King James Version · Under the Greeks
Wisdom of Solomon 2
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1For the ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright, Our life is short and tedious, and in the of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the . 2For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been: for the breath in our nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of our : 3Which being extinguished, our body shall be turned into , and our shall vanish as the soft air, 4And our name shall be forgotten in time, and no man shall have our works in remembrance, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, that is driven away with the beams of the sun, and overcome with the heat thereof. 5For our time is a very shadow that passeth away; and after our end there is no returning: for it is sealed, so that no man cometh again. 6Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth. 7Let us fill ourselves with costly and ointments: and let no flower of the spring pass by us: 8Let us ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered: 9Let none of us go without his part of our voluptuousness: let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place: for this is our , and our lot is this. 10Let us oppress man, let us not spare the , nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged. 11Let our strength be of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth. 12Therefore let us lie in wait for ; because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraideth us with our offending , and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our education. 13He professeth to have the knowledge of : and he calleth himself the child of . 14He was made to reprove our . 15He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men’s, his ways are of another fashion. 16We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth the end of the to be , and maketh his boast that is his . 17Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him. 18For if the man be the son of , he will help him, and him from the hand of his . 19Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his . 20Let us condemn him with a shameful : for by his own saying he shall be respected. 21Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them. 22As for the of , they knew them not: neither they for the wages of , nor discerned a reward for blameless . 23For created man to be immortal, and made him to be an of his own eternity. 24Nevertheless through envy of the devil came into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under the Greeks, 332 BC to 63 BC ›
Alexander's conquest and the kingdoms of his successors. Greek language and custom press in everywhere, and the crisis under Antiochus IV provokes the Maccabean revolt.
- The successors
- Alexander dies at thirty-two and his generals carve up the empire. Judea sits on the border between the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria, and is fought over by both for a century and a half, which is the ordinary condition of the corridor.
- Hellenism
- Not just conquest but a culture: the gymnasium, the theatre, Greek names, Greek dress, Greek as the language of anyone with ambitions. Some Jews embraced it, some resisted it, and the argument between them is the real subject of the Maccabean books. In Alexandria the Hebrew scriptures are translated into Greek, producing the Septuagint, which is the Bible most New Testament writers quote.
- The crisis
- Antiochus IV bans the practice of Judaism, plunders the temple, and sets up a pagan altar in it in 167 BC. The revolt under the Maccabees wins, the temple is rededicated in 164 BC, which is the origin of Hanukkah, and Judea has about eighty years of independence under the Hasmoneans before Rome arrives.
- Further afield
- Rome fights Carthage three times and ends up master of the Mediterranean. Euclid writes the Elements and Archimedes does his work at Syracuse. In China the Qin unify the country in 221 BC and the Han follow, opening what becomes the Silk Road.