Wisdom of Solomon 13–15: The Architect from His Works": Nature, Idols, and the Making of Gods
Scripture: World English Bible
For truly all men who had no perception of God were foolish by nature,and didn’t gain power to know him who exists from the good things that are seen.They didn’t recognize the architect from his works.But they thought that either fire, or wind, or swift air,or circling stars, or raging water, or luminaries of heavenwere gods that rule the world.If it was through delight in their beauty that they took them to be gods,let them know how much better their Sovereign Lord is than these,for the first author of beauty created them.But if it was through astonishment at their power and influence,then let them understand from them how much more powerful he who formed them is.For from the greatness of the beauty of created things,mankind forms the corresponding perception of their Maker.But yet for these men there is but small blame,for they too perhaps go astraywhile they are seeking God and desiring to find him.For they diligently search while living among his works,and they trust their sight that the things that they look at are beautiful.But again even they are not to be excused.For if they had power to know so much,that they should be able to explore the world,how is it that they didn’t find the Sovereign Lord sooner?
But they were miserable, and their hopes were in dead things,who called them gods which are works of men’s hands,gold and silver, skillfully made, and likenesses of animals,or a useless stone, the work of an ancient hand.Yes and some woodcutter might saw down a tree that is easily moved,skillfully strip away all its bark,and fashion it in attractive form, make a useful vessel to serve his life’s needs.Burning the scraps from his handiwork to cook his food,he eats his fill.Taking a discarded scrap which served no purpose,a crooked piece of wood and full of knots,he carves it with the diligence of his idleness,and shapes it by the skill of his idleness.He shapes it in the image of a man,or makes it like some worthless animal,smearing it with something red, painting it red,and smearing over every stain in it.Having made a worthy chamber for it,he sets it in a wall, securing it with iron.He plans for it that it may not fall down,knowing that it is unable to help itself(for truly it is an image, and needs help).When he makes his prayer concerning goods and his marriage and children,he is not ashamed to speak to that which has no life.Yes, for health, he calls upon that which is weak.For life, he implores that which is dead.For aid, he supplicates that which has no experience.For a good journey, he asks that which can’t so much as move a step.And for profit in business and good success of his hands,he asks ability from that which has hands with no ability.Again, one preparing to sail, and about to journey over raging waves,calls upon a piece of wood more fragile than the vessel that carries him.For the hunger for profit planned it,and wisdom was the craftsman who built it.Your providence, O Father, guides it along,because even in the sea you gave a way,and in the waves a sure path,showing that you can save out of every danger,that even a man without skill may put to sea.It is your will that the works of your wisdom should not be ineffective.Therefore men also entrust their lives to a little piece of wood,and passing through the surge on a raft come safely to land.For in the old time also, when proud giants were perishing,the hope of the world, taking refuge on a raft,your hand guided the seed of generations of the race of men.For blessed is wood through which comes righteousness;but the idol made with hands is accursed, itself and he that made it;because his was the working, and the corruptible thing was called a god.For both the ungodly and his ungodliness are alike hateful to God;for truly the deed will be punished together with him who committed it.Therefore also there will be a visitation among the idols of the nation,because, though formed of things which God created, they were made an abomination,stumbling blocks to the souls of men,and a snare to the feet of the foolish.
For the devising of idols was the beginning of fornication,and the invention of them the corruption of life.For they didn’t exist from the beginning, and they won’t exist forever.For by the boastfulness of men they entered into the world,and therefore a speedy end was planned for them.
For a father worn with untimely grief,making an image of the child quickly taken away,now honored him as a god which was then a dead human being,and delivered to those that were under him mysteries and solemn rites.Afterward the ungodly custom, in process of time grown strong, was kept as a law,and the engraved images received worship by the commandments of princes.And when men could not honor them in presence because they lived far off,imagining the likeness from afar,they made a visible image of the king whom they honored,that by their zeal they might flatter the absent as if present.
But worship was raised to a yet higher pitch, even by those who didn’t know him,urged forward by the ambition of the architect;for he, wishing perhaps to please his ruler,used his art to force the likeness toward a greater beauty.So the multitude, allured by reason of the grace of his handiwork,now consider an object of devotion him that a little before was honored as a man.And this became an ambush,because men, in bondage either to calamity or to tyranny,invested stones and stocks with the Name that shouldn’t be shared.
Afterward it was not enough for them to go astray concerning the knowledge of God,but also, while they live in a great war of ignorance, they call a multitude of evils peace.For either slaughtering children in solemn rites, or celebrating secret mysteries,or holding frenzied revels of strange customs,no longer do they guard either life or purity of marriage,but one brings upon another either death by treachery, or anguish by adultery.And all things confusedly are filled with blood and murder, theft and deceit,corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury,confusion about what is good, forgetfulness of favors,ingratitude for benefits,defiling of souls, confusion of sex,disorder in marriage, adultery and wantonness.For the worship of idols that may not be namedis a beginning and cause and end of every evil.For their worshipers either make merry to madness, or prophesy lies,or live unrighteously, or lightly commit perjury.For putting their trust in lifeless idols,when they have sworn a wicked oath, they expect not to suffer harm.But on both counts, the just doom will pursue them,because they had evil thoughts of God by giving heed to idols,and swore unrighteously in deceit through contempt for holiness.For it is not the power of things by which men swear,but it is the just penalty for those who sinthat always visits the transgression of the unrighteous.
But you, our God, are gracious and true,patient, and in mercy ordering all things.For even if we sin, we are yours, knowing your dominion;but we will not sin, knowing that we have been accounted yours.For to be acquainted with you is perfect righteousness,and to know your dominion is the root of immortality.For we weren’t led astray by any evil plan of men’s,nor yet by painters’ fruitless labor,a form stained with varied colors,the sight of which leads fools into lust.Their desire is for the breathless form of a dead image.Lovers of evil things, and worthy of such hopes,are those who make, desire, and worship them.
For a potter, kneading soft earth,laboriously molds each article for our service.He fashions out of the same clayboth the vessels that minister to clean uses, and those of a contrary sort,all in like manner.What shall be the use of each article of either sort,the potter is the judge.Also, laboring to an evil end, he molds a vain god out of the same clay,he who, having but a little before been made of earth,after a short space goes his way to the earth out of which he was taken,when he is required to give back the soul which was lent him.However he has anxious care,not because his powers must fail,nor because his span of life is short;But he compares himself with goldsmiths and silversmiths,and he imitates molders in brass,and considers it great that he molds counterfeit gods.His heart is ashes.His hope is of less value than earth.His life is of less honor than clay,because he was ignorant of him who molded him,and of him that inspired into him an active soul,and breathed into him a vital spirit.But he accounted our life to be a game,and our lifetime a festival for profit;for, he says, one must get gain however one can, even if it is by evil.For this man, beyond all others, knows that he sins,out of earthy matter making brittle vessels and engraved images.But most foolish and more miserable than a baby,are the enemies of your people, who oppressed them;because they even considered all the idols of the nations to be gods,which have neither the use of eyes for seeing,nor nostrils for drawing breath,nor ears to hear,nor fingers for handling,and their feet are helpless for walking.For a man made them,and one whose own spirit is borrowed molded them;for no one has power as a man to mold a god like himself.But, being mortal, he makes a dead thing by the work of lawless hands;for he is better than the objects of his worship,since he indeed had life, but they never did.
Yes, and they worship the creatures that are most hateful,for, being compared as to lack of sense, these are worse than all others;Neither, as seen beside other creatures, are they beautiful, so that one should desire them,but they have escaped both the praise of God and his blessing.