Wisdom 13:1-15:17
New Catholic Bible
The Folly of Idolatry[a]
Chapter 13
Dazzled by the World’s Beauty[b]
1 For all men were inherently foolish[c] who remained in ignorance of God,
and did not come to know him who is, even while observing the good things around them,
nor recognize the artisan while studying his works.
2 To their way of thinking, either fire or wind or the swift air,
or the periphery of the stars, or tempestuous water,
or the luminaries of heaven[d] were the gods that govern the world.
3 If they have been deluded by the beauty of these things into believing that these were gods,
let them come to understand how far superior to these is their Lord,
since he was the source of beauty that fashioned them.
4 And if they were astonished at their power and energy,
let them realize from observing these things how much more powerful is he who made them.
5 For from the grandeur and the beauty of created things
is derived a corresponding perception of the Creator.
6 Yet these people incur minimal blame,[e]
for they may have gone astray
while seeking God and eagerly desiring to find him.
7 For while diligently searching among his works,
they are distracted by the beauty of these things.
8 But even so, they cannot be completely absolved of guilt.
9 For if they achieved a sufficient degree of knowledge to investigate the world,
how did they fail to find its Lord more quickly?
Dead Gods
10 But the truly wretched ones are those who place their hopes in dead things,[f]
and give the title of gods to the work of human hands:
gold and silver skillfully fashioned,
likenesses of animals,
or useless stone sculpted by some ancient artisan.
11 [g]Consider, for example, a skilled woodworker who cuts down a suitable tree,
carefully strips it of all its bark,
and then, with admirable artistry,
produces some article suitable for daily use.
12 The small pieces of wood left over from his work
he burns so that he may cook his food and eat his fill.
13 However, left over among these remnants is a useless piece of wood,
crooked and full of knots,
which he puts aside to whittle at his leisure.
He carves it skillfully during his spare time,
forming it into the likeness of a man,
or makes it resemble some worthless animal,
14 giving it a coat of vermilion and covering its surface with red paint
while smearing over every blemish in it.
15 Then he provides for it a suitable shrine
and places it on the wall, fastening it there with nails.
16 In this way, he takes precautions so that it will not fall,
since he realizes that it cannot help itself,
for, being merely an image, it requires help.
17 But when he prays regarding his possessions or his marriage or his children,
he feels no shame in addressing this lifeless object.
18 In asking for health he petitions something that is weak,
and for life he entreats the dead;
for aid he prays to something totally inept,
and for a prosperous journey he beseeches something that is unable to walk.
19 And for profits, work, and success in affairs,
he asks the assistance of something whose hands are completely immobile.
Chapter 14
1 Again, someone preparing to embark on a voyage through turbulent waves
invokes a piece of wood more frail than the ship that carries him.
2 It was desire for profit that devised that vessel,
and Wisdom was the shipwright that built it.[h]
3 However, O Father, your providence[i] guides it,
since you have provided it with a pathway through the sea
and with a safe passage through the waves,
4 indicating that you can save from every danger,
so that even an inexperienced person can put out to sea.
5 It is your will that the works of your Wisdom should not be sterile;
thus men entrust their lives even to the most fragile wood,
and they safely reach land even after sailing through the waves on a raft.
6 For in the beginning, when arrogant giants were being destroyed,
the hope of the world took refuge on a raft[j]
and, guided by your hand, bequeathed to the world the seed of a new generation.
7 For blessed is the wood through which a righteous work is accomplished,[k]
8 but the idol made with hands is accursed, as is its maker—
he for having made it, and it because, even though perishable, it was called a god.
9 Equally hateful to God are the godless man and his ungodliness;
10 the work and the artificer will both be punished.
11 Therefore, a visitation will overtake even the idols of the nations
because among the creatures of God they have become an abomination,
a scandal for human souls,
and a pitfall for the feet of the foolish.
Idols Make Their Entry into the World[l]
12 The invention of idols marked the origin of immorality;
their discovery corrupted human life.
13 They did not exist at the beginning,
and they will not last forever.
14 They entered the world as a result of human vanity,
and therefore a speedy demise has been planned for them.
15 A father overcome with grief at an untimely death
had an image made of the child so quickly taken from him.
And he honored as a god what was formerly a corpse
and handed on to his household the observance of sacrifices and ceremonies.
16 With the passing of time this impious custom became established and was observed as a law,
and at the command of rulers graven images were worshiped.
17 When the subjects of a monarch lived at such a distance that they could not honor him in person,
they would have a likeness made of their far-off ruler,
thereby possessing a visible image of the king they desired to honor,
zealously in this way flattering the absent ruler as though he were present.[m]
18 Even those who did not know the king
were aroused to promote his worship by the ambition of the artisan
19 who, perhaps in his eagerness to please his ruler,
used all his skill to depict him in the most favorable way;
20 and the people, attracted by the beauty of his artistry,
began to worship as a god someone whom they had previously honored as a man.
21 Thus, this became a snare for humankind,
since people, whether victimized by misfortune or by tyranny,
assigned to objects of stone and wood the name that belongs to no other.
22 Then it was not sufficient for them to have mistaken notions in their knowledge of God;
for, even though they live in the midst of a great war of ignorance,
they term such horrible evils peace.
23 They engage in the ritual murders of children and in occult rites,
and they hold frenzied orgies replete with unnatural ceremonies.
24 They no longer cherish the purity of their lives and marriages,
either treacherously murdering their neighbor or aggrieving him by committing adultery with his spouse.
25 Chaos reigns supreme—blood and murder, theft and fraud,
corruption, treachery, riot, perjury,
26 destruction of the tranquillity of decent men, ingratitude,
defilement of souls, sexual perversion,
disorder in marriages, adultery, and debauchery.
27 For the worship of nameless idols
is the beginning, the source, and the end of every evil.
28 Idolaters either become frenzied in their exultation or prophesy what is untrue,
or live wicked lives or do not hesitate to commit perjury.
29 Since they place their trust in lifeless idols,
they have no fear of punishment in swearing false oaths.
30 [n]But justice will overtake them on two counts:
because in their devotion to idols they ignored God,
and because in their contempt for holiness they deliberately committed perjury.
31 For it is not the power of the things by which men swear
but the just punishment reserved for those who sin
that always overtakes the transgression of the wicked.
Chapter 15
The Israelites, a People That Does Not Worship Idols[o]
1 But you, our God, are good and faithful,
slow to anger, and showing mercy in governing the universe.
2 Even if we sin, we are yours, for we acknowledge your power;
but we will not sin, for we know that we are yours.
3 To know you constitutes complete righteousness,
and to know your power constitutes the root of immortality.[p]
4 We have not been led astray by the evil creations of human skill
or by the barren toil of painters,
figures covered over with varied colors,
5 the sight of which arouses in fools
a yearning for the lifeless form of a dead image.
6 Lovers of evil and deserving of similar yearnings
are those who make such figures, those who desire them, and those who worship them.
The Folly of Idol-Makers[q]
7 A potter laboriously kneads the soft earth,
molding each object for our use,
fashioning out of the same clay
both the vessels that will serve noble purposes
and those designed for a contrary use.
But what shall be the purpose of each object
is determined by the potter.[r]
8 With misspent effort he will mold a false god from the same clay;
although he himself was made out of earth a short time before,
after a brief interval, he will return to that earth from which he was taken,
when he is required to return on demand the life that was lent to him.
9 However, he is not concerned about death
or that his span of life is brief;
rather he competes with artisans in gold and silver
and emulates workers in bronze,
and he takes pride in making models of false gods.
10 His heart is ashes, his hopes of less value than common dirt,
and his life less worthy than clay,
11 because he failed to recognize the one who fashioned him
and breathed into him an active soul
and infused into him a living spirit.
12 Indeed, he considered this life of ours as an idle game,
and our span of years as a market that will be a source of profit.
“No matter how wicked the means,” he says, “one must make a living.”
13 For this man, more than all others, knows that he is committing sin,
when from the same earthy materials he makes both fragile pots and idols.
The Grotesque Character of Idolatry
14 But the most foolish of all, and infantile in their acts,
are the enemies who enslaved your people.
15 For they regarded as gods all their heathen idols,
although these cannot use their eyes to see
or their nostrils to breathe the air.
Neither can they use their ears to hear
or the fingers on their hands to touch;
and their feet are useless for walking.
16 For it was a man who made them;
they were fashioned by one whose very breath is on loan.
For no artisan can form a god to resemble himself;
17 since he is mortal, what he is able to form with his impious hands is dead.
Thus, he is superior to the objects of his worship,
since he has the life that his idols never had.
Footnotes
- Wisdom 13:1 For Jews in the first century B.C., the collision between faith in God and the paganism of Egypt was verified in their own conscience. The author sets before them a systematic criticism of the pagan cults, a criticism that is at times simplistic and takes no account of the religious sentiment that animated those who practiced them (see Ps 115; Isa 44:9-20). He does not act as an historian but as a defender of the faith.
- Wisdom 13:1 This path that leads to the discovery of God through the beauty of nature, reprised by Paul the Apostle (Rom 1:19-23) and so many contemplatives, remains one of the human and Christian ways to reflect on the existence of God. However, to stop at the creature in the search for God is inexcusable (Wis 13:8), although understandable (v. 6).
- Wisdom 13:1 Inherently foolish: literally, “vain.” The same word is often applied to false gods. Those who ignore God and follow idols are as “vain” as such gods (see Jer 2:5; Rom 1:21). Him who is: the sacred Name of God (see Ex 3:14).
- Wisdom 13:2 Luminaries of heaven: the Vulgate makes this phrase more specific by replacing it with “sun and moon” (see Gen 1:16). Gods that govern: see Deut 4:19.
- Wisdom 13:6 Minimal blame: the blame assigned to those mentioned here is much less than the blame of the wicked dealt with in verses 10; 15:14ff.
- Wisdom 13:10 Dead things: the author finds it hard to see why idols are worshiped, for they are without life or power. The forces of nature are at least active and fruitful and so might more readily be mistaken for gods. Above all, however, is the fact that only God is to be worshiped, for he is the “living God” (Jos 3:10; Pss 42:3, 9; 84:3; Mt 16:16).
- Wisdom 13:11 In the manner of the Psalmists and the Prophets, the author adopts a tone of irony that heaps scorn on idols (see Ps 135:15-18; Isa 40:19-20; Jer 10:3-5; Bar 6).
- Wisdom 14:2 Wisdom . . . built it: i.e., the technical skill of the artisan that built it is a fruit of Wisdom (see Wis 8:6; Ex 31:3; 35:31).
- Wisdom 14:3 Providence: a term borrowed from Greek philosophy to express an idea that is biblical (see Pss 145:8-9, 15-16; 147:9).
- Wisdom 14:6 Raft: i.e., Noah’s ark.
- Wisdom 14:7 Blessed is the wood . . . accomplished: often applied to the cross of Christ.
- Wisdom 14:12 The cult of idols perverts human beings. The immorality spoken about in verse 12 is undoubtedly infidelity toward God and his covenant (see Hos 1–2), and the incommunicable name (Wis 14:21) is that of God, with the supreme sacrilege being to have it borne by a creature.
- Wisdom 14:17 An allusion to the pagan cult in honor of kings who were divinized. This custom, besides being a true idolatry, is contrary to the law, which prohibited all images of God and human beings (see Ex 20:4).
- Wisdom 14:30 Perjury deserves to be punished even when it is practiced in the name of dead gods.
- Wisdom 15:1 The author emphasizes that whatever their faults might be, the originality of the Jewish people lay in their acknowledgment of the true God, the God of goodness who lifts up and pardons. The contrast is striking in a world swarming with dead gods.
- Wisdom 15:3 Jesus will say: “Eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God” (Jn 17:3). This knowledge implies an intimate and personal union made up of knowledge and love.
- Wisdom 15:7 Among those who fashion idols, the ceramists are, in the author’s eyes, the most ridiculous. This type of craftsmanship was widespread in the Greek world, and Paul had a bone to pick with the organization of silversmiths of Ephesus, whose very profitable commerce he had put in jeopardy (see Acts 19:23-40).
- Wisdom 15:7 An image of the potter who alone judges the destination of his vases. The Letter to the Romans (Rom 9:19-24), following the Prophets (see Isa 64:7), employs this symbol to explain the freedom of the divine election and the gratuity of the Christian vocation.
