Wisdom of Solomon
Jewish, likely Alexandria, 1st century BCE
A hymn to a God who loves what God has made. Catholic, Orthodox, and many Anglican churches read it as scripture. It is one of the clearest “God is love” texts in the wider canon — and it is older than the New Testament.
Wisdom 11:24–26 (WEB)
For you love all things that are, and abhor none of the things which you made… you spare all things, because they are yours, O Sovereign Lord, you lover of souls.
Meaning
God loves what exists and would not have formed what God hated. That claim judges contempt: of bodies, of the earth, of people you find inconvenient. The chapter even retells plagues with mercy inside them, which is a hard rereading and a useful one when religion enjoys punishment.
Historical context
The book is anonymous, in Greek, usually placed in Alexandria between the first century BCE and the early first century CE, speaking as Solomon to Jews in a philosophical city and also to rulers. It uses Stoic and Platonic colors for a spirit that holds things together.
“Lover of souls” reflects philopsychos, a compound of love and life or soul. Catholic and Orthodox churches read the book in the canon. Many Protestant Bibles moved it to an apocrypha section after the Reformation. Anglican lectionaries often kept it in earshot. Yahad treats it as scripture and says so without pretending the printed tables of contents all agree.
Ways to interpret
Historical
Diaspora Judaism under empire, Greek in language, Israelite in story, public in address because kings are in the audience.
Contemplative
Handle one made thing today, food or soil or a body, as if the Maker were not ashamed of matter.
Creation
Pair the lines with Genesis 1. A faith that hates what God made has stepped outside this hymn, whatever it calls itself.
Related readings
Wisdom 11:24–26 (WEB)
For you love all things that are, and abhor none of the things which you made; For you never would have formed anything if you hated it. How would anything have endured unless you had willed it? Or that which was not called by you, how would it have been preserved? But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Sovereign Lord, you lover of souls.
Sirach 4:1–2, 8–10 (WEB)
My son, don’t deprive the poor of his living. Don’t make the needy eyes wait long. Don’t make a hungry soul sorrowful. Don’t provoke a man in his distress. To the poor man incline your ear, and pay your debt, and give him a friendly answer in meekness. Deliver him who is wronged from the hand of the oppressor. Don’t be faint-hearted in giving judgment. Be as a father to the fatherless, and in place of a husband to their mother. So you will be as a son of the Most High, and he will love you more than your mother does.
Tobit 4:15–16 (WEB)
Do that to no one which you hate. Don’t drink wine to drunkenness, and don’t let drunkenness go with you on your way. Give of your bread to the hungry, and of your garments to those who are naked. Of all you possess, give alms; and don’t let your eye begrudge when you give alms.