Wisdom of Solomon 7:25
Deuterocanon
23 beneficent, humane, steadfast, sure, free from anxiety, all-powerful, overseeing all, and penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent, pure, and altogether subtle. 24 For wisdom is more mobile than any motion; because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things. 25 For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. 26 For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. 27 Although she is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets;
Date: 100-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Origen Contra Celsum 3.72
Against Celsus
Patristic
In the next place, speaking as in the person of a teacher of our doctrine, he expresses himself as follows: Wise men reject what we say, being led into error, and ensnared by their wisdom. In reply to which we say that, since wisdom is the knowledge of divine and human things and of their causes, or, as it is defined by the word of God, the breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty; and the brightness of the everlasting light, and the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of His goodness, no one who was really wise would reject what is said by a Christian acquainted with the principles of Christianity, or would be led into error, or ensnared by it.
Date: 248 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Notes and References
"... In the Western Church one should not overlook the Muratorian Fragment, perhaps a (late) second- century writing from Rome: In its lines 68–70 it mentions Wisdom (after the Epistle of Jude and two Johannine Epistles) among writings related to the New Testament. Interestingly, according to this text Wisdom was written “by friends of Solomon to his honour” (Sapientia ab amicis Salomonis in honorem ipsius scripta). Even if Origen is well aware of the fact that Wisdom is not accepted everywhere (Principles 4, 4, 6) he himself makes regular use of the book even in Christological debates (see Principles 1, 2, 9; Celsum 3:62; 5:10; 6:63; 8:14). Winston observes: “Although he [Origen] sometimes quotes it [Wisdom] with the skeptical formula he epigegrammene tou Solomontos Sophia (In Iohannem Commentarius 20.4; Contra Celsum 5:29), he also quotes it almost as frequently as a work of Solomon ..."
Nicklas, Tobias
"The Apocrypha in the History of Early Christianity" in Oegema, Gerbern S. (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the Apocrypha
(pp. 52-73) Oxford University Press, 2021
* 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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