Wisdom of Solomon · Russian Synodal Bible (1876)
Wisdom of Solomon 13 Russian Synodal Bible (1876)
Notes on this text (1)
- Includes the books not found in the Hebrew Bible (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, 1–3 Maccabees, 2 and 3 Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh), as in the Synodal editions.
1 Подлинно суетны по природе все люди, у которых не было ведения о Боге, которые из видимых совершенств не могли познать Сущего и, взирая на дела, не познали Виновника,
1 For truly all men who had no perception of God were foolish by nature, and didn’t gain power to know him who exists from the good things that are seen. They didn’t recognize the architect from his works.
2 а почитали за богов, правящих миром, или огонь, или ветер, или движущийся воздух, или звездный круг, или бурную воду, или небесные светила.
2 But they thought that either fire, or wind, or swift air, or circling stars, or raging water, or luminaries of heaven were gods that rule the world.
3 Если, пленяясь их красотою, они почитали их за богов, то должны были бы познать, сколько лучше их Господь, ибо Он, Виновник красоты, создал их.
3 If it was through delight in their beauty that they took them to be gods, let them know how much better their Sovereign Lord is than these, for the first author of beauty created them.
4 А если удивлялись силе и действию их, то должны были бы узнать из них, сколько могущественнее Тот, Кто сотворил их;
4 But if it was through astonishment at their power and influence, then let them understand from them how much more powerful he who formed them is.
5 ибо от величия красоты созданий сравнительно познается Виновник бытия их.
5 For from the greatness of the beauty of created things, mankind forms the corresponding perception of their Maker.
6 Впрочем, они меньше заслуживают порицания, ибо заблуждаются, может быть, ища Бога и желая найти Его:
6 But yet for these men there is but small blame, for they too perhaps go astray while they are seeking God and desiring to find him.
7 потому что, обращаясь к делам Его, они исследывают и убеждаются зрением, что все видимое прекрасно.
7 For they diligently search while living among his works, and they trust their sight that the things that they look at are beautiful.
8 Но и они неизвинительны:
8 But again even they are not to be excused.
9 если они столько могли разуметь, что в состоянии были исследывать временный мир, то почему они тотчас не обрели Господа его?
9 For if they had power to know so much, that they should be able to explore the world, how is it that they didn’t find the Sovereign Lord sooner?
10 Но более жалки те, и надежды их - на бездушных, которые называют богами дела рук человеческих, золото и серебро, изделия художества, изображения животных, или негодный камень, дело давней руки.
10 But they were miserable, and their hopes were in dead things, who called them gods which are works of men’s hands, gold and silver, skillfully made, and likenesses of animals, or a useless stone, the work of an ancient hand.
11 Или какой-либо древодел, вырубив годное дерево, искусно снял с него всю кору и, обделав красиво, устроил из него сосуд, полезный к употреблению в жизни,
11 Yes and some woodcutter might saw down a tree that is easily moved, skillfully strip away all its bark, and fashion it in attractive form, make a useful vessel to serve his life’s needs.
12 а обрезки от работы употребил на приготовление пищи и насытился;
12 Burning the scraps from his handiwork to cook his food, he eats his fill.
13 один же из обрезков, ни к чему не годный, дерево кривое и сучковатое, взяв, старательно округлил на досуге и, с опытностью знатока обделав его, уподобил его образу человека,
13 Taking a discarded scrap which served no purpose, a crooked piece of wood and full of knots, he carves it with the diligence of his idleness, and shapes it by the skill of his idleness. He shapes it in the image of a man,
14 или сделал подобным какому-нибудь низкому животному, намазал суриком и покрыл краскою поверхность его, и закрасил в нем всякий недостаток,
14 or makes it like some worthless animal, smearing it with something red, painting it red, and smearing over every stain in it.
15 и, устроив для него достойное его место, повесил его на стене, укрепив железом.
15 Having made a worthy chamber for it, he sets it in a wall, securing it with iron.
16 Итак, чтобы произведение его не упало, он наперед озаботился, зная, что оно само себе помочь не может, ибо это кумир и имеет нужду в помощи.
16 He plans for it that it may not fall down, knowing that it is unable to help itself (for truly it is an image, and needs help).
17 Молясь же пред ним о своих стяжаниях, о браке и о детях, он не стыдится говорить бездушному,
17 When he makes his prayer concerning goods and his marriage and children, he is not ashamed to speak to that which has no life.
18 и о здоровье взывает к немощному, о жизни просит мертвое, о помощи умоляет совершенно неспособное, о путешествии - не могущее ступить,
18 Yes, for health, he calls upon that which is weak. For life, he implores that which is dead. For aid, he supplicates that which has no experience. For a good journey, he asks that which can’t so much as move a step.
19 о прибытке, о ремесле и об успехе рук - совсем не могущее делать руками, о силе просит самое бессильное.
19 And for profit in business and good success of his hands, he asks ability from that which has hands with no ability.
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… philosophers, I used to compare some teachings of theirs with those long fables of the Manichæans and the former things which they declared, who could only prevail so far as to estimate this lower world, while its lord they could by no means find out, seemed to me the more probable.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
… to see with eyes of flesh: but from the works, which are Divine, it is possible to attain to some conception of His power, according to Solomon, who says, For by the greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably the Maker of them is seen.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
… but, saith He, "he that is able to receive it, let him receive it." Vain, assuredly, are all men in whom the knowledge of God is not, and who could not, out of the good things which are seen, find out Him who is good. But I was no longer in that vanity; I had surmounted it, and by the …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
… incorporeal and invisible, that thou mayest abhor those who blaspheme the wise and good Artificer, and from what is spoken and read, and whatever thou canst thyself discover or conceive, from the greatness and beauty of the creatures mayest proportionably see the maker of them, and bending the knee with godly reverence to the Maker of the worlds, the …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
… use of the rules discovered and laid down by those who are rebuked by Holy Writ in these terms: "For if they were able to know so much that they could weigh the world, how did they not more easily find out the Lord thereof?"
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)