Wisdom, The Word and the Strange Woman

Most Bible students recognize the correlation between Christ and the Word in the New Testament. We have in John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  Then we read in John 1:14 "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."  We see here that the New Testament equates the Word with Jesus.

But there is also a link between the word Wisdom and the person of Christ in the Old Testament.  Let us look at the book of Proverbs 4:5-11.

"Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.  Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee:  love her, and she shall keep thee.  Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.  Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.  She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.  Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.  I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths."

Now let us substitute the name of Jesus for wisdom and masculine pronouns for feminine.

"Get Jesus, get understanding: forget him not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.  Forsake him not, and he shall preserve thee:  love him, and he shall keep thee.  Jesus is the principal thing; therefore get Jesus: and with all thy getting get understanding.  Exalt him, and he shall promote thee: he shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace him.  He shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall he deliver to thee.  Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.  I have taught thee in the way of Jesus; I have led thee in right paths."

Another example of the personification of Christ as Wisdom in the book of Proverbs is found in chapter 8.

 "Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?  She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.  She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. 
Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.  O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.  Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.  For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.  All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.  They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.  Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.  For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. 
I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.  The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.  By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.  By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.  I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.  Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.  My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.  I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment:  That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.  The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.  I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.  When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:  While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.  When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:  When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:  When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:  Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;  Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.  Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.  Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.  Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.  For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.  But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death."

Now let us once again substitute the word wisdom with the name of Jesus.

"Doth not Jesus cry? and understanding put forth her voice?  He standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.  He crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors. Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.  O ye simple, understand Jesus: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.  Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.  For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.  All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.  They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.  Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.  For Jesus is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. I Jesus dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.  The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.  By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.  By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.  I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.  Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.  My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.  I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment:  That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.  The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.  I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.  When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:  While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.  When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:  When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:  When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:  Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;  Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.  Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.  Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.  Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.  For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.  But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death."

There are also striking similarities between the "Strange Woman" of the book of Proverbs and the "Whore of Babylon" mentioned in the book of Revelation.  Let us look at Proverbs 5.

 "My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:  That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.  For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:  But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.  Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.  Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.  Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.  Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:  Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:  Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;  And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,  And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;  And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!  I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.  Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.  Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.  Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.  Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.  Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.  And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?  For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. 
His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.  He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray."

Now let us compare the preceeding passage with two passages from the book of Revelation.

 "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.  And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.  And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,"  Revelation 17:1-7, 18:1-9