Wisdom of Solomon 11:23

Deuterocanon

21 For it is always in your power to show great strength, and who can withstand the might of your arm? 22 Because the whole world before you is like a speck that tips the scales, and like a drop of morning dew that falls on the ground. 23 But you are merciful to all, for you can do all things, and you overlook people's sins, so that they may repent. 24 For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made, for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. 25 How would anything have endured if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? 26 You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living.

Acts 17:30

New Testament

26 From one man he made every nation of the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and the fixed limits of the places where they would live, 27 so that they would search for God and perhaps grope around for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 For in him we live and move about and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ 29 So since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by human skill and imagination. 30 Therefore, although God has overlooked such times of ignorance, he now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness, by a man whom he designated, having provided proof to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

 Notes and References

"... Even Bultmann, who, as we saw above, translated the word 'passed over' in the formula, maintains elsewhere that paresis bears the same sense as 'aphesis', namely, forgiveness. On the basis of extra-biblical usage, however, there is some indication that paresis should be taken as 'passing over, letting go unpunished.' Those who consider this to be the meaning of the word in Romans 3:25b point to Acts 17:30 as a parallel, although 'paresis' does not appear there ... Creed disagrees with some scholars who hold that in The Roman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus (VII, 37, 2) 'paresis' means 'remission' ... 'Paresis' here cannot mean acquittal, for the issue is not whether or not Marcius will be acquitted or condemned but whether the trial itself should be allowed to take place. Creed also points out that Dionysius elsewhere speaks of acquittal and then consistently uses 'aphesis' and 'aphienai' (VII, 46, and 60). Kuemmel, however, argues that 'paresis', meaning 'allowing to drop' in this passage from Dionysius, is not the same as 'passing over' and is closer to 'remission'; he argues that only the context of Romans 3:25b can decide the meaning of paresis in verse 25b (the meaning of the related verb, e.g. in Sirach 23:2 and Wisdom of Solomon 11:23(24), is also disputed) ..."

Lehenbauer, Ronald Romans 3:24-26: An Evaluation of Form Critical Studies (pp. 64-65) Concordia Seminary, 1968

 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.