By Rev. Theodore Cooley
11 June 2017
Monte Vista Christian Church, Albuquerque NM 87106
The text for the day is Psalm 8, verse 4.
“What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”
This wisdom psalm is better known by addressing “man” and “the son of Man” in the common Hebrew form of a doublet. It is part of a large body of literature in the Scriptures in poetic form.
One of the requirements of historical theology is to place historic figures in the correct culture context. Archeological finds and continued scholarship have opened up an additional understanding of Jesus known as the Christ which requires connecting him closer with the Jewish Wisdom school in Jerusalem in an attempt to really understand his position within his community.
For a millennial or more or more before Solomon, assistants in royal courts in the ancient Near East traded proverbs and wise sayings between various royal houses. This was more constructive than waging war, but this gave the rulers an opportunity for one-up-man-ship over against another ruler. Chapters 22:17 through 24:34 in the book of Proverbs are from an Egyptian source, from about the time of Joshua, just after Moses. It is an example of how old and widespread this sharing of Wisdom had developed.
There is nothing wrong in this. These collections of “wise sayings” are found in various court remains throughout the Near East. They are part of the royal correspondence of the thinking in the ancient world. The critical factor is that Solomon was the first king in Jerusalem to have the wealth and the court apparatus to collect such sayings. Therefore, Solomon was “wise” as his scribes had the time and wealth to take part in this ancient near eastern custom. This has no reflection on his personal wisdom.
This court wisdom continued throughout the time of monarchy, though 8th cent prophets Amos and Hosea added a call to justice and just society to the literary picture of a wise ruler. Outside of Judah and Israel other wisdom writers were also beginning to add a moral overtone to the understanding of wisdom. This was really an international trend in much of the near east, with the West Canaanitic languages, Hebrew, Phoenician, Edomitic and Canaanitic, all being written in the same alphabetic scrip, increasing the spread of literacy to some degree within the local populace.
Ezekiel’s vision of the Glory of God departing the temple to go with the people into all lands was a factor in the quest for wisdom to assume a broader understanding. Genesis 1:1 through 2:4a, the first creation account in the OT, though the newer by some 500 years from the second with Adam, answers in part a question of the exiles, how do we maintain our faith in a foreign land. Since God created in 6 days, then observed the Sabbath, we, as his people, must also observe the Sabbath. Hence the Sabbath was used as one of the uniting items of the exiles in Babylon.
Today’s scripture from Psalms 8 is a wisdom reflection of this creation account, going beyond the narrative to celebrate the glory of the creation, but to also raise concern about the place of humanity in this creation.
Others were also questioning wisdom, including human actions. Job chapter 28 is a hymn or treatise on wisdom, standing apart from the rest of the book, an apparent later inclusion in the text. The whole discussion is becoming a question as to “where is wisdom to be found.” Towards the end of the exile and the return of the exiles to Jerusalem this quest becomes more formalized with both the Jews and some of the surrounding people.
English is one of only about five languages which does not include artificial gender. Hence in both Hebrew and Greek, Wisdom is considered feminine. Proverbs 8, written after the exile, has Lady Wisdom speaking of being the firstborn of creation. In v. 22 this is shown in the personification of wisdom now that monotheism had been accepted in Judaism. This is not a separate god, as Athena was to the Greeks, but the first act of creation by the one God. Thus, it is becoming a religious duty to seek wisdom as a gift of God.
The time from soon after the reforms of Ezra to Paul’s first letters is called the Intertestamental period. This includes most of the Persian period, the Greeks with Alexander the Great, and the beginnings of the Roman presence, up to around 50 AD. In this time period the quest for wisdom and wisdom schools flourished in Judaism. Unfortunately, we Protestants do not utilize many of these books, their being in the Apocrypha. I am not saying we should consider them scripture, but we err in ignoring them in understanding Jesus‘ background and cultural changes before his birth, particularly with respect to this wisdom tradition. “The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach” is the greatest of all the Jewish wisdom books, but we commonly do not refer to it because it is not in most of our Bibles. Its presence in Roman and Eastern editions of the scriptures is concealed by calling it “Ecclesiasticus”, meaning “Church Book”, which hides its importance.
Archeology has established that on the South side of the temple compound following the posit exilic reconstruction of the Temple area there was located a major Wisdom school. This was termed the Portico of Solomon.
Mark 1:22 “They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” This was at the beginning of Jesus‘ ministry, and in the far northern part of Galilee, as far from the formal wisdom school in Jerusalem as possible. The scribes and pharisees were experts in the Law of Moses. Jesus must have been teaching from some other tradition.
Luke‘s “sermon on the plain” has blessings and woes. This is typical format for wisdom teaching, very common in other Jewish literature. Matthew does not include this on the sermon on the mount, seeing Jesus as giving a new law. Jesus’ teaching in parables and proverbs much more closely follows this wisdom tradition than the legalistic tradition of the scribes and pharisees.
Luke chapter two has Jesus in the temple at age 12 discussing with the elders. The Sadducees managing the temple would have had no reason to engage in discussion, as they were devoted to temple rituals which were fixed. The wisdom school in the portico of the temple would have been the situation, with Jesus engaging the teachers of the wisdom school.
During Jesus‘ final week in Jerusalem he was in the temple teaching. I have been around enough academics that I am aware of the problem visiting lecturers have in establishing the privilege of the lectern unless their credentials are in order. There is no mention of Jesus being questioned about his training. I suspect that he was already a known quantity to these wisdom teachers in Jerusalem.
There was a later conflict in the early church which is called Gnosticism, or knowledge. From near the end of the first century AD Gnosticism (knowledge) became a derivation of the Wisdom tradition, following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Both in Judaism (Cabala) and in esoteric Christian circles this preserved some of the wilder aspects of the pre destruction Wisdom tradition. The Christian versions of gnostic belief do not contain any account of the passion of Jesus, crucifixion or resurrection, seeing him only as a wise teacher. Thus, as the gnostic tradition was deemed heretical by the great Church, this tradition rejection has obscured the presence of the Wisdom tradition in our understanding of Jesus.
Let me illustrate!
I spent four years at New Mexico State as a math major. During that time several of the math professors were using their statistical work to try and beat Blackjack. They would weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada, trying out their systems of card counting. They were good enough to get thrown out of the casino’s, tried changing their appearance to continue the game, and finally found themselves banned. The casinos also changed the rules to make card counting much harder, including starting each hand with a new deck of cards.
This illustrates the difference between wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge involved the tools to get ahead. to beat the system, until the system corrects itself to prevent being manipulated. The professors were using their knowledge to establish ways of getting ahead of the system.
Wisdom recognizes that such attempts to beat the system will always be subject to correction. The house will always fix itself to make a profit. Wisdom knows that knowledge will never be sufficient and beat the system, whatever system, and will not provide a rewarding life in the long run.
The Gnostics were interested in the knowledge that would result in their beating the system, to show their intellectual superiority over others, and to separate believers into classes. The great church correctly rejected this understanding.
Jesus’ own life is in contradiction to the gnostic pursuit. He included women, the ill, Roman citizens, and all manner of those rejected by the establishment in his teaching. All were invited to be his disciples.
Jesus has been seen as a social revolutionary, political subversive, sacrificial lamb, giver of new law, and various other roles, all of which have support from the gospel record. Wisdom is one of these traditions.
That brings us to John’s gospel. Some of the old editions of John label it as the gospel of St. John the Divine. This is an Old English way of saying St. John the theologian. With the recovery of the gospel of Thomas in 1945, and its translation from the Coptic, we see more than ever how John’s gospel is filled with theology, particularly the theology of the wisdom tradition.
Excepting the line “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” all of the prologue to this gospel, the first 14 verses, can be found in Jewish wisdom sources prior to the writing of the gospel. Not all are in the Bible, but all are in known Jewish sources which are in this wisdom tradition. Only the wording has been changed. As you have seen in other items from the scriptures today, Wisdom is a Lady, both in Hebrew and Greek. The great church in Istanbul is Hagia Sophia, Holy Wisdom. Since English is a scientific language, we are used to having natural gender of almost all ideas. John has substituted Word for Wisdom in order to establish masculine gender for the passage, since Word is masculine in Greek. Thus, all the descriptions and illustrations of Wisdom are applied to the person of Jesus. All of the thousands of years of this search for Wisdom can be seen in the life, teachings and ministry of Jesus.
It is not only the prologue, but throughout John’s gospel that we have Jesus as a wisdom teacher. In places the experts even see some deliberately anti gnostic themes. In this, John is in the same tradition of the other gospels, emphasizing the betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection which themes are generally absent in the gnostic gospels. Perhaps the most important statement is in the prologue, “the Word became flesh and lived among us”. It is this Word, this living presence among us, infused by the Holy Spirit, that calls you and me for the example of his life, in teaching for all, caring for, sharing wisdom without limit for all people that we may have a more complete life, with justice and mercy for ourselves and for all of our society, in the wisdom of this one who is the Word incarnate.
This is what we are called to be as human beings, to accept wisdom which speaks to all humanity and to strive to share this vision of 2000 years ago for the benefit of all peoples now and in the future.
Amen
Bibliography
M. Jack Suggs, “The Wisdom Literature OT 8432, Brite Divinity School, TCU, 1965-66.
Irwin, “The Wisdom Literature” in The Interpreters Bible
Gordis, “Social Book of Wisdom Lit.” In Heb. UN. Coll. Annual
Levi “Brach the Wisdom…” in Jewish Encyclopedia