Thepersonification ofwisdom, typically as a righteous woman, is a motif found in religious and philosophical texts, most notably in theBook of Proverbs in theHebrew Bible and other Jewish and Christian texts.
The GreekSeptuagint, and both theQumran andMasada Hebrew versions ofBen Sira conclude with a first-person character speaking in Wisdom's voice as in the Book of Proverbs, though it is not certain that this was not appended to Ben Sira from another work. A less clear personification of Wisdom is also found in the Cave 11 Psalm Scroll.[1]
Wisdom literature is agenre ofliterature common in theancient Near East. This genre is characterized by sayings ofwisdom intended to teach about divinity and aboutvirtue. The key principle of wisdom literature is that while techniques of traditional story-telling are used, books also presume to offer insight and wisdom about nature and reality.
TheSapiential Books or "Books of Wisdom" is a term used inbiblical studies to refer to a subset of the books of theJewish Bible in theSeptuagint version. There are seven of these books, namely the books ofJob,Psalms,Proverbs,Ecclesiastes, theBook of Wisdom, theSong of Songs (Song of Solomon), andSirach. Not all the Psalms are usually regarded as belonging to the Wisdom tradition.
InJudaism, the Books of Wisdom are regarded as part of theKetuvim or "Writings". InChristianity, Job, Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are included in theOld Testament by all traditions, while Wisdom, Song of Songs and Sirach are regarded in some traditions asdeuterocanonical.
Sapiential books are in the broad tradition ofwisdom literature that was found widely in theAncient Near East, and includes writings from many religions other than Judaism.
The Greek nounsophia is the translation of "wisdom" in the GreekSeptuagint forHebrewחכמותḤokmot. Wisdom is a central topic in the "sapiential" books, i.e.Proverbs,Psalms,Song of Songs,Ecclesiastes,Book of Wisdom,Wisdom of Sirach, and to some extentBaruch (the last three areApocryphal /Deuterocanonical books of theOld Testament.)
Philo, a Hellenised Jew writing in Alexandria, attempted to harmonise Platonic philosophy and Jewish scripture. Also influenced byStoic philosophical concepts, he used the Greek termlogos, "word," for the role and function of Wisdom, a concept later adapted by the author of theGospel of John in the opening verses and applied to Jesus Christ as the eternal Word (Logos) of God the Father.[2]
According to Perkins, in earlyGnosticism (1st–2nd century CE) a wisdom tradition developed, in which Jesus' sayings were interpreted as pointers to an esoteric wisdom, in which the soul could be divinized through identification with wisdom.[3]
Perkins further said that a mythical story developed in early Gnosticism about the descent of a heavenly creature to reveal the Divine world as the true home of human beings.[3] Jewish Christianity saw the Messiah, or Christ, as "an eternal aspect of God's hidden nature, his "spirit" and "truth," who revealed himself throughout sacred history."[4]
