Глава 15

1–5. The meaning of true knowledge of God. 6–13. The folly of idolatry, evident from the manner of preparing the idols, 14-17. of their properties and 18–19. from the veneration of animals. Prem.15:1. But You, our God, are good and true, long-suffering and governing all things with mercy. 1–5. The first five verses of Chapter XV. contain a contrast to what is described in Chapter XIV. the corrupting moral influence of paganism in the internal, leading to righteousness and immortality, relationship of God to the Israeli people. 1. “But you, our God (i.e., the Israelites), are good and true, long-suffering...” When listing these properties, the writer was probably presented with a passage from Ex. 34:6 “True”, i.e. faithful in his promises. Prem.15:2. Even if we sin, we are Yours, recognizing Your power; but we will not sin, knowing that we are recognized as Yours. 2. Specified in Art. 1. the properties of God determine God's relationship to the Israelites. - “Even if we sin, we are Yours, recognizing Your power...” Despite the fact that the Israeli people sin before God, they still continue to remain the people of God, His property, under His protection and authority. Such immutability is based on the part of God on His indicated properties, on the part of the Israeli people on their knowledge of the true God: “those who recognize Your power.” Further in verse 3, the writer speaks about the meaning of true knowledge of God, but now, as if feeling in his statement that sinning Israel continues to remain the people of God, religious particularism does not correspond to his views, he hastens to add: “but we will not sin, knowing that we are recognized by You.” Thus, the writer hopes that the high calling of the Jewish people, as the people of God, will serve as an incentive for him “not to sin.” The Jewish people will then be worthy of their calling. Prem.15:3. To know You is complete righteousness, and to recognize Your power is the root of immortality. 3. “To know You is complete righteousness.” By knowledge of God here we mean not the external theoretical recognition of the existence of the true God, but the internal assimilation of God, the penetration by the thought of God of all life in human activity, which knowledge of God actually leads to “complete righteousness.” “...Recognizing Your power is the root of immortality.” To recognize the power of God means to be constantly guided by His will; this immediate consequence of true knowledge of God leads to immortality (see Wisdom 1:15), i.e. to a blessed life in eternal communion with God. In clarifying the meaning of true knowledge of God, the writer wanted to indicate why the Jewish people, in religious terms, occupy an exceptional position among other peoples. Prem.15:4. We are not deceived by the crafty human invention, nor by the fruitless labor of artists - images dotted with various colors, Prem.15:5. the sight of which arouses in the insane lust and desire for the soulless sight of a dead image. 4–5. Possessing true knowledge of God, the Israelis are no longer deceived by the images in which paganism embodies the idea of ​​God. They see in them “a crafty human invention,” “the fruitless work of artists.” Worshipers of the living God cannot be seduced by the beauty of the “dead image,” i.e. idol (cf. Wisdom 14:20). Prem.15:6. And those who do, and those who lust, and those who honor are lovers of evil, worthy of such hopes. 6. From the sixth verse to the end of the chapter, the writer returns to the same theme about the foolishness of idolatry, which he revealed in Wisdom 13:10-19 vv. This verse is an introduction in which a general judgment is made of all those who in any way stand in relation to idolatry. All of them are equally “lovers of evil” - both making idols and captivated by their sensual beauty (“lustful”) and giving them honors. “...worthy of such hopes...”, worthy of having their hopes for soulless idols (Wis.13:10) completely collapsed (Wis.5:14); or maybe there is a metonymy here (as in Wisdom 14:6) and by hopes we mean objects of hope, i.e. idols. Then the thought is this: worthy of their insignificant gods. Prem.15:7. The potter crushes the soft earth, carefully molds every vessel for our service; from the same clay he makes vessels necessary for both clean and unclean works - everything is the same; but what is the use of each of them, the judge is the same potter. 7. From 7th to 13th century the writer tries to show the unreasonableness of idolatry by the method of preparing idols, just as in Wisdom 13:11-16 vv. But there is a difference between these two departments that the “woodmaker” XIII ch. he himself is imbued with a religious feeling for the made idol (see Wisdom 13:17 v.), and the sculptor depicted here reveals frivolity and unbelief in his work. Thought 7th Art. the fact that idols in the method of preparation are no different from earthenware. The same person makes both from the same material. It depends on the potter for what use to create an object from the prepared material: “what is the use of each of them, the judge is the same potter.” Under the "potter" of the 7th century. of course, not only a potter, but also a sculptor (see Art. 8). Prem.15:8. And the vain worker from the same clay molds a vain god, while he himself was recently born from the earth and will soon go to the same place from where he was taken, and the debt of his soul will be collected from him. Prem.15:9. But his concern is not that he must work hard, and not that his life is short; but he competes with gold and silver artists, and imitates coppersmiths, and counts it as glory to himself that he does abominations. 8–9. “...the vain toiler...” This is the same potter of verse 7; “...vain god...” – idol. - “...born from the earth and will soon go there...” Wed. Life 2:7, 3:19. - “... the debt of the soul will be collected from him...”, life is considered as something received from God as a debt, which is paid with death. This image signifies the unconditional dependence of man’s earthly life on God. - “But his concern is not that he has to work a lot...” This expression is often understood in the sense that the sculptor is not worried that preparing idols will require a lot of time and labor from him, just to achieve a certain perfection. This understanding does not fit the context. The beginning of the ninth verse is a contrast to the 8th. A person must die soon, “he doesn’t think about it,” he must fill his short life with serious work, “but that’s not what he cares about”; the sculptor indulged in vanity, he was absorbed in the thought of achieving such perfection in the depiction of an idol that he could compete with “artists of gold and silver items.” The idea of ​​both verses is this: the very material on which the sculptor is working should remind him of his origin and frailty and restrain him from the daring intention to depict a supersensible being (8), but the sculptor is not guided by these high motives, he is completely absorbed in base vanity. Prem. 15:10 . His heart is ashes, and his hope is more insignificant than earth, and his life is more despicable than dirt; 10. The tenth verse makes a general assessment of the inner core of the idol maker. “His heart is ashes...”, i.e. for everything higher, he died, his thoughts and feelings are base, insignificant. - “His hope is more insignificant than the earth,” the very material on which he is working. Prem.15:11. for he did not know Him who created him and breathed into him an active soul and breathed into him the spirit of life. 11. The low way of thinking and living of the idol maker indicated in the tenth verse has its basis in the lack of knowledge of the true God: “for he did not know Him who created him, who breathed into him an active soul and breathed into him the spirit of life.” Some interpreters refer to the above words as evidence that the writer Prince. Wisdom distinguishes not two, but three parts of the human being; in addition to the body, there is also an “active soul” and “spirit of life”. The first means the principle of thought and desire in man, the second means the beginning of animal life. But such an explanation does not agree with other places in the book, where the writer definitely speaks of two parts of the human being - body and soul (Wis. 1:4, 8:19, 9:15). Therefore, it is more correct to see parallelism in this expression. Prem.15:12. They consider our life to be amusement and our living to be a profitable trade, for they say that we must make profit from somewhere, even from evil. 12. “They consider our life to be amusement, and our living to be a profitable trade...” These words depict the frivolity of those people who do not recognize the serious significance of human life. The transition made by the writer here from the singular to the plural (“they”) suggests that the example of the sculptor he took represents a type of a well-known variety of people. They “say that one must make profit from somewhere, even from evil.” Here the writer calls the making of idols evil (cf. v. 6). This means that the sculptors were prompted to prepare idols by the desire for profit, and not by religious feeling (a similar example is indicated in Acts XIX, Art. 23). Prem.15:13 . However, such a one knows more than anyone that he sins by making mortal vessels and statues from earthen matter. 13. From the thirteenth verse it is clear that the writer, as in Wisdom 14:29, represents a person who recognizes the insignificance of idolatry and only hypocritically continues to remain on its side in order to take advantage of the superstitions of his neighbors. Therefore, “such (a person) knows more than anyone else that he sins by making ... statues.” Prem.15:14 . The most foolish of all and the poorest in mind of the smallest children are the enemies of Your people, oppressing them, 14. From the fourteenth to the 17th Art. the writer generally speaks of the unreasonableness of idolatry, based mainly on the fact that those who worship idols honor the dead. By “enemies of Your people” they often mean the ancient Egyptians, the enslavers of the Jews, comparing this expression with Wisdom 10:15. But, taking into account the present tenses of the verbs, it is more correct to understand here the Egyptians contemporary to the writer, or, perhaps, the writer generally meant foreign peoples, who then subjugated the Jews to their domination. Prem. 15:15 . because they worship as gods all pagan idols, which have no use for eyes for seeing, no nostrils for drawing in air, no ears for hearing, no fingers for touching, and whose legs are unfit for walking. 15. “...They honor all pagan idols as gods...” Many ancient religions recognized the deities of other religions and peoples as gods, and when they conquered them, they included the gods of the vanquished ones in their pantheon. This is probably indicated by the above words. The following description of idols is reminiscent of Ps. 134:16–17 art. Prem.15:16. Although man made them, and the borrowing spirit formed them, no man can form a god like himself. Prem.15:17 . Being mortal, he makes the dead with wicked hands, therefore he is superior to his gods, for he lived, and they never lived. 16–17. The expression “borrowing spirit” is explained by comparison with 8 and 11 art. The human spirit seems to be received on loan from God. “...no man can form a god like himself.” The words “like himself” are sometimes referred to the noun “god” and explain this passage in this way: no image of a deity created by man will be like him, for no sensual form will express his supersensible spiritual existence. Such an explanation breaks all connection with the 16th Art. with subsequent ones. According to the connection of speech, the expression “like himself” should be attributed to the noun “man” and the thought will be this: an idol, as a work of man, is less perfect than himself. Man created by God is “excellent than his deities (i.e., idols), for he lived, and they never lived.” Prem.15:18 . Moreover, they revere the most disgusting animals, which, due to their senselessness, are comparatively the worst of all. Prem.15:19 . They are even ugly in appearance, like other animals, so that they can attract people to themselves, but they are deprived of God’s approval and His blessing. 18–19. In the last two verses, the writer speaks about the foolishness of the Egyptians’ veneration of animals (see Wisdom 11:15, 12:24) and with this he makes the transition to the section from Chapters XVI-XIX, in which he again returns to what was interrupted in Chapter XII. comparing the opposite fate of the Egyptians and Israelis during the exit of the latter. The writer blames animal worshipers for their very choice: they worship animals that are more senseless than others, and, in addition, are ugly. Apparently, they are deprived of God's approval and His blessing. This means that this form of idolatry does not even have the excuse that people worship the manifestation of intelligence and beauty.