Wisdom of Solomon

Ton onta 'him who is' is the masculine articular participle of eimi 'to be', the accusative of the Septuagint's ho ōn in Ex 3:14 (egō eimi ho ōn), and commentators read it as a deliberate allusion to that divine self-designation with a Hellenistic colouring of 'true being' (Winston, AB 43, ad loc.; Larcher, ad loc.; cf. Philo, De vita Mosis 1.75). The line uses the corpus's rendering of the same participle in Revelation ('him who is', Rev 1:4, 8), without title capitals (ton-onta-him-who-is-wis-13-1). The Exodus formula and its reading history are collected in the central ehyeh-asher-ehyeh-divine-name-revelation-ex-3-14-cross-corpus; the Revelation solecism entry is background only, since the participle here is regularly declined.

Ton technitēn 'the craftsman' (KJV and Brenton 'the workmaster'; NRSV 'the artisan') opens a word-family the chapter exploits: Wisdom is hē pantōn technitis 'the fashioner of all things' (7:21), the idol is technēs emmeletēma (13:10), and the carpenter works technēsamenos (13:11). One plain word keeps the contrast between the divine and the human craftsman visible (technites-craftsman-wis-13-1). Pantes anthrōpoi is generic, 'all people' (draft 'all men'; NRSV 'all people'; anthropos-generic-people-convention-wisdom). Hois parēn theou agnōsia is a dative of possession, 'in whom there was ignorance of God'; theos is 'God' as in the corpus's other Greek books (theos-god-rendering-wisdom).

Swete prints a capital at Mataioi, opening the section on nature-worship (13:1-9); gar links it to the argument of ch. 12. The OCR corrections listed in the source file are accepted; Vaticanus spellings are kept (swete-vaticanus-base-text-and-variant-reporting-convention-wisdom).

Wheel of Heaven reading (reception note, not a translation claim). The Book Which Tells the Truth (ch. 3) quotes this verse after 13:5. The French has « Ils n'ont pas été capables de connaître d'après les biens visibles. Celui qui est », which corresponds to the first clause. The English edition has instead 'Neither by considering the works did they acknowledge the workmaster (…) he that is' (KJV wording, with the clauses in reverse order). The book reads the two verses together: 'It was nevertheless simple to see the truth, to recognize the creators by observing the created thing.' The line keeps the singular participle 'him who is' and renders technitēs 'the craftsman'. 'Workmaster' is the KJV's word for the same noun, not a different reading, and the plural 'creators' belongs to the book's reading, not to the Greek.

Prytaneis kosmou 'rulers of the world': prytanis means 'ruler, lord' in poetic Greek (Aeschylus, Prometheus 169, of Zeus) and, in Athenian civic usage, a presiding member of the Council. The context, elements and stars that people 'deemed gods' as governors of the cosmos, calls for the general sense (prytaneis-kosmou-rulers-of-the-world-wis-13-2). Syntactically the phrase is either a second predicate ('deemed them gods, rulers of the world') or in apposition to 'the luminaries of heaven'; the Greek word order favours apposition to the luminaries, while the English follows the predicate reading of the KJV, Brenton and NRSV and stays close to both. KJV and NRSV restructure it as 'the gods which govern/rule the world'.

The list (fire, wind, swift air, the circle of the stars, violent water, the luminaries) is the standard inventory of Hellenistic critiques of element- and star-worship (Philo, De decalogo 53-57; De vita contemplativa 3-5; Winston, AB 43, ad loc.). Pneuma among the physical elements is 'wind', not 'spirit'. Kyklos astrōn is the revolving circuit of the stars, not specifically the zodiac. Phōstēres is the Septuagint word for the mᵊʾōrōt of Gen 1:14-16, rendered 'luminaries' under the central meorot, as in NRSV (draft 'lights'; elements-and-heavenly-bodies-list-wis-13-2). The astral-worship background of the central tzeva-ha-shamayim-host-of-the-heavens-divine-council-cross-corpus (2 Kgs 17:16) is related but is not applied to the Greek line.

Ho despotēs 'their Lord' (KJV 'the Lord of them'; NRSV 'their Lord'): despotēs is the master or owner, and in the Septuagint it renders ʾādôn, and the vocative Despota renders ʾădōnāy at Gen 15:2, 8. It is a different word from kyrios, which the corpus also renders 'Lord'. The argument is one of ownership: the things people deified have a master greater than they (despotes-lord-wis-13-3-9). Toutōn can be taken with beltiōn ('better than these') or with despotēs ('the Lord of these'); the English follows NRSV and lets 'their' carry the second sense.

Ho tou kallous genesiarchēs 'the first author of beauty' (KJV) is a rare compound of genesis 'origin' and archē 'beginning'. Ektisen 'created' is ktizō, the Septuagint's ordinary verb for divine creation. The central bara 'shape' governs the Hebrew verb of Gen 1 and is background here (creator-vocabulary-ktizo-genesiarches-kataskeuazo-genesiourgos-wis-13).

Ho kataskeuasas auta 'he who fashioned them' (draft and KJV 'made'): the same verb describes the carpenter who 'has fashioned' a vessel at 13:11, and the author builds the chapter on this parallel between the divine and the human maker (Gilbert, La critique des dieux dans le Livre de la Sagesse, AnBib 53, 1973). One English verb for both keeps it visible (creator-vocabulary-ktizo-genesiarches-kataskeuazo-genesiourgos-wis-13). Dynamei kai energeia 'power and working': energeia is active operation (KJV 'virtue', in its older sense of efficacy).

Analogōs 'by analogy' (KJV 'proportionably'; NRSV 'a corresponding perception') names the inference from the qualities of the works to those of their maker, the argument from analogy of Greek philosophical theology (LSJ s.v. 'proportionally, analogously'; Winston, AB 43, ad loc.; cf. Rom 1:20). The KJV's 'proportionably' is an older word for the same sense. The compressed ek megethous kallonēs kai ktismatōn is read, as by the KJV and NRSV, as 'the greatness and beauty of created things'; Swete's apparatus records Alexandrinus without kai ('the greatness of the beauty of created things'). Theōreitai 'is seen' (KJV) is the passive of 'behold, perceive' (analogos-theoreitai-by-analogy-wis-13-5).

Ho genesiourgos autōn 'their maker' (KJV 'the maker of them'; NRSV 'their Creator') is a rare compound, 'the worker of their coming-into-being', paired with genesiarchēs in 13:3. It is singular (creator-vocabulary-ktizo-genesiarches-kataskeuazo-genesiourgos-wis-13).

Wheel of Heaven reading (reception note, not a translation claim). The Book Which Tells the Truth (ch. 3) quotes this verse: French « Car en partant de la grandeur et de la beauté des créatures on contemple par analogie leur auteur »; English edition 'For by the greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably the maker of them is seen' (KJV). It comments: 'It was nevertheless simple to see the truth, to recognize the creators by observing the created thing.' The French 'par analogie' agrees with the line's 'by analogy', which follows the lexicon. 'Créatures'/'creatures' is the older sense 'created things' (ktismata). The Greek genesiourgos is singular. The book's plural 'creators' is its reading and does not enter the line.

Mempsis oligē 'little blame': the author concedes that the nature-worshippers are seekers. Tacha with the present is 'perhaps', not 'quickly' (LSJ s.v. II). Theon zētountes is anarthrous but is read as 'seeking God', continuing the argument about the one maker (Winston, AB 43, ad loc.; theos-god-rendering-wisdom; knowing-god-vocabulary-wis-13-1-9).

Diereunōsin (the first hand of Vaticanus, B*, with -au-; Swete's apparatus gives -eu- for the B correctors, ℵ^c.a and A; kept) has no expressed object. 'They search them out' takes the object from 'his works' in the same clause; the KJV's 'search him diligently' supplies God instead. Peithontai tē opsei 'they trust their sight', i.e. they are persuaded by what they see because it is beautiful (knowing-god-vocabulary-wis-13-1-9).

Syngnōstoi 'to be pardoned' (LSJ 'pardonable, excusable') reverses the concession of 13:6. Swete prints the unassimilated spelling συνγνωστοί, the first hand of Vaticanus (B*; corrected to συγγνωστοί by B^b, per Swete's apparatus), kept in the Greek (swete-vaticanus-base-text-and-variant-reporting-convention-wisdom; knowing-god-vocabulary-wis-13-1-9).

Stochasasthai ton aiōna 'form conjectures about the world' (KJV and Brenton 'aim at the world'; NRSV 'investigate the world'). Stochazomai means 'aim at' and, figuratively, 'conjecture, infer' (LSJ s.v. II); the context of people theorizing about the cosmos requires the figurative sense. Aiōn, usually 'age' or 'eternity', has here the Hellenistic sense 'world' (BDAG s.v. 3), as both the KJV and NRSV take it (stochasasthai-ton-aiona-wis-13-9). Ton toutōn despotēn 'the Lord of these things' (despotes-lord-wis-13-3-9).

Swete's capital at Talaipōroi marks the second section of the chapter, from nature-worship to the worship of made objects (13:10-19); the paragraph schema records no section field, so the break is noted here. En nekrois hai elpides autōn 'their hopes are in dead things' (KJV 'in dead things is their hope'): nekrois is neuter, matching the lifeless objects listed (draft 'among dead things'). Erga cheirōn anthrōpōn 'the works of human hands' (anthropos-generic-people-convention-wisdom). Technēs emmeletēma 'a thing worked out with art' and apeikasmata zōōn 'likenesses of living creatures' continue the craft vocabulary of 13:1 (idol-polemic-vocabulary-wis-13-10-19).

The transcription had a full stop after achrēston, taken as a transcription error (a stop before the appositive phrase would leave a fragment; not yet checked against Swete's page image, vol. 2 p. 628); the source now reads a comma, so 'the work of an ancient hand' stands in apposition to the stone (swete-vaticanus-base-text-and-variant-reporting-convention-wisdom).

The satire on the woodcarver (13:11-19) is modelled on Isa 44:9-20 and Jer 10:3-5 (Gilbert, AnBib 53, 1973; Winston, AB 43, ad loc.). Hylotomos tektōn 'woodcutting carpenter' (KJV 'a carpenter that felleth timber'). Kateskeuasen 'has fashioned' is the verb used of God in 13:4 (creator-vocabulary-ktizo-genesiarches-kataskeuazo-genesiourgos-wis-13). Ei de kai tis … (13:11-12) is a protasis with no formal apodosis; the main clause resumes at 13:13 with apodotic de ('then'), which KJV, Brenton and NRSV smooth by dropping the 'if'. Euprepōs 'handsomely' replaces the draft's 'in seemly fashion' so that 'fashion' is not repeated. The carpenter's work is first useful (chrēsimon skeuos), and only its waste becomes a god (13:13; idol-polemic-vocabulary-wis-13-10-19).

Textual note: Swete prints empeiria aneseōs 'with the skill of his leisure', which keeps the chiasm with epimeleia argias 'the care of his idleness': careful work done in spare time. The KJV's 'by the skill of his understanding' presupposes syneseōs, which Swete's apparatus gives as the reading of a corrector of Codex Sinaiticus (ℵ^c.a); the same apparatus gives ergasias 'work' for argias 'idleness' in ℵ^c.a and Alexandrinus (A). Both are read from the apparatus footnotes preserved, OCR-degraded, in the First1KGreek transcription. Swete's text, with B and ℵ*, keeps the leisure/idleness pair, and NRSV ('skill gained in idleness') follows the same reading. The line follows Swete (swete-vaticanus-base-text-and-variant-reporting-convention-wisdom).

Apeikasen auto eikoni anthrōpou 'he likened it to the image of a human being' (draft 'he made it a likeness of the image of a man'; NRSV 'the image of a human being'). Apeikazō with the dative means 'liken to', and anthrōpos is contrasted with 'some paltry animal' in 13:14 (anthropos-generic-people-convention-wisdom; idol-polemic-vocabulary-wis-13-10-19). 'then' at the head of the verse renders apodotic de after the protasis of 13:11-12. The Hebrew-text central pesel-utemunah-graven-image-iconographic-prohibition-cross-corpus is background: no glypton/pesel noun stands in the Greek, only the verb eglypsen 'carved'.

Miltos is red ochre or vermilion and phykos a red cosmetic paint, originally made from seaweed; chroa is the skin or surface. The idol is made up like a face (idol-polemic-vocabulary-wis-13-10-19).

Oikēma 'a dwelling': the word also means a room or a shrine (LSJ s.v.), and NRSV has 'a niche'. Set 'in a wall' and fixed with iron, it is a wall niche, which the line leaves to the reader (idol-polemic-vocabulary-wis-13-10-19).

Gamōn is plural, but the plural of gamos regularly means a single wedding or marriage (LSJ s.v.), so 'his marriage' is accurate (idol-polemic-vocabulary-wis-13-10-19). The prayers move through property, family and health to the lifeless addressee.

To apeirotaton 'the most inexperienced thing' (draft 'the most helpless thing'; KJV 'that which hath least means to help'; NRSV 'a thing that is utterly inexperienced'): apeiros, from peira 'trial, experience', means 'without experience' (LSJ s.v. ἄπειρος (A)); the satire is that the carver asks for help from something that has never experienced anything. Basis is 'step, foot' (idol-polemic-vocabulary-wis-13-10-19).

To adranestaton … eudraneian is a wordplay on drainō 'to act, accomplish': 'vigor … without vigor' keeps it (KJV 'ability to do, of him that is most unable to do any thing'). Porismos is 'gain, means of getting' (idol-polemic-vocabulary-wis-13-10-19).