Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word
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⚙ Annotations & References ▾
Historic voices 1 ▾
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1× 12
Manuscript witnesses 2 ▾
Codex Sinaiticus Aleph c. AD 330-360 Codex Vaticanus B c. AD 300-325
What is Wisdom 14 about?

Tracing idolatry to its roots, the fourteenth chapter suggests it began when a grieving father made an image of his dead child, or when subjects flattered a distant ruler with his statue, until custom hardened these figures into gods. The author calls the worship of idols the beginning of spiritual fornication and the source of every corruption, and mocks the sailor who prays for safety to a piece of wood weaker than the ship that carries him. He foretells that the idols and their makers alike stand under judgment. By naming idolatry as the fountain of moral ruin, the chapter warns readers of the culture pressing in on them.

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 14
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 14

Wisdom Chapter 14
14
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What is Wisdom 14 about?

Tracing idolatry to its roots, the fourteenth chapter suggests it began when a grieving father made an image of his dead child, or when subjects flattered a distant ruler with his statue, until custom hardened these figures into gods. The author calls the worship of idols the beginning of spiritual fornication and the source of every corruption, and mocks the sailor who prays for safety to a piece of wood weaker than the ship that carries him. He foretells that the idols and their makers alike stand under judgment. By naming idolatry as the fountain of moral ruin, the chapter warns readers of the culture pressing in on them.