
Early Christian
2 For because the Word dwelt with them, even their natural corruption did not come near them, as Wisdom also says: God made man for incorruption, and as an image of His own eternity; but through the envy of the devil death came into the world. But once this had happened, people began to die, and from then on corruption prevailed against them, gaining even more than its natural power over the whole race, since, because of the transgression of the commandment, it had the threat of the Deity as a further advantage against them.
Date: 335 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... As Athanasius does not expound the whole faith, even less does he engage in speculation for its own sake, though he touches in passing on a number of matters of interest to theological experts. Man's original state, apparently, was one of natural perfection as the near image of God to which, had he not fallen, the gift of immortality would easily have been added — as in the book of Wisdom, it is by the envy of the devil that death came into the world (3-6; Wisdom of Solomon 2:23-24). We are not told how the old deceiver fell into his deception; he is not worth so much attention. The coming of the Word is a victory over the usurper and his angels. As part of it the Word, being man, pays for man and as man the sacrifice which fallen man could never pay, but there is no special statement as to why this is necessary ..."
Edward R. Hardy, Christology of the Later Fathers (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1977), 48.
* 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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