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Sophia/Wisdom/Jesus/God in the First Three Centuries CE

A Bible and Beyond Discussion

Monday, August 15, 2022
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Presenter: Dr. Hal Taussig
Host: Shirley Paulson, PhD

Sophia/Wisdom/Jesus/God in the First Three Centuries CE

The key character of Sophia/Wisdom in the development of Jesus peoples of the first two hundred years of the Common Era, the development of Second Temple Judaism, and initial development Rabbinic Judaism are the extraordinary dimensions of this Monday Bible and Beyond Discussion. We’ll be looking at a complicated set of documents in the following order of importance:

  • I Corinthians 1:18-2:9 with special emphasis on 2:6-8
  • (Letter of) James 3:13-18
  • Luke 7: 31-35
  • Gospel of Matthew 11:25-30
  • Proverbs 1
  • Proverbs 8
  • Ecclesiasticus 24
  • Wisdom of Solomon 7-11

All of these texts are in a Christian Bible of one kind or another.  All of the I Corinthians, James, Luke, Matthew, and Proverbs are in all Christian Bibles, and Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible. The texts in Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom of Solomon are in all Roman Catholic Bibles.

We will study passages from these books that include the character of Wisdom/Sophia.  She is a divine female character who descends from God to work with humans.  In a number of Jesus peoples of the first two centuries, this character of Wisdom/Sophia is associated with Jesus himself, although in other Jesus peoples writings of the first two centuries Jesus and Wisdom/Sophia are not associated with one another.

Links to online texts used in this Discussion:

I Corinthians 1:18-2:9 with special emphasis on 2:6-8; (Letter of) James 3:13-18; Luke 7: 31-35; Gospel of Matthew 11:25-30; Proverbs 1; Proverbs 8; Ecclesiasticus 24; Wisdom of Solomon 7-11