The Impious and Their Impiety in Wisdom of Solomon

Abstract

Scholars often suggest that Wisdom of Solomon contains disparate approaches to impiety in chs. 1–9 and chs. 10–19. The earlier chapters approach impiety and impious individuals from an ethical perspective, but the latter chapters approach impiety with an ethnocentric and/or nationalistic perspective. In chs. 10–19, Wisdom presents righteousness as characteristic of the Jewish people and impiety as characteristic of Gentiles. This article argues that Wisdom’s approach to impiety is more consistent and coherent than this narrative implies. A philosophically informed moral psychology of the impious is discernable in chapters 1–2 and in two distinct images of the Impious from chs. 10–19. In each case, impiety is rooted in the misorientation of the soul, which results in errant reasoning (sometimes influenced by passions), and finally bodily impiety. This article further suggests these philosophically informed images of the impious can be understood as functioning as part of a two-ways ethical protreptic.