Why is wisdom personified as a woman in proverbs

We become wise. Lady Wisdom still cries out in the streets of our cities, calling us to follow a different drummer. That drummer is Jesus, God-in-the-flesh who gives us a different perspective on life, a different drumbeat. When we fall in behind him, his example will reshape our thoughts and actions.

If we make paying attention to Jesus a serious pursuit, it will change us completely. Every resource on our site was made possible through the financial support of people like you. Women throughout Israel's history show what it really means to be an ezer knegdo , a helper equal to a man. Addressing issues such as leadership, marriage, and suffering, A Woman God Can Use takes a closer look at the lives of Deborah, Ruth, Esther, and other women in the Bible who displayed wisdom and leadership in service to the Lord.

Buy now. The Proverbs 31 woman has long intimidated women and made them question-Who has time to do all that? Bible teacher Alice Mathews equips readers with truth and wisdom using sound biblical exegesis.

Through careful translation, practical application, and reflection questions, Alice helps women understand the concept of strength highlighted in the Bible text and learn what the passage reveals about men, women, and God himself. Used with Permission. It didn't hurt, but neither is it sufficient to explain this development.

Probably the current explanation that enjoys widest adoption among biblical scholars is that Wisdom personified in the Hebrew Bible is a reflex or remnant, if you will of the "missing" Hebrew goddess. This picks up the Egyptian influence to explain Proverbs 8 etc. This explanation has not had universal assent, however.

Others find the conjunction of the lines of evidence needed to sustain this conclusion to be too far apart chronologically to work. Those who reject the "Hebrew goddess" explanation must then revert to one of the older constructs.

There is no final answer to the "why? Many scholars who are satisfied with the "Hebrew goddess" explanation recognize that it stops short of having final "proof": it is just the hypothesis that many today find best explains the data available to us in the absence of more persuasive alternatives.

Further reading - as mentioned above, there is a vast literature on this question. Gordon, and H. Williamson Cambridge University Press, Great question!

I had never thought about that before, so I dug in a little. And as I examined the passage, I found a very significant literary device that I had never previously noticed:. Both present a long speech by a woman. Both women are described as "roaming the streets" , ,3 ; both are inviting men into their homes ; , , both have set an inviting table ; ,5 , both chapters end with the word "death" although chapter 8 has a postlogue in the first verses of chapter 9 that ends with "life".

Perhaps most significant is the contrast between how the speech in 7 begins and the one in 8 ends:. He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors waiting at my doorway. So, from just this cursory comparison I think it is evident that Solomon was intentionally juxtaposing these two women in order to make a stark contrast between the two "voices" that all men must choose between.

Both voices make one more curtain call in chapter 9 as well. In one, seduction is personified; in the other, it is Sophia personified -- both beautiful, attractive ladies. In English we have three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter - "he", "she", and "it". Hebrew only has masculine and feminine.

So just as a German would call a house a "he" because the word "house" in German is masculine in gender, so Hebrew calls wisdom "she" because it is feminine in gender. So when personified, wisdom becomes a woman. Short version: The Hebrew word for wisdom, "chochmah", is feminine, and is therefore personified as a woman.

Further speculation is unwarranted. In the context of the first few chapters of Proverbs, the compiler of the proverbs makes it very clear the book had its genesis in the throne room of Israel. Picture King David carving out some quality time with one of his children, Solomon, for the express purpose of teaching his son some of the lessons he has learned over the years.

David, you'll recall, was a "man after God's own heart" Acts ; 1 Sam , and he learned many things in his relationship with his God, some the hard way. David's purpose, then, was to instill in his son Solomon the godly principles which would guide and guard him throughout his life and his future reign as king of Israel. The pithy and memorably constructed proverbs of the day served to encapsulate important life-lessons in short, relatively easy-to-memorize stanzas.

Historically, at about the same time as Solomon was composing, pondering, searching out, and arranging many proverbs perhaps or more , Amenemope had already written his The Wisdom of Amenemope , a collection of teachings in proverb form on civil service, which may have predated Solomon's collection of proverbs. These "family resemblances" suggest Solomon searched all the proverbs to which he had access in his day and "cherry picked" the ones which suited his purposes and God's purposes, of course!

Since an important theme of the entire book is sexual morality and the importance of young people particularly the male of the species; i. She is alternately labeled "the evil woman," "an adventuress," the "flattering foreigner," an "adulteress," and perhaps many other titles, depending on which version of Proverbs you happen to read. Minneapolis: Have an update or correction? Let us know. Episode E. Lockhart's New Jewish Superhero. Camp, Claudia V.. Jewish Women's Archive.

Learn more. Woman Wisdom: Bible by Claudia V. In Brief. Female Personification of Wisdom. Significance of Woman Wisdom. Meyers, Carol, General Editor. Women in Scripture.

Proverbs ; ; ; Camp, ; Pr Proverbs , ; ; ; Jeremiah ; ; Ezekiel Proverbs , 22; , 22f; Proverbs ; ; and Songs ,11; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Proverbs ; ; Nicolas J. Proverbs ; Hosea Proverbs Sirach 14,15, 51; Wisdom 6, 8. From Issue:. An Open Letter. The Butterfly Quilt.