Wisdom of Solomon 7:12 - 14

12 εὐφράνθην δὲ ἐπὶ πᾶσιν, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἡγεῖται σοφία,
ἠγνόουν δὲ αὐτὴν γενέτιν εἶναι τούτων.

I rejoiced in them all, because wisdom goes before them
but I did not know that she was their originator

13 ἀδόλως τε ἔμαθον
ἀφθόνως τε μεταδίδωμι,
τὸν πλοῦτον αὐτῆς οὐκ ἀποκρύπτομαι·

I learned without guile
and I communicate without grudging
I do not hide her wealth

14 ἀνεκλιπὴς γὰρ θησαυρός ἐστιν ἀνθρώποις,
ὃν οἱ χρησάμενοι πρὸς Θεὸν ἐστείλαντο φιλίαν
διὰ τὰς ἐκ παιδείας δωρεὰς συσταθέντες.

for it is an unfailing treasure for human beings
those who use it obtain friendship with God,
commended for the gifts that come from learning.

I haven't changed much from the NETS translation of these verses. However, there are a couple of interesting features.

First, the word γένετις doesn't translate very well. It means "begetter" or "progenitor" in the feminine, possibly the "originator" of a family. It closely resembles the word γένεσις - origin or source, or beginning.

The verb ἡγέομαι (edited) means "lead" but, I think in this context refers to bringing something with oneself, or possibly preceding. Wisdom precedes, that is, goes before, all these good things, (see KJV for this) and it turns out that she is also their originator. From these lines ideas later arose that Wisdom was the divine mother, and for some the "consort of God." For others she was the manifestation of God.

It is particularly interesting to note that it is a male author, so it appears, who develops the notion of wisdom as the female progenitor, the imagery of a divine and powerful feminine ideal. She is spoken of in chapter 8 as a bride and counselor, "a comfort in cares and sorrow."

Women in Christianity have a masculine God, and historically for many nuns, a heavenly bridegroom. But men have a God in their own image, a masculine God for their masculine self. When Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit, if he spoke in Aramaic, he spoke of a feminine entity. The comforter he referred to was a divine feminine entity, and surely a much needed comfort in care and sorrow.

I believe that on the one hand, Jesus is wisdom, the manifestation of God. But, on the other hand, the Spirit is wisdom, the companion (spouse) of God. In writing this, I am not talking about theological truths, but about literary allusions. I am referring to linguistic cues which get picked up in later writings.

Here is a related article by R. R. Ruether. I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

King James
NETS
Greek
Liddel Scott Lexicon

Wisdom of Solomon 7:10-11

According to Lester Grabbe, Wisdom of Solomon, 2004,

It is probable that the Wisdom of Solomon had several aims. One of the main ones is likely to have been encouragement of the Jewish community, expecially the young men, in the face of dangers from the larger Greco-Roman society, including the attractions of the mystery and other religious cults.

Another would have been to teach members of the community the importance of seeking and gaining wisdom. The moral aim of the book is also clear. It cannot be ruled out that the author also wanted to reach a Greco-Roamna readership, but this would have been a secondary aim at best.

The Wisdom of Solomon is considered to have been written in Greek, anywhere from the second century BCE to the first century CE, and most likely in Alexandria, although this cannot be confirmed.

Here are some examples of how the language reflects original Hellenistic Greek rather than a translation of Hebrew, while still borrowing from Hebrew style. The following couplet is an example of a chiastic structure, AB, BA, with the added feature of a matching root occurring in A.

προέκρινα αὐτὴν σκήπτρων καὶ θρόνων
καὶ πλοῦτον οὐδὲν ἡγησάμην ἐν συγκρίσει αὐτῆς·

The same root - κριν - occurs at the beginning of the first line, in προέκρινα αὐτὴν, and at the end of the second line, in ἐν συγκρίσει αὐτῆς. This feature of repeating the root is also found in Romans 16:1-2, Συνίστημι δὲ ὑμῖν Φοίβην ... παραστῆτε αὐτῇ ... αὐτὴ προστάτις πολλῶν. So, even though the overall pattern is Hebraic, in its detail it depends on features of the Greek words.

Another stylistic device that is typical of Greek is the hyperbaton, separating two elements that belong together, usually in order to emphasize the first word. An example is in verse 1 - καὶ γηγενοῦς ἀπόγονος πρωτοπλάστου· Another example in verse 10 below is ὅτι ἀκοίμητον τὸ ἐκ ταύτης φέγγος, where ἀκοίμητον "sleepless" and φέγγος "daylight" are separated.

Some phrases from Wisdom of Solomon are alluded to in the New Testament. Kevin keeps a webpage of allusions to the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha on his blog to help locate these. In Acts 14:15, this line, "we are humans of like nature with you" - καὶ ἡμεῖς ὁμοιοπαθεῖς ἐσμεν ὑμῖν ἄνθρωποι - uses vocabulary found in Wisdom of Solomon verses 1 and 3. Another allusion is found in Eph. 1:17, πνεῦμα σοφίας, spirit of wisdom.

Here are the next two verses,

10 ὑπὲρ ὑγίειαν καὶ εὐμορφίαν ἠγάπησα αὐτὴν
καὶ προειλόμην αὐτὴν ἀντὶ φωτὸς ἔχειν,
ὅτι ἀκοίμητον τὸ ἐκ ταύτης φέγγος.

I loved her more than health and beauty
and chose to have her before light
because her radiance is sleepless

11 ἦλθε δέ μοι τὰ ἀγαθὰ ὁμοῦ πάντα μετ᾿ αὐτῆς
καὶ ἀναρίθμητος πλοῦτος ἐν χερσὶν αὐτῆς.

But all good things together came to me with her
and uncounted wealth in her hands.

Wisdom of Solomon 7:7-9

7 διὰ τοῦτο ηὐξάμην,
καὶ φρόνησις ἐδόθη μοι·
ἐπεκαλεσάμην,
καὶ ἦλθέ μοι πνεῦμα σοφίας.

Therefore I prayed,
And understanding was given to me
and I appealed
and the spirit of wisdom came to me.

8 προέκρινα αὐτὴν σκήπτρων καὶ θρόνων
καὶ πλοῦτον οὐδὲν ἡγησάμην ἐν συγκρίσει αὐτῆς·

I preferred her to sceptres and thrones,
and wealth I considered nothing in comparison to her.

9 οὐδὲ ὡμοίωσα αὐτῇ λίθον ἀτίμητον,
ὅτι ὁ πᾶς χρυσὸς ἐν ὄψει αὐτῆς ψάμμος ὀλίγη,
καὶ ὡς πηλὸς λογισθήσεται ἄργυρος ἐναντίον αὐτῆς.

Neither did I liken a priceless stone to her
because all gold in her sight is a little sand
and as clay is silver counted before her.

There is lots of opportunity to see the patterns of Hebrew poetry in this Greek. There are couplets and chiasmus in almost every line. I have tried to maintain the reversing word order to make it clear what the Greek is doing. In a polished translation I wouldn't do that, but this is just for fun, and to talk about the Greek.

In verse 7 the NETS and KJ translations have said "call upon God" but clearly the name of God is not mentioned in the Greek, so I used the English word "appealed". This is a classic example of a translator inserting a word into the English translation because the meaning is assumed in the original.

The aorist form ηὐξάμην is from εὔχομαι. I find Greek much easier to look up in a lexicon than Hebrew, but occasionally a form like this can take a minute to process.

King James
NETS
Greek
Liddell Scott Lexicon