Wisdom 3:16
But the children of adulterers shall not come to perfection, and the seed of the unlawful bed shall be rooted out.
Open Wisdom 3:16 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Filii autem adulterorum in inconsummatione erunt, et ab iniquo thoro semen exterminabitur.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- τέκνα δὲ μοιχῶν ἀτέλεστα ἔσται, καὶ ἐκ παρανόμου κοίτης σπέρμα ἀφανισθήσεται.
Haydock's commentary
Perfection. Literally, "shall be in consummation," or wholly destroyed. (Haydock)
They shall not come to age, or Septuagint, "initiated." The pagans excluded the base-born from their mysteries, as the Church does from holy orders; and experience shews, that the fruits of adultery are often miserable, (Calmet) and while they imitate their parents, they can have no hope, ver. 18.
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
St Methodius The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity, Chapter III
But Marcella, interrupting, said, “O Theophila, there appears here a great mistake, and something contrary to what you have said; and do you think to escape under cover of the cloud which you have thrown around you? For there comes that argument, which perhaps any one who addresses you as a very wise person will bring forward: What do you say of those who are begotten unlawfully in adultery? For you laid it down that it was inconceivable and impossible for any one to enter into the world unless he was introduced by the will of the divine Ruler, his frame being prepared for him by God. And that you may not take refuge behind a safe wall, bringing forward the Scripture which says, ‘As for the children of the adulterers, they shall not come to their perfection,’ he will answer you easily, that we often see those who are unlawfully begotten coming to perfection like ripe fruit.