Epiphanius of Salamis

In his own words on Wisdom of Solomon

• Wisdom of Solomon 8:2

  There is wisdom and there is wisdom. The apostle knew various kinds: that of which he spoke when he said, "The world does not know God with the wisdom of God." And that which he spoke of saying, "God condemned as foolishness the wisdom of the world," or when he said that he spoke "not with the power of the flesh but by the power of God." Solomon, by contrast, spoke of that wisdom of whose charm he was enamored and that he made his bride (Job asked himself, "Where can she be found, in what place of wisdom?"17). But did he speak of that "despised wisdom of the poor person," of the "wisdom guided by God" or of the "Wisdom of the Father, the only-begotten"?

  ANCORATUS 42:7

• Wisdom of Solomon 12:12

  We are all descendants of Adam, according to an order of succession that has reached to us. Nor are the works of God to be understood allegorically: Adam did exist, the fig leaves existed, the fig tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree set in the middle of the garden, the serpent, the disobedience, the obedience. The rivers existed, as did Eve. And everything was truly made by God, because "to him all things are possible," he who can make corruptible things incorruptible and earthly things perfect in incorruptibility. No one should wonder at this. Indeed, he gave us proof of this when he clothed his divinity with corruptible flesh, to offer us a model of incorruptibility in the flesh he assumed. "Who will oppose what he has done?" Let us now examine another exegetical aspect. The Scripture says that God cast them out of the garden, placing two cherubim with flaming swords to guard the entrance to the tree of life, so that Adam and Eve took up their dwelling opposite the garden, barred from Paradise. But this notwithstanding—let no one deceive you with empty words—"God, who can raise up his children from stones," was able to change corruptible beings into incorruptible, and he can do so at any time that he wants to make of the earth a place of peace, a paradise. In fact, earth and heaven do not have a different God, but everything is his, and he lavishes the gift of incorruptibility on every being as he wishes.

  ANCORATUS 61:1-7

• Wisdom of Solomon 12:24

  The Greeks did nothing other than design in the images of the gods their peculiar passions, almost so as to be able to contemplate them with their eyes. The bloodthirsty person called his passion Ares. The adulterer and the adulteress, promiscuous Aphrodite. The tyrant, winged Victory. The squalid person, entirely caught up in lust for possessions, designed Cronus as his archetype. The effeminate, Cybele, also known as Rhea, I believe because of the flowing moods of sexual contact. Those who are always breathlessly moving about portrayed as their type Artemis the hunter. The drunkard, Dionysus. The one who faced many difficulties, Heracles. One who had sexual intercourse with anyone, Zeus and Apollo. But it is pointless to enumerate all the passions that agitate human beings. Indeed, the Egyptians deviated from the truth more than anyone, not only worshiping their passions but also exchanging the supreme Orderer for winged creatures and four-legged animals, for wild and ferocious animals of land and sea—in short, with the beasts that the God of holiness had given them to serve them. They deviated more than others because, in a completely irrational way, they divinized the animals of their region. Even now they are not ashamed to worship the barking dog or the polecat who eats reptiles, the goat, symbol of incontinence, and the sheep, symbol of weakness, or the huge, terribly sad crocodile, or the ibis that feeds on poison, the kite and the sparrow hawk, or the crow, which seems the most despicable of all animals, and the serpent, who deviously slithers and is totally disgusting.

  ANCORATUS 103:1-5

• Wisdom of Solomon 14:12

  Condemn idols, openly denouncing their error. Indeed, do not even consider them to be dead, because they were never alive. Teach clearly everywhere and to all that these are vain and foolish things. Not existing and never having existed, there is no possibility of their being what they are said to be. They are the products of wicked demons and of the human mind full of impulses to pleasure, since each of us is led to make his own passion an an object of veneration. Thus in the beginning idolatry was born of the wicked work of demons and by human conception, through a commingling that was called "the first fornication." At first they designed the figures of the idols, then they began to give gods to their own children as objects of veneration, made of various materials according to the art that each one possessed for providing for his needs with his own hands: the potter with clay, the carpenter with wood, the goldsmith with gold, the silversmith with silver.

  ANCORATUS 102:5-7