The first century BCE Alexandrian Jew to whom the Wisdom of Solomon was addressed would find such a question perhaps rather blunt and not admitting of a clear yes or no response. [1] In this article the question which will mostly concern us is, what is the chief speaker's, that is, Solomon's perception of the character and role of Sophia or Wisdom? We will explore this question both in the literary context of the description of Wisdom in chapters 7- 9 and in the context of the historical and social situation the book addresses.
In the analysis of Maurice Gilbert Wis 7- 9 forms the core of the book, understood as belonging to the Greek genre of the encomium. [2] The Book of Wisdom is an expression of the praises of Wisdom. In the first section or preface (1.1- 6.21) the author defines the topic and confronts those who would eventually object to the views expressed. The opponents of wisdom and righteousness are allowed to speak (2.1- 20) and their views are exposed as erroneous in the light of righteousness according to the mind of God and consequent immortality. The encomium of wisdom proper is announced in 6.22:
I will tell you what wisdom is and how she came to be,
and I will hide no secrets from you,
but I will trace her course from the beginning of creation,
and make knowledge of her clear, and I will not pass by the truth.
In chapters 7- 8 Solomon speaks of Wisdom's character and accomplishments and it is here that we will focus our attention. Solomon speaks in the first person of his need for wisdom and of the source of this wisdom in God . In chapter 9 we find the actual text of his prayer to God for such superlative divine Wisdom as is described in his address of chapters 7- 8. The final section of the book (chapters 10-19) is linked to the preceding chapters as follows. In his speech about Wisdom Solomon notes that Wisdom creates God's friends in every generation (7.27). Indeed Solomon desires and will pray to God for Wisdom so as to take his place amongst his holy forbears (9.1- 3). [3] In chapters 10-19, then, the author outlines Wisdom's saving role for the ancestors of humanity and the people of Israel up to and including the exodus from Egypt.
It is of interest to note that the Wisdom of Solomon or the Book of Wisdom is one of the biblical presentations of King Solomon. In this respect Wisdom takes its place with 1 Kg 1-11, 2 Chron 1- 9, and the Book of Proverbs. While keeping in mind the relation of Wis 7- 9 to 1 Kg 3. 4 - 14, to which we will refer below, we can also agree with R. J. Clifford who observes that the Wisdom of Solomon can be regarded as an early interpretation of Proverbs. [4] In the Book of Wisdom Solomon purports to address the rulers of the earth (1.1, 6.1, 6.9). As Roland E. Murphy remarks, however, while the audience is said to comprise the royal colleagues of Solomon "the author is not really interested in instructing monarchs. He has his own Jewish sisters and brothers in mind and he wants to strengthen them in their traditions." [5] Solomon in reality addresses the socially alienated Jews of Alexandria. Solomon, in his quest for wisdom, is here presented as the model for the aspiring Alexandrian Jewish sage. The use of the character of Solomon is a useful literary ploy. In the biblical tradition Solomon was a Jewish sage of international repute (1 Kg 4.34 Eng.). He can therefore credibly address the "rulers of the earth". For the real audience of the book, the socially displaced Alexandrian Jew, Solomon "aims at providing Jews with a means of self-definition over against paganism through identification with the reputation, wisdom, and success of Solomon, sophos par excellence and esteemed teacher of pagan kings." [6]
Wisdom in chapters 6-9
In Gilbert's analysis Solomon's praises of Wisdom in chapters 7- 8 are to be understood with regard to the concentric structure of the passage as a whole. In the following division of these chapters the praises of Wisdom are clearly highlighted by the central position occupied by 7.22b-8.1 in the organisation of the text as a whole. It is evident too that the last three sections echo and develop themes already introduced.
(a) 7.1- 6 Solomon is a man like all others. No one is born wise
(b) 7.7-12: Solomon preferred wisdom to all royal good things and asked God for this Wisdom, mother of every good thing
(c) 7.13 - 22a: In reality God gave Solomon all the gifts of culture: Wisdom is their maker
(d) 7.22b - 8.1 Praise of wisdom
(e) 8.2 - 9: Therefore Solomon decides to espouse Wisdom, since she excels all gifts of culture and all virtues, and she is the mother of every good thing
(f) 8.10 - 16: With Wisdom as his spouse Solomon will be a great king
(g) 8.17 - 21: Solomon decides to ask God for Wisdom
Solomon's prayer for wisdom (9.1-18) has also a concentric structure to which we will refer below.
To understand the import of Wisdom 7- 9 we need first of all to recall that the author builds on the incident of 1 Kings 3 where the new king Solomon encounters God in a vision by night in the shrine of Gibeon. Here Solomon's prays to God for "an understanding mind to govern thy people" (1 Kg 3.9). In response to God's apparently open-ended offer to him, Solomon elects to ask for royal wisdom. Such a preferential choice of wisdom above the attractions of wealth and prestige is rewarded by God with the gift of royal wisdom beyond compare. However God also confers on Solomon the wealth and renown that he had not requested (1 Kg 3.10). So too in Wis 7-9 we find Solomon preferring wisdom to all royal blessings (Wis 7.7-12) and expressing a keen awarenesss that through wisdom he will excel as king (8.10 - 16). In the Gibeon prayer Solomon, in a rhetorical understatement, declares that "I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or to come in." (1.Kg 3.7). Likewise in the Book of Wisdom Solomon declares his human weakness: "I also am mortal like everyone else, a descendant of the first-formed child of earth" (Wis 7.1). In both texts Solomon emphasises that wisdom is a gift bestowed by God. Both texts cite Solomon's prayer to God (1 Kg 3. 6-9, Wis 9.1-18).
We come now to examine the question of Solomon's understanding of Wisdom as divine in Wis 7- 9. Solomon sketches Wisdom's divine status in the context of his human weakness and of his absolute need for wisdom if he is to fulfil his divine vocation as king. He attempts to find terms to describe Wisdom's origin in God, which is why he needs to beseech God in prayer for such desirable and necessary Wisdom. In our search to understand wisdom as divine we will use in the rest of this article three approaches, without claiming to proceed with them in an entirely separate manner and in succession. First and in the main we refer to the development of the imagery within the passage itself. Secondly we will also on occasion refer to the relation of Solomon's wisdom in this passage to the older biblical tradition of Wisdom. This older tradition is to be found in Proverbs 8 and Sirach 24. Solomon discourses on the character of wisdom within this wisdom tradition, going far beyond what we learn about wisdom from the description of Solomon's encounter with God in 1 Kings 3. Thirdly, at one point in our discussion we will adopt a cultural approach. Wis 7-9 is an outstanding example of the inculturation of a previous biblical tradition. Solomon refers to divine wisdom using an exciting array of concepts known to his Jewish audience educated in Alexandrian Hellenism.
In discussing the imagery of Solomon's speech in Wis 7- 8 we will focus on images of the divine and leave aside Solomon's references to his human weakness and his choice of wisdom above every other possible advantage. The central pericope (7.22b - 8.1) where wisdom's intimacy with God is evoked is the most relevant. We will first of all single out Solomon's conception of Wisdom as spirit. This description is Solomon's response to the question, how can the extraordinary effects of wisdom be explained? She has given Solomon his encyclopedic knowledge (7.17 - 22a), and she exercises a moral and spiritual role in the lives of the saints (7.27). The response of the central passage's description of Wisdom's nature and origins is introduced with a breath-taking array of twenty-one attributes. These extraordinary qualities are said to be possessed not by Wisdom herself but by her spirit.
There is in her [Wisdom] a spirit that is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, clear, unpolluted, distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen, irresistible, beneficent, humane, steadfast, sure, free from anxiety, all-powerful, overseeing all, and penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent, pure, and altogether subtle. (7.22 - 23)
Here is a clear reference to personified Lady Wisdom: Wisdom has a spirit. Gilbert comments on the import of the attributes of Wisdom's spirit as follows: "The author seems to go searching for terms to define this spirit as one superior to the world and at the same time as a spirit that animates the world with its presence and activity, including moral influence" [7] Wisdom's pure spirit has cosmological ubiquity. [8] Solomon in this book is the first one in the biblical literature to conceive of Wisdom as spirit. [9] In the context of the book as a whole the use of spirit for Wisdom has the effect of likening her presence and effect to the action of God's holy spirit. However the Alexandrian Jewish readers of Solomon's speech would have perceived in wisdom's description as spirit a particular contemporary nuance. This spirit (pneuma) with its cosmic effects could have overtones of the Platonic soul of the world and the "universal principle which animated and penetrated the entire universe" of Stoic philosophy. [10]
A second way in which Solomon expresses Wisdom's divine character is in the description of his personal relation to such a divine Wisdom as depicted in 7.22b - 8.1. His pursuit of Lady Wisdom is likened to a love affair: "I loved her and sought her from my youth; I desired to take her for my bride, and became enamoured of her beauty." (8.2) These terms, reminiscent of Solomon's Song of Songs, [11] are associated with the language of cohabiting with wisdom: "therefore I determined to take her to live with me, knowing that she would give me good counsel and encouragement in cares and grief." (8.9). As regards Wisdom's divine character, such spousal language for Solomon's love for Wisdom parallels the spousal language Solomon has used for Wisdom's own relation to God: "She glorifies her noble birth by living with God" (8.3). In both cases the term the Greek term "symbiosis" is used, one used in contexts describing married life. "The suppliant has decided to take to live with him the Wisdom who 'lives with' God". [12]
Such reflections on exalted wisdom have a practical outcome. Solomon is impelled to pray God for such a gift: "So I appealed to the Lord and implored him, with my whole heart I said…" (8.21). Even though he is of noble birth, that counts for nothing in the acquisition wisdom (8.19-21). In his comments on Solomon's prayer in Wis 9 Gilbert notes that the role Solomon attributes to wisdom in Wis 9 is highly original compared with the royal governance role of wisdom in Solomon's prayer in 1 Kg 3. In Wis 9 Wisdom is compared with the creative word (logos, 9.1). "Only wisdom will permit him to complete properly his mission, if Wisdom does for him what Wisdom does for God". Only wisdom has enabled individuals in the past and now the king in the present, to succeed in their vocation." Identifying Wisdom with the morally regenerating Spirit of God in the prophets, Solomon concludes his prayer alluding to the achievements of Wisdom for the ancestors of humanity and the people of Israel. (9.18). No wonder that at the centrepiece of this prayer, Solomon exclaims: " Send her forth from the holy heavens, and from the throne of your glory send her, that she may labour at my side, and that I may learn what is pleasing to you." (9.10) [13]
In short, in Wis 7- 9 the divine status of Wisdom is expressed obliquely . The poet grapples for terms to describe the experience of God's presence in all created things. Wisdom's divine status is expressed in a number of ways. For example, what God does, so does Wisdom. We read that Wisdom taught Solomon the riddles of the universe (7.22a), yet so does God (7.17). [14] Wisdom is so intimate to the creator God that God seems to defer to Wisdom when creating (8.4). [15] Wisdom's decision is in all God's works. [16] Gilbert uses the language of symbol for Wisdom. Wisdom is the very symbol of God's creative activity. [17] In the biblical tradition Wisdom cannot be an independent deity. Solomon prays to God for Wisdom. He does not invoke Wisdom. However in Wis 7- 9 the qualities of Wisdom are divine qualities, like God's absolute purity and goodness. [18] The intimate relation of Wisdom to God is expressed in 7.25 - 26 in terms of breath, outpouring of divine glory, eternal light, mirror of the divine activity, a divine image. [19] The renewing effects of spirit Wisdom (7.22b) evoke the transformative effect of the biblical spirit of God. [20]
We have come to the point of now reflecting on the astonishing development in the biblical tradition of Lady Wisdom represented in Solomon's descriptions of Wisdom in Wis 7-9. Her intimacy with God and her pervasive and active presence to the created world are described as never before. How, in historical and sociological terms, could such a remarkable development have occurred? We will begin with some observations of a sociological nature.
We have referred briefly above to the impact of Greek philosophy on Solomon's speech about wisdom and on his prayer for wisdom. Much more could be said about the impact of Alexandrian Hellenism on the presentation of Solomon and wisdom in Wis 7- 9. We cannot omit to refer to the question of possible allusions to the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis. In a frequently cited study John S. Kloppenborg presents a balanced appraisal the evidence for Isis cult influence on the shaping of Wisdom in Wis 7- 9. [21]
Kloppenborg writes that
Without wishing to detract from the substantial debt which the Wisdom of Solomon owes to biblical wisdom and Greek philosophy, I contend that the peculiar configuration of Sophia's characteristics is a result of and a response to the immediate and powerful challenge to Judaism presented by another feminine figure, savior and revealer, a goddess linked to the pursuit of wisdom and one associated with the throne: Isis. [22]
Kloppenborg points, for example, to the unique relation of Sophia to Solomon. "Sophia is presented as the divine agent by which the king first attains kingship (6.20 - 21), by which he rules (8.10-16); 9.10-12), attains wisdom (8.2 - 21); influence and power (8.12 - 15), eternal kingship (6.21) and immortality (8.13.17). It can scarcely be a coincidence that Isis performs precisely the same functions." [23] Likewise in the relation of Wisdom to Solomon and to God in 8.2 - 9 Kloppenborg finds evidence for the presence of the mythic pattern, for example in the description of Wisdom as the spouse of the king and of God. [24]
The reshaping of biblical wisdom that we find in Wis 7- 9 had, Kloppenborg argues, a sociological basis. Citing evidence from Imperial times (i.e., post 27 BCE) Kloppenborg describes the Alexandrian Jew. He had privileges not enjoyed by the Egyptians, but still aspired to social and political equality, The Alexandrian citizens were unwilling to support such a social shift within the city since the Jews refused to worship the gods of the citizens. Wisdom in the Wisdom of Solomon was one response to this painful situation. Isis was assimilated to Sophia with similarity and yet disparity. This inculturation of Hebrew wisdom had the role "to promote , if somewhat one-sidedly, cultural communication with the dominant group but at the same time to preserve boundary." [25]
We have now addressed the question of Wisdom's divine status in the Wisdom of Solomon in terms of the imagery that Solomon employs. We have noted the association of Wisdom to the Spirit of God. We have seen that Solomon exalts Wisdom's divine character in the context of his need for a divine, universal and cosmic Wisdom so as to fulfil his royal vocation in the history of the people of God. At the same time he finds terms to suggest the Wisdom's intimate likeness to God. The description of Wisdom is coloured with expressions that are at home in Platonic and Stoic thought, and it is possible as well that the description of Lady Wisdom as intimate with God and the king is an assimilation of certain features of the Alexandrian cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis. We will conclude this study of divine Wisdom in Wis 7-9 with a reflection on the theological and cultural achievement represented in this book.
The Book of Wisdom represents a creative theological response to a situation of painful cultural alienation. To live in a society where the rights of full citizens brought evident social and economic benefits, and to be at least partially excluded; to be excited by the achievements of Greek science, yet perhaps to be excluded from scholarly education; to love the classics and yet to be alienated within the polis - these were some of the challenges confronting the first century BCE educated Alexandrian Jew on a daily basis. [26] How could one to whom the tradition was dear make a relevant, yet theologically consistent response? A century before our author's time, another Jew faced with similar challenges had, in an address to the Greeks, asserted that "the Greeks begin from the philosophy of the Hebrews." [27] If ever such a claim gained a hearing with its target audience, our author looked for a more subtle and a more scripturally based response. He was addressing the dispirited of his own people, not the Greeks. To hand was the figure of Lady Wisdom, a biblical persona with a demonstrated affinity for cultural adaptation. In response to a somewhat similar challenge of Hellenisation within the city of Jerusalem itself a century and a half previously, Ben Sira had equated Lady Wisdom with Torah and had her say: "In the holy tent I ministered before him, and in Zion I fixed my abode" (Sir 24.10). In the earlier tradition Hebrew Wisdom was intimately involved with God's creation and was understood to a mediating presence between the Creator and all humans (Prov. 8.30 - 31). If Wisdom were to be relevant to the Alexandrian Jew, she had to be commensurate with the Greek universe and at home with current scientific thinking. A universal wisdom was called for, not a hierarchal Temple wisdom. Prov 8.22 - 31 was the preferred model, and our author proceeded to adapt this model in significant ways. In the Wisdom of Solomon Lady Wisdom has a more active role in creation than in suggested in Proverbs 8. [28] Whereas Ben Sira had assimilated universal Wisdom to Torah and Temple, our author merged the new more cosmos oriented role divine Wisdom with the biblical tradition by adopting the starting point of Solomon's dream in 1 Kg 3. At the same time the entire book could, as we have noted, be understood as a re-interpretation of The Proverbs of Solomon. [29]
Today the biblical tradition of Sophia, Lady Wisdom, is once again the subject of cultural adaptation. The theologian needs to be in tune with the acquired biblical tradition and also with eco-theology, the science of the universe, and the cultural changes in the position of women. [30] Theology apart, the perception of the presence of the Wisdom of God is also possible for any believer today adopting for a moment a contemplative stance before the created world. Such a perception may be given in the contemplation of the rolling waters of the early morning breakers on the unpolluted sand. The aspect of the ravaged landscape may occasion a painful perception of the absence of Wisdom's ordering presence. The contemporary discussion of theology and science has a certain precedent in the novel presentation of Lady Wisdom to be found in the Wisdom of Solomon. Yes, Sophia, the Wisdom of God, is divine in this surprising work. As an expression of the overflowing "depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God" (Rom. 11.33) she takes the form of poetic persona, and, in terms of the Jewish Scriptures, a feminine ordering persona, in need of contemporary re-expression.
[1] In common acceptance, the Book of Wisdom was composed in the second half of the first century BCE. The book seems to have been written by a learned Greek-speaking Jew residing in Alexandria, one of the largest centres of the Jewish Diaspora. For the date of Wisdom see Wright, Addison G. "Wisdom." In The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, ed. Joseph A. Fitzmyer Raymond E. Brown, Roland E. Murphy, 510-22. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1988, here p. 510.
[2] I refer to Maurice Gilbert and Jean-Noël Aletti, La Sapienza e Gesù Cristo, Turin: Gribaudi, 1981. Original Title: La Sagesse et Jésus-Christ, tr. Comunità di Bose, Paris: Cerf. See Prima Parte, La Personificazione della Sapienza negli Scritti dell'Antico Testamento, a cura di Maurice Gilbert, s.j., here pp. 32-38.
[3] See Gilbert, La Sapienza, p.33.
[4] R.J.Clifford, "Proverbs as a Source for Wisdom of Solomon," in ed. N. Calduch-Benages, J. Vermeylen, Treasures of Wisdom. Studies in Ben Sira and the Book of Wisdom. Festschrift M. Gilbert (Biblioteca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 143) Leuven University Press-Uitgeverij Peeters, Leuven, 1999, pp. 255-63, here p. 255.
[5] Roland E. Murphy, The Tree of Life: An Exploration of Biblical Wisdom Literature. 2nd edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 1990, 1996, here p.84.
[6] John S. Kloppenborg, "Isis and Sophia in the Book of Wisdom." Harvard Theological Review 75 (1982) pp. 57-84, here p. 64.
[7] Gilbert, La Sapienza, p.34.
[8] Murphy, The Tree of Life, p. 143
[9] Murphy, The Tree of Life, p.142. Murphy reminds us that in Job 32.8 the human understanding is due to the breath of Shaddai.
[10] Murphy, The Tree of Life, p.142.
[11] See Murphy, The Tree of Life, p. 89.
[12] Niccacci writes that the term "symbiosis" indicates ultimate intimacy, especially marriage, as it is clear from the equivalence of "taking as bride" (8.2) to "taking to live with (pros symbiosin) " (8.9). See Niccacci, Alfiero. "Wisdom as Woman, Wisdom and Man, Wisdom and God." In Treasures of Wisdom. Studies in Ben Sira and the Book of Wisdom. Festschrift M. Gilbert (Biblioteca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 143), ed. J. Vermeylen ed. N. Calduch-Benages, 369-385. Leuven,: Leuven University Press-Uitgeverij Peeters, 1999, here p. 383.
[13] In Gilbert's analysis of Wisdom chapter 9, 9.10 is the emphatic centre-piece. See Gilbert, La Sapienza, p.35
[14] Wright, Wisdom, p.516.
[15] Wright, "Wisdom," p. 516.
[16] Murphy, The Tree of Life, p. 144
[17] Gilbert, La Sapienza, p.36.
[18] Gilbert, La Sapienza, p.34
[19] Murphy, The Tree of Life, pp. 143-4.
[20] Gilbert, La Sapienza, p.38.
[21] Kloppenborg, John S. "Isis and Sophia in the Book of Wisdom." Harvard Theological Review 75 (1982): 57-84.
[22] Kloppenborg, Isis and Sophia, p.67.
[23] Kloppenborg, Isis and Sophia, p. 74.
[24] Kloppenborg, Isis and Sophia pp.76-77.
[25] Kloppenborg, Isis and Sophia, p. 83, citing Lévi-Strauss. For details of similarity and disparity see Kloppenborg, pp. 70ff.
[26] For a sketch of the social situation of Alexandrian Jews see Kloppenborg, Isis and Sophia, pp.79-81. A minority of Jews may have occupied privileges positions.
[27] See Collins, A. Yarbro. "Aristobulus: A New Translation and Introduction by A. Yarbro Collins." In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H. Charlesworth, 2, 831-42. New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Aukland: Doubleday, 1985, here p.839, fragment 3.
[28] Mazzinghi, L. "La Sapienza, presente accanto a Dio e all'uomo: Sap 9.9b.10.c e la figura di Iside." In Treasures of Wisdom. Studies in Ben Sira and the Book of Wisdom. Festschrift M. Gilbert (Biblioteca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 143) Leuven University Press-Uitgeverij Peeters,, pp. 255-63, ed. J. Vermeylen N. Calduch-Benages, 357-67. Leuven: Leuven University Press-Uitgeverij Peeters, 1999. Here pp. 359-60.
[29] See note 3 above
[30] See for example Edwards, Denis. Jesus the Wisdom of God: An Ecological Theology. Homebush, N.S.W.: St. Pauls, 1995.
Alan Moss lectures in New Testament Studies, Greek and Hebrew at McAuley Campus.
