The Search for Wisdom

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

As I mentioned yesterday, we are entering the last three weeks of the liturgical year. The lectionary is arranged in more or less a chronological fashion. The synoptic Gospels are read in the order of their composition beginning with Mark and ending with Luke. John's Gospel is reserved for the latter half of Lent and the Easter Season. The New Testament Letters are generally included in much the same fashion with the early letters being read first and the later letters being read toward the end of the year. So it is too with the readings from the Hebrew Scripture. We find ourselves reading the Book of Wisdom at the end of the liturgical year as scholars believe it to be the latest of the books of the Bible. Next week we will hear from the Books of the Maccabees, the latest of the history books of the Scriptures.

The Book of Wisdom was written by an Alexandrian Jew who was concerned about the effects that living in a pagan or polytheistic society would have upon the Jews in residence. His intention in writing was to provide a means for reminding the young Jewish men of his community of the importance of adhering to the covenant of their ancestors. He places his own words of wisdom in the mouth of the wisest king of Israel, Solomon. Solomon has become for these people the corporate symbol of wisdom.

At the same time, he used the Egyptian culture as a way to make his point. "Dame Wisdom" is often portrayed by this writer as someone very close to the Egyptian goddess, Isis. This practice may seem to blur the lines between orthodoxy and heresy. However, it is rather a skillful writing technique which helps the faithful Jew to see that what the Egyptians worship as a personal goddess is really just an attribute of the God of Israel. She is subservient to the Most High and, therefore, not to be worshipped. This tactic was also employed by the sacred writer in the Book of Genesis where in the opening chapter the God of Israel creates the objects which other cultures worship as God; namely, the sun and the moon, the stars of heaven, as well as all the plants and creatures of the earth.

Throughout the Book of Wisdom, the reader is exhorted to "seek" Wisdom, to pursue it. Again, by portraying Wisdom as a woman, the writer cleverly writes in such as way as to interest the young Jewish men of his community in the search as they would already be naturally seeking a beautiful woman to be their bride.

There is another side to the search, however. Dame Wisdom is set aside another woman in the Scripture; namely, Dame Folly. Her allure is strong as well as she would distract the faithful Jewish men from the pursuit of God and incline them to the pursuit of wealth, status, and power. In this respect, the Book of Wisdom is very much a Scripture for our own time.