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Wisdom 7:1-3
New Catholic Bible
Wisdom 7:1-3
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 7
1 I too am mortal, like everyone else,
descended from the first being formed out of the earth.[a]
I was molded into flesh inside the womb of my mother,
2 solidified in blood within a period of ten months[b]
from the seed of a man and the pleasure that accompanies marriage.
3 And I too, when I was born, began to breathe the common air
and fell upon an earth equal for everyone;
the first sound I uttered was a cry, as is true of all.
Footnotes
- Wisdom 7:1 The author consistently fails to name the persons of sacred history to whom he refers. See, for example, chapter 10. The author here notes that a king is only a mere mortal—a Jewish conception that was foreign to the ancient East and, in part, also to the Greek world, which divinized its sovereigns. The purity of the Jewish monotheism imposed this view, which is counterbalanced by the certitude that Wisdom—which is a divine gift—is necessary in order to rule well.
- Wisdom 7:2 Ten months: this refers to “lunar” months, the common method of calculation among the ancients.
