of the mother and her seven sons.8 On the other hand, that sublime work, the `Wisdom of
Solomon,' contains Platonic and Stoic elements9 - chiefly perhaps the latter - the two occurring
side by side. Thus10 `Wisdom,' which is so concretely presented as to be almost hypostatised,11
is first described in the language of Stoicism,12 and afterwards set forth, in that of Platonism,13 as
`the breath of the power of God;' as `a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty;'
`the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image
of His goodness.' Similarly, we have14 a Stoical enumeration of the four cardinal virtues,
temperance, prudence, justice, and fortitude, and close by it the Platonic idea of the soul's pre-
existence,15 and of earth and matter pressing it down.16 How such views would point in the
direction of the need of a perfect revelation from on high, as in the Bible, and of its rational
possibility, need scarcely be shown.
1. Philo, de Vita Mos. ed. Mangey, ii. p. 140.
2. All the Apocrypha were originally written in Greek, except 1 Macc., Judith, part of Baruch, probably
Tobit, and, of course, the `Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach.'
3. Comp. x. - xx.
4. It is printed in Havercamp's edition of Josephus, vol. ii. pp. 497-520. The best edition is in Fritzsche,
Libri Apocryphi Vet. Test. (Lips. 1871).
5. Comp. for ex. Ecclus. xxiv. 6.
6. ii. 39, 40.
7. Comp. also Jos. Ag. Ap. ii. 34.
8. Comp. 2 Macc. vi. 18 - vii. 41.
9. Ewald (Gesch. d. Volkes Isr., vol. iv. pp. 626-632) has given a glowing sketch of it. Ewald rightly says
that its Grecian elements have been exaggerated; but Bucher (Lehre vom Logos, pp. 59-62) utterly fails
in denying their presence altogether.
10. Ch. vii. 22-27.
11. Compare especially Wis. Sol. ix. 1; xviii. 14-16, where the idea of σοψια passes into that of the λογος.
Of course the above remarks are not intended to depreciate the great value of this book, alike in itself,
and in its practical teaching, in its clear enunciation of a retribution as awaiting man, and in its important
bearing on the New Testament revelation of the λογος.
12. Vv. 22-24.
13. Vv. 25-29.
14. In ch. viii. 7.
15. In vv. 19, 20.
16. ix. 15.
But how did Eastern Judaism bear itself towards this Apocryphal literature? We find it