THE POETRY OF THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON RECONSIDERED

Abstract As noted by many scholars, the Wisdom of Solomon contains elements typical of both Greek and Hebrew literature. Numerous studies list specific Greek figures in the book, often making only passing reference to the Hebrew poetic features, referring to them with the single term parallelismus membrorum. But, Wisdom's form is a good deal more complex than these synopses suggest. Parallelism is realized in a number of ways in the Hebrew scriptures and its manifestation in this apocryphal book is a unique combination of different patterns. The present study aims at a detailed description of Wisdom's structure through a close study of the parallelism and verse length of the book's first 15 verses, and through a comparison of these patterns with those in Hebrew poems.