2. On the Christian side Wisdom speculation continued to develop in both the cosmological and the soteriological directions, with the Pauline Epistles as a basis. In the Johannine literature the Greek term ' Logos ' is adopted, though the Wisdom doctrine itself continues Hebrew ; but in the 2nd cent. Fathers, as in Philo, ' Wisdom ' and ' Logos ' are interchangeable and equivalent. Both designate the Spirit of God incarnate in Christ. The influence of mystery myths, already trace- able in pre-Christian apocalypse, becomes more pronounced. Gnostic speculations becoming com- pletely mythological. In these Wisdom (^ Zocpia, or A chanioth= hokhmdh) is the feminine or passive principle in the scheme of redemption, 1,wr-f]p the active. The present discussion will confine itself to the NT use of the two conceptions of wisdom : (A) as the inspired message of God through the ' wise men ' (hdkhdmim) ; (B) sm the Divine Spirit itself, resident in Jesus, and manifested in His life as well as in His teaching. For the history of Wisdom as the Hebrew philosophy, and as a hypo- stasis equivalent to the Stoic Logos, the reader is
* The note of R. H. Charles on this passage of Enoch is too significant to be omitted : ' The praise of wisdom was a favourite theme. Wisdom was regarded as having her dwelling-place in heaven (Ixxxiv. 3, Job 2812-14. 20 24, Bar 329, Ecclus 244), and as coming to earth and desiring to make her abode with men Pr. I20ff. 8ti. 91-10, Ecclus 24'? ; but as men refused to receive her (cf. xciv. .5), she returned to heaven. But in the Messianic times she will return, and will be poured out as water in abundance, xlix. 1, and the thirsty will drink to the full of wisdom, xlvii. 1 ; she will be bestowed on the elect, v. 8, xci. 10; cf. Apoc. Bar. xliv. 14, 4 Ezra viii. 52 ; and the spirit of wisdom will abide in the Messiah, the Elect One, xlix. 3.' What is here said of the outpouring of the spirit of wisdom is parallel to Ac 2i''ff- of the spirit of prophecy (cf. Nu 1129) and to the aijraphon : 'Et factum est cum ascendisset dominus de aqua, descendit fona omnis Spiritus Sancti, et requievit super eum,' etc.
826
WISDOM
WISDOM
referred to the artt. 'Wisdom,' 'Wisdom Litera- ture,' ' Wisdom, Book of,' in Hastings' DB and in the Encyc. Bihlica.
ii. NT USE. — 1. A study of the use of the word ffo(j>ia, and its cognates in the Gospels, shows it to be, in some sense, distinctive of the Lukan writ- ings, in which Jesus' teaching is presented primarily under this aspect of 'wisdom of God,' many ex- amples having the characteristic forms of the Hokhmah (Wisdom) literature (see Briggs, Expos. Times, viii., ix. [1897-98] four articles on ' The Wis- dom of Jesus the Messiah'). The characteristic strorthic form is apparent also in some discourse- material found only in Mt. (e.g. S'^i^- 2"- s"- «^f- ^^'- f'^' i®-'8), but is disarranged by additions in the canonical form of this Gospel. The word aocpla occurs but once in Mk. {&^=M.t 13'^), and is applied, as in Lk 240. 52 and the series cited below, to Jesus' endow- ment with the Spirit. It occurs tM'ice in Mt. (11" 12^-), both occurrences being in passages verbally identical with Lk., and in a less original form. In Lk.-Acts it occurs 10 times; but the Lukan use is specially noteworthy, because endowment with the Spirit of God is here habitually spoken of, whether in the case of Jesus, of His forerunners, or of His successors, as the x«P"''A'a of 'wisdom.' So of Jesus (Lk 2^»- s^ cf. 2"" avveffis and 4^2 \byoL xdpi-Tos), of the endowment of the Twelve with the Spirit (2115), of the Seven (Ac 6^), of Stephen (6io), of Joseph (V"), of Moses (T^). In the Fourth Gospel the conception of the endowment of Jesus with the spirit of wisdom is supplanted by that of an incar- nation of the Logos. The word (ro(pia and its cog- nates are wholly wanting.
2. With this Gospel use should be compared that of the NT elsewhere. In the Pauline Epistles the word occurs 16 times in the passage I Co 117-319, wherein St. Paul contrasts ' the wisdom of God,' which endows those who 'have the mind of Christ ' with ' the wisdom of this world ' ; and 9 times in the twin Epistles (Eph. -Col.), written to oppose a 'philosophy and vain deceit' (Eph 41* ' wiles of error ') by means of the Divine gift of 'a spirit of wisdom and understanding in the mystery of the Divine will.' It is used by St. Paul in but three other instances, two of which (1 Co 128, 2 Co 112) are directly related to the group first mentioned, while the third occurs in the doxology Ro ll^s. The x«/"<^/"'* of wisdom claimed b}' St. Paul (1 Co 117-216, Eph 3311, cf. 1 Co 128) is conceded to his letters in 2 P 315.
3. The only other NT employments of the word, or of the connected group of ideas, are in James and the Apocalypse. In Ja 15 313.15.17 'wisdom' is more exclusively practical and ethical, but is emphatically a Divine endowment. The concep- tion of ' the wisdom which cometh from above ' (i.e. the Divine Spirit, given to all that ask, Ja 15), manifested in works of love, is contrasted with wisdom of the tongue in Ja 3. The former is the fundamental characteristic of the just or righteous man (i lixxioi), a use which agrees closely with that of Sirach and the OT Wisdom literature. Cf. Lk l'^ ^pivr,(n; Sixxiaiv, and 16* (fpovi- fMu; . . . (ppovi/xuTipii. In the Apocalj'pse ' wisdom' is an attribute of God in the doxologies 512 712 (cf. Ro li:«) ; otherwise it is referred to only as an endowment like that of Joseph (Gn 4l38r) and Daniel (Dn Si-*), requisite to solve riddles (Rev 1318 179). The usage and conception of the Third Evangelist appear thus to stand midway between that of St. James and of St. Paul, with traces of the same use in certain parts of Mt. and Mark.