Proverbs 8:1-3 -- is Wisdom personified as a female?

by sd-7 16 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  hamsterbait

  Strange that in John 16, where the helper holy spirit is referred to in the NWT as HE (the Holy Spirit)

  The WT justifies the use of a masculine pronoun because the noun is masculine. Why do they not use "IT" to harmonise with Proverbs?

  Why dont they use SHE to harmonise with John. Isnt it clear that the verses crucial to their teachings are translated off the cuff to suit the "light " of the moment?

  prodigal - not everything comes into the world through male and female. The whip lizard Guyana pentrophyx has only ONE sex FEMALE they lay eggs that are clones of themselves. This however cannot happen unless another female mounts her and they "dry hump" together. This triggers egg-laying (sorry off topic)

  HB
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  ProdigalSon

  hamsterbait said:

  not everything comes into the world through male and female.

  Ahh yes, fair enough. There are biological exceptions.... but the energy (or cencentrated light, as some physicists describe it) by which everything exists in our physical universe, consists of two polarities (the Logos!). We can't start the car unless both the positive and negative terminals are connected to the battery..... there is matter, and there is anti-matter. There are protons (+) and there are electrons (-). There is a galaxy's radiating disk, and its black hole.... For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.... there is the wave-particle duality of quantum physics.... the duality of zen and buddhism... these same ideas lie at the basis of Wicca, Kabbalah, Hinduism, Bahai....and on and on and on it goes....
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  Band on the Run

  Wisdom is commonly referred to as female. My hunch is that it is a throwback the goddess worship. Gnosticism is steroid heavy on Wisdom being female. Maybe it is why the Roman Catholic Church elevated Mary first, then Ann, to have a kindly female to worship. I was told Marian worship started around 1,000 C.E. when the End Times were expected.
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  EndofMysteries

  Wish I wasn't too tired, but interesting topic. Would this all tie in to "Babylon the Great", or the angel 'perfect in wisdom' mentioned in Ezekiel?
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  EndofMysteries

  The "Queen of the Heavens", mentioned in Jeremiah who Israel was sacrificing to.
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  DagothUr

  There is a male God, a female Goddess, many children-gods and some animal-gods. And yea, tree-gods and plant goddesses. And they all have sex together. And they all wear magic panties.

  I'm amazed that some people escaped from Hell itself and find nothing better to do than squabble over some passages from a book that was written by a few smart Jews that lived millenia ago.
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  Mad Sweeney

  Just for clarification, the NWT was written by a loony American about a half-century ago. But I don't think that makes it any more relevant, necessarily.