RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Wise
dom of God is mentioned in Luke xi. 49. Here Luke probably reproduces a Jewish-Christian tradition; the form in Matt. xxiii. 34 is not the original one. The phrase ‘ Therefore also said the wisdom of God ” is somewhat obscure. Some think that Luke refers to Jesus, who designates himself as the wisdom of God; while others believe that the decree of the divine wisdom is meant. It is, however, evident that Jesus here cites some lost Jewish prophetic apocalyptic writing in which the wisdom of God was the speaker, or which was entitled ‘‘ The wisdom of God.” It is singular that this concept of wisdom is lacking in the Gospel of John, although from the range of the writer’s thought one would expect to find it there. This has been explained by supposing that the Gospel was composed at a time when the Gnostic heresies were rife and that, as the Gnostics employed the word sophia in a dualistic sense, the author of the Gospel avoided its use (cf. J. Grill, Untersuchungen tiber die Entstehung des vierten Evangeliums, 1. 199-200, Tiibingen, 1902). This view, however, lays undue stress on the employment of the word in Gnostic speculations. The idea of the word (logos) is not identical with that of wisdom (sophia); indeed nowhere in early Christian writings are sophia and logos confounded with each other as they are in Philo. In the Acts, sophia is sometimes religious knowledge and discourse, an emanation of the Holy Ghost (cf. vi. 3, 10); at other times prudence in the practical conduct of life (cf. vii. 10, 22).
Paul speaks of wisdom in his principal epistles, especially in J Corinthians. Circumstances forced him to do this; since it had been doubted whether he could preach wisdom, he showed that it was not unfamiliar to him. Paul conceives wisdom as a force which manifested itself in Christ; in him all the treasures of God’s wisdom were included (cf. I Cor. i. 21, 24). God, the only wise one, did not save the world by human wisdom because the world did not recognize the divine wisdom in the natural revelation. Through Christ as well as through the Holy Spirit, the knowledge of God, of his divine plan of salvation and of heavenly things, was made possible (I Cor. ii. 9 sqq.). Paul in this epistle emphasizes the fact that the divine wisdom is not to be presented to believers shortly after their conversion (iii. 1, 2; “‘ babes in Christ ”’). Such wisdom is only for the perfect (ii. 6-7); this does not signify a condition of absolute perfection, only attainable for a few, but rather a relative and normal excellence. The exposition in Ephesians of the relation of wisdom to the Church is characteristic. The Church is organically connected with Christ; in it God’s purpose for the world begins to be realized, and through it the divine wisdom is manifested more and more clearly. Even the angels learn through the Church a better understanding of wisdom (Eph. iii. 10). In the Catholic Epistles the concept of wisdom appears only in James. Sophia is a gift (. 5), the primary ethical virtue, the foundation of moral life. In wisdom the faithful possess the new principle of life through which law and freedom are revealed. And revelation teaches that wisdom gives the key to all apocalyptic problems,
3. In the Epistles.
IV. Summary: Wisdom is the epitome of God’s perfection. Because of his wisdom, which is inseparable from love, God knows and works all things. Wisdom, however, is also objective for God; it is the world-thought, produced, created, and ordered by God, and it serves for the realization of his decrees. The true reason for the existence of the world, which had been rendered doubtful through sin, was revealed and explained by the salvation of Christ. Through his son, God has given expression to his thoughts and incarnated the divine wisdom. Only in the New Testament is the idea of wisdom especially referred to the scheme of salvation and to its realization in history. Human wisdom is a reflex of the divine. Through the spirit alone is man disposed to recognize this divine wisdom. Knowledge consists in the conformity of the human mind with the divine wisdom and the works it has created. This refers to the revelation of God, both in nature and history. God is knowable only in so far as he reveals himself; only revelation can give the knowledge of God. (G. HoENNICKE.)
BrsiiocRapHy: W. T. Davison, Wisdom Literature of the O. T., London, 1894; C. F. Kent, The Wise Men of Ancient Israel and their Proverbs, Boston, 1895; J. F. Bruch, Weisheitslehrer der Hebraer, Strasburg, 1851; G. Oecehler, Grundziige der alttestamentlichen Weisheit, Tiibingen, 1854; M. Nicolas, Des doctrines religieuses des Juifs, Paris, 1860; C. Siegfried, Philo von Alexandria, Jena, 1872; F. Klasen, Die alttestamentliche Weisheit und der Logos der jtidischalexandrinischen Religionsphilosophie, Freiburg, 1878; H. Blois, La Poesie gnomique chez les Hebreux et les Grecs, Toulouse, 1886; idem, Origines de la philosophie Judéo-Alexandrine, Paris, 1889; T. K. Cheyne, Job and Solomon, or the Wisdom of the O. T., London, 1887; idem, Jewish Religious Life after the Exile, New York, 1898; J. F. Genung, The Epic of the Inner Life, Boston, 1891; W. von Baudissin, Die alttestamentliche Spruchdichtung, Berlin, 1893; A. Aall, Geschichte der Logosidee, Leipsic, 1896; M. D. Conway, Solomon and Solomonic Literature, London, 1899; R. G. Moulton, Literary Study of the Bible, Boston, 1899; M. Friedlander, Griechische Philosophie im A. T., Berlin, 1904; E. Sellin, Die Spuren griechischer Philosophie im A. T., Leipsic, 1905; H. Meinhold, Die Weisheitt Israels in Spruch, Sage und Dichtung, Leipsic, 1908; DB, iv. 924-928; EB, iv. 5322-36; JE, xii. 537— 538. The reader is also referred to the introductions to the commentarie; on the several books which embody the Hebrew ‘‘ wisdom,’’ including the apocryphal books, also to the works on O. T. theology.
WISDOM OF SOLOMON. See ApocrypnHa, A, DVerels:
WISE, ISAAC MAYER: American Reformed rabbi; b. at Steingrub, Bohemia, Mar. 20, 1819; d. at Cincinnati, O., Mar. 26, 1900. He received his education at Prague, and from 1843 to 1845 was rabbi at Radnitz, Bohemia. In the following year he emigrated to the United States, and was soon appointed rabbi of Congregation Beth-E] at Albany, N. Y., and when, in 1850, a split occurred in this congregation, Wise was chosen to be the head of the new Congregation Anshe Emeth. Here he remained until 1854, when he accepted the position which he was to occupy for the remainder of his life, the rabbinate of Congregation Bene Yeshurun, Cincinnati.
Wise took a foremost place among the Reformed Jews of America almost from his first arrival in America, beginning with his work in the Congregation Beth-El. As early as 1847 he sought to end the lack of uniform services in the American Jewish