DeaconLifegiving wisdom

Wisdom 1 • Righteousness, wisdom, and the rejection of death — Greek text and reception

Saints Translation: Wisdom 1–19 [V1]

Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.

Chapter 1 • Righteousness, wisdom, and the rejection of death

Seek righteousness and the Lord

Verse 1:1

Greek–English Saints Priority

Love righteousness, you who judge the earth;

think of the Lord in goodness,

and seek Him in simplicity of heart.

Textual & Reception Notes

Simplicity of heart retains ἁπλότης: sincerity or undivided purpose, rather than intellectual simplicity.

Verse 1:2

Greek–English Saints Priority

For He is found by those who do not put Him to the test,

and He makes Himself manifest to those who do not distrust Him.

Textual & Reception Notes

The two negative conditions remain distinct: testing and distrusting.

Verse 1:3

Greek–English Saints Priority

For crooked reasonings separate from God,

and power, when put to the test, exposes the foolish.

Textual & Reception Notes

The Greek has ‘power’ without an expressed possessive; the divine context identifies the power in question.

Verse 1:4

Greek–English Saints Priority

For wisdom will not enter a soul that devises evil,

nor will she dwell in a body indebted to sin.

Textual & Reception Notes

Κατάχρεος carries the image of indebtedness or liability. Wisdom is personified as feminine; that personification is retained without inserting a later doctrinal identity.

Verse 1:5

Greek–English Saints Priority

For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit

and depart from senseless reasonings,

and will be put to shame when injustice comes upon it.

Textual & Reception Notes

Παιδεία is formative instruction or discipline. The difficult passive ἐλεγχθήσεται is retained as ‘will be put to shame’; ‘will be exposed/reproved’ is also within the verb’s range. This requires further lexical and syntactic review.

Verse 1:6

Greek–English Saints Priority

For wisdom is a spirit that loves humanity,

and she will not acquit a blasphemer of what his lips have said;

for God is a witness of his kidneys,

a true overseer of his heart,

and a hearer of his tongue.

Textual & Reception Notes

‘Kidneys’ preserves the ancient bodily image for inward thought or feeling. The source separately names kidneys, heart, and tongue; ‘what his lips have said’ supplies the force of the compressed phrase ‘from his lips.’

Verse 1:7

Greek–English Saints Priority

For the Spirit of the Lord has filled the inhabited world,

and that which holds all things together has knowledge of every utterance.

Textual & Reception Notes

The second clause is grammatically neuter, ‘that which holds all things together.’ The translation preserves the form rather than replacing it with an added personal title.

Verse 1:8

Greek–English Saints Priority

Therefore no one who speaks unjust things will escape notice,

nor will convicting justice pass him by.

Textual & Reception Notes

Verse 1:9

Greek–English Saints Priority

For there will be an examination of the ungodly person’s deliberations,

and the report of his words will come to the Lord

to expose his lawless deeds.

Textual & Reception Notes

Verse 1:10

Greek–English Saints Priority

For an ear of jealousy listens to all things,

and the murmur of grumblings is not hidden.

Textual & Reception Notes

‘An ear of jealousy’ preserves the source image; the surrounding verses place the hearing with God.

Do not summon death

Verse 1:11

Greek–English Saints Priority

Therefore guard yourselves against useless grumbling,

and restrain your tongue from slander;

for a secret utterance will not pass away without effect,

and a lying mouth destroys a soul.

Textual & Reception Notes

Κενόν is literally ‘empty’: the concealed utterance does not simply go for nothing. Ψυχή can denote soul or life; the destructive force remains.

Verse 1:12

Greek–English Saints Priority

Do not pursue death through the wandering of your life,

nor draw destruction upon yourselves through the works of your hands;

Textual & Reception Notes

Verse 1:13

Greek–English Saints Priority

for God did not make death,

nor does He delight in the destruction of the living.

Textual & Reception Notes

Both negatives are explicit. The translation retains the assertion rather than qualifying it with an added theory of death.

Verse 1:14

Greek–English Saints Priority

For He created all things that they might exist,

and the created things of the world are life-preserving;

there is no poison of destruction in them,

nor is Hades’ dominion upon the earth.

Textual & Reception Notes

Γενέσεις denotes the world’s products or created beings. Σωτήριοι has the force of preserving or saving. Βασίλειον can concern dominion or a royal seat; ‘dominion’ is adopted here.

Verse 1:15

Greek–English Saints Priority

For righteousness is immortal.

Textual & Reception Notes

The ungodly make a covenant with death

Verse 1:16

Greek–English Saints Priority

But the ungodly summoned him by their hands and words;

considering him a friend, they wasted away,

and they made a covenant with him,

because they are worthy to belong to his portion.

Textual & Reception Notes

The masculine pronouns personify death, whose Greek noun is masculine. No new individual is introduced. The following chapter continues their reasoning.