A Mother's Wisdom: The Virgin Mary in the Old Testament Wisdom Literature

Revelation 12

The connection between Mary and Eve is further strengthened by the Gospel references to Mary as "woman" (Jn. 2:4, Jn. 19:26). The most important New Testament reference to Mary as "woman" for our purposes is in Revelation 12:1-3, 5, and 9:

And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child...And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon...she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule the nations with a rode of iron...And the great red dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan.

This imagery is much like Wisdom 7:29. Both this verse and Revelation 12:1 include the sun and stars, and while the moon is not mentioned in Wisdom, there is a light to which Lady Wisdom is "found to be superior" or above, just as Mary had the moon at her feet. Wisdom 7 describes Lady Wisdom as excelling all the heavenly bodies. This shows that Mary is the Queen of Heaven and Earth and the most exalted of all creatures, even above the vast expanse of the cosmos (remember that Christ is not a creature, but the divine Creator). Also, in both Genesis and Revelation there is opposition between the "woman" and the serpent or dragon (Rev. 12:3). It is interesting that both words translate into the Hebrew word "nahash," which encompasses all crawling creatures from earthworms to dragons. ¹

Co-Redemptrix

This opposition between Mary and the "nahash" is such that, in a strictly qualified sense, Satan fears Mary more than he fears God. The devil objectively realizes the omnipotence of God, so being defeated by God should not come as a great surprise to him. But, in all his pride, Satan is astonished and bewildered in being crushed by the dainty foot of a humble handmaid of the Lord. Considering his own angelic nature, complete with a strength and intellect which objectively surpasses that of human beings, Satan is confounded by the grace of God enabling the humble Virgin Mary to tower over him and to thwart his conniving scheme to lure humanity to reject God as he did. De Montfort even says that the demons "...fear one of [Mary's] sighs for a soul more than the prayers of all the saints, and one of her threats against them more than all other torments." ² Our Lady, in bringing forth our Redeemer who crushes the head of Satan (Gen. 3:15) as well as in her following Christ all the way to the Cross (Jn. 19:25-27), manifests her role as Co-Redemptrix. ³ The Blessed Mother played an infinitely smaller though still significant and necessary role (by the will of God, not in an absolute sense) in our Redemption by suffering with and under Her Son as she witnessed His brutal execution. This reflects the prophecy of Simeon in Luke 2:35 in which he says to Mary, "...a sword will pierce through your own soul also" (see also Col. 1:24 and 1 Cor. 3:9).

Based on this abundant evidence, it is undeniable that the last two verses of Wisdom 7 encapsulate the epic battles between the Blessed Virgin Mary and Satan which form the bookends of Divine Revelation and all of Salvation History. This also shows emphatically that Mary is the "seal between the Old Testament and the New Testament," which is further highlighted by the fact that Wisdom was the last book of the Old Testament canon to be written. ⁴Perhaps even more astounding is that in this analysis of Wisdom 7, we have seen traces of every single major Marian doctrine and dogma: Mother of God, Perpetual Virginity, Immaculate Conception, Assumption, Queen of Heaven and Earth, Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix, and Advocate.

Part III: The Deposit of Faith

Chapter 4:Canon of Scripture

Wisdom 7's Background and Immediate Context

In its literal context, Wisdom 7 is King Solomon's reflection on mortality and the search for wisdom, the importance of wisdom, wisdom's qualities, and the enormous blessing wisdom will be for the one who possesses her. In the canon, Wisdom lies in between the books of the Song of Solomon and Sirach (two other books also in the genre of wisdom literature), and contains a total of nineteen chapters. It is made up of three sections: a reflection on immortality (chapters 1-5), a description of true wisdom & how it leads to eternal life (chapters 6-9), and finally, examples of faithfulness to the Law from Adam to Moses (chapters 10-19) and an exhortation against idolatry (chapters 13-14). ⁵Wisdom 7, therefore, is part of the second section on wisdom and immortality. What is unique about Wisdom 7 is that it is the only time that Wisdom is explicitly prayed for within the wisdom literature. ⁶ There are four sections to the Old Testament: Law, History, Wisdom, and Prophecy. The book of Wisdom is part of the overarching Wisdom section. ⁷ It is interesting that this section lies in between the Historical and the Prophecy books, as if to say: "This is what God has done in the past, and through the Wisdom of God, you will see what God's plan is for the future: bringing the Messiah into the world through a humble Virgin." Wisdom is significant in terms of the whole Old Testament precisely with its deep connection to fidelity to the Law of Moses, an ever-present theme throughout all Old Testament books. Also, as mentioned, Wisdom is the last book of the Old Testament to be written, which gives it a unique place in the canon.

Wisdom in the New Testament

Although there is no explicit mention of a wisdom book in the New Testament (partially because of Gnostic controversies regarding the wisdom literature at the time), the themes of wisdom are certainly present in the New Testament in various places, particularly in the writings of St. Paul. ⁸ For instance, there is a connection between the devil and sin causing death respectively in Wisdom 2:24 and Romans 5:12. Also, the knowledge of God through creation is found in both Wisdom 13 and Romans 1. ⁹The fact that "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise" (1 Cor. 1:27) and that Paul was wary of preaching with "eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power" (1 Cor. 1:17) shows the contrast between earthly and heavenly wisdom also found in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament (see 1 Cor. 1:17-2:13; Jas. 3). ¹⁰While there are many ways to fall into the trap of relying on human wisdom, the book of James, echoing Solomon, exhorts us to ask God for wisdom, and it will be given to us (Jas. 1:5). Another mention of wisdom in the New Testament is the story of five wise virgins found in Matthew 25. Since this will be mentioned in the liturgical section, it is not necessary to develop it here. Of utmost importance is to realize that Wisdom finds its primary fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:24,30; Col. 1:15-20, 2:3; Rev. 5:12; Matt. 13:54; Mk. 6:2; Lk. 2:40, 52). Christ seems to refer to Himself in Luke 7:35 when He says, "Yet wisdom is justified by her children." The closest reference to wisdom literature in the New Testament is found in Hebrews 1:3, which echoes Wisdom 7:26 when it says that Jesus reflects the glory of God. Another striking example of Christ as Wisdom is when the three "wise men from the east...saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him" (Matt. 2:1,11). This image shows very distinctly Mary as the Seat or Throne of Wisdom, with the baby Jesus sitting on her lap. This also manifests how the title "Seat of Wisdom" does not exalt Mary as much as it highlights how the Blessed Mother holds Christ up for us to worship Him; this is a thought echoed by Benedict XVI at World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany in 2005. Another example of Christ as the culmination of divine Wisdom is in John 1:14 when "...the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." The "Word" here is the Greek word "Logos" (λόγος) which can be a thought or even the act of reasoning itself. ¹¹In Christianity, the word "Logos" is seen as the personal self-revelation of the wisdom and power of God united with Him in the creation of the world. In short, John says that the Wisdom of God became incarnate in Jesus Christ.

This idea of Wisdom as God's partner in creation is found in several places, including Wisdom 7:22 which calls wisdom "the fashioner of all things." In a broader sense, wisdom is in the New Testament as the divine and immutable plan of God, which begins in the Old Testament but culminates in the person of Jesus Christ. Eph. 1:9, as cited earlier in this treatment, states this idea emphatically, saying: "For He has made known to us in all His wisdom and insight the mystery of His will, according to the purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth." This idea is also expressed in the book of Revelation which describes God as the "Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (Rev. 1:8, 21:6, 22:13), and therefore as the agent of all of history. Revelation also states that the plans of God require wisdom from the individual in order to understand them (Rev. 13:18, 17:9). It should also be briefly mentioned that Ephesians 3:10 says that "through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places." This, therefore, says that the Church can also be seen as a manifestation of God's wisdom. This fact is especially important because it is one passage that states that Wisdom is fulfilled in something other than Christ, namely in the Church which has an indissoluble connection to Him. When this reasoning is extrapolated, one can make the connection of Mary as the prototype and model of the Church. The Catechism, in paragraph 967, states that Mary is the " 'preeminent...and wholly unique member of the Church'; indeed, she is the 'exemplary realization' of the Church." Both Vatican II in Lumen Gentium (no. 63-65) and Pope Benedict XVI also recognize Mary as a central type of the Church. ¹² Therefore, by a logical deduction, the Blessed Mother, like the Church, can also be seen as a manifestation of wisdom, with an intrinsic and inseparable connection to Christ, God's Wisdom incarnate.

Chapter 5:Tradition

It would be advantageous to begin this section with a quote from Mariologist Louis Bouyer on the topic:

What is perhaps most remarkable about his application to Mary of the Wisdom texts is the spontaneous manner in which it seems to have occurred. No great Doctor can be named as having proposed it; but liturgies of both East and West give evidence of what we might call a tacit understanding, a universal instinct, not the outcome of intellectual speculation but giving rise to it. The fact that the Byzantine, as well as the Roman, liturgy makes use of these texts for the feasts of the Nativity of our Lady, her Presentation in the temple, the Annunciation, but not for any feast of Christ, shows how deeply-rooted was this feeling in the whole of Christian antiquity. ¹³

At first glance, the writings of the early Church Fathers and Doctors do not display an over-abundance of evidence for the application of the wisdom literature to Mary. But, it is the overwhelming and undeniable testimony of the sensus fidei as manifest in the Church's liturgy which begins to shed light on this many times overlooked and seemingly obscure relationship of Wisdom to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Although the more thorough theological development of the wisdom texts' relation to Mary takes place a little later in the Church's history, there is still ample evidence in the early Church to make such a connection. There have been Masses of Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom including explicit application of Wisdom texts to the Blessed Mother since the 10^th Century, and beginning in the 12^th Century, multiple titles related to Mary's deep connection to divine Wisdom become prominent in Morning Prayer and the Litanies of Our Lady. These titles are "Mother of Wisdom, Fountain of Wisdom, House of Wisdom, [and] Seat [or Throne] of Wisdom, of which the last became the most common." ¹⁴All of these titles, however, are implicit and many times explicit much earlier in the Church than the 12^th Century.