Wisdom of Solomon

The speaker is a king of Israel addressing the rulers of the earth, and he never gives his name; readers have always heard Solomon. But the book was composed in polished Greek by a Jew of Alexandria, most likely in the century before Christ. Writing in a revered teacher's voice was a known and accepted practice then — a claim to stand in Solomon's tradition, not an attempt to forge his signature.

The first part, chapters 1 to 6, argues for immortality. The ungodly reason that life is short and strength makes right, and then they plot against the righteous man precisely because he is righteous: "he professeth to have the knowledge of God, and calleth himself the child of the Lord... let us examine him with despitefulness and torture... for if the just man be the son of God, he will help him" (2:13-18). The book answers with one of the most quoted sentences ever written outside the canon: "the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them" (3:1).

The middle part, chapters 7 to 9, is a portrait of Wisdom herself in the highest language this tradition ever reaches — the breath of the power of God, the brightness of the everlasting light, an unspotted mirror, passing into holy souls and making them friends of God (7:25-27).

The last part, chapters 10 to 19, walks Wisdom through Israel's history from Adam to the Exodus, matching each plague to the sin it punished. Folded into it is a long, cutting section on idolatry — how people end up worshiping the work of their own hands, and how the worship of fire, wind, and stars is understandable and still misses the Maker (13:1-9).

The setting explains the style. Alexandria's Jews lived surrounded by Greek philosophy and Egyptian religion, and the book meets them on that ground, borrowing Greek philosophical vocabulary while arguing hard for the God of Israel.