Choose Wisdom

Today in class we talked about the book the Wisdom of Solomon in the Apocrypha and the concept of wisdom at this point in history. Before this point in time, which was about the time that the Romans took over Judea, wisdom as a concept was divided into two categories: mantic and experiential. Mantic wisdom: the hidden wisdom that was revealed by a divine being usually an angel. Experiential wisdom: the knowledge passed down through generations about how to live life. The concept of wisdom that the Wisdom of Solomon introduces is different than either of these.

The wisdom talked about in this book is the wisdom that comes directly from God and is personified as a female. It has three aspects that define it: 1. It has a cosmic dimension in that it permeates everything in the world 2. It has a historical aspect in that wisdom is the manifestations of God in the world that allow life to continue and 3. It has a romantic aspect in that you can fall in love with it. You can see now why the book is called The Wisdom of Solomon because Solomon was known for being very wise. This brings about the ideas that wisdom is an energy that holds the seams of the world together and that you can choose wisdom and pursue wisdom as you would pursue a woman. And the author of the book goes on to say that the pursuit of wisdom leads to righteousness.

The author also introduces the idea of the soul and immortality. Plato was the first to talk about the binary division of the soul and body. He believed that the body is a grave that traps the soul until the body dies and the soul is then released. The soul has always been an aspect of Christianity that has puzzled me because I grew up being told that I have a soul and that because I have faith in Jesus Christ as my savior my soul will go to Heaven when I die. But no one has ever seen a soul nor has anyone ever come back from the dead to tell me that yes your soul does go to Heaven when you die. These passages in the Wisdom of Solomon are the basis for those beliefs because if you take out the Wisdom of Solomon you would have no basis for the resurrection of the dead or the immortality of the soul. This blew my mind in class today. I had always known these concepts but to find out this is where it comes from is so interesting to me. It’s like eating chocolate all my life and then finding out how it was made by this guy in 200 C.E. by mixing cocoa beans with sugar and that is the basis for all modern day chocolate. I never knew how these ideas came into place in the doctrine of Christianity but now I do.

My favorite part is that you can pursue wisdom as you would pursue a woman and you can fall in love with it. Now that might be because I am a little bit of a romantic but I like the idea of dating wisdom, getting to know wisdom, and then proposing to wisdom and living with her the rest of my life. Sounds like a fairytale ending right?

-Austain