Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Wisdom of Solomon
2. Origin
3. Authorship
3.1 Solomonic Authorship
3.2 The Friends of Solomon
3.3 Philo
3.4 Ben Sira
4. Date
5. Themes
6. The Book of Proverbs
7. Origin
8. Authorship
9. Date
10. Themes
11. The Relation Between Wisdom of Solomon and The Book of Proverbs
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
What is “wisdom”? We all used to pray to God and ask “God give me wisdom.
Thus, this two books tell us what wisdom is. Furthermore, the author of this paper is
going to deal with the wisdom books that we can found in the Bible and outside of the
Bible. There are Wisdom of Solomon and the Book of Proverbs. The author is going
to discuss base on the books when it came, who is the writer, when it was written and
what is focusing on that book.
1. Wisdom of Solomon
The Wisdom of Solomon is an exhortation to purse Wisdom and thereby to
live the righteous life that issues in immortality.1 The Wisdom of Solomon, also
called the Book of Wisdom, one of the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical books, which
are not considered canonical by Protestants or Jews but are so reckoned by Roman
Catholics and Orthodox. At first reading the Wisdom of Solomon seems to address a
different world from that of the wisdom books we have examined so far. It threatens
kings and commands them to obey, speaks of the resurrection of the dead, and talks
about the end of the present world and a future judgment. Despite its unique features,
however, Wisdom of Solomon is indisputably an Israelite wisdom book. Therefore,
Wisdom of Solomon belongs securely to the corpus of biblical wisdom books.2
2. Origin
The Wisdom of Solomon is an Apocryphal work about wisdom, its nature,
benefits and role in ancient Israel’s history. Attributed in the work to King Solomon,
it was likely composed by a Jewish author in Egypt between 2nd century BC and the
1st century AD looking to demonstrate the wisdom of Judaism. Influences of the Bible
and early rabbinic traditions as well as Greek philosophy are evident in the work,
which consists of three distinct sections: Chapters 1-6 urge the rules of the earth to
pursue wisdom. In chapters 6-10, King Solomon describes how his life was guided by
wisdom and offers a prayer to obtain wisdom. Chapters 11-19 recount the story of the
Israelites’ redemption from Egypt.3 Therefore, the used of Greek language, the
influence of Greek philosophy and rhetoric, its Jewish audience, and the links with
1
George W.E. Nickelsburg, Jewish Litreature between the Bible and the Mishnah, 1934, 2nd
edn., (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005), 205.
2
Richard J. Clifford, The Wisdom Literature (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), 133-134.
3
Sefaria, “The Wisdom of Solomon,”
https://www.sefaria.org/The_Wisdom_of_Solomon?tab=contents (accessed 11 September 2025).
Philo suggest an origin in Alexandria Egypt.4 Its origin in the diaspora is evident in
the author’s concern with idolatry, justice, and the defense of Jewish faith against
surrounding pagan influences.
3. Authorship
Christians views on the authorship of Wisdom can be set out as follows.
3.1 Solomonic
Solomon was pervasively revered as author, doubts notwithstanding. An early
comment on the Song of Songs, ascribed to Hippolytus by Anastasius of Sinai -
names Proverbs, Wisdom, Ecclesiastes and the Canticle, in order, as the Solomonic
books selected by Hezekiah’s company. Towards the end of the patristic age both
eastern and western opinion could view Wisdom as non-canonical, but genuinely
Solomonic. The same instinct affected Ecclesiasticus, often and early cited as
Solomonic, concluded in Latin by Solomon’s prayer and numbered among ‘the five
books of Solomon’.5
3.2 The Friends of Solomon
The Muratorian Fragment, a late-second-century canonical list of the New
Testament books, lists Wisdom as having been “written by Solomon’s friends in his
honor.” Augustine and Jerome also both affirmed the non-Solomonic authorship of
Wisdom.6 Solomon’s friend Hiram had a sapiential literary legend, and it is possible,
too, that Ecclesiasticus is in mind together with Wisdom, Ben Sira being termed
‘friend’ as an imitator of Solomon. The fragment as it stands then perhaps genuinely
reflects an attempt to unite criticism with tradition.
3.3 Philo
This tradition must go back at least to the third century, and probably further,
for it was known to Jerome from ‘nonnulli scriptorum veterum’. In Jerome’s time it
was therefore probably familiar among Greek-speakers as well as Latin Christians
like Julian of Eclanum. The early readiness of Christians to identify Philo as the
author of this highly revered book has been plausibly linked, in turn, with the traces of
a quasi-hagiographic Christian legend of Philo found in Eusebius and elsewhere,
perhaps deriving from the second-century Hegesippus.
4
Oxford Bibliographies, “Wisdom of Solomon-Biblical Studies,”
https://www.oxfordbibligraphies.com/display/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-
0129.xml (accessed 13 September 2010).
5
John Day, Robert P. Gordon and H.G.M. Williamson, eds., Wisdom in Ancient Israel: Essays
in Honour of J. A. Emerton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 189.
6
David A. deSilva, Introducing the Apocrypha (Michigan: Baker Academic, 2002), 132.
3.4 Ben Sira
Ben Sira wrote both Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, according to Augustine,
following what he took to be a standard view. He ultimately withdrew this attribution
of Wisdom, perhaps so as not to infringe the book's authority by an opinion deemed
doubtful; Julian of Eclanum in Italy thought that the ascriptions to Ben Sira and Philo
were both uncertain. The attribution to Ben Sira is probably also reflected in those
Greek and Latin texts of the Apostolic Canons which speak of ‘the Wisdoms of the
very learned Sirach’; compare the place of sisdom; Wisdom just after Ecclesiasticus
in one list in Epiphanius, the Gelasian Decree, Junilius and later Ebedjesu. Jews in
Galilee and the east highly esteemed Ecclesiasticus. Was Augustine's attribution,
perhaps learnt in Italy, shared by Jews in the west?7
4. Date
The date of composition is somewhat more controversial. Some commen-
tators set the date as early as the second century B.C.E. Others favor the first century
B.C.E., because of the lack of clear allusions to Philo, but then the fact that Philo
shows no acquaintance with Wisdom Solomon becomes problematic. By far the most
probable date is the early Roman period.8 Hence a first century B.C date is generally
agreed upon, perhaps in the last half of the century. It is reasonable to suppose that the
work originated in Alexandria, a large Jewish center of the Diaspora, which was also
an intellectual pivot of the ancient world.9
The account of the persecution of the righteous and the subsequent divine
judgment in chaps. 2–5 figure prominently in attempts to date the book. In Winston’s
view, this section of the book “could only be called forth by a desperate historical
situation.” He suggests the reign of the Roman emperor Caligula (37–41 A.D.), when
there were riots in Alexandria and the Jews were proclaimed “aliens and
foreigners.”Whether the book can be tied to such specific events remains questionable,
since it never alludes to them explicitly. Moreover, we shall argue that the account of
the persecution of the righteous has the character of a quasi-philosophical argument
about the profitability of justice, rather than of a veiled historical commentary, and the
apocalyptic scene that it evokes was traditional by the Roman period. It cannot be
7
Day, Wisdom in Ancient Israel: Essays in Honour of J. A. Emerton, 189-190.
8
John J. Collins, Jewish Wisdom in the Hellenistic Age (Louisville: Westminster John Knox
Press, 1997), 178-179.
9
Roland E. Murphy, The Tree of Life: An Exploration of Biblical Wisdom Literature, 1990,
2nd edn., (Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 1996), 83.
taken as a reliable guide to the circumstances in which the book was composed. The
book could have been written at any time in the century from 30 B.C. to 70 A.D.10
5. Themes
Motives fir its production seems most readily discernible in i–x, which conflict
with views expressed elsewhere in the Solomonic corpus. Wisdom’s attack on the
powerful who deny after-life and divine revelation traverses opinion voiced in
Ecclesiastes and in Ecclesiasticus, but recalls the Psalms of Solomon; the same
disagreement seems to be partly mirrored in the inscriptions, and can be related to
Pharisaic-Sadducaic struggle.
The central themes of the Wisdom of Solomon revolve around the issues of
life, death, and the hope of immortality. The author challenges those who deny the
afterlife and divine revelation, often contrasting its teaching with the skeptical or
hedonistic outlooks found in Ecclesiastes and Ecclesiasticus. While these earlier
writings sometimes portray life as fleeting and human effort as ultimately
meaningless, Wisdom insists that true understanding comes not from human prudence
but as a gift from God. Immortality, righteousness, and divine judgment are presented
as central truths, given by God in answer to prayer.
Another major theme is the critique of Gentile practices and idolatry,
especially in chapters 11–19. This anti-gentile polemic reflects the pressures faced by
Jews living in Egypt, while at the same time offering encouragement to remain
faithful. Within the Jewish community, the book was seen as a prophetic work, placed
alongside Ecclesiasticus and Proverbs as a source of instruction.
Christians later received the Wisdom of Solomon with great respect, valuing it
for its teaching on immortality, its prophetic insights, and its connections with the
passion and suffering of Christ. Despite questions about its authorship and its Greek
composition, the book played an important role in shaping Jewish and Christian
understanding of righteousness, divine justice, and eternal life.11
6. The Book of Proverbs
It better deserves the name than the apocryphal “Wisdom of Solomon,”
remarkable in its own way as that book undoubtedly is. The early Fathers of the
Church, Clement of Eome, Hegesippus, Irenaeus, Gregory Nazianzen, and others,
style it, “ the wise book,” “ the book of wisdom,” “all-excellent wisdom,” or "wisdom,
10
Collins, Jewish Wisdom in the Hellenistic Age,179.
11
Day, Wisdom in Ancient Israel: Essays in Honour of J. A. Emerton, 195-196.
mother of all the virtues.” It remains the central and most representative monument of
what the Jews understood by Chokmah, and in it the word and all that it implies is
best studied.12 It is too facile, although quite traditional, to characterize the Book of
Proverbs as a compendium of ethics, of Israelite morality. This view is strengthened
by the optimistic note that sounds frequently in the work: wisdom prospers, while
folly self-destructs. It is quoted freely, and it has received greater authority than many
other book of Holy Writ. The favored approach is to seek out comparisons or
analogies between the human situation and all else. It does not command so much as
it seeks to persuade, to tease the reader into a way of life.13
7. Origin
The book of Proverbs belongs to the third and final division of the TANAK,
known as the Ketubim, the primary witness for the text being the Leningrad Codex,
from the early 11th century A.D. The translation of the book provided by the
Septuagint differs from the original in offering a host of variant and additional
aphorisms as well as in offering a different arrangement for some of the material,
especially the book’s final chapters. Although multiple verses attribute its contents to
King Solomon, an analysis of the book’s literary features makes apparent that it is in
fact a composite document, edited by anonymous Israelite scribal groups in the late
Persian or early Hellenistic period. That being said, some of the individual proverbs
preserved in the collection may go back to the time of the first commonwealth, which
came to an end in 587 B.C. Rather than denoting authorship, then, these verses are
best understood as dedicatory formulae acknowledging Solomon as both patron of
sages and paragon of the wise ruler, the latter being consistent with the royal setting
adopted by many of the book’s sayings.14
8. Authorship
The initial verse of the book introduces “the proverbs of Solomon son of
David, king of Israel,” which prompted the early church fathers to conclude that the
entire book was written by Solomon. However, the early Jewish tradition, in the
Babylonian Talmud triacetate Baba Batra 15a, refers to the editing of the book by
“the men of Hezekiah”. Murphy is representation of the predominant view today that
12
W.T. Davison, The Wisdom-Literature of The Old Testament, 1894, 4thedn., (London:
Charles H. Kelly, 1912), 120.
13
Murphy, The Tree of Life: An Exploration of Biblical Wisdom Literature, 15.
14
Walter T. Wilson, Ancient Wisdom: An Introduction to Sayings Collections (Michigan:
William B. Eerdmans, 2022), 181.
Solomon, despite his reputation for wisdom, should not be considered the author of
the book.15
“For centuries Solomon was the putative author of this book, due to the
venerable tradition about his wisdom (1 Kings 3:10; 5:9–14), and the superscription
of the work (1:1). There is now almost universal agreement that he cannot be
considered the “author.” Within the book are several collections, some of them clearly
ascribed to “authors” other than Solomon. Moreover, there are no available means to
identify any proverbs as “Solomonic.” It seems to be the nature of ancient proverbs
that they lose their “author” as they become popular and perhaps even improved in the
process. While the dating of the book of Proverbs remains uncertain, the most
satisfactory division is preexilic and postexilic.16
9. Date
Establishing the dates of the collections and the concluding poem of the book
as well as the time of its final editing represents an imposing challenge, due to the
lack of specific criteria on which to make concrete judgments. Due to the lack of
precise evidence, it is not surprising to find considerable variation in scholarly dating
of both the collections and the final redaction of the book. According to the view of
Grintz, the three “Solomonic collections” point to the time of the unite monarchy.
Snell argues that, due to the reference to rulers in the superscription's and the
mentioning of kings in some of the collections, much of Proverbs dates from the
monarchy. Fox has suggested that the references to Solomon are untenable, although
the mentioning of kings may suggest that some of the materials originated during the
First Temple period. He thinks that the final edition of the volume originates in the
Persian or Hellenistic period. Scott argues that one cannot hope to date any of them
with precision, although he, like most scholar, is convinced that the legendary
association with Solomon lacks historical veracity.17
10. Themes
The dominant theme of Proverbs is wisdom in its various aspects. Clifford
explains well, “Wisdom in Proverbs has a threefold dimension: sapiential (a way of
knowing reality), ethical (a way of conducting oneself), and religious (a way of
15
Daniel J. Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms (Michigan: Baker Academic,
2005), 213.
16
Roland E. Murphy, Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 22/ Proverbs (Michigan:
Zondervan, 1998), 47.
17
Leo G. Perdue, The Sword and the Stylus: An Introduction to Wisdom in the Age of Empires
(Michigan: William Eerdmans, 2008), 86-87.
relating to the divinely designed order or to God)… The corollary to the fullness of
wisdom is that folly is not simply ignorance but perversity and impiety. It condemns
God’s world and takes action against God and God’s creatures. Wisdom is thus a
serious virtue with most serious consequences.” Proverbs examines the whole range
of life in which wisdom and folly are expressed in actions, attitudes and values.18
The themes of wisdom prominently displayed in the collections and poems of
the book of Proverbs include several that form the conceptual and religious
foundation of the ongoing worldview of the sages, while others become the subject of
of critical disputation. At the same time, these salient topics experienced change and
reformulation in view of two factors. First, there were competing groups of sages with
different emphases; second, the conceptual understandings changed in response to
social and historical transformations and alterations occurring in Israel’s and Judah’s
world.19
11. The Relation Between Wisdom of Solomon and The Book of Proverbs
The Book of Proverbs and the Wisdom of Solomon are related because both
place Solomon at the center of Jewish wisdom tradition. The Book of Proverbs
provides the foundation of Israelite wisdom, focusing on moral conduct and fear of
the Lord and the Wisdom of Solomon builds upon that tradition in a later Greek-
Jewish setting; expanding wisdom into a cosmic, almost divine reality that connects
Jewish faith with Hellenistic philosophy. Proverbs gives early Israelite wisdom in
practical sayings and the Wisdom of Solomon expands the theme in a later, more
philosophical way, shaped by Jewish faith and Greek influence. They are related as
earlier and later stages of the wisdom tradition, both attributed to Solomon for
continuity but shaped by very different historical and cultural contexts. Together,
they show how the idea of “wisdom” developed from Solomon’s time through the
later Jewish world.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the author was discuses on the two wisdom books, which found
in Protestants Bible and Apocrypha. The Wisdom of Solomon and the book of
Proverbs, the author deal with its origins, writers, and the main focus theme of the
books. Interestingly, both of the books are closely relate in author and the message,
while the Wisdom of Solomon and Proverbs are deal all about the Wisdom from God.
18
Estes, Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 221.
19
Perdue, The Sword and the Stylus: An Introduction to Wisdom in the Age of Empires, 107.
Bibliography
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Essays in Honour of J. A. Emerton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1995.
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Empires. Michigan: William Eerdmans, 2008.
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William B. Eerdmans, 2022.
Web Page
Oxford Bibliographies. “Wisdom of Solomon-Biblical Studies.”
https://www.oxfordbibligraphies.com/display/document/obo-9780195393361/obo
9780195393361-0129.xml (accessed 13 September 2010).
Sefaria. “The Wisdom of Solomon.” https://www.sefaria.org/The_Wisdom_of_Solomon?tab=contents
(accessed 11 September 2025).
