The Wisdom of Solomon (?50 B.C.) was written in Greek by an unknown Jewish sage living in Alexandria. It offers a true fusion of Greek and Jewish ideas. By custom, however, it is ascribed to King Solomon (10th century B.C.).
Both Ecclesiasticus and The Wisdom of Solomon are found in a portion of the Bible called the Apocrypha, a Greek word meaning "hidden" or "obscure"-a word which later came to mean "dubious" or "unauthorized." Although of Jewish origin, the writings of the Apocrypha were rejected as part of the Jewish canon because of their late date-written during the interval between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament-and also because the authors of the writings do not claim Divine Revelation as their source. The Roman Catholic Church however, judged these writings to be valid and included them in its official Bible, placed between the Old and New Testaments. The King James Version of 1611 also includes this "hidden" portion.
The Apocrypha give a brilliant, personal, and poetic account of God's feminine aspect. This creative power, supreme intelligence, and wisdom inherent in man was called Shekinah by the Jewish mystics, and to the Greeks of a later time, She became Sophia, their word for "wisdom." In these books Sophia is described as "pervading and permeating all things," and as "the source of all treasure in the universe." In one of the verses She herself says: "Every people and nation are under my sway." It may be that these Wisdom books were banned from the Jewish canon not because they lacked divine inspiration but because of the danger that this Supreme Female Spirit-which is the active or creative aspect of the One God-might be viewed as a second and separate Divinity, and threaten the monistic foundation upon which Judaism is based.
Source : Jonathan Star, The Inner Treasure
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