interpretation. Readers wishing to go directly to ancient Christian readings may want to skip ahead to the treatment below of Philo (almost an honorary church father) or proceed directly to the next chapter. Of the wealth of texts that exist from the second century BCE to the first century of our era, our discussion here will be necessarily selective and brief, focused on the texts’ demonstrable usefulness to Christian commentators. The books of Sirach and Wisdom are part of the LXX; Jubilees is