Monday, March 8, 2021

Luke 11:34-35/Matthew 23:37-39 vs. “Wisdom Christology”: Sending of Envoys and Mother Imagery

  

Motif 14—Sending of envoys. The data indicate that the sending of prophetic emissaries is not a central part of the mythology to begin with. The emphasis is clearly on Wisdom’s role in communicating knowledge, not sending people to do it on her behalf. Even the three I have marked (as a concession to scholars that so often appeal to them) are far from convincing (some include Sir. 24:32-34, though it mentions nothing about intermediaries but explicitly sees Sophia as the one teaching). Proverbs 9:3-6 (“She has seen out her servants [δουλους] to call . . . ‘Come, eat of my bread’”) speaks of δουλοι who do not speak Wisdom’s message but rather invite people to a meal, where apparently Wisdom will do the talking. Wisdom 7:27 reads, “In every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God, and prophets.” This is the locus classicus for many scholars, but the emphasis here is not on how these “friends”/”prophets” are sent to other people to proclaim a message, but rather on Wisdom’s role in edifying them. Finally, some find the envoy motif in 2 Bar. 48:9 (“You give wisdom to the spheres so that they minister according to their positions”), but finding traces of sending is terribly strained here, and the passage deals with planetary bodies. In short, the evidence suggests “there was no pre-Christian Jewish motif of the goodness Sophia sending her envoys with revelation for man.” Rather, “in biblical-Jewish tradition it is God, not Wisdom, who sends prophets” (Luz, Ulrich. 2005. Matthew 21-28. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress, 159). Moreover, it is not clear that the speaker of 13:34b is even claiming to have sent the messengers in the first place, for they are reported as “having been sent” (τους απεσταλμενους) (perhaps a divine passive).

 

Motif 15—Mother imagery. Many scholars argue the feminine ορνις metaphor reflects the maternal aspect of Wisdom/Sophia. But is this valid? While Wisdom/Sophia is undoubtedly expressed as a feminine personification (grammatically and semantically), there is limited evidence for Wisdom/Sophia specifically as a mother. Proverbs 8:32 and Sir. 4:11 speaks of Wisdom’s “sons”; Wisdom is μητηρ (it continues, “like the wife of his youth she will welcome him,” undermining the maternal sense [Similarly Wis. 8:2]) in Sir. 15:2-4 and γενετις (“parent”) in Wis. 7:12; and Luke 7:25 speaks of Wisdom’s τεκνων. However, there are numerous cases where maternal references undermine identifying Wisdom/Sophia as a mother figure (Mack points to Philo to support the notion of “Weisheit als Mutter” [Conf. 49; Rer. 53; Cher. 49; QC 4.97], but it is doubtful that hypostatic Wisdom is in view here but rather knowledge in general or God’s possession of wisdom, for which Philo employs numerous metaphors). In Sir. 1:14, Wisdom/Sophia is present with the faithful in the womb of the mother and is not the mother herself. The wisdom passage of Bar. 3:9-4:4 contains no maternal references; only in the next oracle (4:5-5:5) does maternal imagery begin, but here Jerusalem—not Wisdom—is cast as mother (Scribal annotations in BAQ make clear that the wisdom portion ends at 4:4, as do modern commentators). In Wis. 7:1-7, the speaker distinguishes between the mother who gave him birth and wisdom that he sought and received after birth. The wisdom portion of 11Q5 21.11-17 (11Q5 here does not actually use the word חכםה, but Sir. 51:13-20 does insert σοφια) speaks of a lover and a wet-nurse, neither of which is one’s mother (Indeed, “I became ablaze for her, I would not av[e]rt my face. I stirred my soul for her and on her heights I was not calm. ‘My hand’ opened [. . . ] her nakedness” presumably does not refer to the wisdom-seeker’s mother. Sirach 51:19-20 LXX downplays this language). In multiple places in 4 Ezra 5.46-47, 50-51, a human mother is in view, but never associated in any way with Wisdom. Finally, 2 Bar. 48:15-18 emphasizes that neither Wisdom/Sophia nor a mother (and the two are not equated) truly beings one into existence, but rather God. The evidence that GLuke’s ορνις necessarily reflects the maternity of Wisdom/Sophia is, upon inspection, unconvincing. (Gregory R. Lanier, Old Testament Conceptual Metaphors and the Christology of Luke’s Gospel [Library of New Testament Studies 591; London: T&T Clark, 2020], 138-39)