gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, your all-powerful word leaped down from heaven, from the royal throne” (Wis. 18:14–15). Here the Scriptures refer, as we saw above, to the powerful divine act that brought the death of the Egyptian firstborn and the rescue of Israel (Exod. 11:1–12:32). For the source of “the Word became flesh,” we should turn rather to Baruch: “Wisdom appeared on earth and lived among human beings” (Bar. 3:17; see also Sir. 24:8).