Restoration Quarterly 35.3 (1993) 147-158
Copyright © 1993 by Restoration
Quarterly, cited with permission.
"Wise Women" or Wisdom
Woman?
A Biblical Study of Women's
Roles1
MICHAEL
S. MOORE
Scholars remain divided today over the origin
and identity of the
Wisdom
Woman in Prov. 1-9. Many roads run back to her door through
mythological,2
sapiential,3 apocalyptic,4 rabbinic5 and early
Christian6 circles
of
tradition. Attempts to pursue her prior to the book of Proverbs remain
difficult,
a problem for which at least four solutions have been proposed.
[1] This is a revision of a
paper read to the Hebrew and Cognate Literature section
at
the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature,
2
The myth of the Sybil at
utterances,
animates pagan (Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.132) and early Christian sources
(Herm.
Vis. 1.2.2-2.4.1). At Nag Hammadi, Sophia appears as a goddess-figure in Ap.
John 8.20; 9.25-10.19;
23.21-35; 28.11-21; Hyp. Arch. 94.29-34; 95.18-31; Orig.
World 98.13; 112.1-9; Gos.
Eg. 57.1-4; 69.3; Eugnostos 77.4-6 (divine consort);
81.23-83.1;
88.6; Soph. Jes. Chr. 101.16; 102.13; 114.15 ("mother of the
universe").
For
further study, see Pheme Perkins, "Sophia as Goddess in the Nag Hammadi
Codices,"
Images of the Feminine in Gnosticism, Karen King, ed. (
Fortress,
1988).
3
See Sir 1:4-20;
I'
8:1-21; 9:9-11; 10:1-21. See also Jdt:
Christian
perspective appear in M. Goulder, "Sophia in 1 Corinthians," NTS
37
(1991):
516-534; and P. Lampe, "Theological Wisdom and the 'Word about the
Cross': The Rhetorical
Scheme in 1 Cor. 1-4," Inter 44 (1990): 111-131.
4
See Sib. Or. Prologue 30-49; 2.1-5; 3.1-7, 809-829; 7.150-162; 11.315-324;
Herm.
Vis.
2.4.1 (where he sibylla becomes he ekklesia). At Nag Hammadi, see
1 Apoc. Jas.
35.7; 36.6-8; Great Pow. 44.19-20.
5
On the symbolic role of Rachel as "mother" in
sources
cited by Yael Levin, "The Woman of Valor in Jewish Ritual (Prov.
31:1-31),"
Beth Mikra 31 (1986): 339-347 (Hebrew).
6
On the symbolic background to the cult of Mary, see Marina Warner, Alone
of
All her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (
House,
1976); and Geoffrey Ashe, The Virgin (
1976).
148
RESTORATION
QUARTERLY
First, some see an indigenously Hebrew goddess
beneath the surface of
Prov.
1-9, hypothesizing this goddess to have been a vigorous participant in a
quasi-Canaanite
pantheon in prehistoric Israel.7 More than mere observer at
creation,
this goddess is herself Co-Creator,8 a divine being who, in the
words
of
Samuel Terrien, is no less than "mediatrix" of the divine
"presence."9
Demythologized
of her power by monotheistic Israelites, she now survives in
the
Hebrew Bible as a shadow of her former self.
Second, some agree with the essentials of this
goddess theory but look
outside
Proponents
of this school compare the Wisdom Woman in Proverbs to Inanna
in
a
polytheistic Yahwism in 5th century Egypt13 and 9th century Sinai14
are
7 This is the extreme position of Bernhard Lang, Wisdom and
the Book of
Proverbs: An Israelite Goddess Redefined (New York: Pilgrim, 1986), pp.126-131.
8 See Kathleen O'Connor, The Wisdom Literature (
Glazier, 1988), p. 83.
9
Samuel Terrien, The Elusive Presence: Toward a New Biblical Theology
(San
Francisco: Harper and Row, 1978), p. 357.
10
See H. Donner, "Die religionsgeschichtlichen Ürsprunge von Sprüche
8,"
Zeitschrift
Für Aegyptische Sprache und Altertumkunde 82 (1958): 8-18; C. Bauer-
Kayatz,
Studien zu Proverbien 1-9 (WMANT 22; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener,
1966);
G. von Rad, Wisdom in Israel (Nashville: Abingdon, 1972), pp. 153-155;
J. S.
Kloppenborg, "Isis
and Sophia in the Book of Wisdom, "HTR 75 (1982): 57-84.
11
See W. F. Albright, "The Goddess of Life and Wisdom," American Journal
of
Semitic Languages
36 (1919/20): 258-294; ibid., "Some Canaanite-Phoenician
Somces
of Hebrew Wisdom," VTSup 3 (1955): 1-45; G. Boström, Proverbiastudien:
die
Weisheit und das fremde Weib in Sprüche 1-9 (Lunds Universitets Arsskrift 30, 3;
12
This and other possible Greek parallels are cited by Martin Hengel, Judaism
and Hellenism (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974), pp. 153-154.
13
Note the compound name 'Anatyahu in A. Cowley, Aramaic Papyri of the
Fifth
Century BC
(Osnabrock: Otto Zeller; repr. of Oxford: Clarendon, 1923) 44.3.
Claudia
Camp questions whether the entity designated "precious" to the gods
and
"exalted"
by the "lord of holiness" in the Aramaic version of Ahiqar (Cowley,
line 95)
is,
in fact, the "wisdom" mentioned three lines above it (line 92); but
it is difficult to
imagine
something else as the source for these descriptions; see Claudia Camp,
Wisdom
and the Feminine in the Book of Proverbs (Sheffield: Almond, 1985), p. 293.
14
The Kuntillet 'Ajrud inscription discovered in the Sinai has been translated
"To
Yahweh of Samaria and his A/asherah." The controversy centers on whether
to
capitalize
"A/asherah." See Z. Meshel, "Did Yahweh Have a Consort?"
BAR 5/2
(1979):
30; and Saul Olyan, Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in
MOORE/”WISE
WOMEN" OR WlSDOM WOMAN?
149
often
cited as corroborating evidence.15 Intramural debates within this
camp
tend
to focus on whether the relationship of this goddess to the Wisdom
Woman
is organic and close, or inorganic and distant.16
Third, many believe her merely to be
an extension, or "hypostasis" of
the
one true God, much like the Shekinah, the Metatron, or the Memra of
Yahweh.17
This view represents a continued resistance to radical questions
about
the plausibility, antiquity, and homogeneity of monotheism in ancient
Israel.18
Fourth, questions about origins are
for many today at least subsidiary,
and
at most irrelevant, to questions of literary structure and semiotic function.
Thus
the Wisdom Woman is a personification or, more technically, a
metaphorical
symbol for the wisdom tradition itself, brilliantly conceived and
structurally
woven into the "book" of Proverbs in order to unify the several
anthologies
which make up this "book" into a coherent whole.19
As debates go, this one seems more
productive than most. Proponents
of
the various goddess hypotheses have forced Old Testament scholars to
reassess
the reality of Israelite religion in both its official and its popular
forms,
and this, at least, is good.20 Recent advances in literary criticism
also
15 See Mark Smith, The
Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities
of Ancient
J.
C. de Moor, The Rise of Yahwism: The Roots
of Israelite Monotheism (
16 For a discussion, see Tikva Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddesses:
Women, Culture, and the
Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth (
Press, 1992), pp.
179-183.
17
On Shekinah, see m. 'Abot 3:2; b. Yoma 9b; b. Ber. 6a; b. B. Bat. 25a. On
Memra, see m. Sanh. 6:4. On Me!atron, see 3 Enoch 1:4; 3:1-2 and passim.
18 See Helmer Ringgren, Word
and Wisdom (
Boktryckeri,
1947; M. Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism,
pp. 153-156. For more recent
discussions,
see Lang, Wisdom, 137-140; Camp, Wisdom and the Feminine, pp. 34-36;
Frymer-Kensky, Wake of the Goddesses, pp. 83-183.
19 See Camp, Wisdom and the Feminine, pp. 71-77,
179-222; and Gale A. Yee,
"An
Analysis of Prov. 8:22-31 According to Style and Structure," ZAW 94
(1982):
58-66;
ibid., "'I Have Perf1.uned My Bed with Myrrh ': The Foreign Woman Issa
zara
in Proverbs 1-9,"JSOT 43 (1989): 53-68.
20 On goddess religion generally, see Susanne Heine, Christianity
and the
Goddesses: Systematic
Criticism of a Feminist Theology (London: SCM, 1988);
Larry
Hurtado, ed., Goddesses in Religions and
Modern Debate (
Studies
in Religion 1;
between
official and popular religion when discussing Israelite culture, see T. J.
Lewis,
Cults of the Dead in Ancient
1989), pp. 5-34.
150 RESTORATION
QUARTERLY
enable
us to read the book of Proverbs as something other than a jumbled
assortment
of disconnected sentence--statements.21
Theologically speaking, the
importance of the contemporary debate
over
women's roles in both church and society makes the study of all the
biblical
texts, not just the New Testament texts attributed to Paul, imperative.
The
Old Testament has a contribution to make to this discussion, too, a
contribution
we may choose to ignore only to our peril.22
In the ancient world "wise
women" enact a number of culturally
diverse
and socially important roles.23 The prologue to the Sybilline
Oracles,
for
example, lists no less than ten Sybils by name, "wise women" whose
roots
run
deep into the soil of ancient belief and practice.24 Oliver Gurney
notes at
least
thirteen (and perhaps as many as thirty-two) of these specialists by name
in
the Hittite literature.25
This
paper will reflect on the portrayal of actual "wise women" in
Anatolia
and
anthropological
rather than a mythological, historical, or purely literary
perspective.
It reopens the comparative question about origins by drawing
more
attention to the human rather than the divine elements which structure,
mediate,
and animate their respective environmental matrices.
Three questions will structure the
following discussion. First, what
functional
roles do wise women play in ancient
which
we have the most evidence of her activity? Second, what functional
roles
do wise women play in
most
interested? Finally, what affinities, if any, exist between the functional
21 Camp's Wisdom and the
Feminine is a major step forward.
22
For further study of the American social context, see the incisive history of
John
D'Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, Intimate
Matters: A History of Sexuality in
23 For an introduction to the activities of female
magico-religious specialists in
the
ancient Near East generally, see H. B. Huffmon, "Prophecy in the Ancient
Near
East,"
IDBSup: 697-700. For the view that
"wise women" are indigenous to
Minor,
not
AllaiturafJ(o)i und
verwandte Texte (AOAT
31; Kevelaer: Butzon und Bercker,
1978), pp. 22-23.
24 Sib. Or. Prologue 30-49.
25 O. R. Gurney, Some
Aspects of Hittite Religion (
1977),
p. 45. For a comprehensive set of transcribed texts about Anatolian wise
women,
see V. Haas and I. Wegner, Die Rituale
der Beschworerinnen SALSU.GI
(Corpus
der Hurritischen Sprachdenkmaler I/5; Roma: Multigrafica Editrice, 1988),
pp. 1-4.
MOORE/”WISE WOMEN"
OR WISDOM WOMAN? 151
roles
these specialists play in the real world and the imaginary literary world
empowering
the Wisdom Woman in Proverbs 1-9?
Wise Woman in
The Anatolian "wise woman"
enacts a wide variety of roles. Her
presence
is required at most rites of passage and other unexpected points of
crisis
(like plague, war, royal illness, or other calamity).26
As exorcist she is responsible for freeing clients from the demons of
the
Netherworld. This is one of her most important roles. The wise woman
Allaiturah(h)i
of Mukis in northern
name: the spell which is called
"paralysis"
the "thing which sticks to the
mouth"
the "fear before the lion,"
the "terror before the snake."27
As incantation-reciter the wise woman is responsible for preserving,
interpreting,
and applying the myths of antiquity to the needs of real people.
Often
she accomplishes this by weaving the themes of a particular myth into
the
fabric of a purification ritual. It is difficult, at times, to tell whether she
is
talking
about the "release" of a god or hero in the imaginary world or the
"release"
of a suffering client in the real world.28
As purification priestess the wise woman is responsible for cleansing
clients
from impurity, whether it be caused by sin against the gods, by contact
with
a defiled substance, or by the diabolical spells of an evil sorcerer. This is
done
by washing clients with water, anointing them with salves, or releasing
them
from demons through the construction and destruction of homeopathic
images.29
Mastigga, a wise woman from
Kizzuwatna, uses both animate and
inanimate
images in a complex ritual to resolve domestic conflict.30 To
identify
the evil which poisons her clients she takes soft wax and molds it
into
the shape of human tongues. Then she magically transfers the evil from
her
clients into these wax images by a series of incantations. After this, she
26 Gurney, Some Aspects
of Hittite Religion, pp. 44-63; Haas and Wegner, Die
Beschworerinnen, pp. 1-4.
27 Haas and Thiel, Die
Beschworungsrituale der Allaiturah(h)i, 104:4'-5';
146:47-48.
Other demons are listed in Haas and Wegner, Die
Beschworerinnen,
78:19'.
28
Haas and Thiel, Allaiturah(h)i, 140.
29 See M. Vieyra, "Le sorcier hittite," in Le monde du sorcier (Sources
Orientales 7; Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1966), pp. 105-106.
30 See ANET 350-351.
152
RESTORATION
QUARTERLY
burns
these contaminated images in fire in order to release her clients from
the
"evil of the tongue." Finally she brings in a sacrificial animal,
makes the
disputing
parties spit into its mouth, and slaughters the animal to make
doubly
sure the evil is removed. Thus, by means of both substitutionary and
expulsionary
magic, the wise woman resolves the dispute.
Two points need to be underlined
before the Hebrew tradition is
examined.
First, the Anatolian wise woman enacts many roles for many
reasons,
but fundamentally she is a mediator, a culturally recognized expert in
the
art of conflict resolution. Behind all the rituals, incantation, and
divinations,
the reason that kings and commoners come to her is their
fundamental
need to resolve disputes with warring enemies.
Second, homeopathic magic is
fundamentally based on the concept of
parallelism.
If an abstract evil can be transferred into a concrete image of clay
or
wax, then the action taken to deal with the image can simultaneously deal
with
the abstract evil which contaminates the image. To destroy, expel, or
curse
a homeopathic substitute is to destroy, expel, or curse the evil it
represents.
Parallelism lies at the heart of homeopathic magic.
Wise Women in
The Hebrew Bible preserves four
stories in which wise women play
major
roles in mediating disputes. This paper will focus on one of them. In
two
of these stories, the mediator in question is expressly called a "wise
woman,"
namely, the "wise woman" of Tekoa in 2 Samuel 14 and the "wise
woman"
of Abel in 2 Samuel 20.31 In 1 Samuel 25, Abigail enacts the role of
"wise
mediator" in the dispute between David and Nabal, though she is never
called
a "wise woman"32; whereas in 1 Samuel 28 a woman from
Endor,
familiar
with the professional art of necromancy, attempts to resolve a dispute
between
Saul and Samuel-a difficult task inasmuch as one of the parties to
this
dispute is already dead.33
In 2 Samuel 14 the family of David
is caught up in a crisis of
staggering
proportions. Amnon, David's son by Ahinoam, an Ephraimite
31 See J. Hoftijzer, "David and the Tekoite Woman,"
VI 20 (1970): 419-444;
C.
Camp, "The Wise Women of 2 Samuel: A Role Model of Women in Early
CBQ 43 (1981): 14-29.
32 P. Kyle McCarter thinks the affinities are strong enough to
read the story of
Abigail
intertextually with the story of the Tekoite woman; 2 Samuel (AB 9; Garden
City, NY: Doubleday, 1984), p. 345.
33 Andre Caquot thinks that an Israelite censor has deliberately
sanitized
1
Sam. 28 of its "original" homeopathic elements in "La divination
dans 1'ancien
universitaires de France, 1968), p. 100.
MOORE/”WISE
WOMEN” OR WISDOM WOMAN? 153
woman,
has brutally raped Tamar, David's daughter by Maacah, an Aramean
princess.34
Tamar's brother, Absalom, has murdered Amnon in retaliation.
Three
years have passed-uneasy, painful years-in which the conflict between
David
and Absalom has been allowed to fester.
Joab, David's general, realizes that
something has to be done, not only
because
this conflict has the potential to paralyze a family, but because it has
the
potential to paralyze a nation. So he does what other leaders do when
facing
crises like this: He hires a magico-religious specialist, in this case a
wise
woman from Tekoa, to resolve this conflict.35
A comparative anthropological
reading of this text proves fruitful on at
least
two levels.
First, it is significant that the
Tekoite woman chooses to work with a
type
of literary device Ulrich Simon calls a "juridical parable."36
Parables are
constructed
to parallel situations in the real world with situations in the
imaginary
world. Juridical parables specialize in reflecting instances where
justice
has been grossly miscarried. In 2 Samuel 20, for example, Nathan the
prophet
uses a juridical parable about a "little ewe lamb" to alert David to
Yahweh's
anger over the murder of Urlah.37
Like all parables, juridical
parables are based on the operative
principle
of analogical parallelism.38 When those who hear the parable
attempt
to resolve the conflict created within it, the intent is to effect real
change
in the real world. To put it another way, the action taken to resolve the
imaginary,
substitutionary situation has an immediate, operant effect on the
world
of the real situation. Juridical parables are, in substance, imaginary
homeopathic
images crafted by professional mediators in order to resolve real
conflict
in the real world.
34 Phyllis Trible calls this story "the royal rape of
Wisdom"; Texts of Terror
(Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), pp. 37-63.
35 R. Whybray argues that this story is about Joab's wisdom,
not that of the
Tekoite
woman (The Succession Narrative [
p.
59). J. Hoftijzer believes her to be a "capable," ordinary woman, yet
one of no
particular
socio-cultural status ("David and the Tekoite Woman": 444). Camp
discusses
her function in terms of political power in ancient Israelite communities
("Wise Women of 2 Samuel": 14-15).
36 U. Simon, "The Poor Man's Ewe Lamb: An Example of a
Juridical
Parable," Bib 48 (1967): 208.
37 Ibid.
38 See O. Eissfeldt, Der
Maschal im alten Testament (BZAW 24;
Topelmann,
1913), pp. 45-71. Haas and Wegner summarily describe the incantations
of the Anatolian wise woman as "analogical sayings" (Die Beschworerinnen, 3).
154
RESTORATION
QUARTERLY
The parable of the Tekoite woman is
a classic example of this.
Disguised
as a mourner, she tells David the story of a family, her family,
which
has become the victim of tragedy. She is a widow, survived by two
sons
to carry on the name of her husband. Yet one of her sons has killed his
brother
in a violent dispute. This in itself is tragic enough; yet the evil
unleashed
by this violence has begun to attract still more evil. Now the
woman's
clan is demanding that she surrender her remaining son to the
avenger
of blood and the canons of tribal justice.
The demands they make are
terrifying. First, they demand that the
"lifebreath"
(Heb. nepes) of the living son be
handed over as a substitute for
the
lifebreath of the dead son. Second, they demand the right to
"annihilate"
her
son's lifebreath altogether (and by proxy, that of her husband as well). In
other
words, they demand that the evil in their midst be removed by both
substitutionary
and expulsionary means.
To communicate the depth of her
dilemma the wise woman uses a
revealing
metaphor. She describes the clan's demands as an attempt to
"quench
my coal which is left." Rykle Borger has pointed out that this phrase
is
similar to an Akkadian phrase which describes a man without a family as
one
whose "cultic oven as gone out."39 Thus it does not seem
coincidental
that
the Hebrew word for "coal" in this text (gahelet) is also found in the
Isaianic
tradition in a passage mocking the use of cultic "coals" in
Babylonian
purification rites,40 or that the Akkadian word for "cultic
oven" is
a
standard fixture in neo-Assyrian exorcistic ritual.41
Then,
on the level of praxis the Tekoite woman enables David to
resolve
his conflict by leading him through a series' of careful maneuvers.
Like
her counterparts in
is
determined by her ability to secure the attention of and lead a client to the
point
of decision.
First, she lays out the problem in
the real world by constructing a
literary
homeopathic substitute for it in the imaginary world, namely, the
juridical
parable about the two sons. David's initial response to this parable is
noncommittal.
He tells her to go away, weakly promising to look into her
problem
at a later date. Her response to this brush-off is immediate and
39
40
Isa. 47:14.
41
See E. Reiner, Surpu: A Collection of
Sumerian and Akkadian Incantations
(AFO Beiheft 11;
p.
23; and G. Meier, Die assyrische
Beschworungssammlung Maqlu (AFO Beiheft
2;
MOORE/”WISE
WOMEN" OR WISDOM WOMAN?
155
pointed:
"Upon me, my lord 0 king, be the sin and upon the house of my
father,
and let the king and his throne be innocent!"42
This is the first time anyone has mentioned the
word "sin," plus the fact that
this
is the first time that anyone has even implied that "sin" might be at
the
root
of David's conflict The wise woman carefully introduces the concept of
"sin"
in the imaginary world because it is far too sensitive a matter to be dealt
with
in the real world-not yet Demonstrating her experience, she maneuvers
David
firmly enough to attract his attention, yet subtly enough to avoid direct
confrontation.
She does not yet say who might be responsible for this "sin";
she
simply notes its existence. Yet by offering to call it down upon herself
and
her family, she indirectly communicates to David the utter seriousness of
his
dilemma. The result of her first maneuver is not simply to secure David's
attention,
but also to raise his consciousness about the unresolved guilt which
divides
his family.
Accepting, then, her invitation to enter this
imaginary world, David
responds
to her first request with a stereotypical promise of royal assurance:
"If
anyone says anything to you, bring him to me and he will never touch you
again."43 By setting in
parallel the Hebrew verbs dabar ("to speak") and
naga'
("to touch, injure") David signals back to her that he, too,
understands
the
relationship between the world of words and the world of politics. He
knows
that the threatening words of the clan have a certain power to them.
Thus
he opens the door to the possibility that he might be willing to do
something
to check this power, though he still refuses to take direct action.
This reaction of David encourages the wise woman
to take a final,
crucial
step. She asks the king to speak a specific kind of word on her behalf:
a
royal oath, a word with enough power in it to protect her son's lifebreath
from
the avenger of blood. Finally, David gives in and pronounces this oath
of
protection in the name of Yahweh.44 Thus the Tekoite woman
skillfully
leads
David to decide whether the lifebreath of her last remaining son is more
important
than the clan's need to expel evil.
Having accomplished this, she moves swiftly to
apply David's
decision
in the imaginary world to the unresolved conflict still plaguing
in
the real world.
First, she warns David of the consequences of
indecision. By refusing
to
bring back his "banished one" from exile, David prohibits Absalom
from
enacting
his role as crown prince. Indeed, his indecision is fueling a climate
42 2 Sam. 14:9.
43 2
Sam. 14:10.
44 2 Sam. 14:11.
156 RESTORATION
QUARTERLY
in
which Absalom has become something of a "guilt offering" for Amnon.45
David
needs to realize how dangerous this course of action is and to make the
necessary
decision to bring him home.
Second, unless David makes the right decision,
havoc and chaos will
intensify
and his kingdom will be destroyed. Just as the death of the son in
the
imaginary world leads to disaster, so the death of Absalom in the real
world
has the same potential. The wise woman warns David of this by means
of
another revealing metaphor, one which portrays
poured
out on the earth, so that it cannot be gathered up again."46
This metaphor, like her earlier one about the
quenching of coals, seems
also
to have its roots in the technical language of the incantation literature. A
close
parallel can be found in a description of a mourning ritual at
the
legend of Kirtu, Kirtu becomes ill, calls his son Ilhu, and tells him not to
mourn
for him. This task he wishes to entrust to Thitmanat, because she is
well-practiced
in putting "her water in the field. ..the issues of her lifebreath
on
the heights."47 Most ritual texts at
in
images very similar to those used by the Tekoite woman.
In short, a master mediator is at work in this
text. When the wise
woman
accepts Joab's request to mediate this dispute, when she fashions a
juridical
parable, when she embellishes the parable with revealing metaphors
and
potent symbols, when she succeeds in inviting her client to enter this
imaginary
world and resolves the conflict which has hitherto paralyzed him,
she
stands squarely in the shadow of other mediators in the ancient Near East.
To
be sure, there is no trace of actual homeopathic magic in this text, just as
there
is no trace of such in the story of the encounter between Saul and the
woman
of Endor. The role of mediator, however, is common to both
traditions.
Wise Women and Wisdom
Woman
What, therefore, is the nature of the
relationship between the roles
enacted
by wise women in the real world and the Wisdom Woman in
Proverbs?
Space restrictions prevent presenting a full-blown analysis of
Proverbs
1-9 here, but a close reading of the poems in Proverbs 1, 8, and 9
45
this
word the king (makes) his banished one like an ‘asam by not bringing him
back."
Other
possible translations of this difficult text are discussed by McCarter, 2 Samuel,
pp. 340, 348.
46 2 Sam. 14:14.
47 See KTU 1.16.i.34-35, reading mmh as "her water."
from
an anthropological perspective reveals a character which is complex,
composite,
and highly stylized.48
In Proverbs 1:20-33 the Wisdom Woman is an angry
prophet who rails
against
her audience for rejecting her words and choosing panic, calamity,
and
anguish in their stead. She does not appear to be in a mediatorial mood.
Instead,
she is indignant and judgmental, pouring out on her audience
language
which seems much more at home in the thundering day-of-Yahweh
prophecies
than the relatively placid world of the scribes.
Another facet of her personality surfaces in
Proverbs 8:1-21. Here the
Wisdom
Woman is in a didactic mood, a cerebral professor who drops serene
couplets
of wisdom from her lips like polished pearls, dispassionately
offering
her message and herself to an eager audience of attentive male
students.49
Proverbs 8:22-36 expands and embellishes this role until the
Wisdom
Woman towers like a "goddess" over her "devotees." Still,
there is
no
trace of a mediatorial role here.
In the confrontation between the Wisdom Woman
and the Foolish
Woman
in Proverbs 9:1-18, there is a conflict of sorts between entrenched
enemies.
The Foolish Woman slavishly and diabolically imitates the Wisdom
Woman's
message and demeanor in a concentrated attempt to lure students
away.
But nowhere in this poem does the Wisdom Woman attempt to mediate
a
resolution to the conflict which separates them. Instead, this conflict is
portrayed
as an ancient, inevitable, and irresolvable dispute between cosmic
good
and cosmic evil. Only those destined for Sheol fail to recognize it as
such.
Conclusion
From a comparative perspective, therefore, there
seem to be few
genuine
affinities between the real world of the wise women and the literary
world
of the Wisdom Woman.
First, in the real world, wise women in Anatolia
and
some
kind of parallelistic technique in order to help clients resolve their
conflicts.
Whether one is comfortable with calling these techniques
48 Claus Westermann see these poems as didactic, abstract, and
rather late in
Wurzeln
der Weisheit: Die altesten Spruche
Vandenhoeck
und Ruprecht,
1990), p. 130, conclusions which are all sharply
challenged
by Michael V. Fox in his review of Wurzeln der Weisheit in JBL
111
(1992): 532.
49
The erotic element is picked up and elaborated by Sirach in Sir
51:13-21. For
further
study, see C. Deutsch, "The Sirach Acrostic: Confession and
Exhortation,"
ZAW 94 (1982): 400-409; and
R. Murphy, "Wisdom and Eros in Proverbs 1-9," CBQ
50(1988): 600-603.
158
RESTORATION QUARTERLY
"homeopathic"
or not, they are certainly "parallelistic." In the imaginary
world
of Proverbs 1-9, the Wisdom Woman speaks prophetically,
didactically,
and majestically to an all-male audience of diplomats and
scribes,
but there is no parallelism here, no parables-juridical or otherwise,
and
certainly no trace of homeopathic praxis.
Second, wise women in Anatolia and
conservative
when dealing with evil. As experienced professionals they
understand
well the need for discretion, indirection, and caution when dealing
with
complex human disputes, as well as with the unseen forces which were
almost
universally believed to have caused them. By contrast, the Wisdom
Woman
is direct and forthright, whether enacting a prophetic role
condemning
the foolish, a professorial role enlightening the ignorant, or a
divine
role recounting the mysteries of the universe.
Finally, there seems to be no real crisis at the
root of Proverbs 1-9, no
thorny
conflict, no bloody dispute at the center of this text. Wise women in
the
real world are professional mediators hired to resolve messy conflicts.
Theirs
is the world of human ambition and human pride. The Wisdom
Woman,
on the other hand, is animated by an imaginary world where dispute
is
marginal and conflict irresolvable. Hers is a world of scribes and sages, not
warriors.
In her world, "wisdom" seems less a real person than a timeless
ideal.
Consequently those who would look to scripture
for guidance
regarding
the role of women in the church today would better be served by
looking
to the roles wise women play in the real world as well as the
imaginary
portrait bequeathed us by
Whether
one or the other of these portrayals is primarily responsible for the
statements
attributed to Paul in Romans 16:1-2, 1 Timothy 2:8-15,
1
Corinthians 11:2-16, and 1 Corinthians 14:34-36 is a question which needs
to
be answered in the light of further study. Hopefully this study will be one
which
is canonically broad, culturally aware, historically accurate and
theologically
informed by all the relevant biblical texts, not just those left us
from
the first century AD.
This
material is cited with gracious permission from:
Restoration
Quarterly Corporation
www.restorationquarterly.org
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report any errors to Ted Hildebrandt at: