For she is the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of his goodness.
All Commentaries on Wisdom of Solomon 7:26 Go To Wisdom of Solomon 7
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
The Son is sent, not because he is not equal to the Father but because he is "a pure emanation of the light of God" almighty. Here what is emanated and that from which it emanates are of one, identical being. It is not an emanation like that of water springing from a natural opening in the earth or in a rock but like that of light from light. When it says "splendor of the eternal light," what else can be meant but that it is the light of the eternal light? Light"s splendor"what is it, except light? It is therefore coeternal with the light of which it is the light. Nevertheless, the Scripture preferred the expression "splendor of the light" to the other, "light of the light," so that no one would believe that the light that emanates is darker than that from which it emanates. Rather, hearing it called its splendor, it is easier to think that the one owes to the other its brilliance, rather than that one shines less brightly than the other. But because there was no chance that anyone would think the generating light to be inferior (no heretic has dared to assert this, nor does it seem believable that one would dare to do so), the Scripture anticipates the notion that the emanated light would be darker than the generating light. It eliminated this conjecture by saying, "It is the splendor of that light," that is, of the eternal light, thus showing his equality. Indeed, if it were inferior, it would be the shadow, not the splendor. And if greater, it would not emanate, because it could not surpass that from which it was emanating.
