Pr 1:20-33
14 September 2003
“Lady Wisdom and Dame Folly”
Sometimes when Banu and I are discussing the world situation, she reminds of something I’ve heard more than once. And it is this: if women were in charge of the world, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in! She’s especially referring to the love that we males apparently have of resolving conflict through bloody violence.
I remind her that women have their own types of violence. But I have to admit, if women were the ones calling the shots, we’d have a lot less of the “shoot first and ask questions later” approach that often characterizes our nation’s foreign policy. In fact, I have trouble imagining things like tanks, land mines, and nuclear weapons originating in the female mind. Understand, that doesn’t mean that I’d want to simply exchange a male-dominated world for a female-dominated one! (There’s a happy medium in there somewhere!)
The writings of the Bible arose within male-dominated cultures, that is, patriarchal cultures. Oddly enough, some of the staunchest supporters of patriarchal values are women. Centuries of doing things a certain way has its effects on all of us. In any event, the cultural background is something to keep in mind as we look at today’s Old Testament reading in Proverbs 1.
The book of Proverbs is all about wisdom. Much of the book has been attributed to Solomon (10:1-22:16, 25:1-29:27). Other parts are credited to a King Lemuel (ch. 31) and certain fellow named Agur (ch. 30); one section is simply known as “the words of the wise” (22:17-24:34).
But, the question may be asked, what is wisdom? (Actually, this is a question I asked at the Wednesday night service.) Some people point to the difference between intelligence and common sense. Wisdom does involve knowledge, though it’s not really the kind of knowledge we seem to value today. Wisdom has little to do with the mere accumulation of facts; it’s much more about how we integrate knowledge into our lives.
In the introduction to the book of Proverbs in his paraphrase of the Bible called The Message, Eugene Peterson offers this: “Wisdom is the art of living skillfully in whatever actual conditions we find ourselves…[It] has to do with becoming skillful in honoring our parents and raising our children, handling our money and conducting our sexual lives, going to work and exercising leadership, using words well and treating friends kindly, eating and drinking healthily, cultivating emotions within ourselves and attitudes toward others that make for peace.”[1]
If wisdom isn’t necessarily linked to intelligence, so its opposite, folly, isn’t necessarily linked to lack of intelligence. Folly, foolishness, is a matter of character. I don’t have to tell you that someone can have five Ph.D.’s and still be a fool, while someone else who’s completely illiterate can be among the wisest people you ever met.
The pursuit of wisdom is the path to enlightenment. In fact, the realization that we lack wisdom, yet earnestly desire it, is one good sign that we are becoming enlightened people. When it says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (9:10), the book of Proverbs insists that wisdom is a spiritual quality, one that pervades all of life.
The book does something else with wisdom—and here’s where that cultural background I spoke of begins to enter the picture. The book of Proverbs portrays wisdom as a woman. The Hebrew word for “wisdom” here is t/mk]j; (hokemot). As with Spanish and French, Hebrew grammar has masculine and feminine nouns, and t/mk]j; (hokemot) is feminine. If for no other reason, that would explain why wisdom personified has been called “Lady Wisdom.”
Paired with wisdom is folly, and the Hebrew word for that is also feminine: tWlysiK] (kesilut). And again, if for no other reason, that would explain why folly personified has been called “Dame Folly.”
But then, that isn’t the only reason for either of them! In patriarchal society, the female tends to be either put on a pedestal or relegated to the gutter. She’s either revered or reviled. She’s either an object of purity or an object of pornography. She’s either the Virgin Mary or Jezebel. The woman is either lifted up or cast down. An obvious problem with all that is the inability to see women as equal partners with men.
Lady Wisdom speaks in today’s Old Testament reading from Proverbs 1. Verse 20 says, “Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice.” She’s seen as issuing an invitation to all, to come and learn from her. The call is heard “in the squares,” in the marketplace—where commerce takes place. Her appeal goes to “the entrance of the city gates” (v. 21). The town elders would gather at the main gates to settle disputes—their equivalent of a court system. Lady Wisdom wants justice to be wise.
Putting words of instruction in her mouth would make sense, given certain realities of Hebrew culture. Consider a rabbi teaching his male student. (Remember, girls weren’t allowed to be educated.) Using the image of a woman would be a good way of getting the young man’s attention. And portraying Dame Folly (who we meet in chapters 7 and 9) as an adulteress, as a loose woman, might also serve to…maintain his focus on what the teacher is saying.
Still, I know that that’s a minor consideration. Much more to the point is wisdom herself. Thinking of wisdom as female conjures up images of things and people overlooked, even despised, in society—at least that is, by those who make the rules for society. In fact, that’s very much one of the themes of today’s reading. To “simple ones…[to] scoffers…[to] fools,” Lady Wisdom says that she has “called and you refused, [has] stretched out [her] hand and no one heeded.” She laments that “they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord” (vv. 22, 24, 29).
The sad truth is: wisdom isn’t a daily concern for most of us. If we ever do pray or seek wisdom, it’s usually in regard to some big decision to be made. “Should I take this job?” “Should we move to this other city?” “Is this the right person to marry?”
We don’t usually think of wisdom as something needed for the ordinary moments of our day-to-day lives. But that’s precisely where we need wisdom the most! It is the ordinary moments of our day-to-day lives that show who we are as people. That’s where we see what we’re really made of. Sometimes, we’d rather not know.
How often do we choose to heed the call of Dame Folly over that of Lady Wisdom? How often in our daily encounters with people, especially those who irritate us, do we allow our speech to be gracious? On Wednesday night, after I asked, “What is wisdom?”, Jeanne Thomas suggested the well-known question, “What would Jesus do?” Considering that the New Testament calls Jesus the wisdom of God (1 Co 1:24), actually practicing that slogan—as opposed to putting it on wristbands, coffee mugs, and other trinkets—really would be a good idea!
Lady Wisdom also issues her call in chapter 8, one of the best loved poems in the entire Bible. Starting at verse 22, she speaks of being present, even before the universe came into existence. People have taken this a lot of different ways. Some say this demonstrates the feminine aspect within God; others claim that it’s evidence of the pre-incarnate Christ. I think we can at least say that it shows that wisdom is a part of who God is. Wisdom is divine; God is wisdom.
But for me, the most amazing thing about our scripture reading is the very fact that Lady Wisdom calls to us. I spoke earlier of our often half-hearted attempts at seeking wisdom. Too often we try to run our daily lives completely oblivious of God and the abundant wisdom offered.
Yet wisdom calls. She seeks us. She goes through the streets, over the mountains and through the woods, through the bright and dark places of our lives, and she invites us. Lady Wisdom is calling our name.
Here’s something to consider (and I’ll close with this): in what area of our lives do we most need to heed her call?