Wisdom of Solomon in the Roman Empire

Wisdom of Solomon is the product of a Jewish sage, probably from Alexandria and living sometime between the 1^st century B.C.E and the mid 1^st century C.E.. The author, highly trained in rhetoric and familiar with Hellenistic philosophy, wrote a logos protreptikos, a sermon of exhortation, uniting Hellenistic literary features with creation theology and the redemption history of the ancestral traditions of Israel to convince his audience to maintain loyalty to their ancestral faith (293). Initially the Alexandrian Jews cultivated good relations with the roman authorities and local Egyptians, as the Jewish community was given autonomy in civil regulations and religious freedom, as they were allowed to organize as a politeuma, led by those holding the offices of the head of the gerousia, the head of the synagogue, and secretaries/scribes (294-295). Jews in the Hellenistic world were constantly under pressure to assimilate to the expanding Hellenistic culture, with various literature reflecting diverse approaches to the threat to Jewish identity, ranging from the hostile opposition of the Maccabees and apocalyptic literature, to the more assimilating posture of Wis. Sol., which merges eclectic ideas of Middle-Platonism with traditional Judaism in an attempt to show the compatibility of the two world-views. Although Jews were granted the freedom to observe the Sabbath and other religious holidays, exemption from the military, and collect tithes to send to Jerusalem, Jewish-Roman relations in Alexandria gradually deteriorated, as the perceived exclusivity of the Jews generated suspicion among their Gentile neighbors. There was also a history of anti-Judaism in Egypt, as reflected in the writings of Manetho, Chaeremon, Lysimachus, and later, Apion, who in various ways sought to discredit Jewish history in their writings (316-317). Particularly the history of the Jewish people in Egypt, the life of Moses and the Exodus, were re-written to oppose Israel’s traditions and put them in a negative light, most commonly representing the Exodus as the expulsion of a diseased people (319). The climax of the hostility was reached with the pogrom of Flaccus in 38 B.C.E., which was also the occasion that Perdue proposes Wis. Sol. was written as a response to (308). Wis. Sol. responds to the persecutions by offering an encouraging version of the Exodus and Israel’s interactions with Egypt, with personified Wisdom as the guiding principle of history, while making sure to portray the Egyptian ancestors as ignorant idolaters. The Jews of Alexandria are encouraged to endure and maintain their identity and religious distinction in the midst of persecution, with full expectations of immortality, as guaranteed by personified Wisdom, which functions in various roles as instrument of creation, redeemer, instructor, lover of humanity, and medium of immortality. Wisdom is portrayed as guiding history and acting as a consort of God in similar ways as Isis was paired with Serapis in Egyptian religion, to convince the audience that the God of Israel is in control and will vindicate his people, despite the prevailing circumstances suggesting the contrary (346).

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