Q. Why are wisdom and folly always represented as feminine in books like Proverbs, Wisdom of Solomon, and Sirach? Isn’t that a case of the Bible being sexist?
A. Your question highlights the recurring use of the pronouns ‘she’ and ‘her’ and the depiction of wisdom and folly as two contrasting women who figure prominently in the books you mentioned. For example:
“She [wisdom] is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed” (Prov 3:15, 18).
“Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing (Prov 9:1, 13).
“[Wisdom] hastens to make herself known to those who desire her” (Wis 6:13).
To fear the Lord is wisdom’s full measure; she inebriates people with her fruits; she fills their whole house with desirable goods and their storehouses with her produce (Sir 1:16-17).
In these and many other passages, wisdom and folly are represented by she and not he. Why is that? Why is wisdom portrayed as a virtuous woman and folly as a harlot, rather than as a godly gentleman and an adulterer?
This is an example of the Bible’s use of personification––a literary device that attributes human qualities to nonhuman objects or abstract ideas (e.g., Isa 55:12: “the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands”). Wisdom and folly in these passages are not actual persons, but are abstract qualities represented in human form as a means of animating and intensifying their appeal. More on that in a moment. Still, why is it she and not he?
On a linguistic level, there is a grammatical issue on display here. Both ‘wisdom’ and ‘folly’ are feminine nouns in the Bible’s original languages, with the further effect that the pronouns assigned to these words will be ‘she’ and ‘her’ and not ‘he’ and ‘him.’ This is purely a matter of grammatical concord, of pronouns corresponding to the gender of their antecedents. (To clarify, all nouns in languages like Hebrew, Greek, Spanish, German, and French, unlike most nouns in English, are classified by gender for reasons of linguistic structure, with no necessary biological implications. That wisdom and folly are feminine nouns in Hebrew and Greek does not imply that these qualities apply more to women than to men. Grammatical conventions of this sort have nothing to do with gender stereotyping.)
On a deeper level, it is possible that the personified mystique of sexual attraction might factor here. This is especially fitting in books that make their appeal in language borrowed from a father’s imploring his sons to incline their hearts toward wisdom and the Lord (so all of Prov 1–9). In a properly ordered world, by the Creator’s design, nothing quite charms the heart of a young man like an attractive woman. The feminine may be chosen to heighten the element of appeal, inviting readers and hearers to fall in love with Chaste Lady Wisdom, who offers life and blessing, not Loose Lady Folly, who promises pleasure but delivers death (see Prov 2:16-19; 5:1-23; 6:20-35; 7:1-27; 9:1-18).
In this connection, there’s a reason why modern advertisers use powerfully attractive women to sell everything from tools to trucks to toothpaste. Apparently it works. But what works in the natural realm of sensual enticement can also work in the spiritual realm of godly desire. What better way to appeal to impressionable hearts than by extolling wisdom in terms of a compellingly attractive virtuous woman, who “inebriates people with her fruits” and “fills their whole house with desirable goods” (Sir 1:16-17), and exposing folly as the superficial allurement of a seductive streetwalker whose lips “drip honey” but who in the end is “sharp as a two-edged sword” (Prov 5:3-4). (Wise women and wise men will take note, as will parents of young men and young women.)
A final clarification. This fascinating biblical phenomenon does not preclude the Bible’s referring to the man Jesus as the quintessence of wisdom and the antithesis of folly (cf. Matt 11:18-19; Luke 11:49; 1 Cor 1:24, 30; Col 2:3; Rev 5:12). That Jesus embodies the finest virtues of Lady Wisdom does not diminish or compromise his masculinity. Related, it would be interpretively naïve and mistaken to suggest that the Bible’s feminine portrayal of wisdom and folly directly informs the current cultural discussions on gender identity, or that inferences may be drawn from such usage about the relative status and roles of women and men. The world is divided into those who fear the Lord and are wise and those who refuse to fear the Lord and are foolish, without specification of biological gender in either case.
This question was answered by Dr. Vern Steiner, president of the Emmaus Institute for Biblical Studies. For more information, visit www.emmausinstitute.net.
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