misfortunes for the righteous—over against these things the possession
of wisdom is declared to be the supreme good. The ethical standard
of the book is high except in the bitterness displayed towards the
“wicked,” that is, the enemies of the Jews. The only occurrence
in old Jewish literature (except in Ecclus. xiv. 2) of a word for
“conscience” is found in xvii. 11 (συνείδησις): wickedness is timorous
under the condemnation of conscience (the same thought in Prov.
xxviii. 1). The book is absolutely monotheistic, and the character
ascribed to the deity is ethically pure with the exception mentioned above.
The style shows that the book was written in Greek, though naturally it contains Hebraisms. The author of the first part was in all probability an Alexandrian Jew; nothing further is known of him; and this is true of the author of the second part, if that be a separate production. As to the date, the decided Greek colouring (the conception of wisdom, the list of Stoic virtues, viii. 7, the idea of pre-existence, viii. 20, and the ethical conception of the future life) points to a time not earlier than the 1st century B.C., while the fact that the history is not allegorized suggests priority to Philo; probably the work was composed late in the 1st century B.C. (this date would agree with the social situation described). Its exclusion from the Jewish Canon of Scripture resulted naturally from its Alexandrian thought and from the fact that it was written in Greek. It was used, however, by New Testament writers (vii. 22 f., Jas. iii. 17, vii. 26; Heb. i. 2 f., ix. 15; 2 Cor. v. 1-4, xi. 23; Acts xvii. 30, xiii. 1-5, xiv. 22-26; Rom. i. 18-32, xvi. 7; 1 Tim. iv. 10), and is quoted freely by Patristic and later authors, generally as inspired. It was recognized as canonical by the council of Trent, but is not so regarded by Protestants.
Literature.—The Greek text is given in O. F. Fritzsche, Lib. Apocr. Vet. Test. (1871); W. J. Deane, Bk. of Wisd. (1881); H. B. Swete, Old Test. in Grk. (1st ed., 1891; 2nd ed., 1897; Eng. trans, in Deane, 1881); W. R. Churton, Uncan. and Apocr. Script. (1884); C. J. Ball, Variorum Apocr. (1892); Revised Vers, of Apocr. (1895). Introductions and Comms.: C. L. W . Grimm in Kurzgef. Exeg. Hdbch. z. d. Apocr. d. A. T. (1860); E. C. Bissell in Lange-Schaff (1860); W. J. Deane (1881); F. W. Farrar in Wace's Apocr. (1888); Ed. Reuss, French ed. (1878), Ger. ed. (1894); E. Schürer, Jew. People (Eng. trans., 1891); C. Siegfried in Kautzsch, Apocr. (1900); Tony André, Les Apocr. (1903). See also the articles in Herzog-Hauck's Realencyclopädie; Hastings, Dict. Bible; Cheyne and Black, Encycl. Bibl. (C. H. T.*)
WISDOM LITERATURE, the name applied to the body of Old Testament and Apocryphal writings that contain the philosophical thought of the later pre-Christian Judaism. Old Semitic philosophy was a science not of ontology in the modern sense of the term, but of practical life. For the Greeks “love of wisdom” involved inquiry into the basis and origin of things; the Hebrew “wisdom” was the capacity so to order life as to get out of it the greatest possible good. Though the early Hebrews (of the time before the 5th century B.C.) must have reflected on life, there is no trace of such reflection, of a systematic sort, in their extant literature. “Wise men” are distrusted and opposed by the prophets. The latter were concerned only with the maintenance of the sole worship of Yahweh and of social morality. This was the task of the early Hebrew thinkers, and to it a large part of the higher energy of the nation was devoted. The external law given, as was believed, by the God of Israel, was held to be the sufficient guide of life, and everything that looked like reliance on human wisdom was regarded as disloyalty to the Divine Lawgiver. While the priests developed the sacrificial ritual, it was the prophets that represented the theocratic element of the national life—they devoted themselves to their task with noteworthy persistence and ability, and their efforts were crowned with success; but their virtue of single mindedness carried with it the defect of narrowness—they despised all peoples and all countries but their own, and were intolerant of opinions, held by their fellow-citizens, that were not wholly in accordance with their own principles.
The reports of the earlier wise men, men of practical sagacity in political and social affairs, have come to us from unfriendly sources; it is quite possible that among them were some who took interest in life for its own sake, and reflected on its human moral basis. But, if this was so, no record of their reflections has been preserved. The class of sages to whom we owe the Wisdom Books did not arise till a change had come over the national fortunes and life. The firm establishment of the doctrine of practical monotheism happened to coincide in time with the destruction of the national political life (in the 6th century B.C.). At the moment when this doctrine had come to be generally accepted by the thinking part of the nation, the Jews found themselves dispersed among foreign communities, and from that time were a subject people environed by aliens, Babylonian, Persian and Greek. The prophetic office ceased to exist when its work was done, and part of the intellectual energy of the people was thus set free for other tasks than the establishment of theistic dogma. The ritual law was substantially completed by the end of the 5th century B.C.; it became the object of study, and thus arose a class of scholars, among whom were some who, under the influence of the general culture of the time, native and foreign, pushed their investigations beyond the limits of the national law and became students and critics of life. These last came to form a separate class, though without formal organization. There was a tradition of learning (Job viii. 8, xv. 10)—the results of observation and experience were handed down orally. In the 2nd century B.C., about the time when the synagogue took shape, there were established schools presided over by eminent sages, in which along with instruction in the law much was said concerning the general conduct of life (see Pirke Aboth). The social unification produced by the conquests of Alexander brought the Jews into intimate relations with Greek thought. It may be inferred from Ben-Sira's statements (Ecclus. xxxix. 1-11) that it was the custom for scholars to travel abroad and, like the scholars of medieval Europe, to increase their knowledge by personal association with wise men throughout the world. Jews seem to have entered eagerly into the larger intellectual life of the last three centuries before the beginning of our era. For some the influence of this association was of a general nature, merely modifying their conception of the moral life; others adopted to a greater or less extent some of the peculiar ideas of the current systems of philosophy. Scholars were held in honour in those days by princes and people, and Ben-Sira frankly adduces this fact as one of the great advantages of the pursuit of wisdom. It was in cities that the study of life and philosophy was best carried on, and it is chiefly with city life that Jewish wisdom deals.
The extant writings of the Jewish sages are contained in the books of Job, Proverbs, Psalms, Ben-Sira, Tobit, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom of Solomon, 4th Maccabees, to which may be added the first chapter of Pirke Aboth (a Talmudic tract giving, probably, pre-Christian material). Of these Job, Pss. xlix., lxxiii., xcii. 6-8 (5-7), Eccles., Wisdom, are discussions of the moral government of the world; Prov., Pss. xxxvii., cxix., Ben-Sira, Tob. iv., xii. 7-11, Pirke, are manuals of conduct, and 4th Maccab. treats of the autonomy of reason in the moral life; Pss. viii., xix. 2-7 (1-6), xxix. 3-10, xc. 1-12, cvii. 17-32, cxxxix., cxliv. 3 f., cxlvii. 8 f. are reflections on man and physical nature (cf. the Yahweh addresses in Job, and Ecclus. xlii. 15-xliii. 33). Sceptical views are expressed in Job, Prov. xxx. 2-4 (Agur), Eccles.; the rest take the current orthodox position.
Though the intellectual world of the sages is different from that of the prophetic and legal Hebraism, they do not break with the fundamental Jewish theistic and ethical creeds. Their monotheism remains Semitic—even in their conception of the cosmogonic and illuminating function of Wisdom they regard God as standing outside the world of physical nature and man, and do not grasp or accept the idea of the identity of the human and the divine; there is thus a sharp distinction between their general theistic position and that of Greek philosophy. They retain the old high standard of morals, and in some instances go beyond it, as in the injunctions to be kind to enemies (Prov. xxv. 21 f.) and to do to no man what is hateful to one's self (Tob. iv. 15); in these finer maxims they doubtless represent the general ethical advance of the time.
They differ from the older writers in practically ignoring the physical supernatural—that is, though they regard the miracles of the ancient times (referred to particularly in Wisdom xvi.-xix.) as historical facts, they say nothing of a miraculous clement in the life of their own time. Angels occur only in Job and Tobit, and there in noteworthy characters: in Job they are beings whom God charges with folly (iv. 18), or they are mediators between God and man
