“Deliberately Diverse” represents the opinions of a group of Taylor friends who never completely agree about anything but enjoy diverse discussions In my last column, I discussed Wisdom as both an attribute of God and a dynamic, feminine divine figure present at creation. In Hebrew culture, wisdom is not just intellectual knowledge, it is the practical skill of living well and making right choices.
Paul’s writings in the New Testament connect Christ to this aspect of divinity. The idea is not that Wisdom or Sophia is a separate deity; rather that God’s wisdom has a personal, lively aspect that we see embodied in Christ.
John’s Gospel opens with this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Why do we connect this with Wisdom? In Greek, “word” is “logos.” The Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria had merged Greek Logosphilosophy with Jewish Wisdom theology. Philo speaks of the Logos as God’s rational plan for the universe, functioning much like personified Wisdom does in Proverbs.
The story of creation in Genesis also begins with the word, “God said, ‘Let there be light’ and light was.” God speaks creation into being. Perhaps in John we see the fusion of God’s word that creates and God’s wisdom that orders and is permanently present.
In John, the Word is present at creation and is the means through which everything was made. Early Christians read Jesus as the embodiment of that divine Wisdom; not a teacher of wise sayings and stories, rather the One who brought Wisdom to life.
Cynthia Bourgeault’s “The Wisdom Jesus” focuses on Jesus as a teacher of transformation: Someone who taught a path of self-emptying and non-dual awareness.
The Holy Spirit is consistently described as the one who gives wisdom to people. In Ephesians 1:17, Paul prays for the community that God may give them the spirit of wisdom. In Trinitarian theology, the Spirit is often seen as the one who illumines and applies the wisdom that Christ embodies.
One way to frame this is that God is: the Father as source, Christ as the Wisdom/Word through whom all things exist, and Spirit which communicates Wisdom into human hearts and minds. It is a single movement that originates in God, is revealed in Christ and made alive in us through the Spirit.
John is making a strong claim in identifying Jesus with the Word, the Logos. He is telling us that Israel’s wisdom tradition described as present before creation, active in making the world, and offered to humanity as a guide to life is alive in the world as a specific human being.
That same spirit, the Logos, comes alive in us across the centuries.
Pierce is the retired pastor at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Taylor and be reached at [email protected].
