Why is wisdom personified as a woman in the Old Testament book of Proverbs?

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Describe and evaluate the significance of the female
personification of wisdom in Proverbs.
Bryony Taylor
Introduction
The personification of Wisdom as female in the book of Proverbs is unique in the
Hebrew bible – it is the most extensive personification we have in scripture1 and its
unique nature gives rise to a number of questions. Most striking amongst these
questions is ‘why?’ – why, in a patriarchal culture, in a book written for the instruction
of young men is the object of the instruction – the gaining of wisdom – presented in a
female form? In order to explore this question fully, I will look at the historical context
of the book of Proverbs, the literary context of the passages which personify wisdom
and the theological considerations implied by the text.
The book of Proverbs is ‘bookended’ by chapters 1-9 which many believe serve as an
introduction to the rest of the book of Proverbs2 and the song of the valiant woman in
Proverbs 31:10-31. These are the parts of the book of Proverbs that I will focus on in
this essay. Thus the female figure of Wisdom appears to dominate the whole book of
Proverbs, both introducing it, enticing the reader to listen and in closing it with a
homely view of a multi-talented wife (who appears to have many of the attributes of
Woman Wisdom3). It could almost be said that the teachings of the book of Proverbs are
held in a warm embrace by Woman Wisdom, as Davis writes:
1 Roland E. Murphy, ‘Can the Book of Proverbs Be a Player in “Biblical Theology”?’ Biblical Theology
Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology 31 (2001) 5.
2Ibid, 6.
3 Jane S. Webster, ‘Sophia: Engendering Wisdom in Proverbs, Ben Sira and the Wisdom of Solomon’
Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 23 (1998) 66.

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‘The positioning of passages that feature women at the beginning and the end of
the book suggests that for all practical purposes, how one reckons with these
women is the measure of whether one has achieved wisdom.’4
It will be helpful to consider the nature of personification in the bible before moving on
to looking at the historical, literary and theological context of these passages. Although
this extended personification of Wisdom is unique in the bible, personification of virtues
is something we find quite often5, for example:
‘Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.’ Ps 85:10
Crenshaw calls it a ‘tiny step to personified wisdom’6 from these personifications we see
in the Psalms. Evidence of personification elsewhere in the bible, however, does not
explain the extended treatment Woman Wisdom gets in Proverbs – there must be other
influences, certainly on the cosmological references in Proverbs 87.
Historical context
There is some debate amongst scholars over the likely date of composition of the book
of Proverbs. The proverbs that make up the bulk of the whole book (chapters 10-30)
could well come from the time of King Solomon (the fact that the proverbs are
attributed to Solomon should not be ignored), many of them read as if they would apply
during a time of monarchy (see Pr 23:1-2 for example)8. Most scholars agree, however,
that these ‘framing’ passages (Pr 1-9 and 31:10-31) were composed in the post-exilic
period. There are a number of good pieces of evidence as to this that also help us to
understand why Wisdom is personified as a woman.
4 Ellen F. Davis, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press,
2000), 17.
5 Richard J. Clifford, The Wisdom Literature (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), 55.
6 James L. Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom: an introduction (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press,
2010), 87.
7Ibid, 87.
2000), 15f.

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The position of women in Jewish society will have changed quite significantly post-
exile9 – their role would have become more central as other institutions that provided
for people, such as the monarchy, had been destroyed. The primary place where the
faith could be taught and handed on would have been in the family10 – and we find this
to be the context of Proverbs 1-9:
‘Hear, my child, your father’s instruction,
and do not reject your mother’s teaching’ (Pr 1:8)
Schroder suggests that the increased use of feminine forms and nouns in post-exilic
texts may have been due to this shifted role of women in society.11 Davis also refers to
the fact that the song from Proverbs 31 is still sung on the Sabbath in orthodox Jewish
homes – without the Temple, the home is the ‘central social and religious institution’.12
Roy Yoder points to the socio-economic realities of Persian-period women’s lives and
how they are reflected in Proverbs 31. She identifies archaeological evidence of the
growth in commerce of Palestine in the Persian period and backs this up with reference
to Nehemiah’s description of Jerusalem’s ‘bustling’ marketplace13:
‘In those days I saw in Judah people treading wine presses on the sabbath, and
bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys; and also wine, grapes,
figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath
day; and I warned them at that time against selling food.’ (Neh 13:15)
This seems to correspond well to:
‘She is like the ships of the merchant,
she brings her food from far away.’ (Pr 31:14)
9 Silvia Schroder, Wisdom has built her house (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 2000), 31.
2000), 17.
2000), 154.
13 Christine Roy Yoder, ‘The Woman of Substance: A Socioeconomic reading of Proverbs 31:10-31’, JBL
122/3 (2003), 440f.

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It is clear that, as Roy Yoder argues:
‘life in Palestine was shaped by its place in the larger Persian realm. Certainly,
this would include its views of women.’
This is all evidence that would point to a post-exilic composition for Pr 1-9 and 31:10-
31 and begins to help us understand something of why we encounter Wisdom
personified as a woman:
‘the woman was to a great extent responsible for maintaining faithful living in
Israel. She had assumed many of the mediating, instructional, and guiding
functions once performed by the important national figures of priest, prophet
and king. No wonder, then, that when Wisdom came to be personified, it was as a
woman, builder and sustainer of the household.’14
Much has been made of the influence of the Near Eastern cultures surrounding Palestine
on the book of Proverbs and in particular on the personification of Wisdom as a woman:
‘The personification of wisdom in Proverbs is so distinctive that it has stimulated
scholars to search for its origins in other cultures.’15
Many scholars have connected Woman Wisdom in Proverbs 8 to the Egyptian goddess
Ma’at. A lot of this comes from the very close connection in Proverbs 22 with the
Egyptian Wisdom teaching of Amenemope16. However, as I have already discussed, the
framing passages in Proverbs that involve women were likely written at a different time
from the rest of the book – so there need not be such a direct link. Schroder goes so far
to suggest that ‘personified Wisdom corresponds almost exactly to the Egyptian
goddess Maat’17. Clifford points out, however, that ‘Maat is not strongly personified; she
2000), 18.
17Ibid, 3.

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gives no speeches in her own name’.18 There are certainly connections between Woman
Wisdom in Proverbs 8 and some of the goddesses that were worshipped at the time but
I do not feel that there is an ‘exact’ connection – Woman Wisdom is distinctly Jewish in
character – not a goddess but a personification of an attribute. She speaks in the style of
a goddess but isn’t actually a local goddess in disguise here:
‘'The style of self-praise which she adopts here was a common speech form in
ancient Near Eastern literature, and especially in the speech of goddesses.
Wisdom never here claims divinity for herself; like the sages themselves, she
enjoins "the fear of the LORD".’19
Links have also been made with Babylonian20 and Greek culture where there also were
conceptions of wisdom that were feminine such as the goddess Athene.21 The upshot of
this is that the Hebrew sages were certainly not writing in a vacuum and were not alone
in making this connection between wisdom and woman:
‘'it seems clear that the idea of women as a source of instruction was acceptable
in Israelite wisdom literature; it is not, however, a idea specific to Israel.’22
It is likely, then, that the Hebrew sages who composed Proverbs drew on all the local
imagery available:
‘there is nothing to suggest that redactors simply borrowed from a central set of
models, and every reason to believe that they shaped material in accordance with
their own ideas and cultural contexts.’23 (my emphasis)
2000), 62.
20NiliShupak, ‘Female Imagery in Proverbs 1-9 in the Light of Egyptian Sources’ VetusTestamentum 61
(2011) 310.
21Michael S. Moore, ‘”Wise Women” or Wisdom Woman? A Biblical Study of Women’s Roles’ Restoration
Quarterly 35/3 (1993), 148.
22Stuart Weeks, Early Israelite Wisdom (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 15f.
23Ibid, 16.

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Witherington agrees and believes that ‘the biblical writer has used ideas and
incorporated them into a new Yahwistic framework’.24
Literary context
I have considered the post-exilic historical context of Proverbs 1-9 and 31:10-31, it will
be useful now to take a closer look as to what is happening in the text itself. What is the
writer trying to do? I think it is in this area that the most light can be shed on the
significance of the personification of wisdom as female.
It cannot be ignored that the book of Proverbs is androcentric25 – in that the main
audience for it is young men seeking to learn from their elders:
‘to teach shrewdness to the simple,
knowledge and prudence to the young’ (Pr 1:4)
The simplest explanation for the personification of wisdom as a woman in this context
of teaching young, excitable, men is that it is a pedagogical device. The beginnings of the
book of Proverbs present us with a family setting: the authority figures are the mother
and father (Pr 1:8). As the argument progresses, Wisdom is introduced as a character.
This cleverly enables the writer to use a persona to get across his point – Wisdom
speaks in his stead but in a much more vibrant powerful way than in his guise as
‘father’. Which teenage boy listens to his father? Instead:
‘The authors chose to communicate with us by means of personae instead of
directly in the authorial voice.’26
This is not dissimilar to the employment of the dialogue form by Plato27 for teaching
philosophy in the gymnasia of Athens to young men. It is a device that has been used by
24 Ben Witherington III, Jesus the Sage (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994), 41.
25Ibid, 51.
26 Michael V. Fox, ‘Ideas of Wisdom in Proverbs 1-9’ Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 116, No. 4 (Winter,
1997) 619.
27 Stephen C. Barton, Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1999), 24.

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teachers down the centuries28. Personifying wisdom then enables that character to
‘morph’ from one ‘voice’ to another, so we find Wisdom sounding variously like a
prophet, an attractive wife, and a goddess, with the authority of each of those figures. As
a prophet character Wisdom shouts aggressively29 in the marketplace:
‘How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?’ (Pr 1:22)
Certainly not ‘ladylike’ behaviour! As Moore writes:
‘she is indignant and judgemental, pouring out on her audience language which
seems much more at home in the thundering day-of-Yahweh prophecies than the
relatively placid world of the scribes.’
Woman Wisdom is contrasted with Woman Folly and sexual imagery is used to draw
the reader’s (or listener’s) attention:
‘Come, let us take our fill of love until morning;
let us delight ourselves with love. (Pr 7:18)
This is where the female personification is essential – how best can the sages make
wisdom attractive to their young male charges?
‘What better way to talk about security than comparing it to the arms of a
mother/good wife? What better way to illustrate passion than by stimulating
it?’30
28There is perhaps even a version of it in the 1999 Wachowski film The Matrix – Neo is trained in a
programme that contains the teaching aid of a woman in a red dress!
2000), 34.

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So by making Wisdom an attractive woman, one with whom one could be secure and
raise a family:
‘The scenario has erotic and linguistic aspects; that is, hearers are invited into a
long-term relationship with wisdom and warned against entering into a
relationship with the other woman; they are to discern the real meaning of the
woman's words.’31
It is notable that at the beginning of Proverbs the early courting period is hinted at, but
by the end of the book of Proverbs we have an image of a wonderful wife – the ‘prize’,
perhaps, for those who follow Wisdom. Clifford writes of Proverbs 31:
‘The most likely interpretation of the poem…is as an illustration of what happens
to the man who marries Woman Wisdom.’32
Wisdom can also, even, speak in the voice of a goddess:
‘Wisdom Woman towers like a “goddess” over her “devotees”.’33
In chapter 8 we have an astonishing account of how wisdom was there at creation. This
is the chapter over which much has been written. I have already referred to the
connections with the goddesses of the Near East that have been seen here. In this
chapter Wisdom is elevated from the homestead and the bustling marketplace to the
silence before creation began – further heightening her authority. This is the climax of
Wisdom’s discourse and connects the teaching of the sages with YHWH himself. Many
have read Proverbs 8 and concluded that it represents a ‘hypostasis’ of Wisdom to the
level of God himself. The text, itself, however, does not allow us to go this far:
‘The Lord created me at the beginning’ (Pr 8:22)
32Ibid, 67.
33Michael S. Moore, ‘”Wise Women” or Wisdom Woman? A Biblical Study of Women’s Roles’ Restoration
Quarterly 35/3 (1993), 157.

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Something created by God surely cannot be God.Witherington believes that
personification rather than hypostatisation is a more accurate description of what is
happening here:
‘It appears that personification best describes the Woman Wisdom material in
Proverbs, Job and Sirach, though in the Wisdom of Solomon the author may have
progressed to the stage of the hypostasization of Wisdom.’34
The point is, that without the use of the personification of wisdom, none of these three
voices of prophet, good woman and goddess could be heard.
Personified, Wisdom can also move from the home to the marketplace – her voice can
be heard beyond the classroom as well:
‘Not confined within the cloistered walls of hearth and home, wisdom's rhetoric
wafts through the streets and central locales of public intercourse (1:20-21). She,
unlike the father, is in a position to rebuke directly the scoffers who provoke only
violence for quick gain.’35
Although the primary audience is the young men in school – by chapter 8 everybody’s
interest is captured:
'Wisdom extends in part the voice of the parent outside of the cloistered walls of
hearth and home and becomes the voice of the larger community that legitimates
all those who exercise authority, be they king or parent.’36
The sages, in choosing to personify wisdom as a woman, then, have a superbly
adaptable didactic tool through which to entice, admonish, inspire and stimulate their
readers.
34Ben Witherington III, Jesus the Sage (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994), 38.
35 William P. Brown, Character in Crisis (Grand Rapids: Wm B Eerdmans Publishing, 1996), 32.
36Ibid, 40.

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Many of the characteristics of Wisdom could have been personified as male (eg.
prophet, king, warrior) so why is the female form chosen? It should not be ignored that
the category of ‘woman’ represents the ‘other’ to these male sages. Wisdom is also
personified as a woman, therefore, because ‘woman’ is something strange, unattainable
and unfathomable:
‘in other words, wisdom is something outside and distinct from the self’37
This happens a lot in Ancient Greek literature where women are presented as ‘other’
and either made terrifying (in the case of Euripides’ Bacchae) or hilarious (in the case of
Aristophanes’ Lysistrata). Putting women in the position of men creates a spectacle for
the ancient readers – how funny, that a woman should be a political leader (cf.
Lysistrata), or how intriguing that a woman might have military qualities:
‘She girds herself with strength,
and makes her arms strong.’ (Pr 31:17)
The ‘shock’ factor is perhaps lost on the modern reader but it was quite deliberate on
the part of those biblical writers. Wisdom personified as a Woman represents
something to the male reader of the difficulty of obtaining wisdom, its ‘otherness’.
Theological context
Turning from the historical and literary context I will now look at some of the
theological issues raised by the female personification of wisdom. I have already hinted
at the discussion about chapter 8 of Proverbs and whether this represents a
hypostatisation of Wisdom. This chapter certainly is the most unusual part of Proverbs’
personification of wisdom and does raise some questions that are not completely
answered by reference to the personification of wisdom as a didactic tool. Proverbs
chapter 8 says something to us about God and about woman. Having referred to the

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androcentric nature of the literature, it is intriguing to read the text as a woman in the
21st century. Where the original male reader might have been enticed by the embrace of
the ‘good wife’ Wisdom; the area of fascination for me is the creation account in chapter
8. Silvia Schroder suggests:
‘this personification seeks to connect God and woman; its purpose is to connect
the human, concrete, this-worldly with the divine, universal, and other-worldly,
to connect YHWH with the street, the house, love, the Wisdom tradition, and the
life of Israelite women, so that the activities of the wise woman become
transparent, even transcendent toward YHWH, and YHWH can be experienced in
the image of "Lady" Wisdom.’38
I can agree with the raising up of the human level to the divine level but I suspect that
the original writers were not deliberately trying to elevate the status of women and
‘wise women’ in general. It might do that for the modern reader but I do not think the
original writers had that in mind. Having said this, it does seem that Sophia is a kind of
‘agent’ of God (if not equal with God):
‘Sophia stands as an intermediary between God and humanity.’39
This picture gets further developed in Ben Sira and the Wisdom of Solomon which build
on the picture of Sophia in Proverbs. In Proverbs Woman Wisdom invites us into God’s
presence at the very creation of the world and uses wonderfully playful imagery:
‘'With wisdom's creation, God establishes a community of discourse. When
wisdom proclaims, "I was beside God like a little child," the community, like
wisdom, becomes initiated into the grand and joyous ways of God that began in
creation...wisdom is the community, created to behold and follow the ways of
God.'40
40 William P. Brown, Character in Crisis (Grand Rapids: Wm B Eerdmans Publishing, 1996), 39.

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Hearing this, we are the child, called to play alongside YHWH as he engages with his
creation – this is true wisdom. Again, we see the significance of wisdom’s
personification:
‘'What the father can only claim secondhand, wisdom can attest directly in
revelatory fashion, since she serves as the pedagogical link between God and
humans.'41
The connection with YHWH in chapter 8 is crucial to the efficacy of this personification:
‘the reason she is to be trusted by her hearers is her relationship with Yahweh. In
fact, the relationship she wishes with her discipleship is modeled on her
relationship with Yahweh.’42
The personification of Wisdom turns a virtue into something relational:
then I was beside him, like a little child;
and I was daily his delight (Pr 8:3043
This moves the idea of learning wisdom away from mere rote learning to encompass the
whole of one’s life as a relationship does. This then becomes not only a relationship with
Wisdom that affects all of life but also a relationship with YHWH. Being invited to play
as a child at the feet of YHWH is a powerful image – as shocking as was Jesus’ addressing
of YHWH as Abba in the New Testament. As Davis writes:
‘the poet-sages use language that impresses itself vividly on the imagination in
order to say that our search for wisdom moves us into relationship - delighted,
even playful relationship - with our Creator.'44
41Ibid, 40.
43 This is an alternative translation to ‘master worker’ provided in the NRSV footnote. See also William P.
Brown, Character in Crisis (Grand Rapids: Wm B Eerdmans Publishing, 1996), 38f.
2000), 67.

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No surprise, then, perhaps that the literature develops this concept (in Ben Sira and the
Wisdom of Solomon) and then we get ideas of Sophia Jesus, the Logos, in John’s gospel45,
links with the doctrine of the Trinity and today a great movement of feminists who
embrace this feminine idea of God46. It is striking that the greatest church in early
Christianity was named the Hagia Sophia47 – the concept of Divine Wisdom remains an
important symbol of Christian truth and beauty in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. The
personification of Wisdom as female has had lasting power for generations since it was
first conceived by those early Hebrew sages.
Conclusion
I have explored and described the personification of Wisdom as a woman in Proverbs
by looking at the historical context in which it was likely written, the use of the
personification as a literary tool and then finally looked at some of its theological
consequences. What I have shown is that the historical context had a great bearing on
the choice to personify wisdom as female – the biblical writers drew on the culture
around them, perhaps from ideas of goddesses associated with wisdom such as Ma’at
from Egypt but also from the real life hustle and bustle of life in Persian-period
Palestine. The post-exilic setting had heightened the importance of women and a stable
home and this contributed to the setting used within Proverbs for the instruction. The
literary context shed light on the use of female personification as a very effective
pedagogical tool – especially for its young male audience. Finally, the theological
insights provided by the personification of wisdom highlighted the possibility of
communion with God – surely the aim of all spiritual seeking and perhaps the aim of the
book of Proverbs as a whole:
45 John Meyendorff, ‘Wisdom-Sophia: Contrasting Approaches to a Complex Theme’ Dumbarton Oaks
Papers 41 (1987) 392.
46 See Ninna E. Beckman, ‘Sophia: Symbol of Christian and Feminist Wisdom?’ Feminist Theology 6 (1997)
32-54.
47 John Meyendorff, ‘Wisdom-Sophia: Contrasting Approaches to a Complex Theme’ Dumbarton Oaks
Papers 41 (1987) 391.

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‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge’ (Pr 1:7)
‘a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.’ (Pr 31:30)

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Bibliography
Bible quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version.
Barton, S. C. (ed.) Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1999)
Beckman, N.E. ‘Sophia: Symbol of Christian and Feminist Wisdom?’ Feminist Theology 6
(1997) 32-54.
Brown, W. P. Character in Crisis (Grand Rapids: Wm B Eerdmans Publishing, 1996)
Clements, R.E. Wisdom in Theology (Carlisle: The Paternoster Press, 1992)
Clifford, R. J. The Wisdom Literature (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998)
Collins, J.T. ‘Wisdom Reconsidered, in Light of the Scrolls’ Dead Sea DiscoveriesVol 4, No.
3 (Nov 1997) 265-281.
Crenshaw, J. L. (ed.) Studies in Ancient Israelite Wisdom (New York: Ktav Publishing
House, 1976)
Crenshaw, J. L., Old Testament Wisdom: an introduction (Louisville: Westminster John
Knox Press, 2010)
Davis, E. F. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs (Louisville: Westminster John
Knox Press, 2000)
Fox, M.V. ‘Ideas of Wisdom in Proverbs 1-9’ Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 116, No. 4
(Winter, 1997) 613-633.
Meyendorff, J. ‘Wisdom-Sophia: Contrasting Approaches to a Complex Theme’
Dumbarton Oaks Papers 41 (1987) 391-401.

16
Moore, M.S. ‘”Wise Women” or Wisdom Woman? A Biblical Study of Women’s Roles’
Restoration Quarterly 35/3 (1993), 147-158.
Morgan, D. F. Wisdom in the Old Testament traditions (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publisher,
1981)
Murphy, R.E., ‘Can the Book of Proverbs Be a Player in “Biblical Theology”?’ Biblical
Theology Bulletin: A Journal of Bible and Theology 31 (2001) 4-9.
Perry, T. A. God's Twilight Zone (Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 2008)
Roy Yoder, C. ‘The Woman of Substance: A Socioeconomic reading of Proverbs 31:10-
31’, JBL 122/3 (2003), 427-47.
Sandelin, K.G.Wisdom as nourisher (Abo Akademi, 1986)
Schroder, S.Wisdom has built her house (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 2000)
Shupak, N. ‘Female Imagery in Proverbs 1-9 in the Light of Egyptian Sources’
VetusTestamentum 61 (2011) 310-323.
Webster, J.S. ‘Sophia: Engendering Wisdom in Proverbs, Ben Sira and the Wisdom of
Solomon’ Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 23 (1998) 63-79.
Weeks, S.Early Israelite Wisdom (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994)
Witherington, B. Jesus the Sage (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994)

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Why is wisdom personified as a woman in the Old Testament book of Proverbs?