A defense of the Jewish way of…

A defense of the Jewish way of life called the Wisdom of Solomon (as Wisdom, it is one of the books of the Apocrypha; in the Septuagint and Vulgate it is included in the Old Testament), ascribed to King Solomon, is actually written in Greek by an Alexandrian Jew as an attempt to strengthen the religious commitment of the Hellenistic Jewish community and, if possible, to convert the Gentiles.

His work, which stands in the same intellectual tradition as such earlier collections of proverbial wisdom as Proverbs and the Book of Sirach, falls into three parts: chapters 1-5 emphasize the superiority of the pious and wise over the godless; chapters 6-9 praise personify Wisdom; and chapters 10-19 draw examples from Israel's history to illustrate the marvels of Wisdom.

Scholars believe that the book represents the most literary post-classical Greek language found in the Septuagint, having been written during the Jewish Hellenistic period (the first or second century BCE).

The author of the text appears well versed in the popular philosophical, religious, and ethical writings adopted by Hellenistic Alexandria.