Mark Elliott: Wisdom of Solomon, Canon and Authority

Studies of the reception of Wisdom have begun with the intra-Jewish situation. Hence William Horbury, playing down the hypothesis that its being positioned after the New Testament books in the Muratorian fragment implied it was considered ‘Christian’, describes its function as a counterweight to Ecclesiastes, turning Solomon into a true Pharisee on the matter of ‘resurrection’, with the work an inspired prophecy just as the Song of Songs. We shall review how for most Christians of the first three centuries, Wisdom provided texts to be called into service to help accentuate another biblical text. As we arrive at the early fifth century, however, we see that Augustine knows that the Jews do not accept [Wis & Sir] of canonical authority (Retr 2.46), yet he leaves a strong indication that Christians do. The LXX  after all was the work of prophets (civ Dei XV,14). No-one wants to use a (Latin) translation of some uninspired document. Bonnadière claimed that in Augustine’s hands, Wis gives a cosmic vision that encourages piety, outlines a moral theology and implies a Trinity of Love. Compare Gregory of Nyssa who in CE II, 154 quotes Wis 13:5 ‘for from the greatness and beauty of created things their Creator is known by analogy’, which he quickly defines as the analogy of faith (Rom 12:6) (analogôs). Yet Augustine has God cognoscibiliter where Gregory has analagôs. What seems to result is quite another understanding, which his saturation in the book of Wisdom encourages:  ‘I quote this passage from the book of Wisdom in case any of the faithful should reckon I have been wasting time for nothing in first searching creation for signs of that supreme trinity we are looking for when we are looking for God, going step by step through various trinities of different sorts until we eventually arrive at the mind of man’  (trin XV,3) It does seem that for Augustine, the mind of man is as far as we get. Rather than being an ‘afterthought’ or ancillary in its use, with Augustine, Wis is like a doorway into Scripture.