A typology of personified wisdom hymns

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Winter, 2004 by Nozomi Miura

The tabernacle or dwelling place of Wisdom motif is quite significant (Koester: 6-7). Ben Sira suggests that Yahweh directed Wisdom--who "sought a resting place" (v 7a), wondering "in whose territory" she should "abide" (v 7b)--to "make (her) dwelling in Jacob" (v 8a). That is to say, Wisdom, who originally pre-existed in heaven before Yahweh, came down to live among her people and, according to Yahweh's will, she dwelt among them. For Wisdom, Israel is her "inheritance" (v 8b) and she "makes her dwelling" there. The words "dwelling" (v 8a) and "to dwell" (v 8b), are clearly associated with "a tent" (tabernacle, v 10). The Tent is the Tabernacle or Dwelling that Yahweh commanded Moses to build in Exodus 25:8-9; 26:1-37. It is the place of divine revelation (Exod 25:27) and of Yahweh's presence among his chosen people (Exod 25:8; 29:45-46). Ben Sira's point is, then, quite apparent: just as Yahweh's presence in the Tabernacle assured his covenant faithfulness in the past, so Wisdom's presence in the Tabernacle again guarantees Yahweh's faithfulness for Israel. The dwelling of Wisdom was placed "in Jacob" (v 8), "the beloved city" of Jerusalem. Against the backdrop of the Sinai covenant motifs, Ben Sira totally reformulates those concepts in terms of Wisdom: the divine revelation (v 11, "in Jerusalem is my authority"), the faithfulness of Yahweh and the Election (v 12, "an honored people," "the portion of the Lord," "his heritage").

Also, Ben Sira presents Wisdom as a kind of "priestess figure," who finds her manifestation in the cult of this Tabernacle, which corresponds to the Jerusalem Temple. Wisdom's role--to be a more positive intercessor between Yahweh and his people--obviously overlaps the role of Moses (Exod 24:3-8; 15-18; 33:8-11; 34:34). The esteem for the priestess figure can be found in many places in Ben Sira (44:6-26; 50:1-21). Anchoring personified Wisdom in the specific Israelite tradition, Ben Sira presents her as a priestess who directs liturgical service (v 10, "In the Holy Tent, I ministered before him"). It is notable that Ben Sira identifies the Sinai motifs with the Zion motif. In biblical and post-biblical traditions, "Zion" means--quite elastically, however--Jerusalem in general, particularly the Temple mount, as the symbol of God's Dwelling (Davis: 131-32). Thus, the Sinai covenant motifs are re-located in Zion, simply making the identification between the two symbolic loci (cosmic mountain). While underscoring the Jewish tradition, Ben Sira stresses, through the motif of the tabernacle (Wisdom as dwelling), the connection made possible between the transcendent realm of divine dwelling and the immanent presence of Yahweh among the chosen people. In other words, Ben Sira's unique conflation of the creation and the Sinai motifs beautifully connects the cosmological dimension to the human world.

In the same Sinai motif, the remarkable development of personified Wisdom in Ben Sira is the identification of Wisdom with Torah. The identification of Wisdom and Torah is already found in Psalm 19:8-11 and Deuteronomy 4:5-8 (Blenkinsopp 1983:164; Murphy 1996:140), but Ben Sira's illustration further advances this identification. That Wisdom is the Torah of Israel is one of Ben Sira's emphatic convictions: the Wisdom of God, he insists, is revealed in Torah (v 23). In other words, Torah is the perfect embodiment of Wisdom. Wisdom becomes present and expresses herself fully in the entire Torah, among the people: Wisdom/Torah, thus, dwells among people. Although this is the only passage where the identification is explicitly asserted, the association of Wisdom with commandments can be found in several different places (1:11-30; 6:32-37; 15:1; 19:20; 21:6; 23:27). Since Ben Sira portrays Torah as "the book of the covenant of the Most High" (v 23), it is apparent that he refers to the whole Torah or Pentateuch (v 23b, "the law that Moses commanded us") (Murphy 1995: 227). The identification of Wisdom with Torah, through the image of Wisdom as dwelling among her people, underscores that the revelation of Yahweh took a substantial and real presence on earth in the form of Torah (Murphy 1995: 227). In a sense, along with the Priestly Tradition's re-interpretation of the Sinai covenant motifs, Ben Sira postulates his unique reconfiguration of the Deuteronomistic understanding of Torah in light of Wisdom, so that Torah--the sign of the Election and a free gift from Yahweh--can be endowed with a more universal, even cosmic, significance.