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The Christian theologian Athanasius uses the Wisdom of Solomon as an authoritative source for theology when he uses its description of divine wisdom to support his defense of Jesus' divinity and relationship to the Father.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Wisdom of Solomon 7:25
Deuterocanon
23 beneficent, loving toward man, steadfast, sure, free from care, all-powerful, all-surveying, and penetrating through all spirits that are quick to understand, pure, most subtle. 24 For wisdom is more mobile than any motion. Yes, she pervades and penetrates all things by reason of her purity. 25 For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty. Therefore nothing defiled can find entrance into her. 26 For she is a reflection of everlasting light, an unspotted mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. 27 Although she is one, she has power to do all things. Remaining in herself, she renews all things. From generation to generation passing into holy souls, she makes friends of God and prophets.
Athanasius, On the Opinion of Dionysius 15:2
De Sententia Dionysii
Early Christian
But God is eternal light, never beginning nor ceasing. So the brightness lies before Him eternally, and is with Him without beginning and ever-begotten, shining in His Presence, being that Wisdom which said, I was the one in whom he rejoiced, and daily I was glad in his presence at all times.' And again after a little he takes up the same subject with the words, 'Since the Father, then, is eternal, the Son is eternal, being Light from Light; for if there is a parent, there is also a child. But if there were no child, how and of whom could there be a parent? But there are both, and eternally.' Then again he adds, 'Since God, then, is light, Christ is brightness; and since He is Spirit, for God is a Spirit — in the same way Christ is called the breath, for He is the breath of the power of God.' And again, to quote the second book, he says, 'But only the Son, who is always with the Father and is filled with Him who IS, Himself also IS from the Father.'
Date: 387-400 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Origen is clear that his understanding of eternity here is of that which is beyond time, completely outside of its constraints. In consideration of a passage from Wisdom of Solomon 7:25-26, which describes wisdom as an "emanation of the clear glory of the almighty,” Origen says that God cannot be called almighty "if there are none over whom he can exercise his power. Accordingly, to prove that God is almighty [παντοκράτωρ] we must assume the existence of the universe ... With the abandonment of Origen’s doctrine of the pre-existence of souls / creation, and with the use of Methodius’s argument for the distinction between being / will and Creator / creature, the stage was now set for Athanasius (ca. 296-373) to respond to Arius and provide the first ever “explicit and systematic analysis” of the concept of God’s Fatherhood and his relation to the Son. ..."
Stevenson, Austin
The Eternal Generation of the Son: The Christological Significance for Origen and Nicaea
(pp. 13-22) CRUX: Fall 2015/Vol. 51/ No. 3, 2015
* 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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