PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

Wisdom of Solomon 5:1-8
Then the righteous one will stand with much boldness, in view of those who had
oppressed him, and those who had disregarded his labours. Seeing him, they will
be stirred up with severe fear. And they will be amazed by the unexpectedness of
his salvation. They will speak to one another in repentance, and from a spirit of
distress they will groan and say, “This is the one whom we once held to be a
laughingstock and an insulting byword – we fools! We considered his life to be
madness and his death to be dishonourable. How is it that such a person has been
counted among the sons of God, with an inheritance among the saints? So we
had strayed from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness did not shine on
us, and the sun did not rise for us. We were filled with lawless and destructive
ways and travelled through inaccessible deserts, but we did not know the way of
the Lord. Of what benefit to us was arrogance [ὑπερηφανία]? And of what help
to us was wealth with boasting [ἀλαζονείας]?”
The “way of the Lord” includes his ability to deliver to Hades and from Hades (16:13, cf.
Deuteronomy 32:39; Isaiah 10:14; 43:13; Tobit 13:2). 24 A direct application is made to
the boastful rulers of the earth, in chapter 6. As in Daniel, they are called to humble
themselves and acknowledge the “Most High”, or else face his judgement:
Wisdom of Solomon 6:1-5
Listen then, kings, and understand! Learn, judges of the ends of the earth! Give
ear, you who rule over many and boast [γεγαυρωμένοι] over the multitudes of
the nations! Your rule was given to you by the Lord, and your power from the
Most High. He will examine your works and will search out your plans, because
24 Samuel Cheon observes that the exodus is a crucially programmatic story lying behind
such material in the Wisdom of Solomon, and (along with other literature) influences this
identification of God as the one who brings life and death. It seems likely to me that the
story of the exodus (and the song of Moses in Exodus 15) is extremely influential on
depictions of “the way” of God as the divine Reverser more broadly. See Samuel Cheon,
The Exodus Story in the Wisdom of Solomon: A Study in Biblical Interpretation (Sheffield:
Sheffied Academic Press, 1997), 63.
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