Wisdom of Solomon · WEB-C
Wisdom of Solomon
2
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For they said within themselves, with unsound reasoning, “Our life is short and sorrowful. There is no healing when a man comes to his end, and no one was ever known who was released from Hades. Because we were born by mere chance, and hereafter we will be as though we had never been, because the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our heart, which being extinguished, the body will be turned into ashes, and the spirit will be dispersed as thin air. Our name will be forgotten in time. No one will remember our works. Our life will pass away as the traces of a cloud, and will be scattered as is a mist, when it is chased by the rays of the sun, and overcome by its heat. For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow, and our end doesn’t retreat, because it is securely sealed, and no one turns it back. “Come therefore and let’s enjoy the good things that exist. Let’s use the creation earnestly as in our youth. Let’s fill ourselves with costly wine and perfumes, and let no spring flower pass us by. Let’s crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither. Let none of us go without his share in our proud revelry. Let’s leave tokens of mirth everywhere, because this is our portion, and this is our lot. Let’s oppress the righteous poor. Let’s not spare the widow, nor regard the gray hair of the old man. But let our strength be a law of righteousness; for that which is weak is proven useless. But let’s lie in wait for the righteous man, because he annoys us, is contrary to our works, reproaches us with sins against the law, and charges us with sins against our training. He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord. He became to us a reproof of our thoughts. He is grievous to us even to look at, because his life is unlike other men’s, and his paths are strange. We were regarded by him as something worthless, and he abstains from our ways as from uncleanness. He calls the latter end of the righteous happy. He boasts that God is his father. Let’s see if his words are true. Let’s test what will happen at the end of his life. For if the righteous man is God’s son, he will uphold him, and he will deliver him out of the hand of his adversaries. Let’s test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and test his patience. Let’s condemn him to a shameful death, for he will be protected, according to his words.” Thus they reasoned, and they were led astray; for their wickedness blinded them, and they didn’t know the mysteries of God, neither did they hope for wages of holiness, nor did they discern that there is a prize for blameless souls. Because God created man for incorruption, and made him an image of his own everlastingness; but death entered into the world by the envy of the devil, and those who belong to him experience it.
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Notes · Haydock (1859, public domain)11 notes
Notes in English 19th-century Catholic commentary by Fr. George Leo Haydock, shown as published.
These notes keep the polemics of their time: some speak harshly of the Jewish people or of other Christians. The Church teaches otherwise today. The Jewish people may not be blamed for the death of Christ (Nostra Aetate 4; Catechism 597–598), and Christians of other communities are our brothers and sisters in the Lord (Unitatis Redintegratio 3). Christian unity
Wisdom of Solomon 2:1
Ver. 1. Right. He shews how the wicked brought death into the world, and expresses the sentiments of the epicureans, as in Ecclesiastes. The six first chapters are a sort of paraphrase of the nine first of Proverbs, in which the attractions of virtue and of pleasure are contrasted, &c. C.
--- Remedy. Lit. "refreshment." Sept. "healing." --- Hell, or the grave. H. --- They reject as fabulous, the accounts of people being raised to life by miracle. C. ---
They suppose that the soul is mortal, and that there is neither reward nor punishment after death. W.
↑ 1Wisdom of Solomon 2:2
Ver. 2. Nothing. Sept. "by chance." The epicureans imagined that the first man was produced by the conflux of atoms. Lucret. i. 5. C. --- Smoke, or vanishes like it. --- And speech. Budæus would substitute "a little spark." --- Speech may be used for "thing." Our life is something like a spark. M. --- Speech is an effect of the rational soul, as a spark comes from fire. C.
↑ 2Wisdom of Solomon 2:5
Ver. 5. Sealed, like one in the tomb. Matt. xxvii. 66. The epicureans were well convinced of the fragility of our nature: but they drew false inferences from it, pretending that we should enjoy ourselves now, as there will be no future life.
This they ought to have proved. C.
↑ 5Wisdom of Solomon 2:6
Ver. 6. Come. From the disbelief of future rewards and punishments proceeds the epicure's life.
W.
↑ 6Wisdom of Solomon 2:7
Ver. 7. Time. Sept. Alex. "of spring." H. --- Youth is the spring of life. The voluptuous conclude, from the transitory nature of things, that we should make use of them. Would it not be more rational to despise them? C.
↑ 7Wisdom of Solomon 2:11
Ver. 11. Worth. Strange maxims! which few will dare to proclaim, though they act according to them. C.
↑ 11Wisdom of Solomon 2:12
This 19th-century note uses polemical language; read it in the light of the note at the top of this panel.
Ver. 12. Just. Infidels are not content to live in riot: they also persecute the just. W. --- This passage points out the conduct of the Jews towards our Saviour, in so striking a manner, that Grotius would assert it has been altered by some Christian. But the Fathers adduce it as a clear prediction (C.) of the Jewish malice. Matt. xxvii. 41. Mar. xiv. 53. W.
↑ 12Wisdom of Solomon 2:13
Ver. 13. Knowledge. The prophets spoke to sinners in the name of God, and many of them lost their lives in the cause. Christ appeared as a new star, to promote their welfare; yet this only serves to irritate them. C. Jo. viii. 16.
↑ 13Wisdom of Solomon 2:20
Ver. 20. Words. Or he shall be punished for what he has said. Syr. Vat. &c. Matt.
xxvi. 61. C.
--- We shall hence form a judgment of his real merits, (M.) unless this be spoken ironically; as if the just had foolishly flattered himself with the divine protection. Matt. xxvii. 43. H.
↑ 20Wisdom of Solomon 2:22
Ver. 22. Secrets. The disbelief of mysteries leads to a dissolute life, and to the persecution of the just. W. --- The pagans knew not the advantages of suffering, and even the apostles were ignorant of the mystery of the cross, till after the resurrection. C.
↑ 22Wisdom of Solomon 2:24
Ver. 24. Envy. Lucifer thought that the honour of the hypostatic union (C.) belonged to the angelic, rather than to the human nature; and this he was guilty of envy, (H.) and strove to become like the most High. Is. xiv. 14. S. Bern.
ser. xvii. in Cant. Corn. A. Lap. &c.
↑ 24License: Notes by Fr. George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), from the Douay-Rheims Bible with Haydock's commentary (first ed. Thomas Haydock, Manchester/Dublin, 1811–1814; New York: Edward Dunigan & Brother, 1859); New Testament notes compiled with Fr. Benedict Rayment. Public domain. Digital text: "The Haydock Bible", Internet Archive (archive.org/details/TheHaydockBible), uploaded 2011 under the Public Domain Mark. · Credits and licenses