In spite of the traditional mention of king Solomon in the title of the book, Wisdom of Solomon can be dated to the middle of the first century BCE and was probably written by a Jewish author in Alexandria. As such it is one of the most valuable representatives of the genre known as sapiential literature, along with books such as Proverbs, Qoheleth, or Ben Sira. Wisdom of Solomon markedly differs from Proverbs and Ben Sira, the two principal representatives of the genre, in that instead of a series of unconnected sayings we have here a logical sequence, a consistent theology. Among the Septuagint writings, the level of Greek displayed in the book is extremely high. Our annotated English translation is based on the critical edition prepared by J. Ziegler (1962). Since the book’s two Syriac versions, i.e. Peshitta and Syrohexapla, demonstrate that in ancient times the document was read and studied extensively, the present study pays careful attention to them as well.
