WINEFAT (i.e. Winevat).— See Fat.
WINE-PRESS.— See Vine, p. 868.
WINK.— In Ac 11^ the verb to • wink at' is used fig;uratively of God's longsuHering, ' The times of this ignorance God winked at' (uirep^Sui', KV 'over- looked'). The same use (also of God) occurs in Wis 1123 <Xhou . . . winkest at the sins of men' (ffapopys, RV 'overlookest') ; and (of parents) in Sir 3U" ' Wink not at his follies ' (mi; vapiorj!). So Golding, Calvin's Job, 559— 'Some times (iud spareth the wicked and wincketh at their mis- dedes, and that is to their sorer damnation ' ; and Udall, Era.'.mus' Paraph, ii. 284, ' Suche maner of faultes of children, those that be gentil parentes doe for the most part winke at, which would not sufl're greater ofl'ences.' J. Hastings.
WINNOW.— See Agriculture, Fan, Shovel.
WISDOM.— 1. In the age of the Prophets.— The
Wisdom (HT^n hokhma) of the Hebrews developed itself originally as an independent intellectual movement, side by side with the religious one, in the form of a half-poetical, half-philosophical * ob- servation of nature. We have the earliest remini. scences of this in the Fable poetry of the OT (Jg 9'"", 2 K 14"), and in the traditions which attach to the name of Solomon (1 K 5'""'^ [Eng. i^^*]). The comparison between the latter and the allied crea- tions of Arabia (v." ("'I), and the description of the material of Solomon's sayings (v.'" i**'), show that we have to do here %vith products not of religious but of secular poetry. This Wisdom was thought of as specially naturalized in Edom (Jer 49', Ob"). — The great prophets are upon the whole not favourable to this Wisdom, Is 5=' 29", Jer 4== S'- » 9=^ : they reproach ' the Wise ' with conceit and immor- ality. In the technical language of the propliets, ■TiiB, i.e. decision by oracle, is attributed to the priests (Jer 18'^ Ezk 7=") ; i?^, ' the word of Jah- weh ' ( = '"•131 Jer. I.e.), to the prophets; njt;,:, the faculty of self-determination or devising of mea- sures, to 'the Wise' (Jer. I.e.). Even before the Exile the need made itself felt of fixin" the teaching of Jahwch and establishing lirmYy its contents. It was this that led to the composition of the Book of Deuteronomy. The fierce conflicts with false prophets which had to be waged by Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Jer 28. ^Sfi^-, Ezk 13) tended further in the direction of limiting the in- fluence of prophecy (Dt 18'*'=). The latter decayed to such an extent that in the post-exilic period its silence was painfully felt (Ps 74", 1 Mac 9='). Yet it proved impossible to cause this dry branch on the tree of Israel to put forth shoots afresh.
2. Post-exilic development of the Wisdom teach- ing.— The priests and ' the Wise,' unlike the pro- phets, found a new sphere for their activity after the Exile ; the former in the re-established cultus of the temple, the latter in the carrj'ing forward of the legal religious system which Ezra the scribe took in hand after the Return (Ezr 7"- '"). Yet it ^\•as a considerable time before the effort to confine the whole intellectual life of post-exUic Judaism within the limits of rigid law succeeded. The wave which stirred the nations in consequence of the establishment of the world - empire of Alexander the Great, overflowed the Holy Land as well, and on the other hand carried Judaism far beyond the borders of that land to the interior of Asia and all the coasts of the Mediterranean. Israel came thus evenfwhere into contact with Greek civilization, for the Greeks were from the earliest times a race of colonists.
3. The earliest traces of Greek influence.— The traces of the influence of Greek W'isdora meet us for the first time in the Book of Proverbs (2nd cent. B.C.), which, in addition to the practical wisdom of life wliich it preaches (hence the name .icrn iDD applied to it m Tos. to Baba bathra, 146), is ac(iuainted also with a special artificial form of gnomic wisdom. On V;;'? ' likeness,' 'parable,' attached at first to an object borrowed from the world of nature, or ny'jij (LXX aKoreivbt Xiiyo's) ' hidden allusion ' (Pr 1'* ; cf. nyn, ib. and Ezk 17=), cf. Cheyne, Job and Solomon, London, 1887, p. 215.
Wisdom is conceived of in Pr 8*"- as a separate
• Philosophy proper had no existence, and could have none, amont' the Ii"*jl>rewa. A proceae of thought free from preMip- positions was unknown to them. G<)d and Divine revelatiun were accepted as tlxed points. Accordingly, all that waa aimed at was merely to penetrate deeper into the contents of what was ^;iven and to define it more precisely. Nor is the form of the Iliikhma that of the scliool speech ; it is popular. It* problems are not theoretical, but concern qiiestious dealing with the practical wiadom of life or with godlinetia.
WISDOM
WISDOM
9?5
Existence whom Jahweh formed as the first of His works prior to the creation of eartlilv tilings (vv.2^--« cf. v.-^ '::?; see also Ps 13'j'=). The ^okhma did not cooiierate in the creating of the Leavens and the earth, for, according; to vv.=*-*^, Jahweli Himself made all things. Hence [icij of v.'" cannot be rendered 'master workman' (RV), but, upon the analogy of i?x.7 of Nu 11'- ('guardian of children '), ought to be tr'' ' foster-child ' (cf. AV, Anuila TiBjivoi'iJ.ii'T], Gunkel [Sr/iojifting, 1895, p. 94] ' Hiitschelkind '). The Ilo/chma poet's thought is that .lahweh, after the toils of creation (which, according even to Gn '2', rendered rest necessary), found a diversion, as it were, in this His tirstbom before the world, as the child jdayed before His eyes (Pr S*"*). Wisdom is thus, m the mind of our poet, not a principle at work in the forming of the world, since she was only an onlooker at this and at the fashioning of individual objects. She has, according to Pr 8'"", to do with men alone. In these she finds her delight, to them alone she turns with her call to hear instruction (ic'o Pr 8^). It is thus purely ethical aims to which she seeks to lead men, Dj' whom, of course, from the Judaistic standpoint, are meant simply Israelites.