Wisdom and the Whore in Proverbs 1-9

The two outstanding characteristics of the Proverbs with which I associate my childhood, neither legitimate but both having a pervasive influence in my surrounding circles, are fragmentation and moralism. The former of which gave rise to the latter: as long as the individual proverbs were seen as disconnected and de-contextualized, that is, as long as they were seen as a series of random thoughts, it was easy to make such character qualities as honesty, industry, and diligence the foundation and fountainhead of the Christian life. When will God be pleased with me? When I am honest and industrious. How do I encounter God’s blessings? By being honest and industrious. And so the reasoning ran. The more foundational question, “How can I, a depraved sinner, hope to become honest and industrious?”, if acknowledged at all, was glibly passed off with an exhortation to try harder. I found all of this exceedingly confusing, as it appeared to contradict everything that was said when one was speaking of the gospel – but considering it a necessary and appropriate shift when dealing with a corpus of “practical” material, I managed by compartmentalizing my conception of Christianity to muddle along without serious reservations, albeit equally without any precision of thought concerning justification, sanctification, and the relationship between the two.

In more recent readings of the Proverbs, I have been struck with the well-crafted and unified structure of the first nine chapters, together with the contextualizing effects that this foundational introduction must have on the following proverbs compiled in the remainder of the book. A simple recognition of some of the themes which run throughout the whole of this portion will no doubt serve to facilitate both a more accurate conception of the book as a whole, and as well our confidence to understand accurately the individual proverbs to which the remainder of the book is largely given.

From the outset, a cursory reading of the first nine chapters of the Proverbs will leave us with the impression that more is at stake here than the temporal blessings which will naturally arise from a prudent lifestyle. There are here dealt with two mutually exclusive and utterly opposed classes of men: the wise, who will “inherit glory” (Proverbs 3:35); and the fools, who are under the curse of God (Proverbs 3:33). The path of the wise is initially entered only through trust in the God of Israel (Proverbs 3:5-6); and it is specifically in the context of obedience to the instruction of covenant parents, who are faithful to teach their children the laws of the Lord, that a child is commanded to follow the ways of righteousness and wisdom (Proverbs 1:8; 2:1-6; 3:1-4; 4:1-7; 5:1-2; 7:20-23). The covenant child is constantly exhorted, in these chapters, to follow the paths of righteousness, by trusting the Lord, and in opposition to a great array of deceptive and counterfeit pleasures and temptations. In this context of the all-important struggle to remain faithful to the covenant, through trusting in the Lord and availing oneself of his means of grace, two great characters emerge, a mighty protagonist and a powerfully deceptive antagonist, locked in an intense struggle over the souls of men. However, the protagonist will clearly prevail, favoring with everlasting joy, peace, and fellowship with God those who respond to her call; whereas the antagonist will ultimately perish in hell together with those who have been deceived by her. These two central characters of Proverbs 1-9 are referred to as “Wisdom,” and the “Strange Woman,” that is, the Prostitute.

How are we to understand, in the first place, this “strange woman”? We see her in 2:16-19 opposing the work of Wisdom by drawing men into paths which forsake the covenant, and lead to death – even eternal death, so that they will never know life again. In 5:3-14, she is again enticing men with deceptive pleasantries; but again, the end of them is eternal death and hell. 6:24-32 finds her in direct opposition to God’s law; so that, if one forsakes the law for her beauty, he will be burned with fire and destroy his own soul. In 7:4-27, she is again described as one opposed to Wisdom, who offers pleasant things to the fools, who do not understand that eternal death is the final outcome of her illicit sweets. Finally, 9:18 finds her lauding the pleasures of stolen bread, and masking the fact that her guests are the inhabitants of hell. Now, I would suggest, for three reasons, that the intention of Solomon here does not extend merely to a prostitute on the streets, but looks beyond that concrete example to embrace the reality that motivates physical prostitution as well as every other deceptive pleasure which sets itself against God’s covenant of grace. First is the pervasiveness of the Strange Woman’s presence. Many other deceitful pleasures surface here and there (pride, greediness, laziness, etc.) throughout this passage, but her presence is constantly recurring, and not just briefly, but with elaborate descriptions of her methodologies and enticements appended. Second is the eternal, reality-embracing settings within which she is portrayed. Whenever she is mentioned, she is said to lead to hell, eternal death, and the point of no return or forgiveness, to have her abode with the dead in hell, and so on. She is portrayed as being on every street corner, enticing foolish men, something which could not properly be said of any single person that Solomon is remembering, or even of the entire collection of the world’s prostitutes as a whole. Third, she is always set off in contrast with Wisdom, in passages in which it is impossible that “wisdom” should be taken in a non-personified sense. In other words, if “Wisdom” is portrayed as a person whose presence pervades the world of mankind, and if the “Strange Woman,” is frequently used as the opposing idea to “Wisdom,” then the “Strange Woman” must similarly be a personification, and not a mere solitary person. At this point it is no large step to see in her the entire world system, in bondage to Satan, opposed to God, and leading men away from God through the offering of deceptive enticements. In summary, the Strange Woman must be the great Whore, elsewhere called Babylon the Great (Revelation 18:1-19:2).

Now then, how are we to understand this personified “Wisdom”? How we answer this question must ultimately have tremendous impact on how we understand the book of Proverbs. But fortunately, we are not left without further suggestive scriptural witness. If this Wisdom appears to men, calling them after God, and contains in herself the true blessings of the gospel – righteousness, favor with God, etc. – in which light she is indeed portrayed in the introduction to Proverbs; then we must ask, is there any other scripture which views wisdom in this particular manner, and which gives further instruction as to how we might understand the figure? And, having asked that question, we cannot help but be struck by I Corinthians 1:30. Now it is clear in any translation that Christ has become to us wisdom – our first point of correspondence; what some translations obscure, however, is that the first subject in the list, “wisdom,” is set apart by the Greek grammar as the outstanding subject of which the following three are actually explications: a good translation might read something like, “But of [God] you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God – even righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Now, this is exactly the portrayal of the Proverbs personification – Wisdom from God who contains in herself the true blessings of the gospel. Is this not Christ?

Furthermore, the longer descriptions of the Wisdom are saturated with characteristics that are elsewhere in scriptures attributed to Christ: Wisdom, as Christ, is pictured as standing in the streets calling out to sinners to come and be saved; and to those who respond, the gift of the Spirit is promised (Proverbs 1:20-23; John 7:37-39). Wisdom, as Christ, is seen laughing at the destruction of her enemies (Proverbs 1:25-28; Psalm 2:1-12). Wisdom, as Christ, is pictured as being the “sister” (in the appropriate gender for the feminine noun personified) or kinsman/brother of the true people of God (Proverbs 7:4; Hebrews 2:11-12); Wisdom, as Christ, is said to have prepared a feast for the people of God (Proverbs 9:2-6; Revelation 19:6-9); and to have prepared for them a perfect dwelling place (Proverbs 9:1; John 14:1-3). In sum, the similarity between the attributes of Christ and the Wisdom of Proverbs is striking, to say the least.

Even beyond this striking coincidence of description, Wisdom is also pictured in the introduction to Proverbs as doing things and being things which are ultimately impossible of anyone other than Christ. Some of the descriptions of her simply could not have been appropriately attached to a personification of a mere abstraction of wisdom; and hence the personification must be none other than Christ himself. Some of these things are as follows: Wisdom is said to give eternal peace, grace, glory, and the rewards of righteousness (Proverbs 3:16-17; 4:9; 8:20-21); she is said to be the underlying power back of all earthly rulers (Proverbs 8:15-16); she is said to be the eternal delight of the Father (Proverbs 8:30); the co-Creator of the world (Proverbs 8:27-31); eternally existent and eternally fathered by God (Proverbs 8:22-26); the one who is the Tree of Life to those who possess her (Proverbs 3:18); and in fact Life itself (Proverbs 4:13)! In short, the personification of “Wisdom” in Proverbs 1-9 must hold forth to us the person of Christ and no one else. He is the mighty protagonist who is deceitfully opposed by the great Whore, known here as the “Strange Woman.”

Hence, the beginning, foundational chapters of Proverbs lay out a scenario that must inform all of our subsequent interpretations of the Proverbs. In this all-clarifying scenario we see Christ calling out to the fools to place their trust in him, which is the foundational act which constitutes one as part of the set of the righteous, and is the beginning of the life which ends in eternal joy and peace with God. The evil protagonist lauds the immediate gratification of the deceptive, sinful pleasures of rebellion, which are opposed to faith in Christ, covenant faithfulness, and a life which will be blessed by God, and which will issue forth in eternal destruction. In the end, all who are seduced by this evil, yet seductively beautiful whore, will know the destruction and wrath of God, and Christ will laugh at them; but all those who have chosen him instead he will satisfy with eternal feasting and joy in the presence of God.

The remainder of the book of Proverbs, seen in this light, is vested with the sobering reality of eternal destiny. Faith in God is declared as the first and fundamental means of appropriating the Wisdom from God and becoming righteous. And subsequently, a life of perseverance in true wisdom, righteousness, and godliness is enjoined. There are many deceptive pleasures, which seek to make shipwreck of those having professed faith in God; Solomon lays out many of these earthly deceptions – pride, self-reliance, a quick temper, laziness, gluttony, excessive love of wine, love of money, and so on – together with a description of their ultimate end, and exhorts the people of God to follow the ways of Wisdom, that is, the ways of Christ, instead. Hence, the book of Proverbs is a profoundly helpful and practical book. It gives us clear instruction on what the life of wisdom and righteousness – what the Christ-life – looks like in day-to-day living; and it gives intense motivation to pursue the Christ-life, persevering in true faith, by laying out the ultimate destinies of these two utterly opposed classes of people: the wicked, lovers of the Strange Woman; and the righteous, lovers of Christ, who has become to us Wisdom from God.