Literature. — W. Ramsay, art. 'Vitrum ' in Smith's DGRA-, London, 1876; G. M. Mackie, Bihle Manners and Customs, do., 1898, p. 95 f. ; C. Warren, art. ' House ' in HDB.
J. STKAHAN.
WINE.— See ABSTINENCE, DRUNKENNESS, EU- CHARIST, Temperance.
WING (TTT^pul).- The term occurs but five times in the NT : three times in its usual significance, of birds (Mt 23", Lk 1.3«, Rev 12'*), and twice of imaginary creatures (Rev 4' 9"). The three pas- sages which fall within the scope of apostolic his- tory are very instructive.
1. Rev 4*, ' And the four living creatures, having each one of them six wings, are full of eyes round about and within : and they have no rest day and night, saying. Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, which was and which is and whicli is tocome.' TheSeer herecombinesinoneiiicture the characteristics of Ezekiel's cherubim (l""'-^) and of Isaiah's seraphim (e'"*). It is the seraphim that supply the 'wings.' He ignores any dillcrenccs which may originally have existed between cheru- bim and seraphim (cf. Enoch Ixi. 10). Combined, they are here the representatives of redeemed crea- tion, vicegerents of God, powerful and filled with judgment, praising God's holiness, and confident of
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God's victory in the tribulations wliicli are sure to follow.
2. Kev 9', ' And they [the locusts] had breast- plates, as it were breastplates of iron ; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to war.' The picture here is that of a destructive swarm of weird locusts coming out of the smoke of the deep abyss, pre- senting a dire vision of judgment. The locusts are fancifully and preternaturally magnified by the Seer's imagination ; they have crowns of gold on their heads, the faces of men, the hair of women, tlie teeth of lions, breastplates of iron, ' wings ' that sound like the sound of many chariots, and tails like the tails of scorpions (cf. Jl 2'^'"). Arabian poets describe locusts in a similar manner.
3. Kev 12''', ' And there were given to the woman the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness unto her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.' In this picture the woman is the embodiment of light and the emblem of the historical Cliurch of God. As such she has a mission in the world, but she must perform it in the midst of tribulation and severe persecution. The dragon is ever ready to oppose her and devour her otlspring ; he leads tlie hosts of darkness. But the woman is not forsaken in the contest. ' The two wings of the great eagle ' of God's protection are given her that she may fly into tlie wilderness, unto the place prepared of God for her protection. There is an emphasis apparently upon the ' two,' God's protection being commensurate to her need of it. George L. Robinson.
WISDOM.— 1. In OT and Apocrypha.— In the
OT, Wisdom in its nature and office is discussed in the series of books known as the Hokhmah or Wisdom literature of the Hebrews. We tind here not so much a philosophy as the rudiments of a philosophy on the practical side. The ' wisdom,' e.g., of Joseph or Solomon, in the earlier literature of the OT, is 'the clever judicial decision, the faculty of clothing a practical experience in a rule of life or a witty saying, the acuteness which can solve an enigma' (Duncker, quoted by Skinner in Cent. Bible, ' I and II Kings,''p. 88).
Wisdom was not regarded as the peculiar pos- session of Israel ; indeed in certain portions of the OT, Edom is regarded as its home. As time went on, however, and brought the people sorrow and crisis, when trouble pressed hard upon the heart, and faith wavered or declined. Wisdom developed into a serious spirit of inquiry.
A. B. Davidson (Biblical and Literary Essays, London, 1902, p. 29) differentiates the Hebrew Wisdom from the Greek or any other secular philosophy by its standpoint or approach to the problems of the world's life ; the former started with God, while the latter reached Him, if at all, only at the end of a long process. The Wisdom of the Hebrews, since it came down from God upon life, was a process of recognition, while secular philosophy was one of discovery. The nature of the Hebrew Wisdom is apparent : ' It is not a view of the Universe distinct from God, much less a view of God distinct from the Universe ; it is a view of the Universe with God indwelling in it' (ib., p. 32).
For the understanding of Wisdom, as it appears in the discussions of the Apostolic Age, the Book of Proverbs (chs. 1-9, and especially cli. 8) is of capital importance, for there in germ is the specu- lation of Philo, and the subsequent identification of Wisdom with the Logos of the Fourth Gospel. ' The eighth chapter of Proverbs, and those associ- ated chapters of the Apocryphal Wisdom-books, are fundamental for the primitive Christology'
{Exp, 8th ser., xii. 169). The development has been thus traced — ' the unity of thought and elliciency that animates and operates tlie world may be abstracted from God, the actual living Operator. . . . This plan or organism of principles may be idealized, and regarded as animated and active, and have consciousness attributed to it, . . . it may become the Fellow of God ... it may be described as " playing " before God, in the joyous consciousness of power and capacity, and having its delights with tlie children of men. . . . This remarkable conception is the contribution which the literature of the Wisdom furnishes to the Christology of the Old Testament. . . . Theie can be no doubt that' this conception of Wisdom ' entered into the Messianic consciousness of Israel, and enriched it ; and ' it is ' reproduced in the New Testament in connection with the Son. " The Word was with God." " All things were made by Him." "In Him do allthingssubsist"' (Davidson, pp. 34, 80 f. ; the reader may also be referred to an interesting series of papers by Kendel Harris on ' The Origin of the Prologue to St. John's Gospel ' in Exp, 8th ser., xii. 161). This Wisdom literature strongly influenced both the Jewish and the Christian Church, but it is, perhaps, in its later developments, in the Book of Wisdom and Sirach, and, above all, in the other Apocrypha and Pseud- epigrapha Of the OT, that we can see the develop- ments of thought that enriched and guided Judaism in the age ISO B.c.-A.D. 100 {cf. li. H. Charles, Religious Development between the Old and the New Testaments, London, 1914, p. 18411'.).