The Wisdom of Solomon: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary

385 Pages·1979·21.42 MB·English

by  David Winston

THE WISDOM
OF SOLOMON
A B
VOLUME 43

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is to arrive at the meaning of biblical literature through exact translation
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acteristics of its transcribers.
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GENERAL EDITORS

THE ANCHOR BIBLE
THE WISDOM
OF SOLOMON
A NEW TRANSLATION
WITH INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY
BY
DAVID WINSTON
THE ANCHOR BIBLE
DOUBLEDAY
The Anchor Bible
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bible. O.T. Apocrypha. Wisdom of Solomon.
English. Winston. 1979.
The Wisdom of Solomon.
(The Anchor Bible; vol. 43)
Bibliography: p.
Includes indexes.
1. Bible. O.T. Apocrypha. Wisdom of Solomon—
Commentaries. I. Winston, David. II. Title.
III. Series.
BS192.2.A11964G3 vol. 43
[BS1753] 220.7'7s [229.'3'077] 78-18148
ISBN 0-385-01644-1
Copyright © 7979 by Doubleday,
a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
6 8 10 12 14 15 13 11 9 7
To Irene
who has enabled me to pursue Sophia
without interruption

THE APOCRYPHA
The term Apocrypha (or "Deuterocanonical Books" in Roman Catholic
usage) is popularly understood to describe the fifteen books or parts of
books from the pre-Christian period that Catholics accept as canonical
Scripture but Protestants and Jews do not. This designation and definition
are inaccurate on many counts. An apocryphon is literally a hidden writ­
ing, kept secret for the initiate and too exalted for the general public; vir­
tually none of these books makes such a claim. Not only Roman Catholics
but also Orthodox and Eastern Christians accept these books, wholly or
partially, as canonical Scripture. Roman Catholics do not accept all of
them as canonical Scripture, for I and II Esdras and the Prayer of Manas-
seh are not included in the official Catholic canon drawn up at the Council
of Trent (1545-1563). Many Protestant churches have no official deci­
sion declaring these books to be non-canonical; and, in fact, up to the last
century they were included in most English Protestant Bibles. What is cer­
tain is that these books did not find their way into final Jewish Palestinian
canon of Scripture. Thus, despite their Jewish origins (parts of II Esdras
are Christian and Latin in origin), they were preserved for the most part
in Greek by Christians as a heritage from the Alexandrian Jewish commu­
nity and their basic text is found in the codices of the Septuagint. How­
ever, recent discoveries, especially that of the Dead Sea scrolls, have
brought to light the original Hebrew or Aramaic texts of some of these
books. Leaving aside the question of canonicity, Christians and Jews now
unite in recognizing the importance of these books for tracing the history
of Judaism and Jewish thought in the centuries between the last of the He­
brew Scriptures and the advent of Christianity.