The Ship of Providence

Wisdom 14 : 1 - 10

IECOT version (2019, Kohlhammer Publisher)

editor: Luca Mazzinghi TRANSL.: Michael Tait

Another, moreover,

preparing to set sail

and on the point of

tackling the wild waves,

calls upon a piece of wood

that is more rotten than

the ship carrying him.

For it was the desire for profit

that planned that (ship),

artisan wisdom that equipped

it; but it is your Providence,

o Father, which steers it,

for you have marked out

a path in the sea and

a safe way between the waves,

showing that you are able to 

save from every peril, so that

everyone without skill can

embark.  For you wish that

the works of your wisdom 

are not in vain. Therefore,

people trust their lives to an

insignificant piece of wood,

and, having passed through

the billows on a raft, they

were saved.  For, in the

beginning, when the proud

giants were dying, the hope 

of the world, taking refuge on

a raft, left to future centuries 

(GREEK: aion ) a seed of life,

guided by your hand.  

Blessed is the wood

through which justice comes!

But what is fashioned from

human hands is cursed,

both it and the one who made it,

the one, because he constructed

it, the other because, though

corruptible, it was held to be

a god.  For in the same way,

God hates the ungodly and

their ungodliness;

the work will thus be punished

along with its author.

[ our sage's attention is suddenly pointed to the sea and sailing

which appears as something dangerous according to an idea

common in the ancient world.  In the Hellenistic period, naval

symbolism is very rich: sailing is seen as a mortal danger,

a challenge to fate but also a brave human act. . .At the time

of departure, someone undertaking a voyage calls on the

idol which was often set on the ship's prow (as on Acts 28:11).

With remarkable irony, this becomes a "rotten piece of wood"

which is in a worst state than the ship itself (GREEK: ploion)

which has to be protected.  A possible biblical background is in

the text of Prophet Jonah 1:5 . . .An invocation to the idol

is contrasted with the prayer addressed to the God of Israel,

here called on in the second person as (GREEK: pater) FATHER!

These verses make up a further reflection on sailing, which

is described in a language with tones of the Exodus.