and wage a special conflict with the Deuterononiic doctrine of retribution. Laws of nature, according to li', not moral laws, rule eveiything. There is no Divine government of the world. This is proved by the world's course. Man's lot is a continual vain struggle. Pleasures cannot compensate him for this, for they rest upon an illusion. Nor does AVisdom bring any real satisfaction, for the pursuit of her is fruitless. — Amongst the glo.ssators, Q,^ occu]iies a purely Epicurean standpoint. Eating and drinking and other sensual indulgences he considers of very real value, and counsels jiartici- pating in tliese before the coming of old age when the capacity for enjoying them ceases, l.abour, again, is, according to him, not without result, for by it man gains something which procures enjoy- ment. Hence man is to note the good days and accommodate himself to the evil ones. — The gloss- ator, the lidkhum t^', as was already remarked, defends Wis<lom against the disparagement of its value by Q'. — The I'hariseo i^* maintains the positions of Judaism against Q', namely the Divine causality in the creation and governirient of the world : the Divine justice, which calls even the exalted to account and protects the law-abiding ; the view of premature death, which overtakes the wicked, whereas it is escaped by the godly (Sieg- fiied. I.e. p. 11 f.).
5. Tlie Wisdom teaching in the Apocrypha.. — In the apocryphal literature the Wisdom teaching received abundant attention. (a) Sirach. — The standpoint of the sayings of Ben Sira has points of contact with that of Q^ just described. His 'Wisdom' is out and out Jewish-religious. 'All wisdom is from the Lord, and is with him for ever ' (1'); hence it is unfathomable in its nature, for God alone comprehends it (v. 5). God created it (v.*), and poured it out on all His works, but in a special manner upon the godly (v.'"), who re- cognize that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (vv."'-"). From this source flow all ethical rules, which are specialized in rich variety, a course which gives the author occasion for a number of separate expositions (P'-IO^). Once more he turns to the contemplation of the nature of wisdom in 24'-30'-'', a section which ojiens with a call to Wisdom to raise a liyiiin in praise of her- self, to which she responds in 24'''-. She glorifies herself as having proceeded out of the mouth of the Highest, and relates how at the Creation she lay upon the earth like a mist (cf. Gn 1' 2"). Then she took her seat upon a pillar of cloud (cf. Ex 14'") and spread her flight through the heights cf heaven. Hut she likewise walked tlirough the ileptlis of the abyss. Sea and dry land have been taken possession of by her, and slie has souglit a dwelling-place among all nations. But ' the Creator of all things' commanded her : ' In Jacob take up thy dwelling.' Then she received her place in Zion, and flourished there like a hne tree. And so she call.-' all who long for Wisdom to come and enjoy her fruits. But Wisdom has found its fullest expression in the Book of the Law (24'-^"-'''), whose full stream is com- pared with that of the four rivers of Paradise. With Sirach thus as in I'r 8 (see above, p. 'J25'') Wisdom is not God's inli rmediary in the creation of the world, but has to do only with men. Slio seeks a dwelling-]ilace with them upon the alrcaily created earth, and linds it in Israel, [lartlv in the Teiii|jle worship (24""-), partly in the Book of the Law (24-").
(4) Brirnch. — In this book Wisdom appears simply as attached to the book of the commands of (iod (ell. 4) : Israel's misfortunes, which came uiion her with the Exile, arc due solely to her having for- saken these commandments ot life {3'"'- ; cf. Rys.sel in Kautzsch's Apokr. «. Pseudcpigr. d. AT,i. 230- 475).
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WISDOM, BOOK OF
WISDOM, BOOK OF
(c) 4 Maccabees. — Here the Jewish philosopher of religion starts with the principle that tlie natural reason (6 voOs) of man is intended to rule the passions (rd TdSri). This is auconiplishetl v lien the yoOs chooses a life in Wisdom and tlius becomes \oyiiT/i.6s. Only thus can it arrive at the ao<pla, w hich consists in possession of a knowledfje of things Divine and human and of their causes (<ro0ia 5ii roivvi/ iuTiv yvu3<xi^ d^ioiv koX avd p^irlvuv irpay/xdruv /cai Tu>i> Toi'moy oItIuv, 1'*). But the Wisdom that is recognized must also be desired, the Xoyicjtij^ must be ev<re^ris \oyi<x^i6s, thought determining itself to a >'irtuous life. The best aid to the leading of such a life is the ancestral Law, which teaches us Divine and human things in the wortliiest and most suitable manner (t; toO vi/iov vatdeia, di' 7^j Tct deia (Te/xf^s t:al Tct dvdpu^TTLva ffvfjLfpc- pl>vTw! ixavdiiiofiev, 1"). By the help of the prescrip. tions of the Jewish Law a man will be best able to check perturbations of spirit, for from it we derive trust in God, and the conviction that the enduring of any suffering for virtue's sake brings blessedness. True philosophy thus coincides with fiVe'ieia, and is of value simply as laying a scientific foundation for Judaism (cf. J. Freudenthal, Die Flavins Josephus beigelegte Schrift itber die Herr- sckaft dcr Vemun/t, Breslau, 1S69 ; A. Deissmann, ' Das sogenannte vierte Buch der Maccabaer ' ia Kautzscli's Apokr. u. Pseudcpigr. d. A T, ii. 177 ; and, in general, Farrar in Speaker's Apocrypha, 415''-420=' ; and art. MACCABEES in vol. iii. p. "l94).