Monday, March 22, 2021

John C. Poirier on θεόπνευστος as being vivifacationist (“life-giving”) and not inspirationist ("inspired"): Pseudo-Phocylides 1:129

 

But the speech of the divinely inspired (θεοπνευστος) wisdom is best. (Pseudo-Phocylides 1:129)

 

Considered in isolation from the verse’s context, both the inspirationist and vivifacationist renderings are plausible, as it is easy to envision wisdom as something imparted by divine inspiration, and is equally easy to view it as life-giving in its effects. Contextual considerations, however, weight in favor of the latter rendering. Several passages make it clear that wisdom, for Pseudo-Phocylides, is a matter of rational reflection on the created order. It is not acquired by means of inspiration—esoteric or otherwise—a notion that might have been at home in a more mystical writing. The notion what wisdom is life-giving, moreover, is very much a traditional Jewish thought, recalling Prov. 3:18’s reference to wisdom as a “tree of life” (cf. Prov. 8:35; 9:6; 13:14; Eccl. 7:12; 4Q185 2.11-13). It can be found throughout Jewish and Christian wisdom writings and fits particularly well with the understanding of wisdom promoted by Pseudo-Phoclyides. A close parallel with the imagery of Sentences 129, in fact, can be found in the Latin version of Sir. 4:12 (=Greek Sir. 4:11 numerically), rendered in the Douay-Rheims version as “Wisdom inspireth life unto her children, and protecteth them that seek after her, and will go before them in the way of justice” (sapiential filiis suis vitam inspiravit et suscipit exquirentes se et praeibit in viam iustitiae). It is not unlikely, in fact, that Pseudo-Phocylides knew this verse in the form of its presumed Greek Vorlage (GrII). Nor is it unlikely that Sentences 129 is directly dependent on the expression preserved in Lat Sir. 4:12. (John C. Poirier, The Invention of the Inspired Text: Philological Windows on the Theopneustia of Scripture [Library of New Testament Studies 640; London: T&T Clark, 2021], 58-59)