Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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⚙ Annotations & References ▾
Historic voices 2 ▾
Catechism of the Catholic Church 6× 1-9 Dei Filius (On Faith and Reason) 1× 1
Manuscript witnesses 2 ▾
Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325
What is Wisdom 13 about?

Turning to confront the paganism surrounding its readers, the thirteenth chapter calls foolish all who, from the good things seen, failed to know the God who is, worshiping fire, wind, the stars, or the sea instead of their Maker. The author grants that seekers who mistook the beauty of creation for God are less to blame, since they were at least looking for Him. Far worse is the craftsman who carves an idol from the wood left over after building his house, then prays for help to a lifeless thing he could just as easily have burned. Exposing the emptiness of idols, the chapter defends the God of Israel against the gods of Egypt and Greece.

Historical backdrop

The book comes from Alexandria, the Greek city on the Nile that Alexander founded and the Ptolemies made the intellectual capital of the age. There the largest community of the dispersion lived in Greek, read its Scriptures in the Greek of the Septuagint, and argued philosophy beside the great library, all under the constant pull of a cultured paganism. Wisdom is written into that pressure, in the elegant Greek of a Jew who would not trade the God of his fathers for the wisdom of the Greeks.

The Church Fathers on Wisdom 13
Deuterocanon (Catholic & Orthodox) · Accepted as canonical Scripture by the Catholic and Orthodox traditions and included in the original 1611 KJV (between the Old and New Testaments). Not in the Protestant 66-book canon. Read with the same care you bring to other Scripture, conscious that Protestants and Catholics weigh its authority differently.

Wisdom 13

Wisdom Chapter 13
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← Chapter 12 Chapter 14 →
What is Wisdom 13 about?

Turning to confront the paganism surrounding its readers, the thirteenth chapter calls foolish all who, from the good things seen, failed to know the God who is, worshiping fire, wind, the stars, or the sea instead of their Maker. The author grants that seekers who mistook the beauty of creation for God are less to blame, since they were at least looking for Him. Far worse is the craftsman who carves an idol from the wood left over after building his house, then prays for help to a lifeless thing he could just as easily have burned. Exposing the emptiness of idols, the chapter defends the God of Israel against the gods of Egypt and Greece.