Did Solomon Pre-Exist (Wisdom of Solomon 8:20)?

According to Protestant scholars, the Wisdom of Solomon teaches the heresy that you pre-existed as an immortal soul before you were born. This is the exact teaching of Mormons and was historically held by Plato and Origen. Thus, the argument goes, the Apocrypha is teaching a strange doctrine that is in conflict with their 66-book canon of scripture.

The writer adopts the Platonic theory of the pre-existence of souls (8:20; compare 15:8,11,16), which involves the belief in a kind of predestination, for the previous doings of the soul determine the kind of body into which it enters. Solomon's soul, being good, entered an undefiled body (8:20).

(Davies)

However, as is always the case, the critics of the Apocrypha have overlooked the truth in their attempts to remove books they don't like from the King James Bible.

Let us first read the scripture in dispute in Wisdom of Solomon:

19 For I was a witty child, and had a good spirit.

20 Yea rather, being good, I came into a body undefiled.

Wisdom of Solomon 8:19-20 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)

It certainly looks at first glance that if Solomon wrote this (as the book of Wisdom itself claims), he is claiming the Platonic pre-existence of souls, that his soul existed before he was born and simply entered his body in his mother's womb. If this were indeed the case, it would contradict the teaching of scripture elsewhere on the soul and spirit. The soul is formed not before a man's physical body but is the result of a man's spirit joining to his body (Genesis 2:7). The spirit is said to be formed "within" a person's body by the Lord (Zechariah 12:1), preventing the personal existence of that spirit before it is formed within the body.

The reality of the matter, however, which has been overlooked by all the scholars and commentators, is that Solomon is speaking prophetically about Christ. This is common in the Psalms, where a Psalmist in the midst of describing his own situation, switches to speaking the words of the Lord Jesus Christ prophetically. The perfect example of this is Psalm 69, where David at first speaks of his own situation:

O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.

Psalm 69:5 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)

But just a few verses later, David speaks the words of Christ prophetically.

For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

Psalm 69:9 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)

16 And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.

17 And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

John 2:16-17 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)

When it comes to Solomon, the man is a scriptural type or picture of Christ. When it was prophesied in the Old Testament that he would build the house of the Lord, the prophecy is partially and doubly applied in the New Testament to the person of Christ.

12 And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

13 He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:

2 Samuel 7:12-14 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)

5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

6 And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

Hebrews 1:5-6 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)

This establishes Solomon as a scriptural type of Christ. Therefore, as in many of the Psalms, when Solomon writes that he, being good, came into an undefiled body, he is not speaking of himself but prophetically of Christ. While Solomon didn't pre-exist before his physical body, the Lord Christ, whom Solomon pictured, did.

And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

John 17:5 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

John 1:1, 14 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)

What Wisdom of Solomon 8:20 is really about is how Christ, being sinlessly good in his pre-existent state with the Father, would come into the chaste, undefiled body of Mary (as sexual relations under the law were considered defiling, see Leviticus 15:16-18, 32) to be conceived and virgin-born from her. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Platonic teaching about the pre-existence of souls. The Protestants have simply overlooked how the Old Testament speaks prophetically of Christ to create this alleged heresy in the Apocrypha.

Works Cited

Davies, T. Witton, "Wisdom of Solomon, The." International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Online, StudyLamp Software LLC, 2022, https://www.internationalstandardbible.com/W/wisdom-of-solomon-the.html. Accessed on 23 Nov. 2022.