service files 25_january.md

The Readings for Vespers are not straightforward passages from the Wisdom books. They cannot, therefore, be simply read from an English version of the Old Testament, even one made from the Septuagint. For example the first reading  is taken from Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and lastly Wisdom, hence the title. The opening part of the text speaks both of ‘a man’ — *aner* not *anthropos* — and ‘ wise’, or ‘ just’, in the plural.  Since Wisdom is personified in these texts, the feminine has been retained in the translation, without prejudice,  as the lawyers say.

NOTE ON THE READINGS