Pneuma and Realized Eschatology in the Book of Wisdom

by Matthew Edwards

The Book of Wisdom's understanding of Israel's history, of contemporary politics and of the immortal fate of the persecuted sage can be understood to be part of one theological system. This system integrates texts and concepts from Jewish Wisdom, the biblical narratives of the patriarchs from Adam to Moses, eschatological hope and apocalyptic language, an understanding of the spirit of God in the enabling of prophets and leaders and, most distinctively, the Stoic concept of pneuma. This last concept unites the biblical resources and allows Wisdom, using eschatological language, to speak of the ordering of the cosmos for the judgement for the wicked and the exaltation of God's people in the present age. Matthew Edwards addresses first the question of the literary unity of Wisdom. This is followed by an examination of the differing uses of the term pneuma within Wisdom, that is as divine agent of salvation, the means of the ordering the cosmos and the substance from which souls are composed. The nature of personal salvation within Wisdom is also considered and shown to be an integral part of the understanding of the cosmos, ordered for judgement and exaltation. Finally, this notion of the ordering of the comos and history for God's people is discussed with its consequences for Jewish life under contemporary Hellenistic and Roman rule. Prepared as a doctoral dissertation under the direction of J. Schaper and presented to the University of Aberdeen, this investigation of the book of Wisdom contends that it uses the Stoic concept of pneuma to integrate various elements of the Jewish biblical tradition, including sapiential texts, the narratives of the patriarchs and the exodus, eschatological hope and apocalyptic language, and the work of the spirit of God in enabling prophets and leaders. After dealing with introductory matters concerning the book of Wisdom and the concepts of pneuma and eschatology within it, it offers an argument for the theological unity of Wisdom's different depictions of salvation. Then it discusses how the miracles of the Exodus-Numbers narrative are understood as workings of pneuma within the cosmos, and considers how an understanding of the cosmos as ordered by pneuma might be related to a traditional Jewish understanding of the world as created. Next after discussing pneuma, Stoicism, and anthropology, it considers "spirit" in the biblical tradition (OT, LXX, Philo). Then it treats the realized eschatology of Wisdom, with reference to personal eschatology, Hellenistic kingship and wisdom, and providence and fate. Edwards concludes that Wisdom follows the Hellenistic trend toward the philosophical explanation of human life by understanding it as set within a larger cosmic and physical system. New Testament Abstracts (57/1-2013), Boston College School of Theology and Ministry

272 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 2012

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database. For more information please see Matthew Edwards

Matthew Edwards, Ph.D. is a theologian and freelance writer.

Reviews

[Tyler Horton · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The world order itself, however, need not change because its nature conforms to the divine will. Only patience will be required for justice to be exercised by the cosmos, ordered by Sophia.” (199)

This is the published version of the author's dissertation in which he argues for a realized eschatology centred on the function of pneuma (Greek for 'spirit') in the Wisdom of Solomon. Edwards sets the outlook of Wisdom of Solomon against apocalyptic works by suggesting that 'divine intervention' operates as Sophia/pneuma works out the retribution of God through the cosmos as it is. He argues that this action of God is conceived of in terms of Stoic physics with some distancing from this Hellenistic philosophy maintained.

There is a lot of good material but I wonder if the book would have been more effective with a narrower focus. For example, there is an entire chapter on Hellenistic kingship. Ideas of kingship matter to Edwards' argument but he does not offer a perspective on kingship which differs from the standard works and so could simply have pointed to those.

This is not a field I know well at all (the first time I read Wisdom of Solomon was just before reading this book) but I had a hard time knowing where Edwards was going and why it mattered. Much of this became clear in chapter 7 but the way that the book is organized made it difficult for me to hold all the pieces together. At the same time it was quite helpful to see Wisdom of Solomon in relation to apocalyptic literature and Philo.

The sections all have valuable material and would provide a good introduction on any of these topics, but I did not find that the work holds all together well enough. The book is likely an important interpretive take on this text and provides a good way in to certain aspects of Jewish literature.