Wisdom is a Woman

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In the earliest Hebrew religion there were several Gods. El Elyon (God Most High, El), His wife, El Shaddai (Elat, Asherah, Wisdom, Sophia), and their Son, Jehovah (The Lord God). In Proverbs, chapter 8, the female Goddess, Wisdom, speaks about how she, too, was present at the creation.

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;
Proverbs 8:27-30

Latter-day Saints have a strong, but little spoken of, tradition of the “Heavenly Mother.” It is a part of our belief in El as the literal (in some unspecified way) “Father” of our “spirit bodies” prior to our current incarnation in physical bodies. The existence of a Heavenly Mother is also strongly implied in our emphasis on temple sealings and eternal marriage.

As Asherah, (associated with the sacred tree) the Heavenly Mother is found throughout ancient Canaan, including in the First (Solomon’s) Temple. Unfortunately, false versions (and images) of her were also very common (such as the Babylonian and Assyrian fertility goddess Ishtar). Perhaps it is this tendency of humans to corrupt things that is behind the current lack of information about her in this dispensation.

Nevertheless, as “Wisdom” the Heavenly Mother can be discerned throughout our scriptures, both ancient and modern. It is an interesting exercise, whenever one sees the word “wisdom” in the scriptures, to consider whether the usage is merely a reference to the traditional definition of “knowledge, understanding, and insight,” or whether it may also be a reference to the Heavenly Mother. The same is also true whenever we read of a vision of the “tree of life.”

In the pre-Christian Greek Old Testament known as the Septuagint, the “Divine Wisdom” was called “Sophia.” This is where we get the word “philosophy,” which means “Love of Sophia” (ie. love of wisdom). However, later on, after Christ and the Apostles were gone, the early Christian Fathers suppressed the feminine and, instead, associated the “Wisdom of God” with Christ, the Son.

In the election of November 2018, there are several daughters of Wisdom that, depending on where you live, you might be able to vote for: 1. Jenny Wilson, US Senate, Utah, 2. Shireen Gorbani, US House, Utah 2nd District, 3. Courtney Jones, Utah House 19, 4. Shanell Day, Utah House 14, 5. Lou Shurtliff, Utah House 10. I know every one of these candidates to be smart, ethical, and hard-working. Each of them will work to support and protect our children (public education, suicide prevention), our health (Medicare, Medicaid), and our environment (clean air, clean water, public lands, clean energy).

Surely our government, at all levels, would be much improved if we had a larger representation of women and their wisdom.

Sources: “Mother in Heaven “, LDS Topics Essays, lds.org.
“Mother in Heaven,” Elaine Anderson Cannon, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, eom.byu.edu.
“The Mother of the Lord: Volume 1: The Lady in the Temple,” Margaret Barker, T&T Clark, 2012.
“Wisdom and the Other Tree: A Temple Theology Reading of the Genesis Eden Story,” Margaret Barker, 2012
“Wisdom. The Lady of the Temple in a Lead Book from Jordan,” Margaret Barker, 2017.