Chapter 15
The Israelites, a People That Does Not Worship Idols[a]
1 But you, our God, are good and faithful,
slow to anger, and showing mercy in governing the universe.
2 Even if we sin, we are yours, for we acknowledge your power;
but we will not sin, for we know that we are yours.
3 To know you constitutes complete righteousness,
and to know your power constitutes the root of immortality.[b]
4 We have not been led astray by the evil creations of human skill
or by the barren toil of painters,
figures covered over with varied colors,
5 the sight of which arouses in fools
a yearning for the lifeless form of a dead image.
6 Lovers of evil and deserving of similar yearnings
are those who make such figures, those who desire them, and those who worship them.
The Folly of Idol-Makers[c]
7 A potter laboriously kneads the soft earth,
molding each object for our use,
fashioning out of the same clay
both the vessels that will serve noble purposes
and those designed for a contrary use.
But what shall be the purpose of each object
is determined by the potter.[d]
8 With misspent effort he will mold a false god from the same clay;
although he himself was made out of earth a short time before,
after a brief interval, he will return to that earth from which he was taken,
when he is required to return on demand the life that was lent to him.
9 However, he is not concerned about death
or that his span of life is brief;
rather he competes with artisans in gold and silver
and emulates workers in bronze,
and he takes pride in making models of false gods.
10 His heart is ashes, his hopes of less value than common dirt,
and his life less worthy than clay,
11 because he failed to recognize the one who fashioned him
and breathed into him an active soul
and infused into him a living spirit.
12 Indeed, he considered this life of ours as an idle game,
and our span of years as a market that will be a source of profit.
“No matter how wicked the means,” he says, “one must make a living.”
13 For this man, more than all others, knows that he is committing sin,
when from the same earthy materials he makes both fragile pots and idols.
The Grotesque Character of Idolatry
14 But the most foolish of all, and infantile in their acts,
are the enemies who enslaved your people.
15 For they regarded as gods all their heathen idols,
although these cannot use their eyes to see
or their nostrils to breathe the air.
Neither can they use their ears to hear
or the fingers on their hands to touch;
and their feet are useless for walking.
16 For it was a man who made them;
they were fashioned by one whose very breath is on loan.
For no artisan can form a god to resemble himself;
17 since he is mortal, what he is able to form with his impious hands is dead.
Thus, he is superior to the objects of his worship,
since he has the life that his idols never had.
18 [e]And besides, they worship even the most loathsome animals,
worse than all the others in their lack of intelligence,
19 and without the slightest hint of beauty that might make them seem desirable;
they have been excluded both from the approval of God and from his blessing.[f]
Footnotes
- Wisdom 15:1 The author emphasizes that whatever their faults might be, the originality of the Jewish people lay in their acknowledgment of the true God, the God of goodness who lifts up and pardons. The contrast is striking in a world swarming with dead gods.
- Wisdom 15:3 Jesus will say: “Eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God” (Jn 17:3). This knowledge implies an intimate and personal union made up of knowledge and love.
- Wisdom 15:7 Among those who fashion idols, the ceramists are, in the author’s eyes, the most ridiculous. This type of craftsmanship was widespread in the Greek world, and Paul had a bone to pick with the organization of silversmiths of Ephesus, whose very profitable commerce he had put in jeopardy (see Acts 19:23-40).
- Wisdom 15:7 An image of the potter who alone judges the destination of his vases. The Letter to the Romans (Rom 9:19-24), following the Prophets (see Isa 64:7), employs this symbol to explain the freedom of the divine election and the gratuity of the Christian vocation.
- Wisdom 15:18 The author now picks up again the main theme of chapters 11–19 that had been interrupted by material found in Wis 13:1—15:17.
- Wisdom 15:19 At the Creation, God had blessed the living creatures (Gen 1:22, 28; 2:3). After the Fall, the serpent was cursed (Gen 3:14-15); the same condemnation is reserved for the animal-gods of the Egyptians.