Heb. 2451 jokhmah, חָכְמָה = “wisdom” in a practical sense: skill and ability; cunning and resourcefulness; gr. 4678 sophia, σοφία, in general comprehensive knowledge of things in their own nature and relationships, together with the power to combine them in useful and practical ways. Among the Hebrews, “wisdom” encompasses a wide circle of virtues and mental endowments (cf. Ex. 28:3; 31:6; 1 Kings 3:28; 4:29-34), the exact meaning of which can only be ascertained. know from context.
1. Concept.
2. Wisdom and Law.
3. Christ, Wisdom of God.
4. Wisdom and madness.
5. Wisdom and Spirit.
I. CONCEPT. In a general sense, wisdom among the Hebrews has to do with practical knowledge of things, both human and divine. Originally, wisdom terminology is not necessarily related to ethical attitudes. Wise is, among other things, the person who displays special expertise in the exercise of a trade or in the performance of a function: artisans, helmsmen, scribes, etc.; for this reason, the term “wisdom” denotes skill, skill, as is the case of the craftsmen > Bezaleel and > Oholiab (Ex. 28:3; 31:3). It is also related to the ability to govern, like the special gift of God that Solomon received (1 Kings 3:8-12). In some cases it is synonymous with cunning, sagacity, for better or for worse, eg, the case of Pharaoh in relation to the multiplication of the Hebrews in Egypt (Ex. 1, 10), or > Jonadab, from whom it says that “he was a very cunning man” (2 Sam. 13:3). “The wisdom of the shrewd discerns his way,” says Prov. 14:8. Sometimes it refers to the skill of the arts of magicians and diviners (cf. Gen. 41:8; Ex. 7:11; Eccl. 9:17; Jer. 1:19). It also has the sense of doctrine, learning, knowledge (Job 12:2, 12; 38:37; Ps. 105:22).
Wisdom is expressed, above all, in the ability to guide and bring one’s life to a successful conclusion; in leading life towards one’s own self-realization. It is about driving success to life as such.
Although originally wisdom is not related to ethical attitudes, in a people as linked to Yahweh as Israel, awareness of the link between wisdom-morality and wisdom-faith is quickly reached. This is so to such an extent that in Prov. the identification between wise and honest is reached, and it is contrasted with foolish and wicked: «The fruit of justice is a tree of life, and the wise captivates people» (11 :30).
In sententious literature, the comparison between wise and just, on the one hand, and foolish and wicked, on the other, is very common. The characteristic of the fool is to be doomed to nonsense, to detour, to confusion. It deviates from the path that leads to existential plenitude. The sage brings enough religious insight to discover that God has created (and governs) the world and that he himself is part of the “order” that God has conceived.
Wisdom is also linked to the “fear of the Lord”, which does not mean “fear”, but rather that attitude that comes from knowing that one is a contingent creature in the hands of God. For this reason, it is often said that “the beginning”, root, source and fullness of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Prov. 1:7; Eclo. 1:14, 16, 18, 20; etc.).
Later, wisdom will be linked with the apocalyptic. Is. 11:2–3 already presents the Messiah full of sapiential elements. In Dan. 2:30 and 5:11, 14 wisdom appears as a free gift from God that man cannot acquire on his own, since he exceeds all his possibilities.
In the NT it is mentioned with reference to God (Rom. 11:33; 1 Cor. 1:21, 24; 2:7; Eph. 3:10; Rev. 7:12) or to Christ (Mt. 13:54; Mk 6:2, Lk 2:40, 52, 1 Cor 1:30, Col 2:3, Rev 5:12); wisdom is sometimes personified (Mt. 11:19; Lk. 7:35; 11:49); sometimes human wisdom in spiritual matters is spoken of (Luke 21:15; Acts 6:3, 10; 7:10; 1 Cor. 2:6; 12:8; Eph. 1:8, 17; Col. 1:9, 28; 3:16; 4:5; James 1:5; 3:13, 17; 2 Pet. 3:15; Rev. 13:18; 17:9) or natural (Mt. 12:42, Lk 11:31, Acts 7:22, 1 Cor 1:17, 19, 20-22, 2:1-6, 13, 3:19, 2 Cor 1:12, Col. 2:23). A negative wisdom is also mentioned, “earthly, animal, devilish” (James 3:15).
The apostle Paul contrasts the wisdom of the Greeks and Romans with the simplicity of the evangelical message, which does not come from human wisdom, but from the grace of God (2 Cor. 1:12). In relation to this message and its contradictors, “God turns the wisdom of this world into foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:20; 3:19). Christian missionaries speak “wisdom among those who have reached maturity; but a wisdom, not of this present age, nor of the princes of this age, which perish” (1 Cor. 2:5).
II. WISDOM AND LAW. The Law sets forth the commandments and demands of the Lord. Prophecy judges the behavior of men in the light of God’s will, and reveals the unfolding of his eternal plan. Wisdom, for its part, strives, through observation, experience and reflection, to come to understand the divine will in all its applications. “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of Yahweh, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Prov. 9:10; Ec. 12:13). Wisdom is identified with the Law insofar as it emanates from God. In the wisdom tradition it is said: “All this is nothing other than the book of the covenant of God most high, the law that Moses gave us as an inheritance to the house of Jacob” (Eclo. 24:32). “She is the book of God’s commandments, the law that endures forever… Happy are we Israel, for what pleases the Lord has been revealed to us” (Bar 4:1, 4). The translator of the Siracide also affirms in the preface that Israel is praised as an educated and wise people thanks to the many and profound teachings transmitted by the Law, the prophets and the successive writings (Eclo. 1-3). This preface not only confirms the relationship between wisdom and Law, but also makes it clear that the “law” embraces in practice all the sacred books of the OT.
The sum of wisdom is attributed to God, since he “probes the depths of the abyss and of the heart and penetrates all its secrets. The Most High knows all science and observes the signs of the times, announcing the past and future things, and discovers all the secret places of him »(Eclo. 42: 18–19). From which it follows that wisdom knows the thoughts and things of God: simply, it is what God thinks (Wisdom 9:9), his design, his project (Wisdom 9:17), conceived from eternity ( Prov 8:22–25, Eccl 24:9). It appears personified in the first chapters of Proverbs and in the book of Job.
Secondly, wisdom reveals divine thought and its projects as they are manifested in the History of Salvation, that is, all the marvels that God carries out in creation (Eclo. 42:21–43 33; Wis. 9:9) and in the lives of men, from Adam, with special reference to Abraham and the people that descended from him (Eccl. 44:1–50:24; Wis. 9:18–19:22).
III. CHRIST, WISDOM OF GOD. In the Gospel of Luke it is indicated that the child Jesus “grew and strengthened, and was filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40–52). From here, Jesus has his first encounter, at the age of twelve, with the teachers of Israel in the Temple, to whom he speaks with intelligence and knowledge. Matthew records the news of the astonishment caused by Jesus in the synagogue of his hometown: “Where does this man have this wisdom and these miracles?” (Matt 13:54).
Apart from this simple verification of the human wisdom of the sayings and deeds of Jesus, the writers of the NT also collect the tradition of wisdom literature and where it is said that Wisdom coexists with God (Wisdom 8:3), or that it is like a breath of divine power, the most pure outpouring of the glory of the Almighty (Wisdom 7:25), they affirm that Christ himself is this Wisdom. Saint John is the one who brings to its culmination the identification of Wisdom with Christ. In numerous passages he applies to Christ what the Wisdom books say about Wisdom. Wisdom is with God from the beginning of the world (Prov. 8:22-23), in the same way that the Word is with God (Jn. 1:1). Wisdom is the outpouring of the glory of God (Wisdom 7:25), just as the Word is the manifestation of the glory of the Father (Jn. 1:14). Wisdom is the radiance of eternal light (Wisdom 7:26), and Jesus comes from God, who is light (1 Jn. 1:5). Wisdom illuminates the path of men (Eclo. 1:29), and the Word is the light of the world and of men (Jn. 1:4-5; 3:19; 8:12; 9:5; 12 :46). Wisdom comes from heaven and wants to remain among men (Prov. 8:31; Eccl. 24:8; Baruch 3:29, 37; Wis. 9:10, 16, 17), and Jesus, the Son of man, He came down from heaven and promises to dwell among his own (Jn. 1:14; 3:13-31; 6:38; 16:28). Wisdom’s mission is to reveal things on high to men (Wis. 9:16-18), and the Son reveals the Father to men (Jn. 3:12; 3:11-32; 7:16; 8:26; 15:26; 17:18). These parallels indicate an undoubted intentional coincidence. Some exegetes believe that the figure of Jesus remains identified with wisdom itself, while for others, Christ is not reducible to the sole category of Old Testament wisdom, for which reason they limit themselves to recognizing a sapiential coloration in the way in which the NT announces the person and work of the Savior.
IV. WISDOM AND MADNESS. From another theological perspective, which takes into account the apologetic aspect of the scandal of the cross, the apostle Paul affirms that Christ is “wisdom from God” (1 Cor. 1:24, 30). In a strict sense, the Apostle responds to those who saw a problem in the cross as part of a divine plan. He teaches them that the cross is God’s wisest purpose, for in it Christ manifests the incredible power and wisdom of God’s love. The Jews encrypted wisdom in the Torah and the Greeks in philosophy, so the cross was a stumbling block and folly for both, but for Christians, those who are “called” by God, both Jews and Greeks, “Christ it is the power of God and the wisdom of God” (v. 24).
In the later letters of Eph. and Col. insists on the wisdom content of the evangelical message. Christ is no longer just the one crucified, but the one in whom “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). Christian wisdom and saving grace go hand in hand in that both represent an aspect of God’s manifold wealth (cf. Eph. 3:10; 1 Pet. 4:10). The Christian missionary, then, also appeals to wisdom, but it is a wisdom in mystery, that is, temporarily hidden until the revelation of Jesus, who is the Wisdom of the Lord and the Logos rejected by blindness and ignorance. Had they known him well, men would never have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8).
V. WISDOM AND SPIRIT. Jesus promises his own Spirit of wisdom, “whom all who oppose you will not be able to resist or contradict” (Lk. 12:12; 21:15). The Holy Spirit will be the one who will provide the disciples with that language of wisdom to testify of Christ before the powerful of this world. When Stephen argued with those who opposed him from the so-called synagogue of the “freedmen”, no one could resist “the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke” (Acts 6:10). Stephen’s wisdom was the fruit of…
