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,

Texts in conversation

Compare Wisdom of Solomon 1:9 and Augustine, City of God 20.26

Deuterocanon · Early Christian

Summary

The Christian theologian Augustine’s use of the Wisdom of Solomon demonstrates how this Jewish wisdom was used authoritatively in Christian tradition, as he quotes its teaching about God knowing the thoughts of people and judging fairly.

Passages

Wisdom of Solomon 1:9

Deuterocanon

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.

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

Augustine, City of God 20.26

Early Christian · On the City of God Against the Pagans

“For,” as it is written, “in the thoughts of the wicked His examination shall be conducted.” And the apostle says, “The thoughts accusing or else excusing, on the day on which God shall judge the hidden things of men, according to my gospel in Jesus Christ.” Romans 2:15-16 In this way, then, the Lord will be a swift witness, when He suddenly brings back into the memory what will convict and punish the conscience.

426 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Augustine, City of God 20

References

"... In affirming the canonicity of the two ‘Solomonic’ books not written by Solomon, Augustine says of Wisdom and Sirach “the Church especially in the West has accepted them as authoritative from antiquity”; City of God 17.20). A survey of patristic comments on the liturgical use of what Rufinus called the ecclesiastical books bears out Augustine’s geographical distinction. Eastern sources restrict the liturgical use of documents to the books of the Jewish canon. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechesis 4.36–38) emphatically asserts that only the 22 books accepted by the Jews find a place in Christian liturgy, and he advises catechumens to maintain this standard in their private reading. Athanasius (Festal Letters 39) assigns the ecclesiastical books the role of elementary instruction in the faith, as do the Apostolic Canons (canon 85); this position seems to discount their use in the liturgy. The Council of Laodicea is more explicit; in the same context in which it limits the OT canon to 22 books ... However, the matter stood differently among Latin writers: Jerome, Rufinus, and Augustine all affirm that the ecclesiastical books are used in the corporate worship of the Church ... if the Church reads a ‘scriptural’ book, it is a canonical book. Similarly, Augustine responds to the objection of some that the Book of Wisdom is not canonical by arguing that its employment in the liturgy implies its divine authority ..."

Edmon L. Gallagher, Hebrew Scripture in Patristic Biblical Theory: Canon, Language, Text, VCSup 114 (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 54–55.

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 1:9 and Augustine, City of God 20.26

Summary

Passages

Wisdom of Solomon 1:9

Augustine, City of God 20.26

References

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