Wisdom 7 · Hebrews 1 · Featured Study · A Labeled Study Resource Beside Scripture

Wisdom, the Radiance

Before the New Testament said its highest things about Jesus of Nazareth, Jewish writers had spent two centuries saying their highest things about Wisdom— God’s own wisdom, spoken of almost as a person: the breath of His power, the flowing of His glory, the radiance of everlasting light, the unspotted mirror, the image of His goodness. Then the letter to the Hebrews opened with a sentence that reached straight into that vocabulary — down to a Greek word so rare it occurs exactly twicein the entire Greek Bible — and said it all of a Person with a name, a cross, and a throne. This page is the story of one word, and of the moment personification met Person.

Unknown, Solomon and Sirach with Wisdom Personified. CC0.

Summary

This page traces one rare Greek word, apaugasma, from Wisdom of Solomon's portrait of personified Wisdom to Hebrews' description of the Son. It treats the match as vocabulary the New Testament reused, not proof that the older book carries Scripture's authority.

The Greek word apaugasma (radiance) appears exactly twice in the whole Greek Bible: Wisdom 7:26, of Wisdom, and Hebrews 1:3, of the Son.
Hebrews 1:3 and Colossians 1:15 apply the same high language Wisdom of Solomon used for personified Wisdom to Jesus instead.
The New Testament never names Wisdom of Solomon as a source; the connection rests on shared vocabulary, strongest in this one word.
Wisdom's language does not make the book Scripture; it shows the vocabulary God's people already had for what streams eternally from Him.
Paul calls Christ 'the wisdom of God' in 1 Corinthians 1:24, the claim this page's word study leads toward.

One Word, Used Twice

apaugasma: the whole Greek Bible's rarest bridge

“For she is the breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty… For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of his goodness.”Wisdom 7:25–26 (KJV Apocrypha: study resource) — said of Wisdom, personified

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”Hebrews 1:3 (BSB) — said of the Son

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”Colossians 1:15 (BSB) — said of the Son

The King James renders it “brightness”; the American Standard, “effulgence”; the Greek is απαύγασμα — an off-flash, light streaming from light. In the entire Greek Bible it appears exactly twice: Wisdom 7:26, of Wisdom; Hebrews 1:3, of the Son (Attridge, Hebrews, Hermeneia, on 1:3). The author of Hebrews did not reach for a common word and coincide. He reached for the rarest, highest term Hellenistic Judaism had coined for what streams eternally from God — and fastened it to Jesus.

The word door

ἀπαύγασμαapaugasmaan off-flash; effulgence, radiance streaming from a source of light

Sun and sunlight: distinct, yet one thing; the light exactly expresses the source, and there was never a moment the sun existed without its shining. The fathers loved the figure for exactly that reason: it says eternally begotten without a syllable of philosophy.

When the Figure Found a Face

what the New Testament did with Israel's Wisdom language: said carefully

Israel’s own Scriptures began it: Wisdom crying in the streets, Wisdom beside God at creation “as a master workman” (Prov 8:30). The Alexandrian book carried the figure as far as figure can go — breath of His power, mirror of His working, image of His goodness. Then the apostles wrote about Jesus, and the old vocabulary converged on Him from every side: the effulgence of His glory (Heb 1:3); “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15); the Word who “was in the beginning with God,” through whom all things were made (John 1:1–3).

Two honest cautions guard the claim. The New Testament writers never nameWisdom of Solomon as a source; the case is verbal and cumulative, strongest exactly where this page began, in one unmistakable word. And the traffic runs one direction only: Wisdom’s language does not make the book Scripture — it shows that when God spoke His final word in a Son, He spoke into a vocabulary His people had been given ears to hear. The figure was the schoolmaster; the Son is the substance. Paul says it in five words the old book would have trembled at: Christ “the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:24).

Christ Our Wisdom, the full study →

The Voices on This Text

with the work named

Harold W. Attridge

The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia; Fortress Press, 1989)

The standard critical commentary on Hebrews, the source for this page's central datum: apaugasma occurs only at Wisdom 7:26 and Hebrews 1:3 in the whole Greek Bible, and Hebrews' opening draws deliberately on Wisdom-language to describe the Son.

Jerome

Prologue to the Books of Solomon (c. AD 393)

Public domain, verified text: read Wisdom “for the edification of the people, not to give authority to doctrines of the Church.” The page's posture exactly, the doctrine here stands on Hebrews and Colossians, with Wisdom as background.

R. H. Charles (ed.)

The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. I (Oxford, 1913)

The standard critical edition, its Wisdom introduction traces the book's Alexandrian setting and the Greek philosophical vocabulary its Wisdom-portrait is built from.

Marcus Brown's own commentary leads above all; within a tier, all voices are equal.