Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table.” vss. 1-2
Proverbs 9:1-3
Many are familiar with the ode to the capable wife that is found in Proverbs 31 but some don’t like it very much. They claim that it perpetuates a patriarchal attitude toward women. That may be true, but it’s also true that Proverbs also implies that the source of wisdom in the home is the mother. In fact, in this passage Wisdom is clearly described in female terms, and she not only sets the table, she built the house. More than that, she butchered the animals and produced the wine for the meal! She does it all! Obviously, even in the highly patriarchal Hebrew society, there was a sense that wisdom was a female trait. Among the Greeks the word for wisdom was Sophia, definitely a feminine noun, and in early Christendom her name was chosen for the largest and most beautiful church in the world, Hagia Sopia, in Constantinople. How sad it is then, that the voices of women have been so regularly silenced in the Church. So it’s been a blessing in the last 75 years to begin to hear female pastors proclaiming the gospel as leaders in the church! Women have always been the voice of Wisdom–now they can be publicly heard.
Thought for the Day: Why is wisdom thought to be a female trait?
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