000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

Proper 8 [13]/Year B 161
Lamentations 3:23–33
or Wisdom of Solomon 1:13–15; 2:23–24* (Paired)
While these alternate readings interact little with one another, they make
interesting pairings with the complex reading from the Gospel.
Most scholars place the date of the Wisdom of Solomon in the middle
of the Hellenistic age (circa 250 BCE to 50 CE). The author intertwines
elements of the wisdom tradition in Judaism (see Second Sunday after
Christmas Day/Years A B C and Proper19/Year B) and Hellenistic philosophy,
with a smattering of apocalypticism. The book reinforces Jewish
identity in a setting that pressured Jewish people to move away from Jewish
tradition and practice and toward more Hellenistic ways. Moreover,
in Alexandria (a likely setting for the book) the Jewish community experienced
considerable tension with Greeks, and in 38 CE some Greeks
destroyed synagogues and harassed Jewish people. The Wisdom of Solomon
contrasts the just (typically Jewish people) and their fate of immortality
with the unjust (typically representatives of the broader Hellenistic
culture) and their fate of condemnation.
Wisdom 1:1–15 invites readers to live in righteousness (that is, according
to God’s designs) through wisdom and thereby to avoid the condemnation
that awaits the unrighteous. Wisdom 1:12–15 encourages readers
to avoid death that comes to people who “bring on destruction by the
works of their hands,” that is, idolatry and other failings to live according
to God’s designs (1:12). God did not create death and does not delight in
it; rather, human beings brought it on themselves (1:13). God “created all
things so that they might exist” and initially made them with “no destructive
poison” (1:14). Indeed, “Righteousness [those who live righteously]
is immortal” (1:15).
In Wisdom, “immortality” is not entirely defined but seems to refer to
a Hellenistic notion of the soul continuing after death (e.g., 3:1–13), with
a touch of apocalypticism (e.g., 4:20–5:23). Notions such as resurrection
of the body and immortality of the soul were not always neatly demarcated
in the syncretism of antiquity.
Whereas virtually all other texts in Lamentations (for background on
which, see Proper 22/Year C) are unceasing lament over the destruction of
Jerusalem at the time of the exile, today’s reading voices confidence that the
faithfulness of God to the covenant means that God will end the exile and
restore the community (Lam. 3:22–24). In the meantime, the community
should recognize that the exile is just punishment for their idolatry and