Justice and the Gift of Life

Chapter 1

1 Love righteousness, all you who are judges of the earth. Think of the Lord with a good mind. Seek him in singleness of heart, 2 because he is found by those who don’t put him to the test, and is manifested to those who trust him. 3 for crooked thoughts separate from God. His Power convicts when it is tested, and exposes the foolish; 4 because wisdom will not enter into a soul that devises evil,⁠ nor dwell in a body that is enslaved by sin.⁠ 5 For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and will depart from thoughts that are without understanding, and will be ashamed when unrighteousness has come in.⁠ 6 For wisdom is a spirit who loves man, and she will not hold a blasphemer guiltless for his lips, because God is witness of his inmost self,⁠ and is a true overseer of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue. 7 Because the spirit of the Lord has filled the world,⁠ and that which holds all things together knows what is said.⁠ 8 Therefore no one who utters unrighteous things will be unseen; neither will Justice, when it convicts, pass him by. 9 For in his counsels the ungodly will be searched out,⁠ and the sound of his words will come to the Lord to bring his lawless deeds to conviction; 10 because a jealous ear listens to all things, and the noise of murmurings is not hidden. 11 Beware then of unprofitable murmuring, and keep your tongue from slander; because no secret utterance will go on its way void, and a lying mouth destroys a soul.⁠ 12 Don’t court death in the error of your life. Don’t draw destruction upon yourselves by the works of your hands; 13 because God didn’t make death, neither does he delight when the living perish.⁠ 14 For he created all things that they might have being. The generative powers of the world are wholesome, and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor has Hades royal dominion upon earth;⁠ 15 for righteousness is immortal,

The Wicked Choose Death

16 but ungodly men by their hands and their words summoned death; deeming him a friend they pined away. They made a covenant with him, because they are worthy to belong with him.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Wisdom of Solomon 1:7 and Ambrose, On the Holy Spirit 1.7

Deuterocanon · Early Christian

Summary

The Christian theologian Ambrose uses the Wisdom of Solomon as an authoritative source for teaching theology, quoting its description that the Spirit of God fills all things and knows what everyone says and thinks.

Passages

Wisdom of Solomon 1:7

Deuterocanon

5 For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and will depart from thoughts that are without understanding, and will be ashamed when unrighteousness has come in. 6 For wisdom is a spirit who loves man, and she will not hold a blasphemer guiltless for his lips, because God is witness of his inmost self, and is a true overseer of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue. 7 Because the spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together knows what is said. 8 Therefore no one who utters unrighteous things will be unseen; neither will Justice, when it convicts, pass him by. 9 For in his counsels the ungodly will be searched out, and the sound of his words will come to the Lord to bring his lawless deeds to conviction;

50 BCE – 50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Wisdom of Solomon

Ambrose, On the Holy Spirit 1.7

Early Christian

But so that they do not object that this was said according to the flesh, though He alone from Whose flesh went forth virtue to heal all, was more than all; yet, as the Lord fills all things, so, too, we read of the Spirit: For the Spirit of the Lord filled the whole world. And you find it said of all who had consorted with the Apostles that, filled with the Holy Spirit they spoke the word of God with boldness. You see that the Spirit gives both fullness and boldness, Whose operation the archangel announces to Mary, saying: The Holy Spirit shall come on you.

390–395 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ambrose, On the Holy Spirit 1

References

"... While the nineteen chapters comprising this work provided a well of wisdom for the Fathers to plumb (Augustine alone refers to Wisdom of Solomon more than eight hundred times), Wisdom of Solomon 7:22-8:1 in particular proved to be a favorite text for early Christian writers. In this passage wisdom is personified and characterized by twenty-one attributes, including such theologically provocative statements as “For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness” and, “For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty”. On hundreds of occasions early Christian writers linked Wisdom 7 with such christologically significant New Testament passages as Colossians 1:15, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Hebrews 1:4, and John 14:9, 10. This christological correspondence became especially important in the fourth century with the rise of Arianism, and the Arian debate also raised pneumatological questions to which the Wisdom of Solomon could speak. For example, Ambrose linked Wisdom of Solomon 7:22-23 with 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 to explain the Holy Spirit’s role in dispensing and developing wisdom and discernment within the Church. The Donatist theologian Tyconius, a contemporary of Ambrose, made this same textual connection as well ..."

Charles Kannengiesser, Handbook of Patristic Exegesis: The Bible in Ancient Christianity (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 305–306.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Justice and the Gift of Life

The Wicked Choose Death

Wisdom of Solomon19 chapters

Compare Wisdom of Solomon 1:7 and Ambrose, On the Holy Spirit 1.7

Summary

Passages

Wisdom of Solomon 1:7

Ambrose, On the Holy Spirit 1.7

References

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