WISDOM IS A WOMAN: The Canonical Metaphor of Lady Wisdom of Proverbs 1-9 Understood in Light of Theological Aesthetic

The intent of this study is to understand how the metaphor WISDOM IS A WOMAN provides for the apprehension of wisdom which in turn enlightens our understanding of the LORD himself. The study is divided in two segments. The first contends with methodological, definitional and cultural obstacles and proffers necessary corrections. The second portion of the study is concerned with appreciating the formal depth of feminine personification in Prov 1-9 and the way that personification provides for transport toward the ultimate beauty of the Trinitarian life expressed in Jesus Christ.;After a summary explanation of shortcomings in traditional definitions and models, stable definition and methodology of metaphor are provided via recent developments in Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Conceptual Blending. By understanding metaphor as a conceptual device used to help humans 'obtain scale' on abstract, complex, or otherwise difficult concepts we are able to see the appearances of feminine personification in Prov 1-9 not as disparate and disjointed but as a complex but meaningful blend of source categories. Through the study of feminine imagery in Prov 1-9 what emerges is a an integrated activation of canonical metaphors drawn from Torah, Prophets, and Writings that highlights the values of fidelity and gendered desire as the key metaphorical entailments in Prov 1-9.;Next, research from Ian McGilchrist, among others, suggests that wisdom is an end and manner of reflection that may not be possible for the modern West. Wisdom requires full cooperation between both hemispheres of the brain as a deeply inter-subjective and aesthetic experience. Due to the West's stereotypical disregard for right-hemisphere modes, questions of ultimate meaning are precluded by the demands of detachment and objective materialism. By way of replacement, Theological Aesthetics forms an ideal framework for the consideration of wisdom because it provides for inter-subjectivity through right subject to subject placement. It provides for the balance of right and left hemispheric modes of thought by demonstrating that faith and reason cooperate and interpenetrate one another. Finally, it anchors and defines beauty through the objective and subjective reality of Jesus Christ.;The presentation for Lady Wisdom in Prov 1-4 aims at generating an understanding of and desire for parental and covenantal wisdom via paradox linking the vaunted depiction of divine and covenantal Lady Wisdom in the Prophets with the familiar, personal and protective characterizations of the young man's faithful wife. In Prov 5-6 the Strange Woman provides a foil for the 'wife of your youth' that illustrates the disparity of outcomes for the youth based upon a blend of metaphors and allusions for marital and covenant fidelity drawn largely from a blend of allusions to the prophetic metaphor of MARRIAGE IS COVENANT / IDOLATRY IS ADULTERY. In Prov 7-9 the characterization, invitation, and destination associated with Lady Wisdom and the Strange Woman echoes the foil in Prov 5-6 and demonstrates that fidelity to divine covenant and human relationship is the ultimate criterion for discerning wisdom. The Strange Woman through allusion to Judges 5 is evoked as a divine judgment equated with dissipation of death, where the characterization of Lady Wisdom continues only to expand and deepen in beauty and blessing. Womanhood is used as a source/input category for Lady Wisdom to highlight the key domains of relational, marital and covenant fidelity, while allowing for the fusion of desire, obedience and blessing. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus is the apex of divine revelation and the point to which all creation and history lean. Points wherein Lady Wisdom bears similarity to YHWH or to human attempts to please YHWH, necessarily produce an image that is a reflection of the person of Jesus Christ. It is not that Jesus looks like Lady Wisdom. It is that Lady Wisdom reflects the substance of the triune God demonstrated in Jesus: in his role as prophetic mediator, his divine person, his role as personal protector and his paradoxical identity as God made man.