Wisdom is a Woman

January 23, 2009

Today's Reading: Genesis 45-46 and Proverbs 8

I have found it interesting that of the places of the Bible, there is a personification of many things. What is interesting is wisdom is made female.

For some reason, I’m not certain why, but I could easily imagine the personification of common sense mixed with intuition to be female. You get married, and you can easily understand that.

I like the fact that she seems present at the creation, something that is absent from the Book of Genesis. I suppose I could imagine this angel of wisdom assisting the Almighty with his work, possibility helping out with the placement of things. My wife knows how bad I am at that.

I suppose I could get into how wisdom is supposed to be female because that is God’s design for the sexes. However, I’ve never been big on all that God’s design for the sexes, because they tend to lead into all sorts of arguments on who gets to wear the pants in the marriage, and all of that crap. This might be the last time you hear me talk about gender, because I’m already getting tired of it.

I suppose there isn’t a way for me to tie this to the Old Testament reading, because the cast of Joseph, Jacob and brothers are male. Still, the voice of wisdom prevailed in this story. Joseph shows great mercy to his brothers even though he didn’t have to. The fact that he was in power was the result of following wisdom. After all, it is by her that “kings reign, and rules make laws that are just by me princes govern and all nobles who rule on the earth”.

It would appear that wisdom rules, and she is everything that she says she is. I suppose that mercy is another quality. After all, do I really need to say how pissed I would be if I found my brothers years after they had left me to die. I wouldn’t have pretended to set them up as thieves, I would have really set them up as thieves, and seriously would have punished them.

Still, as soon as Joseph tells his brothers what’s what, the first thing he says is: “do not be afraid”. Not something like: “I’ve come back form the grave so I can take you all out”. Maybe it is because I am a man that I would say the latter, because I know a lot of females who have shown a lot of grace and overall smarts in bad situations. So maybe wisdom is justly a woman, I don’t know.