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<\/a><\/p>\nThe Woman Wisdom poem in Prov. 8 takes an unexpected turn at the end where we hear:<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I was by him, an intimate,<\/p>\n
I was his delight day after day,<\/p>\n
playing before him at all times,<\/p>\n
playing in the world, His earth,<\/p>\n
And my delight [was] with humankind\u2026.<\/p>\n
For who finds me, has found life,<\/p>\n
and will be favored by the Lord.<\/p>\n
And who offends me lays waste his life,<\/p>\n
all who hate me love death.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0(this is Robert Alter\u2019s translation).<\/p>\n
A careful study of all of Prov. 3 and 8 illuminates the Gospel of John\u2019s portrayal of Jesus. Probably the only reason the Prologue in John1 calls Jesus the Logos and not Sophia is because Logos is a masculine noun, whereas Sophia like Hokmah is a feminine noun. We discover that the various things Woman Wisdom is said to offer in Prov. 1, 3 and 8 are the very things predicated of Jesus in the I Am sayings\u2014 he is the way, the truth, the life, before Abraham was he existed, he is the beloved Son of God, in whom God takes delight, he is the co-creator with the Father of the world, he loves humankind and takes delight in blessing them with knowledge of God, indeed saving wisdom, and so on.<\/p>\n
Prov. 9 contains a deliberate contrast between Woman Wisdom and Lady Folly, with the chapter beginning with the words \u201cWisdom has built her house, she has hewn her pillars seven. She has slaughtered her meat and mixed her wine, she laid out her table\u201d and then she has her maidens go out and invite the naive and the foolish to a feast of wisdom\u2013 which they sorely need.\u00a0 This should be compared to \u2018Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest\u2019 and to \u2018I am the bread of life\u2026\u2019.\u00a0 The alternative is not some neutral existence, but rather being led down the path of lies to destruction.\u00a0 All of life is a choice between good and evil, all of life is a morality play.\u00a0 Notice that Wisdom here identifies with \u2018the least of these\u2019 the naive, the foolish, and bids them come unto Wisdom\u2019s banquet and feast.\u00a0 Notice the parallels with Jesus\u2019 parables about invitations to a great feast, and how in the end even \u2018the least, the last, and the lost\u2019 are brought to the table when the more elite refused to come.\u00a0 \u00a0Parables are indeed a form of wisdom literature, as are proverbs, maxims, riddles, and notice that Jesus\u2019 public speech is always in wisdom speech.\u00a0 Indeed, we are even told\u00a0 \u201cThe queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(Matthew 12:42<\/span>).\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>It is not an accident that wise man sought out the Christ child, nor that Jesus\u2019 wisdom is tested again and again during his ministry.\u00a0 He does not speak by quoting God like a prophet.\u00a0 He never uses the formula \u201dthus says the Lord\u2026\u2019. Rather he speaks on his own authority, like Wisdom in Prov. 8-9.<\/p>\nFor more on all this see my book\u00a0Jesus the Sage and the Pilgrimage of Wisdom,\u00a0<\/em>(Fortress Press).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Woman Wisdom poem in Prov. 8 takes an unexpected turn at the end where we hear: \u201cAnd I was by him, an intimate, I was his delight day after day, playing before him at all times, playing in the world, His earth, And my delight [was] with humankind\u2026. For who finds me, has found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":71026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15514,15517],"class_list":["post-71164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-he-not-merely-had-wisdom","tag-he-was-wisdom-incarnate"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n