Chapter 8 further expostulates on
the benefits of wisdom, seeing in Solomon’s success even as a young man a
concrete proof of the virtues that wisdom produces. As a sort of aside, the
text presents Solomon as preexisting as a good soul before he takes a body: “I
was a naturally clever child, and I obtained a good soul as my lot, or rather,
being good I entered an undefiled body” (8:19-20). (David Lincicum, “The Wisdom
of Solomon,” in Apocrypha and the Septuagint, ed. Bruce W. Longenecker,
Marieke Dhont, and James K. Aitken [Ancient Literature for New Testament Studies
1; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Academic, 2026], 235)
