The Book of Wisdom (Wisdom of Solomon)

The Book of Wisdom stands in the Catholic Bible between the Canticle of Canticles and Ecclesiasticus. Its Latin title in the Vulgate is Liber Sapientiae; the Greek manuscripts call it the Wisdom of Solomon. In nineteen chapters it gives one of the Old Testament's clearest teachings on the immortality of the soul, an open prophecy of the Passion, and the praise of Wisdom as "the brightness of eternal light." Challoner's preface to the Douay Bible sums it up: the book is "so called, because it treats of the excellence of WISDOM, the means to obtain it, and the happy fruits it produces."

The author: Solomon's voice, an unknown sage

The book speaks in the voice of Solomon. Without naming him, the author calls himself the king chosen by God to rule His people and build His temple (9:7-8), and he repeats the prayer for wisdom that Solomon made at Gabaon in 3 Kings 3. For this reason the Greek, Syriac and Old Latin manuscripts give it Solomon's name, and the Christian writers of the first three centuries commonly quoted it as "the Wisdom of Solomon."

The Church, however, never bound herself to Solomon as the writer, and the Fathers speak of this with care. St Augustine, in The City of God (XVII, 20), writes that it had been customary to ascribe Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus to Solomon "on account of some resemblance of style," that "the more learned have no doubt that they are not his," and yet that "of old the Church, especially the Western, received them into authority."

St Jerome, in his preface to the books of Solomon, notes that the book is not found among the Hebrews, that its very style breathes Greek eloquence, and that some ancient writers attributed it to Philo the Jew. The Muratorian fragment says it was written by friends of Solomon in his honour. Challoner's preface keeps the same reserve: the book "is written in the person of Solomon, and contains his sentiments. But it is uncertain who was the writer."

The Catholic answer, then, is this. The principal Author is the Holy Ghost, as with every book the Church has received as sacred and canonical. The human author was an inspired Jewish sage, almost certainly of Alexandria, who wrote in Solomon's person and with Solomon's wisdom as his model. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 sets aside Philo and other candidates: his name is unknown. No decision of the Pontifical Biblical Commission was issued on the authorship of Wisdom; what the Church defined is its canonicity, not its human author.

Date, place and language

Wisdom is among the last books of the Old Testament to be written. It was composed in Greek, not Hebrew: the Catholic Encyclopedia, following St Jerome, holds Greek to be the original language, and no Hebrew text has ever been known. Its learning belongs to the Jewish community of Alexandria under the Ptolemies, and its long reflection on Egypt and on idol-worship fits a people living among pagans and suffering for their faith. The Catholic Encyclopedia names two likely periods of persecution, under Ptolemy IV Philopator (221-204 BC) or Ptolemy VII Physcon (145-117 BC), and admits that the exact date is hard to decide. Many modern scholars place it somewhat later, in the first century BC; the Church has set no date.

What is the Book of Wisdom about? A summary

Challoner divides the book into three parts: the first six chapters exhort rulers "to love and exercise justice and wisdom"; the next three teach "that wisdom proceedeth only from God, and is procured by prayer and a good life"; the last ten show "the excellent effects and utility of wisdom and justice."

Wisdom, justice and immortality (chapters 1–6)

The book opens with a call to the judges of the earth: "Love justice... and seek him in simplicity of heart" (Wisdom 1). Death is not God's work: "For God made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living" (1:13). In chapter 2 the ungodly reason that life is short and nothing follows it, and resolve to crush the just man who reproaches them: "Let us condemn him to a most shameful death."

Chapters 3 to 5 answer them. The souls of the just are in the hand of God; the just man who dies young has lived a full life (chapter 4); and at the judgment the wicked will see the just "numbered among the children of God" and confess their error (chapter 5). Chapter 6 turns to kings: "love wisdom, that you may reign for ever" (6:22).

The nature of Wisdom and Solomon's prayer (chapters 7–9)

Speaking as Solomon, the author tells how he was born a mortal man like any other, prayed, "and the spirit of wisdom came upon me," and preferred her to thrones and riches (Wisdom 7). There follows the great portrait of Wisdom, "a certain pure emanation of the glory of the almighty God" (7:25). In chapter 8 he desires her for his bride, for she teaches the four virtues and gives immortality. Chapter 9 is Solomon's prayer for wisdom, beginning "God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things with thy word."

Wisdom in sacred history and the Exodus (chapters 10–19)

The last part retells the history of salvation as the work of Wisdom. Chapter 10 follows her from Adam to Noe, Abraham, Lot, Jacob and Joseph, and through the Red Sea; the names are not given, but the stories of Genesis and Exodus are plain. Chapters 11 and 12 show God's mercy even in His punishments of Egypt and Chanaan: "thou hast mercy upon all, because thou canst do all things" (11:24). Chapters 13 to 15 are a sustained argument against idolatry: men should have known the Maker from His works, and the worship of idols is "the beginning of fornication" and "the corruption of life" (14:12).

The closing chapters 16 to 19 contrast the plagues of Egypt with God's favours to Israel: the brazen serpent, which Challoner's note calls "an emblem of Christ our Saviour"; the manna, "the food of angels"; the darkness of Egypt in chapter 17; the death of the firstborn on the Paschal night in chapter 18; and the crossing of the sea, where all creation served the just, in chapter 19.

Themes and the Catholic reading

The immortal soul and the four last things. Wisdom teaches, as plainly as any book of the Old Testament, that man was made for incorruption, "For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of his own likeness he made him. But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world" (2:23-24), and that the just soul lives on with God while the wicked come to judgment. It is a chief Old Testament witness to what the Church teaches on the soul and on the four last things.

The Passion of the Just One. St Augustine writes that in this book "the passion of Christ is most openly prophesied," and quotes Wisdom 2:12-21 in full (City of God XVII, 20). Challoner's heading for the chapter reads: "their persecuting the just, especially the Son of God." The mockery at the foot of the Cross repeats it almost word for word: "He trusted in God; let him now deliver him if he will have him; for he said: I am the Son of God" (Matthew 27:43), as against "For if he be the true son of God, he will defend him" (Wisdom 2:18).

Wisdom and the Word. What Wisdom says of Wisdom, the New Testament says of the Son. Wisdom is "the brightness of eternal light" (7:26); the Son is "the brightness of his glory, and the figure of his substance" (Hebrews 1:3). Wisdom was with God "when thou madest the world" (9:9), and Solomon asks God, who made all things "with thy word" (9:1), to "send thy Holy Spirit from above" (9:17). Christian tradition has always read divine Wisdom as fulfilled in Christ, "the power of God, and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24).

The manna and the Eucharist. Wisdom 16:20 calls the manna the food of angels, "bread from heaven prepared without labour; having in it all that is delicious, and the sweetness of every taste." Our Lord took up the manna as the figure of the living Bread in John 6, and the versicle sung at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, Panem de caelo praestitisti eis, echoes this verse together with Psalm 77 (78).

Knowledge of God from creation. "For by the greatness of the beauty, and of the creature, the creator of them may be seen, so as to be known thereby" (13:5). St Paul makes the same argument against the idolaters in Romans 1.

The cardinal virtues. Wisdom 8:7 is the scriptural text in which the cardinal virtues are named together. And Wisdom is a gift to be asked for: "I went to the Lord, and besought him" (8:21).

Famous verses from the Book of Wisdom

Wisdom 3:1-9. The best-loved passage of the book, read in the Masses of martyrs and a consolation to Christians mourning their dead: "But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die... but they are in peace... As gold in the furnace he hath proved them," ending "they that are faithful in love shall rest in him: for grace and peace is to his elect" (Wisdom 3). It is one of the readings we give among the Bible verses for a funeral.

Wisdom 4:8-9. "For venerable old age is not that of long time, nor counted by the number of years: but the understanding of a man is grey hairs. And a spotless life is old age" (Wisdom 4).

Wisdom 7:26 and 8:1. "She is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty" (Wisdom 7); "She reacheth therefore from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly" (Wisdom 8), the source of the Advent antiphon O Sapientia sung at Vespers on 17 December.

Wisdom 9:1-4. Solomon's prayer, "Give me wisdom, that sitteth by thy throne" (Wisdom 9); we give it beside other prayers in our prayer for wisdom.

Wisdom 11:21. "Thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight" (Wisdom 11; 11:20 in many modern Bibles).

Wisdom 18:14-15. "For while all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course, thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne" (Wisdom 18). Spoken of the Paschal night in Egypt, the Church sings it of the night of the Nativity as the Introit Dum medium silentium of the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas.

The Book of Wisdom in the canon and in the liturgy

Wisdom belongs to the seven Wisdom (sapiential) books of the Catholic Old Testament: Job, the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Canticle of Canticles, Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus (Sirach). It is one of the deuterocanonical books: it was never in the Hebrew canon, but it stood in the Greek Septuagint used by the Apostles and the early Church. The Church declared its canonicity at the councils of Rome (382), Hippo (393) and Carthage (397); the African councils count "five books of Solomon," that is, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Canticle, Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus.

The Council of Florence repeated the canon in 1442, and the Council of Trent, in its fourth session of 8 April 1546, named "Wisdom" among the sacred and canonical books and anathematised whoever does not receive them entire, with all their parts, as they are read in the Catholic Church and contained in the old Latin Vulgate. St Jerome did not retranslate Wisdom; the Latin Vulgate keeps the Old Latin version, which the Douay-Rheims Bible translates.

Protestant Bibles omit it because the Reformers took the shorter Hebrew canon of the later synagogue as their rule. Luther placed Wisdom among the "Apocrypha" between the Testaments in 1534; the King James Version of 1611 still printed it there as "The Wisdom of Solomon"; and the Westminster Confession of 1646 denied the Apocrypha any authority; most Protestant editions later dropped them. St Augustine had answered long before that the book was heard in the Church "with the veneration paid to divine authority" (On the Predestination of the Saints, ch. 27).

In the 1962 Roman Breviary the Book of Wisdom is read at Matins in the third week of August, between Ecclesiastes and Ecclesiasticus. In the 1962 Missal it gives the Epistles of the Commons of Martyrs (Wisdom 3:1-8 in Intret, 5:16-20 in Sapientiam, 5:1-5 in Paschaltide, 10:10-14 for one Martyr), the Offertory Justorum animae (3:1-3), the Epistle of St Thomas Aquinas on 7 March (7:7-14), the Introit of Easter Thursday (10:20-21) and the Introit Dum medium silentium of the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas (18:14-15). You can pray these Hours in our online Breviary and follow the feasts in the liturgical calendar.

How to read the Book of Wisdom

Read it in three sittings, following its three parts: chapters 1 to 6 on the fate of the just and the wicked, chapters 7 to 9 on Wisdom herself, chapters 10 to 19 on the Exodus. Keep Exodus open for the last part. Read chapter 2 in Holy Week beside the Passion according to St Matthew, chapter 3 on All Souls' Day, and chapter 9 as a prayer before study or a hard decision. When you have finished, go on to Ecclesiasticus, the next book in our Catholic Bible.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Book of Wisdom?

The Book of Wisdom, also called the Wisdom of Solomon, is a book of the Catholic Old Testament in nineteen chapters, written in Greek in the two centuries before Christ. It praises divine Wisdom, teaches the immortality of the just soul and the judgment of the wicked, foretells the Passion of the Just One, and retells the Exodus as the work of Wisdom. The Church counts it among the seven sapiential books and has declared it inspired and canonical.

Who wrote the Book of Wisdom?

The book is written in the person of King Solomon, and the ancient manuscripts carry his name, but the Church has never required us to hold that Solomon wrote it. St Augustine and St Jerome both say the learned did not think it his, and Challoner's Douay preface states that "it is uncertain who was the writer." Its human author was an inspired Jewish sage, most likely of Alexandria, writing in Greek; its principal Author is the Holy Ghost.

When was the Book of Wisdom written?

It was written in Greek within the last two centuries before Christ, most probably in Alexandria. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 links it to the persecutions under Ptolemy IV (221-204 BC) or Ptolemy VII (145-117 BC), without fixing a date. It is among the last books of the Old Testament to be written.

Where is the Book of Wisdom in the Bible?

In a Catholic Bible, Wisdom follows the Canticle of Canticles (Song of Songs) and comes before Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), among the Wisdom books of the Old Testament. You will not find it in most Protestant Bibles; the King James Version of 1611 printed it among the Apocrypha between the Testaments. You can read all 19 chapters of Wisdom here, Latin and English side by side.

Why is the Book of Wisdom not in the Protestant Bible?

The Reformers adopted the Hebrew canon of the later Jewish synagogue, which does not contain Wisdom, and set the deuterocanonical books apart as "Apocrypha." The Church had received Wisdom from the Greek Septuagint of the Apostles and declared it canonical at Rome (382), Hippo (393), Carthage (397), Florence (1442) and Trent (1546). Our article on the deuterocanonical books gives the full history.

What are the seven Wisdom books of the Bible?

The seven Wisdom, or sapiential, books of the Catholic Old Testament are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticle of Canticles, Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus (Sirach). Protestant Bibles keep only the first five.

Is Proverbs the Book of Wisdom?

No. Proverbs and Wisdom are two different books, though both belong to the Wisdom books and both bear Solomon's name. Proverbs is a Hebrew collection of short sayings; Wisdom is a later, continuous work written in Greek on immortality, Wisdom herself and the Exodus.

What does Wisdom 3:1-9 mean?

It teaches that the souls of the just are in God's keeping and at peace, though to unbelievers their death looked like ruin; God has tried them "as gold in the furnace" and will reward them. The Church reads it in the Masses of martyrs, and Christians have long taken it as a consolation over their dead. Read it in context in Wisdom 3.

How many chapters are in the Book of Wisdom?

The Book of Wisdom has 19 chapters in the Latin Vulgate and the Douay-Rheims. A few verses are numbered differently in some modern Bibles, so that Wisdom 11:21 in the Douay is 11:20 elsewhere.

Read the whole Book of Wisdom verse by verse, Latin and English, in the Iter Fidei Catholic Bible app.

Sources. The Book of Wisdom, Latin Vulgate and Douay-Rheims (Challoner revision, 1749-1752), with Challoner's preface and notes; St Augustine, The City of God XVII, 20, and On the Predestination of the Saints, ch. 27; St Jerome, Preface to the Books of Solomon; the Muratorian Fragment; Councils of Rome (382), Hippo (393) and Carthage (397); Council of Florence, Decree for the Jacobites (1442); Council of Trent, Session IV, Decree on the Canonical Scriptures (1546); The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), "Book of Wisdom"; Missale Romanum (1962); Breviarium Romanum (1962).