RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Winfrid Wisdom
voted himself to his duties as justice of the peace and lord of Groton manor, and was probably admitted to the Inner Temple in Nov., 1628.
But to one of Winthrop’s type of mind the England of Charles I. was not pleasant, and by May, 1629, he was considering the advisability of leaving his native country. Late in August he had formally agreed to sail, and on Oct. 20 he was chosen to be governor of the colony Massachusetts for the year following. With his expedition he sailed from Southampton in Mar., 1630, and, after landing at Salem, soon was led to choose Charlestown as a residence, only to leave it before long for the present site of Boston. Winthrop was repeatedly elected governor of the colony, annually until 1634, and then in 1637-40, in 1642-44, and from 1646 until his death, having also been chosen one of the two councilors of the colony for life in 16386. In 1635 he defended the banishment of Roger Williams (q.v.), and in return was accused of excess of leniency in his administration of justice. He humbly acknowledged the justice of the charge and promised to endeavor to be less remiss in future. Of more importance for the colony was his opposition to the Antinomian Controversy (see ANTINOMIANISM AND ANTINOMIAN ContTROVERSIES, II., 2) headed by Anne Hutchin-
result was Vane’s supersession by Winthrop in the gubernatorial election of 1637, followed by the banishment of Anne Hutchinson and the punishment of a large number of her adherents. The only other event of special interest was his arraignment in 1645 on a charge of exercising arbitrary authority, of which he was acquitted. In the following year certain persons in the colony presented to the court a petition setting forth that they were forbidden the civil privileges of Englishmen on the ground that they were not church-members; but the authority of Winthrop was such that the remonstrants were imprisoned and heavily fined.
Winthrop wrote Journal of the Transactions and Occurrences in the Settlement of Massachusetts and the other New England Colonies from the Year 1630 to 1644 (Hartford, 1790), the complete journal being later edited by J. Savage, The History of New England from 1630 to 1649 (2 vols., 1825-26; new ed., by J. K. Hosmer, New York, 1908), and Model of Christian Charity (ed. in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 3d series, vol. vii., Boston, 1838). His letters to his third wife have been edited by J. H. Twichell under the title Some old Puritan Love-Letters (London, 1893).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. C. Winthrop, Life and Letters of John Winthrop, 2 vols., Boston, 1864-67; DNB, Ixii. 226-231.
son and defended by Sir Henry Vane (q.v.), The WIRZ, JAKOB. See NazARENES. WISDOM. I. The Term. In Canonical Wisdom Literature The Current Conception (§ 1) II. Wisdom in the Old Testament. (§ 2). In Gospels and Acts (§ 2). In the Historical and Prophetical In Apocryphal Wisdom Literature In the Epistles (§ 3). Books (§ 1). IV. Summary.
I. The Term: The Hebrew word for wisdom, hokmah, as is shown by a comparison with the Arabic, has the fundamental meaning of “ fasten ”’ or “hold fast.’”’ The Septuagint, with few exceptions, translates sophia. In secular Greek sophia means, on the one hand, capability, skill, experience, and, on the other, a profound insight into the significance and the tasks of life. In the Bible, wisdom is, firstly, an attribute of God, more especially a divine organ of revelation; and, secondly, a quality of man. Theoretically, human wisdom is cognition, in a religious and ethical sense it is conduct based on the fear of God and tending to shape life to satisfactory results; it may also signify practical skill and proficiency. Divine wisdom is regarded as the original principle of all divine activity and rule, and from it are derived the concepts of teleology and divine providence.
Il. Wisdom in the Old Testament: In the historical and prophetical books wisdom is generally
understood to be that talent and knowl-
1. Inthe edge which surpass the average in-
Historical tellectual endowment. He is wise who
and is clever in artistic work, who is his Prophetical own counselor, who is able to judge Books. things rightly as well as to comprehend their essence (cf. Gen. xli. 8; Ex.
XXViil. 3, xxxi. 6, xxxv. 25, 35; Deut. i. 18, 15; Judges v. 29; I Kings v. 2) eo recognize this quality of the divine being many religious experiences were necessary, and also a conception of wis-
XII.—25
(§ 3). III. Wisdom in the New Testament.
dom based on faith; only gradually could the divine wisdom have revealed itself to the prophets. They understood it to be a quality in accordance with which God establishes and realizes his aims. According to Isa. xxxi. 2, God alone is wise, and in x1. 2 it is said that the spirit of wisdom will rest upon the Messiah. In Isa. iii. 3 wisdom signifies artistic capacity in handiwork and in xxix. 14 it denotes political skill and prudence. In Deutero-Isaiah human intelligence is pronounced to be nothing as compared with the infinite wisdom (xl. 28). Jeremiah says that creation is the work of God’s might
and wisdom (x. 12). In the “ Wisdom literature,’ principally composed by those belonging to the class of ‘‘ wise men,” the concept of wisdom became much
2. In more prominent. This class arose after Canonical the cessation of prophecy and was of Wisdom the greatest importance for the devel-
Literature. opment of Judaism. These wise men had found that the religious doctrines contradicted the experiences of daily life, and they felt the necessity of investigating the source of this contradiction. They made no boast of divine inspiration, but strove through reflection to solve the problem of the world and of life. Like the priests, they started with the assumption that the law is the way which leads to God. Practical ethics was their principal field, and the results of their reflections were usually formulated in maxims, parables, and fables. In the Book of Job (q.v.), the religious and
‘Wisdom Wise