Does the Bible teach that Sophia is the goddess of wisdom?

Answer

The Bible does not mention Sophia as the goddess of wisdom. In fact, the name Sophia is not found in the Bible. While drawing heavily from the book of Proverbs and verses that evangelicals use to support the Incarnation, followers of the Sophia goddess movement are increasing in numbers through conferences, publications, and, notably, worship services for Sophia in the name of Jesus Christ held annually in the United States and worldwide.

Although goddess worship dates back to ancient civilizations (the Romans referred to Sophia as the “god of wisdom”), a more recent resurgence occurred after the social changes of the 1960s and ’70s in America. A significant event took place in the mid-1970s when a pastor surveyed the women in his church and discovered their dissatisfaction with the portrayal of masculine symbols representing the God of the Bible. His solution was to introduce the Greek word Sophia, meaning “wisdom,” into communal worship. This allowed for the free worship of a feminine goddess named Sophia. This practice can be traced back to the time of the Gnostics in the late first and early second centuries. It is important to note that Gnosticism aimed to uncover the “secret wisdom” of God and did not accept that Jesus was the true God-man. The goddess’s attributes were compared to those of the Trinity, suggesting she was a fourth member overlooked by the early patriarchal church leaders. Various movements persisted over the following decades, culminating in 1993 with the Re-Imagining Conference in Minnesota. During this event, participants freely worshiped Sophia, promoted praying to trees in nature, rejected the necessity of Jesus Christ’s atoning work, labeled God the Father as an “abusive parent” for sending Jesus to die for humanity’s sins, and presented an ultimatum for thThe ongoing progress of Sophia worship in congregational gatherings continues. Recently, both laypeople and clergy have embraced the worship of the goddess Sophia.

Just as Arius turned to the personification of wisdom in literature to support his erroneous stance on Christ, Sophists derive much of their theological basis from the initial nine chapters of the book of Proverbs. The argument focuses on the idea that towards the conclusion of the Old Testament, particularly in Proverbs, the feminine noun for “wisdom” (chokmah in Hebrew) was personified. Personification is defined as “the attribution of a personal nature or character to inanimate objects or abstract notions, such as a rhetorical figure.”

It is evident that personification occurs in Scripture. However, a discerning reader will interpret, or draw out from the text, in line with sound Bible study methods. It is crucial to determine the meaning based on its context. For example, Proverbs 8:22-31 is frequently cited to endorse Sophia goddess worship. Wisdom proclaims her superiority in the gifts she can bestow from the beginning of the world. Historically, many ancient cultures employed deity personification so that the divine entity could extol itself.

In essence, wisdom is here praising itself by making assertions that are exclusive to God. God is the ultimate source of all true wisdom (Romans 11:33; James 1:5, 1:17-18, 3:13-17), and therefore, any mention of wisdom in Scripture that includes divine language should be attributed to His essence and character. The Jewish faith upheld belief in a singular God (Deuteronomy 4:35-36, 6:4; Isaiah 42:8, 44:6-8, 45:5-6; Jeremiah 10:10-11). Hence, proposing that wisdom is a distinct god or goddess alongside God Himself amounts to blasphemy.Tell me the name of God, which was punishable by death in the Old Testament. The Jews would have disregarded the writings of Proverbs just as they did the additional books of the Septuagint that portray later historical events.

The Sophia-goddess controversy leads to some straightforward conclusions. First, the Bible must be read for the type of literature it presents. A proper understanding of feminine personification in connection to this passage and many others is essential to remain within the framework of biblical doctrine. There is one God who eternally exists in three persons—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 4:4-7; 1 Peter 1:2). This stance excludes any reference to a goddess or secondary deity. Finally, one must recognize that poetry can include elements that are clearly not meant to be taken literally. For instance, the Bible is replete with poetic language that uses personified metaphors rather than purely scientific rhetoric. Cain did indeed kill Abel, but then God stated that “…the voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground” «And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. », (Genesis 4:10). Literally, the blood did not cry from the ground, but the rhetorical device employed here conveys another form of personification found in Scripture to emphasize the act of killing. As described in Proverbs 8:22-31, poetry and personification do not undermine Scripture. Instead, these elements are crucial to convey words, phrases, emotions, and meanings that cannot be easily understood in any other way or that follow from a preceding argument. In the latter case, the Lord created the heavens through His wisdom as stated in Proverbs 3:19, and 8:22-31 serves to extend that figurative language (personification).

Historic Christianity is at a crossroads like never before.fore. The goddess-worship emphasis of Sophia and other similar deities illustrates the constantly evolving landscape of the spiritual environment worldwide. What might be deemed politically or socially acceptable in terms of worship, however, directly contradicts the teachings of the Bible. It is essential to discern the subjective distinction between literal truth and metaphors in the Bible through consistent practice «Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. », (2 Timothy 2:15). Both realms of discourse represent the infallible, inerrant, and inspired Word of God, but require a patient and Spirit-guided approach to interpretation. Otherwise, one may find themselves echoing the words of the prophet Jeremiah:

“But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath. ‘Tell them this: “These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens”’” (Jeremiah 10:10-11).