Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Interesting Prophecy in Ancient Jewish Literature

The following is from an ancient Jewish book usually referred to as the Wisdom of Solomon, though written not by King Solomon, but rather by an unnamed philosophically minded Jew. Most likely in Alexandria, Egypt, the same city which produced Philo, whose writings carry a similar flavor. The excerpt below is not only a writing of great beauty, but of deep spiritual and perhaps supernatural insight. Wisdom as a whole shares elements in common with both Philo and with the writings revealed to John in the Injil Sharif, particularly in presenting an understanding of Wisdom as being a personification of the Uncreated Word of God as Savior and Creator. In the passage below, however, it adds something more: A prophetic description of the Death of the Living Word and Wisdom Himself on behalf of humankind. It was most likely written in the late 1st century B.C.E.

"Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of 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;
the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange.
We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father.
Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;
for if the righteous man is God's son, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.
Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected."
Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them,
and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hope for the wages of holiness, nor discern the prize for blameless souls;
for God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternity,
but through the devil's envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it. (Wisdom of Solomon 2:12-24, RSV translation)