Does Wisdom of Solomon Deny Creation Ex Nihilo?

Protestant scholars sometimes object to the Apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon because it allegedly contradicts the Bible on the matter of creation ex nihilo (or, out of nothing) and sides with Alexandrian Jewish philosophy.

He made the world out of formless matter (The Wisdom of Solomon 11:17, the doctrine of the Alexandrian Judaism). He did not create the world out of nothing as the Old Testament (Ge 1:1 ff) and even Sirach teach (see SIRACH, BOOK OF, IV, 1). The author's highest conception of creation is the conversion of chaos into cosmos. It is the order and beauty of the universe that amaze the writer, not the stupendous power required to make such a universe out of nothing (The Wisdom of Solomon 11:20; 13:3).

(Davies)

On this basis, the Wisdom of Solomon is dated by scholars as being far after the time of Solomon, for allegedly matching with later Alexandrian Jewish teaching on creation. And of course, if the Wisdom of Solomon taught contrary to the Bible on the matter of creation, it could not be "given by inspiration of God" (2 Timothy 3:16). But upon examining the verse in question in Wisdom of Solomon, it becomes clear the Protestant scholars are just grasping at straws to create a contradiction where there was none.

For thy Almighty hand, that made the world of matter without form, wanted not means to send among them a multitude of bears, or fierce lions,

Wisdom of Solomon 11:17 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)

Does this sound familiar to you? If you are a regular Bible reader, the phrase "without form" should remind you of the first two verses of Genesis.

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:1-2 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)

In the first book of the Bible, God created the heaven and the earth out of nothing (Genesis 1:1), and the condition of the earth when he made it "was without form, and void." After this, God begins to fashion and populate the newly created, formless earth for the rest of the six days of creation (Genesis 1:3-31). Wisdom of Solomon is not denying God created the earth out of nothing; it rather is speaking of when God made the chaotic world he had just created (which was "without form, and void") into the perfect, habited state it is in at the end of Genesis 1.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Genesis 1:31 A.V. 1611 (PCE 1900)

Thus, the Wisdom of Solomon does not deny creation ex nihilo or that God created the earth out of nothing. The Protestants simply created a contradiction in their imaginations that does not exist.

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 21 Nov. 2022.