Wednesday, January 05, 2005
WISDOM - GODDESS OR PERSONIFICATION
A reader sent in a link to the International Council for Gender Studies which has an article up on its website titled "Who Is Lady Wisdom?" After describing all of the things she is not, this is the explanation given for who (or what) she is:
Not a Person, But a Personification
So, who is Lady Wisdom? If she is not a goddess, nor some aspect of God Himself, who is she?
First, Lady Wisdom is not a person at all. Rather, she is a personification of wisdom. Personification is an ancient and elaborate figure of speech in which an author presents an abstract idea as a person. In Proverbs 1-9, Solomon tells us many things about wisdom by personifying it as a woman, by giving her speeches to deliver, and by calling on his readers to relate to wisdom as they would relate to various kinds of women (see below).
The strongest indication that Lady Wisdom is a personification rather than an actual heavenly being is her evil counterpart, the Woman Folly, with whom she is contrasted in Proverbs 9. No one, of course, ever maintains that Woman Folly is an actual personality. Like Lady Wisdom, she is a personification, a personification of folly.
