What is the Wisdom of Solomon?
Aside from being one of the superpowers of Captain Marvel (Shazam), the Wisdom of Solomon is one of the books of the apocrypha. It is a part of the genre of wisdom literature and is attributed to Solomon, although it was written many centuries later than that time.
It is natural to compare Wisdom to Proverbs, although the style is much different. The wisdom statements are longer than the pith proverbs of the Old Testament. Still, Wisdom does build on some of what is found in Proverbs. The personification of Wisdom that we see hinted at in Proverbs is taken to the next level in the Wisdom of Solomon. Some actually see this personification as having an influence on how some early Christians understood the incarnated Christ.
The Wisdom of Solomon was written in Greek and it represents a more Hellenized version of Judaism than we see in other texts. It was likely written in the first century BC. It is helpful to read this book to have a sense of the variety of Jewish though during the time of Jesus.
You can find the text for the Wisdom of Solomon online but I’m using the one found in the The New Oxford Annotated Bible.
