Wisdom 2:22
And they knew not the secrets of God, nor hoped for the wages of justice, nor esteemed the honour of holy souls.
Open Wisdom 2:22 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et nescierunt sacramenta Dei : neque mercedem speraverunt justitiæ, nec judicaverunt honorem animarum sanctarum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν μυστήρια αὐτοῦ, οὐδὲ μισθὸν ἤλπισαν ὁσιότητος, οὐδὲ ἔκριναν γέρας ψυχῶν ἀμώμων.
Haydock's commentary
Secrets. The disbelief of mysteries leads to a dissolute life, and to the persecution of the just. (Worthington)
The pagans knew not the advantages of suffering, and even the apostles were ignorant of the mystery of the cross, till after the resurrection. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Chapter XII. Human Nature Possesses an Adaptation for Perfection; The Gnostic Alone Attains It
But one man applies less, one more, to learning and training. Wherefore also some have been competent to attain to perfect virtue, and others have attained to a kind of it. And some, on the other hand, through negligence, although in other respects of good dispositions, have turned to the opposite. Now much more is that knowledge which excels all branches of culture in greatness and in truth, most difficult to acquire, and is attained with much toil. “But, as seems, they know not the mysteries of God. For God created man for immortality, and made him an image of His own nature;” according to which nature of Him who knows all, he who is a Gnostic, and righteous, and holy with prudence, hastes to reach the measure of perfect manhood. …
St Cyprian Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, That He is the righteous One whom the Jews should put to death
In the Wisdom of Solomon: “Let us lay hold of the righteous, because He is disagreeable to us, and is contrary to our works, and reproacheth us with our transgressions of the law. He professeth that He has the knowledge of God, and calls Himself the Son of God; He has become to us an exposure of our thoughts; He is grievous unto us even to look upon, because His life is unlike to others, and His ways are changed. We are esteemed by Him as frivolous, and He restraineth Himself from our ways, as if from uncleanness; and He extols the last end of the righteous, and boasts that He has God for His Father. Let us see, then, if His words are true, and let us try what will come to Him. Let us interrogate Him with reproach and torture, that we may know His reverence and prove His patience. Let us condemn Him with a most shameful death. These things they considered, and erred. …
Lactantius The Divine Institutes, Chap. XVI. Of the passion of Jesus Christ; that it was foretold
For both David , in the beginning of his Psalms, foreseeing in spirit what a crime they were about to commit, says, “Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the way of the ungodly; “and Solomon in the book of Wisdom used these words: “Let us defraud the righteous, for he is unpleasant to us, and upbraideth us with our offences against the law. He maketh his boast that he has the knowledge of God; and he calleth himself the Son of God. He is made to reprove our thoughts: it grieveth us even to look upon him: for his life is not like the life of others; his ways are of another fashion. We are counted by him as triflers, he withdraweth himself from our ways as from filthiness; he commendeth greatly the latter end of the just, and boasteth that he has God for his Father. …