Blessed is the Wood of Righteousness

A brief rant about my new bible…and some reflections on a beautiful passage

I am a Protestant…and I recently purchased an Orthodox study bible. A thick, leather-bound volume, with beautiful scarlet and bronze ribbons, a three bar cross emblazoned in gold on its front, full of iconography, and in which is included the deuterocanonical texts, or the ‘Apocrypha’…

Before I continue, I want to briefly laude the brilliance of this Bible;

In general, I have found this study bible to be perhaps the most enriching Bible I have ever had the pleasure to read through. And not simply because it looks beautiful, has all these cool extra books and stunning artwork throughout, (though…I will confess, that is perhaps the main reason why I bought it in the first place…). Rather, what has sold it for me has been the spiritual focus and depth of the study notes which are refreshingly simple, yet also intensely deep and edifying.

The reader will not find in this study bible any exegetical notes, translation expositions, historical data or any of the like (things which normally take centre stage in many of our Protestant Study Bibles). Instead, each book, from Genesis to Revelation is packed with typological, liturgical, and symbolic exposition that breathes fresh, new life into much of the biblical text (especially the Old Testament).

Reading through Genesis, the Psalms and even Wisdom of Solomon felt like sitting under the shade of a tree with a cool breeze and talking deeply with an old and learned teacher as they exposited, in every little nook and cranny, the deep significance of the Word in the Scriptures. Again…this is an experience I have not had before in much of my Bible reading discipline, and one which, I am pleased to say, has me hungering for more and more each time.

But…am I saying that all my Protestant brothers and sisters should go and get Orthodox Study Bibles?

Well…no. I’m not sure it’s a one size fits all kind of thing.

All I am humbly saying here is that, for me, this is the Bible I’ve gotten the most out of. As someone who has studied (and indeed… is still studying) a theology degree for the past 6 years, it’s safe to say that I haven’t ever encountered a Biblical theology as rich as the one presented in the pages of this volume.

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The Wood of Righteousness

My brief rant aside, I wanted to highlight some reflections I have come across in my reading thus far. In reading through, (now my favourite book), the Wisdom of Solomon, I encountered this curious passage amidst a polemic on idol worship:

For even in the beginning when proud giants were perishing,

the hope of the world, taking refuge on a raft,

guided by your hand, left a seed of the family for eternity.

For blessed is the wood through which righteousness comes.

(Wisdom of Solomon 14:6-7)

From the get go, the reader will notice here a clear reference to the story of Noah.

The marker “when proud giants were perishing” is a reference to the vague mention of Nephilim found in Gen. 6:1-4, which serves as a pre-lude to the flood. Though the text there doesn’t tell us anything about these giants, nor does it mention anything about them ‘perishing’, we know that the author of Wisdom of Solomon (an unknown Alexandrian Jew writing in 30-10 BC) has in mind the widespread accounts of the giants and watchers from books such as 1 Enoch, Jubliees, and The Book of Giants, all of which detail the ‘perishing’ of the giants in the judgment of the flood (1 En. 15:8-16:1; Jub. 5:6-11).

Though Noah himself is not mentioned, the reference to “the hope of the world taking refuge on a raft…a seed of the family for eternity” can refer to none other than Noah. In Gen. 5:29 his father Lamech names him נֹ֖חַ noakh, because he will bring נחם noham ‘rest’ to the earth. In this, Noah is the ‘hope of the world’. The reference to the ark as a σχεδία skedia ‘raft’ further illustrates this point. The ark is a life raft, upon which a sacred remnant of the world remains, borne through the chaos of the flood, to safe harbour in the new creation (Wis. Sol. 14:3-5).

While the whole of this short pericope is fascinating (the word ‘giant’ alone was enough to peak my interest), his final words are what stuck with me most, “…for blessed is the wood through which righteousness comes.” What does this mean?

The Tree of the Cross

My trusty study Bible notes that this “foreshadows Christ and the saving wood of the Cross.” (Orthodox Study Bible, 909.) The wood of the ark was the saving grace through the judgment of the flood, just as the cross of Christ is the saving grace upon which the flood of the wrath of God was poured out. Both of which bring humanity through judgment into the new creation. The imagery and symbolism is remarkable.

The authors mention of the ark being ‘guided by your hand’ is a call back to his previous mention of the ark as ‘piloted’ by Wisdom herself:

“When the earth was flooded…again Wisdom saved it and piloted the righteous man by a worthless piece of wood”

(Wis. Sol. 10:4)

Here, the author draws attention to the means of salvation, ‘a worthless piece of wood’. The word εὐτελής eutelēs ‘worthless’ recalls the depraved image of crucifixion. Indeed, the wood of a cross was perhaps the most worthless of all…it was good for nothing other than a execution instrument.

Likewise, the worthlessness of the wood of the ark calls to mind the scorn heaped on Christ himself. He was rejected as worthless in the eyes of his own people, (Ps. 118:22; 1 Pet. 2:4) and the Roman’s mocked him and crowned him as a worthless and meaningless king (Matt. 27:27-31).

Indeed, the Scripture itself witnesses to the utter worthlessness of he who dies on the wood of a tree:

“…if he is put to death and hung on a tree, his dead body shall not hang on the tree, but certainly you shall bury him on that day, for cursed by God is one that is hung on a tree…”

(Deut. 21:23)

But, as Paul notes, it is precisely the worthlessness of the wood of the cross, and the cursedness of Christ who hung on it that saves us:

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, ‘Cursed is the one who hangs on a tree’…”

(Gal. 3:13)

Indeed, it is through the worthlessness of the tree of Christ that righteousness is restored to humanity. Just as Adam has sinned in eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree, but Noah was saved through the building of a ‘raft’ out of ‘worthless wood’; so too is humanity saved through the worthless wood of the Cross of Christ, to bear good fruits of righteousness through Him (Phil. 1:11; James 3:17)

All of this, the typological connections between Noah and Christ, the ark and the Cross, shed a brand new light on the typological language of Peter:

“The spirits in prison who were formerly disobedient, when the patience of God waited in the days of Noah. An ark was constructed, in which a few—that is, eight souls—were rescued through water.

And also, corresponding to this, baptism now saves you, not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

(1 Pet. 3:20-21)

How remarkably similar are Peters words to the Wisdom of Solomon! The ark was constructed as the δια-σώζω ‘dia-sozo’ ‘rescue’ of Noah’s family from the flood. And typologically, in the light of Christ’s death and resurrection, this reality is symbolized in the action of baptism which now σώζω ‘sozo’ ‘saves’.

We are invited here to see, in perhaps the darkest, most perplexing (and certainly the most repetitive) biblical story the shining image of the victory of the Cross. The rest promised through Noah finds its ‘Amen’ in Christ:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest…”

(Matt. 11:28)

Indeed, “blessed is the wood through which righteousness comes…”

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It’s the beauty of all this symbolism and typology that brings me back to the point I made at the start of this post. We desperately need new eyes to read the Scriptures in a way that breathes life into them again, re-enchants them, dare we say, so as to make the Word of God ‘alive and active’ (Heb 4:12) in our lives again. This Orthodox Study Bible is one of many ways that has helped me to do so.

I got all of this from two mentions of wood in one Apocryphal book, a book, mind you, which was not written by a Christian author, and was penned nearly fifty years before Christ would fulfil any of its imagery in his earthly ministry.

All of this led me down the trail of a deeper reflection on the grace of God, both in the flood and his remembrance of Noah (Gen. 8:1) and also in the cross of Christ, and his remembrance of our sins no more (Heb. 8:12).

I find myself awestruck by the beauty of God’s word, and also slightly questioning my resolve on whether the Orthodox might be onto something in including Wisdom of Solomon in their bibles…