Wisdom (personification)

The personification of wisdom, typically as a righteousness woman, is a motif found in religious and philosophical texts, most notably in the Book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish and Christian texts.

The Greek Septuagint, and both the Qumran and Masada Hebrew versions of Ben Sira conclude with a first-person character speaking in Wisdom's voice as in the Book of Proverbs, though it is not certain that this was not appended to Ben Sira from another work. A less clear personification of Wisdom is also found in the Cave 11 Psalm Scroll.[1]

Other personifications in Jewish and Christian literature

The Hebrew Bible includes other personifications, such as sin crouching as an animal at the door of Cain (a zoomorphism rather than an anthropomorphism), Ariel as a personification of Jerusalem, and in Ezekiel Tyre as a "cherub in Eden" and two sisters, Oholah and Oholibah, who represent Samaria and Jerusalem.[2] The New Testament includes Jesus' personification of money as Mammon, Paul's personification of sin ruling as a king in his body, and the "old man" and "new man" as personifications of two warring persons in the new creature after baptism.

References

  1. ^ Daniel J. Harrington Wisdom texts from Qumran - 1996 Page 28 "It is not crucial for our purposes to decide this debate. What is important is that in Sirach 51:13—30 we have evidence at Qumran for the vivid personification of Wisdom as a female figure"
  2. ^ Hosea 2: metaphor and rhetoric in historical perspective - Page 86 Brad E. Kelle - 2005 p86 "2For a helpful list of recent works devoted to the personification of cities as females, see P. Day, “The Personification of ... Tyre (Isa 23:15) and her daughters (Ezek 26:6, 8), Bethlehem Ephrathah (Mic 5:2), and Sodom (Ezek 16:46, ..."