[Sidenote:  Wisd. of Sol. 1:12-15]
Do not court death by leading an erring life,
And do not by the deeds of your hands draw destruction upon yourselves. 
For God did not make death,
And he hath no pleasure when the living perish;
For he created all things that they might exist,
And the created things of the world are not baneful. 
And there is no destructive poison in them,
Nor has Hades dominion on earth,
For righteousness is immortal.

[Sidenote:  Wisd. of Sol. 2:23-3:1]
For God created man for incorruption,
And made him an image of his own peculiar nature;
But through the envy of the devil death entered into the world,
And they who belong to him experience it. 
But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
And no torment can touch them.

[Sidenote:  Wisd. of Sol. 5:15, 16]
But the righteous live forever,
And in the Lord is their reward,
And the care for them with the Most High. 
Therefore they shall receive the glorious kingdom,
And the diadem of beauty from the Lord’s hand;
Because he will cover them with his right hand,
And with his arm he will shield them.

[Sidenote:  Wisd. of Sol. 11:21-12:2]
For thou, O Lord, lovest all things that are,
And thou dost not abhor any of the things which thou hast made,
For thou wouldest never have formed anything that thou didst hate. 
And how would anything have endured, if thou didst not wish it? 
Or how could that which was not called into being by thee have been
  preserved? 
But thou sparest all things, because they are thine,
O Sovereign Lord, thou lover of men’s lives! 
For thine incorruptible spirit is in all things. 
Therefore thou convictest the fallen little by little,
And, reminding them of the things in which they sin, thou dost warn them,
That freed from wickedness, they may believe on thee, O Lord.

[Sidenote:  Wisd. of Sol. 15:1-3]
But thou, our God, art gracious and true,
Long suffering, and in mercy directing all things. 
For even if we sin, we are thine, since we know thy might. 
But we shall not sin, knowing that we have been counted as thine;
For to know thee is perfect righteousness,
And to know thy might is the root of immortality.

I. Conditions of the Jews in Antioch and Asia Minor.  Seleucus Nicanor, who in 311 B.C. founded the city of Antioch, like Alexander, granted many privileges to the Jewish colonies whom he thus sought to attract hither.  They not only possessed the rights of citizenship, but lived in their separate quarter.  Their synagogue was one of the architectural glories of the city.  There they engaged in trade and undoubtedly grew rich, taking on largely the complexion of that opulent Hellenic city.  Later the Jewish colony was enlarged by the apostates who fled from Judea when the Maccabean rulers gained the ascendancy.  The corrupt and materialistic atmosphere of Antioch doubtless explains why its Jewish citizens apparently contributed little to the development of the thought and faith of later Judaism.  Similar colonies were found throughout the great commercial cities of Asia Minor.  In many of these cities—­for example, Tarsus—­they seem to have enjoyed the same privileges as those at Antioch.