It appears Paul utilized Wisdom of Solomon

by peacefulpete 7 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • peacefulpete
    peacefulpete

    Romans 1:18-31

    18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

    21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for idols made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

    24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

    26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

    28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.

    Compare now the more verbose

    Wisdom 13:1-10, 14:22-31

    13 For all people who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature;
    and they were unable from the good things that are seen to know the one who exists,
    nor did they recognize the artisan while paying heed to his works;
    2 but they supposed that either fire or wind or swift air,
    or the circle of the stars, or turbulent water,
    or the luminaries of heaven were the gods that rule the world.
    3 If through delight in the beauty of these things people assumed them to be gods,
    let them know how much better than these is their Lord,
    for the author of beauty created them.
    4 And if people[a] were amazed at their power and working,
    let them perceive from them
    how much more powerful is the one who formed them.
    5 For from the greatness and beauty of created things
    comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.
    6 Yet these people are little to be blamed,
    for perhaps they go astray
    while seeking God and desiring to find him.
    7 For while they live among his works, they keep searching,
    and they trust in what they see, because the things that are seen are beautiful.
    8 Yet again, not even they are to be excused;
    9 for if they had the power to know so much
    that they could investigate the world,
    how did they fail to find sooner the Lord of these things?

    10 But miserable, with their hopes set on dead things, are those
    who give the name “gods” to the works of human hands,
    gold and silver fashioned with skill,
    and likenesses of animals,
    or a useless stone, the work of an ancient hand.

    22 Then it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God,
    but though living in great strife due to ignorance,
    they call such great evils peace.
    23 For whether they kill children in their initiations, or celebrate secret mysteries,
    or hold frenzied revels with strange customs,
    24 they no longer keep either their lives or their marriages pure,
    but they either treacherously kill one another, or grieve one another by adultery,
    25 and all is a raging riot of blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury,
    26 confusion over what is good, forgetfulness of favors,
    defiling of souls, sexual perversion,

    disorder in marriages, adultery, and debauchery.
    27 For the worship of idols not to be named
    is the beginning and cause and end of every evil.
    28 For their worshipers[a] either rave in exultation,
    or prophesy lies, or live unrighteously, or readily commit perjury;
    29 for because they trust in lifeless idols
    they swear wicked oaths and expect to suffer no harm.
    30 But just penalties will overtake them on two counts:
    because they thought wrongly about God in devoting themselves to idols,
    and because in deceit they swore unrighteously through contempt for holiness.
    31 For it is not the power of the things by which people swear,[b]
    but the just penalty for those who sin,
    that always pursues the transgression of the unrighteous.

  • Phizzy
    Phizzy

    Good find Pete ! I always like to find where the Bible Writers have plagiarised plot ideas and , as here, whole chunks of the written word.

    This is the first time I have been made aware of Paul doing it. Are there perhaps, other instances ?

    This is quite incendiary stuff for homophobic fundamentalist Christians, as Paul is obviously not inspired to write the words they love to quote, but is quoting the Unknown writer of a 1st Century BCE Book identified by them as Apocryphal !

  • Earnest
    Earnest

    It may have been that Paul utilised the Wisdom of Solomon. Or it could be that both Paul and the author(s) of the Wisdom of Solomon utilised the Hebrew scriptures esp. Isaiah. It's interesting but I don't know that it tells us anything we don't already know. We already know that the book of Enoch is cited by Jude, but that didn't make the book of Enoch canonical or that Jude was any less inspired. The fact is that a lot of what is in the Bible can also be found elsewhere, which is not surprising considering the milieu in which it arose.

  • peacefulpete
    peacefulpete

    A lot depends depends upon your definition of inspired. I find it interesting because of questions of Christian origins. By paraphrasing Wisdom Paul tells us more about himself, what he read, how he formulated his unique theology. It's one of the central debates today. It's frustratingly complicated. Too much literature from the period is lost, too little known about the provenance and transmission of what are regarded as authentic Pauline works to be dogmatic about anything.

    I find interesting is Wisdom's emphasis upon revelation being the objective and key to salvation. 10:10 uses the term God's Kingdom as a revelatory reward, not as a literal temporal/physical messianic liberation.

    So many currents we're running through Jewish communities, especially in the diaspora.

  • joe134cd
    joe134cd

    I guess the bible is a book that is always self folding in on itself. This event relates to that event. This person quotes or refers to that person. Ultimately the buck stops with Jesus Christ. This in turn gives the bible its internal harmony. Therefore, did Paul plagiarise Solomon? Absolutely he did! Just as in modern times, particularly in scholarly articles, it is common to quote from other sources.

  • Vanderhoven7
    Vanderhoven7

    "The Book of Wisdom (also called Wisdom of Solomon or just Wisdom) is one of the books of the Old Testament. It has been grouped among the Septuagint, or the seven wisdom books of the Bible. It is part of the Catholic and Orthodox Biblical canon, put forward by the Council of Carthage in 397 and confirmed by Catholic leaders at the Council of Trent in 1546. It was written by a Jew in Ancient Egypt in the 1st century BC and talks about wisdom among other themes."

  • Disillusioned JW
    Disillusioned JW

    Should it really be said that Paul plagiarized the words of the writer of the book called "Wisdom of Solomon" if what was done was not illegal back then? Even now it not illegal to include without permission massive content (even verbatim) from books which are in the public domain, even when without making any attribution to those (such as without mentioning those books in any credits or footnotes).

  • Disillusioned JW
    Disillusioned JW

    When studying the New Testament Bible and when trying to discern the factors which influenced the origination and development of Christianity up to 100 CE, is very helpful to study the books of the Catholic and Greek Orthodox Bibles which Protestants label as Apocryphal.

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