Intertext Question: Heb 1:3 not an Echo of Wisdom 7:26?
I was looking at the Intertext data for Hebrews 1:3 and was surprised to see that Wisdom of Solomon 7:26 was not listed. Many commentators note that Heb 1:3's usage of the word ἀπαύγασμα (radiance, reflection) is similar to the usage in Wisdom 7:26.
The Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible says this:
[quote]Christ’s role and rank as representative of God also draws on OT and Jewish traditions concerning Wisdom and the Word as agents of God. “The hymn is a striking expression of Wisdom Christology.… In Heb 1:1–3 and Col 1:15–17 we have a way of speaking about Christ in Wisdom terms” (Dunn 1980: 206, 207). In the OT Wisdom is “beside God like a master-worker” (Prov 8:30) as God “created the worlds.” Further in the Hellenistic Jewish book of Wisdom, Wisdom is described in terms which occur only here in the LXX but which are taken up in Heb 1:3: Wisdom is God’s creative agent in shaping the cosmos and as such acts as a “reflection” or “radiance” (Gk. apaugasma) of God (Wis 7:26; cf. Wis 7:21–27 and 9:2). The image suggests a channel of effects, like the warming of the earth by the sun through its rays. NT writers (esp. John 1:1–3; 1 Cor 8:6; Col 1:16, 17; Heb 1:1–3) apply this distinction between source of creation (usually Gk. ek, “from,” with the genitive) to God the Father, and agency of creation (usually, as here, Gk. dia, “through,” with the genitive) to Christ.
Anthony C. Thiselton, “Hebrews,” in Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible, ed. James D. G. Dunn and John W. Rogerson (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003), 1455.
Heb 1:2 mentions that the Son is the one "through whom [God] also created the worlds," which is a similar idea to that communicated in Wisdom 7:21, where Wisdom is said to be "the fashioner of all things."
Shouldn't Heb 1:3 at least be considered an Echo of Wisdom 7:26 even if not a direct Allusion? I'd love to see this connection added to the Intertext (NT use of OT) dataset.
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Thanks. We'll look into this. We leaned heavily on work done by David A. Jones in Old Testament Quotations and Allusions in the New Testament.
We can consider adding more references to the dataset.0 -
This makes me happy, but you'll need to deepen your research to commentaries that cover the deuterocanonicals. If this is alright with you it's perfectly alright with me.Kyle G. Anderson said:Thanks. We'll look into this. We leaned heavily on work done by David A. Jones in Old Testament Quotations and Allusions in the New Testament.
We can consider adding more references to the dataset.While you're extending your coverage of the Bible there is that open request for the labor and intellectual intensive OT use of OT interactive up for consideration.
Meanwhile, Jesus kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow man.
International Standard Version. (2011). (Lk 2:52). Yorba Linda, CA: ISV Foundation.
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I'm sorry but using OT>NT alone, is so ... what ... evangel. Logos is supposed to meet academic needs. Wisdom and Paul (and Hebrews) is too obvious.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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DMB said:
supposed to meet academic needs
Unfortunately, as I disastrously found when I first chose a college, "academic" ranges from preaching school to Stanford with everything in between. Logos covers the latter when it is "cool" and the former when there is a market. Checking for a usable, coherent set of tools is not their forte.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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