The Book of Wisdom (of
Solomon), composed in Greek, probably in Alexandria ca. 100 bc, has a passage
about the suffering just one that seems to be echoed in a remarkable way in the
PNs. Scoffers have been oppressing the just man (2:10ff.), angry at him because
he professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of God (2:13),
and because by that very claim his life is not like that of other men (2:15).
In 2:18 they cry out for a test to see whether the words of this man are true:
“If the just man be the son of God, He will defend him, and deliver him from
the hand of his foes.” In tone the mockery of Jesus on the cross in the three
Synoptics is close to this passage, especially the wording peculiar to Matt
27:43: “He has trusted in God. Let him be delivered if He wants him, for he
said, ‘I am Son of God.’ ” The equivalence in the Wisdom passage between
“just one” and “son of God” throws light on the variant Gospel forms of the
centurion’s confession when Jesus dies: “Truly this (man) was God’s Son” (Mark
15:39; Matt 27:54) and “Certainly this man was just” (Luke 23:47). (Raymond E. Brown, The Death of the Messiah: From
Gethsemane to the Grave—A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four
Gospels, 2 vols. [New York: Yale University Press, 1994], 2:1452)
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