The Envy of the Devil
The Book of the Wisdom of Solomon was a part of the Bible since before Christ, and was officially declared canon for all the world in the years before the Fall of Rome.
The Protestants, for reasons best known to them, decided to redact these words of inspired scripture.
Thus, the English speaking world has had so little exposure to them, that they have played little or no part in our literature and poetry and traditions. That loss is one greatly to be regretted.
However, since two of the discussions in this space have touched upon themes addressed by the wisest of mortal men, I thought it best to inquire of King Solomon.
This is the King James translation, Chapter II:
1
For the ungodly said, reasoning with themselves, but not aright, “Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no remedy: neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave.
2
“For we are born at all adventure: and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been: for the breath in our nostrils is as smoke, and a little spark in the moving of our heart:
3
“Which being extinguished, our body shall be turned into ashes, and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air,
4
“And our name shall be forgotten in time, and no man shall have our works in remembrance, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, that is driven away with the beams of the sun, and overcome with the heat thereof.
5
“For our time is a very shadow that passeth away; and after our end there is no returning: for it is fast sealed, so that no man cometh again.
6
“Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth.
7
“Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments: and let no flower of the spring pass by us:
8
“Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered:
9
“Let none of us go without his part of our voluptuousness: let us leave tokens of our joyfulness in every place: for this is our portion, and our lot is this.
10
“Let us oppress the poor righteous man, let us not spare the widow, nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged.
11
“Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth.
12
“Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous; because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings: he upbraideth us with our offending the law, and objecteth to our infamy the transgressings of our education.
13
“He professeth to have the knowledge of God: and he calleth himself the child of the Lord.
14
“He was made to reprove our thoughts.
15
“He is grievous unto us even to behold: for his life is not like other men’s, his ways are of another fashion.
16
“We are esteemed of him as counterfeits: he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness: he pronounceth the end of the just to be blessed, and maketh his boast that God is his father.
17
“Let us see if his words be true: and let us prove what shall happen in the end of him.
18
“For if the just man be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies.
19
“Let us examine him with despitefulness and torture, that we may know his meekness, and prove his patience.
20
“Let us condemn him with a shameful death: for by his own saying he shall be respected.”
21
Such things they did imagine, and were deceived: for their own wickedness hath blinded them.
22
As for the mysteries of God, they knew them not: neither hoped they for the wages of righteousness, nor discerned a reward for blameless souls.
23
For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity.
24
Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.
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My comment:
Those of you who read a foreshadow of the passion of the Christ read it aright.
And if furthermore you read a condemnation of hedonism and secular humanism, and how it leads inevitably to envy for the righteous, and wicked hatred of them, may also perhaps see the causes of the sadism that eventually but inevitably grows out of socialism, national socialism, and, indeed, secular thinking generally.
Note the easy transition between verses nine and ten. For if life has no meaning aside from pleasure, what are we to do with those who displease us by saying life is and should be more?
If our justification for indulging in sodomy is that this causes pleasure to the groin, then by the same token, to belittle, torment, and murder those who say men should live chaste lives and clean is also justified, for their silence causes pleasure to the ear.
The man who proclaims to the world that there is no objectivity to right reason hence no truth to rein his bias or self serving opinion, no virtue to restrict his appetites, no beauty in nature nor in art to guide his soul, aside from what arbitrary human will asserts, that man, in effect, is proclaiming his intent to abandon objectivity, reins, restrictions, and guides hence to abandon prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance.
In effect, he is proclaiming his intent, once truth and virtue die, afterward to rob, rape, enslave, murder or otherwise work his will on those who fall into his hands.
The useful idiot who echoes his words may, perhaps, not share his dark intent at first, but one who holds the ladder is no less blameworthy of the trespass as one who scales the wall.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
