6. But: Is Wisdom Created?

If Wisdom Is the Eternal Holy Spirit, Why Does Scripture Say She Was Created?

This is probably the most serious textual objection to the identification of Wisdom with the eternal Holy Spirit.

I do not want to hide it or minimize it.

Sirach says:

“Wisdom was created before all things.” (Sirach 1:4)

A few verses later:

“It is he who created her.” (Sirach 1:9)

And Wisdom herself says in Sirach 24:

“Before the ages, in the beginning, he created me.” (Sirach 24:9)

Wisdom of Solomon 6:22 also promises to explain what Wisdom is and “how she came to be.”

If Wisdom is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is eternal God, how can Scripture speak this way?

I believe the answer becomes much clearer when these passages are read in the context of everything else Scripture says about Wisdom and the Spirit.

My conclusion is this:

The Holy Spirit Herself was not created out of nothing. She eternally exists as God. The biblical language of Wisdom being “created,” “established,” “brought forth,” coming forth from God, and being poured out is better understood as describing the eternal Spirit being established, expressed, or manifested as Wisdom in relation to creation—particularly in Her creative, life-giving, ordering, and ultimately maternal relationship with what God made.

In other words, something genuinely begins.

But it is not the existence of the Holy Spirit.

It is a new relationship between the eternal Spirit and creation.

That distinction, I believe, makes sense of all the evidence rather than requiring us to choose one group of Scriptures and ignore the other.

We Should Begin With What Scripture Has Already Established

This article does not begin with the question:

“Who is Wisdom?”

I addressed that previously.

Isaiah explicitly calls the Spirit of Yahweh “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding” (Isaiah 11:2). Scripture repeatedly teaches that there is one Spirit (Ephesians 4:4; 1 Corinthians 12:13). The Spirit and Wisdom teach, reveal truth, give life, participate in creation, are poured out, and are associated with God's presence and Word.

The Wisdom of Solomon makes the connection even stronger. Wisdom 1 moves almost seamlessly between Wisdom as a Spirit, the holy Spirit, and the Spirit of the Lord who fills the world. Wisdom 9 likewise places receiving Wisdom and God sending His “holy spirit from on high” in parallel. Modern Catholic commentary itself notes the close identification between Wisdom and God's Spirit in this passage.

Therefore, I am proceeding from the cumulative conclusion established in the preceding articles:

The Spirit of Wisdom is the Holy Spirit.

And Scripture describes this Spirit as eternal.

Hebrews 9:14 explicitly speaks of the “eternal Spirit.” Wisdom 12:1 speaks of God's “immortal spirit” being in all things.

Genesis already places God's Spirit at the beginning of creation. Psalm 104:30 says that when God sends forth His Spirit, creatures themselves are created. The Spirit is therefore presented not simply as another object within creation but as the divine agent through whom created life comes into being.

So the question should not be framed as though we know nothing about Wisdom and have encountered the word “created” for the first time.

The proper question is:

If the Spirit of Wisdom is the eternal Holy Spirit, what does Scripture mean when it says that Wisdom was “created”?

That is the question this article is trying to answer.

Christians Have Faced Essentially This Same Problem Before

There is an important historical precedent here.

For much of Christian history, major Christian interpreters identified the Wisdom of Proverbs with a real divine person—but they identified Wisdom with the preexistent Christ.

Justin Martyr called the preexistent figure of Wisdom a divine rational power and identified Wisdom with the Son and Logos. Tertullian likewise treated Wisdom as a real divine person. Origen identified Wisdom with the eternal Son, and Athanasius's interpretation of Proverbs 8 during the Arian controversy did the same. Modern scholarship notes that this Christological identification was shared by most patristic interpreters, while both sides of the fourth-century Arian controversy agreed that Proverbs 8's Wisdom referred to Christ; they disagreed over what “created” meant. (Dowling 99–117; Ticciati 187–204)

That is enormously important.

The Nicene Christians believed two things simultaneously:

Wisdom is an eternal divine person.

And:

Scripture says Wisdom was “created.”

They did not simply conclude that the eternal divine person must therefore have been manufactured out of nothing.

Instead, they interpreted the difficult creation language in light of what they believed Scripture as a whole had already established about the identity of Wisdom.

Athanasius is particularly relevant. When dealing with Proverbs 8:22–23, he argued that language concerning Wisdom being “created” or “founded” referred not to the divine person's essence coming into existence but to Wisdom's relation to God's works and saving economy. He even interprets Wisdom being “founded” as Wisdom becoming the foundation of a new creation and renewal. (Athanasius 2.44–47, 73)

Thomas Aquinas later faced the same problem in connection with Sirach. He distinguished between eternal, uncreated divine Wisdom and the created manifestation or participation of Wisdom given to creatures. He specifically cites Sirach's language about Wisdom being created and poured out over God's works while refusing to conclude that eternal divine Wisdom was thereby made a creature. (Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, q. 41, a. 3, ad 4)

Origen is particularly striking because he actually uses Wisdom of Solomon 7:25. Reflecting upon Wisdom as the “breath” of God's power, he argues that this divine breath must always have existed and cannot have a temporal beginning in the ordinary creaturely sense. (Origen 1.2.9)

I disagree with these theologians concerning which person is Wisdom, as they all identified Wisdom with Jesus. I believe Scripture points toward the Holy Spirit rather than Jesus.

But their basic interpretive principle is important:

First determine who Wisdom is from Scripture as a whole. Then interpret difficult language about Wisdom in a way consistent with that established identity.

I am applying the same principle here.

What Does the Greek Word “Created” Actually Mean?

The Greek verb used repeatedly in Sirach is κτίζω (ktizō).

Sirach 1:4 says:

προτέρα πάντων ἔκτισται σοφία

Wisdom has been created before all things.

Sirach 1:9 says:

κύριος αὐτὸς ἔκτισεν αὐτήν

The Lord himself created her.

And Sirach 24:9 says:

ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς ἔκτισέν με

From the beginning he created me.

We should not pretend that ktizō cannot mean “create.”

It certainly can.

But that is not the end of the lexical question.

The major Greek lexicon LSJ gives the verb a wider range of meanings including founding, building, setting up, and establishing, in addition to producing or bringing something into being. It can describe establishing a city, setting up an altar, founding a festival or institution, and establishing something in a new condition or relation. (Liddell, Scott, and Jones, s.v. “κτίζω”)

Therefore, ktizō by itself does not encode the entire philosophical proposition:

“This entity previously did not exist in any sense whatsoever, and God now manufactured it from absolute nonexistence.”

Context has to determine what kind of “creation” is being described.

The New Testament itself demonstrates this flexibility.

Ephesians 2:15 says that Christ “created” the two groups into one new humanity. The human beings involved obviously did not begin to exist from nothing at that moment. Something new was constituted from people who already existed.

Similarly, Ephesians 4:24 speaks about the new person being “created” according to God in righteousness and holiness. Again, creation terminology can describe the establishment of an already-existing person in a radically new identity, condition, or relationship.

These examples do not prove that Sirach uses ktizō in exactly the same way.

But they establish an important linguistic point:

“Created” does not automatically mean “the underlying subject previously had no existence whatsoever.”

And there is another textual complication.

Sirach was originally written in Hebrew and later translated into Greek by the author's grandson. The surviving Hebrew manuscripts are incomplete; the recovered Hebrew portions do not preserve Sirach 1:4, 1:9, or chapter 24. We therefore cannot simply consult the original Hebrew verb behind these particular instances of Greek ktizō. The Greek translation is our principal surviving witness for these lines. (Brodersen, sec. 1.2.1)

That makes the context even more important.

Proverbs 8 Gives Us an Important Interpretive Key

Before Sirach, Proverbs 8 already uses several different kinds of origin language about Wisdom.

Proverbs 8:22 says:

“Yahweh possessed me...”

The Hebrew verb is qanah. Its basic semantic range includes acquiring or possessing, although in some contexts it can carry the sense of producing or creating. This is why translations differ between “possessed,” “acquired,” “created,” and “brought forth.”

Then Proverbs 8:23 says something especially significant:

“From everlasting I was established...”

The Hebrew verb there can mean set, install, or establish. Brown-Driver-Briggs specifically glosses its use in Proverbs 8:23 as “I was installed.” The same root is used in Psalm 2:6 when God says that He has installed/set His king on Zion.

That is extremely relevant to the interpretation I am proposing.

Being installed as king does not mean that a person begins to exist when he becomes king.

It means an already-existing person enters an appointed relationship, office, or role.

Proverbs then changes imagery again.

Wisdom says she was “brought forth” before the depths, mountains, and hills (Proverbs 8:24–25). The Hebrew verb uses birth imagery.

So Proverbs does not give us one cold philosophical definition of Wisdom's metaphysical origin.

It gives us a collection of images:

possessed/acquired,

established/installed,

brought forth,

beside God,

delighting with Him,

and present as creation is formed.

That sounds much more like relational, functional, and generative imagery than a technical statement saying:

“At a particular moment God created the Holy Spirit from nothing.”

And, crucially, Proverbs says Wisdom was established from everlasting.

That language fits remarkably well with an eternal Spirit being established in relation to the work that is about to begin.

Sirach 1 Says “Created”—But It Also Says “From Eternity”

Now consider Sirach 1 in its own context.

The chapter begins:

“All wisdom comes from the Lord, and is with him forever.”

Then it asks who can search out Wisdom.

Then:

“Wisdom was created before all things, and prudent understanding from eternity.”

A few verses later:

“It is he who created her; he saw her and took her measure; he poured her out upon all his works.”

Notice the sequence.

Wisdom is:

with God forever;

associated with understanding from eternity;

“created” before the created order;

and then poured out upon all God's works.

That final image matters enormously.

The passage does not merely portray God manufacturing a separate heavenly object and placing it on a shelf.

Wisdom is something—or, on the argument of these articles, Someone—who proceeds outward toward creation and fills God's works.

That corresponds strikingly with biblical descriptions of the Spirit.

God pours out His Spirit.

God sends forth His Spirit.

The Spirit fills.

The Spirit gives life.

The Spirit renews creation.

Psalm 104:30 says that God sends forth His Spirit and creatures are created. Joel and Acts describe God pouring out His Spirit.

Thus Sirach's own sequence can naturally be understood as:

eternal divine Wisdom with God → Wisdom established in relation to creation → Wisdom poured out into God's works.

That is substantially different from:

nonexistent being → God creates being from nothing → being becomes Wisdom.

The first model accounts for the entire passage.

Sirach 24 Makes the Relational Interpretation Even Stronger

Sirach 24 may be the most important passage for understanding what this language means.

Wisdom begins:

“I came forth from the mouth of the Most High.”

She then says that She dwelt in the heights, that Her throne was in the pillar of cloud, that She traversed heaven and the abyss, and that She exercised dominion throughout the earth.

Then She searches for a place to rest.

God commands Her to dwell in Jacob.

The passage says:

“The Creator of all things gave me a commandment; and he that created me made my tabernacle to rest...”

Then:

“Before the ages, from the beginning, he created me, and for all the ages I shall not cease to be.”

Immediately afterward Wisdom says:

“In the holy tabernacle I ministered before him; and so was I established in Zion.”

Look at the conceptual movement of the passage:

came forth from God → dwelt in heaven → traversed creation → sought rest → was commissioned → dwelt in Israel → was established in Zion.

The chapter is saturated with language of manifestation, mission, dwelling, appointment, and establishment.

Wisdom is not portrayed simply as one more created object.

She comes from the mouth of the Most High.

She possesses a throne.

She encompasses heaven and the abyss.

She is sent.

She dwells.

She is established.

And ultimately Sirach identifies this Wisdom with God's Torah—His revealed Word.

Therefore, when the same passage says God “created” Wisdom before the ages, I think we have strong contextual reason to hear more than a statement about ontological manufacture.

The language belongs to a much larger picture of Wisdom being brought forth into relationship with God's works and established in particular divine roles.

That is exactly the distinction I am proposing.

Wisdom of Solomon Makes “Created Creature” Increasingly Difficult

Then we reach Wisdom of Solomon.

Wisdom 7 describes Wisdom as containing a Spirit who is:

holy,

all-powerful,

all-surveying,

and penetrating all things.

Wisdom herself pervades and penetrates all things.

Then Scripture says:

“She is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty.”

She is:

“a radiance of eternal light.”

She is an unspotted mirror of God's activity and an image of His goodness.

And:

“Though she is one, she can do all things.”

She renews all things, enters holy souls, and makes people friends of God and prophets.

This is extraordinarily difficult language to reconcile with Wisdom being an ordinary finite creature.

She is not described as something standing outside God and merely receiving divine instructions.

She is God's breath.

She is an emanation of His glory.

She is the radiance of eternal light.

She is all-powerful.

She penetrates everything.

She can do all things.

She enters souls.

She makes prophets.

Wisdom 9 says that She sits beside God's throne, was present when He made the world, knows all things, and is sent from His glorious throne. The prayer then moves directly from God giving Wisdom to God sending His Holy Spirit from on high.

Wisdom 12 then describes God's Spirit as immortal and present in all things.

These passages place a major constraint on how we interpret Sirach's word “created.”

The correct interpretation must explain both sets of texts.

It must explain why Wisdom can be “created.”

But it must also explain why the same Wisdom tradition describes Her as God's immortal Spirit, all-powerful, universally penetrating, present at creation, proceeding from God's glory, and radiating eternal light.

Simply declaring:

“Sirach says ‘created,’ therefore the Holy Spirit is a creature”

does not solve the problem.

It creates a much larger one.

Wisdom 6:22 Does Not Require Creation From Nothing Either

Wisdom of Solomon 6:22 says that the author will explain:

“what Wisdom is and how she came to be.”

The Greek uses ginomai, an extremely broad verb meaning things such as become, arise, happen, appear, come to be, or come into a condition. It can refer to beginning to exist, but it does not inherently require that meaning.

And what explanation follows?

The very next chapter culminates not in:

“Wisdom was once nonexistent and God manufactured her.”

Instead, it tells us that Wisdom is God's breath, the emanation of His glory, the radiance of eternal light, all-powerful, penetrating all things, and capable of doing all things.

Therefore, Wisdom 6:22 cannot responsibly be isolated from Wisdom 7.

The author promises to explain Wisdom's origin and nature.

His explanation leads us directly into divine procession, radiance, power, universality, and Spirit language.

That supports something much more profound than the creation of an ordinary heavenly being.

The Best Synthesis: The Eternal Spirit Is Established as Wisdom in Relation to Creation

This brings us to what I believe best explains all of the evidence.

The Holy Spirit exists eternally as God.

She does not begin to exist when creation begins.

But when God creates, something genuinely new occurs.

There is now a creation toward which God relates.

And therefore there can now be a divine relationship to creation that did not previously exist.

God becomes Creator without beginning to exist.

Likewise, the Spirit can be established as Wisdom in relation to creation without beginning to exist.

She is the One through whom creation is ordered.

She is present as God forms the world.

She is poured out over God's works.

She fills creation.

She gives life.

She renews.

She teaches created beings.

She enters holy souls.

She makes prophets.

She becomes the divine Wisdom through whom creatures are ordered toward God.

Thus “Wisdom was created” can be understood not as:

“God manufactured the Holy Spirit from nothing.”

but more like:

“God constituted, established, or brought forth His eternal Spirit in Her relationship and role as Wisdom toward the creation He was bringing into being.”

Proverbs' own language of Wisdom being installed from everlasting fits this remarkably well.

So does Sirach's movement from Wisdom existing with God, to being “created,” to being poured out upon His works.

So does Sirach 24's movement from Wisdom coming forth from God's mouth, to universal activity, to divine commissioning, to dwelling among God's people, and finally being established in Zion.

And so does Wisdom of Solomon's description of Her as God's breath and eternal radiance.

And Then Motherhood Makes the Picture Even More Coherent

There is another reason I think this interpretation is especially meaningful.

Wisdom is Mother.

Wisdom 7:12 explicitly says that Wisdom is the mother of the good things that come with Her; the underlying expression is literally connected with begetting or bringing forth.

Elsewhere Wisdom has children.

Sirach says She teaches Her children.

Sirach compares Her directly to a mother.

And Jesus says that human beings are born of the Spirit.

This provides a very simple analogy for the distinction I am proposing.

A woman does not begin to exist when she becomes a mother.

She already exists.

But something genuinely new happens when she bears children.

She enters a relationship that did not previously exist.

She becomes Mother in relation to another life.

Likewise, the Holy Spirit does not need to begin existing when creation begins.

She exists eternally.

But when creation comes into being, Her relationship with creation takes on a new reality.

She is Wisdom who forms it.

She is Spirit who fills it.

She is Life-Giver who animates it.

She is Teacher who instructs it.

She is Mother who brings forth and nurtures life within it.

This makes the biblical language of Wisdom being brought forth, established, poured out, sent, and manifested remarkably coherent.

It also fits Proverbs 8 beautifully.

Wisdom is there before the earth.

Then, as creation is ordered, She is beside God.

She rejoices in the inhabited world.

And She delights in humanity.

This is not the story of God's creating an assistant because He previously lacked one.

It is the story, I believe, of the eternal Spirit of God entering Her creative and maternal relationship with a world that is now coming into being.

This Also Illuminates the Image of God

Genesis 1 now becomes even more meaningful.

God and His Spirit are explicitly present at creation.

Then God says:

“Let us make humanity in our image.”

Humanity is created:

“male and female.”

And immediately afterward, the man and woman are commanded to become fruitful and multiply.

The image-bearing pair become father and mother.

I do not think Genesis by itself proves everything developed in this article.

But once Scripture elsewhere identifies the divine Spirit as feminine Wisdom and Mother, the pattern is striking.

The eternal divine persons create life.

Humanity images God as male and female.

And human fatherhood and motherhood emerge within that image.

A woman does not become a new being when she becomes Mother.

She enters a new relation.

That human reality may give us a small created reflection of something Scripture says about the Spirit Herself.

The Spirit eternally exists.

Creation does not bring Her into existence.

Creation brings forth the relationship in which the eternal Spirit is manifested as Wisdom, Life-Giver, and Mother toward creation.

What About Baruch Saying God “Found” Wisdom?

Baruch adds another fascinating piece, although I would not make the argument depend heavily upon the word “found.”

Baruch asks who can ascend into heaven and obtain Wisdom.

No human being knows Her way.

Then it says that the One who knows all things knows Her and “found her by his understanding.”

Later:

“He found out the whole way of knowledge and gave her to Jacob...”

Afterward, Wisdom appears on earth and lives among humanity.

I do not think this means God once lacked knowledge of Wisdom and had to search around until He discovered Her. The passage explicitly begins by describing Him as the One who knows all things.

So “found” should not be pressed into an argument that the Father was ignorant of Her.

But it is still interesting.

Wisdom is portrayed as a profound reality whose way is inaccessible to every creature but fully known by God.

God knows Her.

God pursued/found Her.

God comprehends Her.

God possesses the whole way of Her knowledge.

Then He gives Her to humanity.

And She appears on earth.

Again the movement is not primarily:

nonexistence → manufacture.

It is:

divine reality → known by God → given by God → manifested among humanity.

That fits extremely well with the larger pattern of Wisdom being eternally with God and subsequently sent, poured out, revealed, and made present within creation.

“Created” Does Not Have to Mean “A Creature”

That distinction is ultimately the heart of the argument.

The Bible can use creation language to describe the establishment of something new without requiring that every underlying subject previously had no existence.

The Greek ktizō itself has a wider semantic range than metaphysical creation out of nothing.

Proverbs uses several different images—possession, installation, birth.

Sirach places “created” beside eternity, pouring out, sending, dwelling, and establishment.

Wisdom of Solomon describes the same Wisdom as God's immortal Spirit, His breath, the emanation of His glory, the radiance of eternal light, all-powerful, universally penetrating, creator/fashioner, life-giver, indwelling presence, and maker of prophets.

And Christians themselves have recognized for nearly two thousand years that biblical statements about Wisdom being “created” cannot simply be isolated from the larger biblical identity of Wisdom.

The traditional solution was based upon identifying Wisdom with Christ.

I believe that identification is mistaken.

But the interpretive principle was sound:

Clearer and cumulative revelation concerning who a divine person is must control how we understand difficult language concerning that person.

And the cumulative biblical revelation, I believe, identifies Wisdom with the eternal Holy Spirit.

The Whole Biblical Picture

Consider everything together.

The Spirit is eternal.

The Spirit is God.

The Spirit of Yahweh is the Spirit of Wisdom.

There is one Spirit.

The Spirit is present at creation.

The Spirit creates and gives life.

Wisdom is with God at creation.

God creates through Wisdom.

Wisdom is “established” from everlasting.

Wisdom comes forth from the mouth of the Most High.

Wisdom is poured out upon God's works.

Wisdom sits beside God's throne.

Wisdom is sent from God's glorious throne.

Wisdom knows all things.

Wisdom is all-powerful.

Wisdom penetrates all things.

Wisdom can do all things.

Wisdom is God's breath.

Wisdom is an emanation of God's glory.

Wisdom is the radiance of eternal light.

Wisdom enters holy souls.

Wisdom makes prophets.

God's immortal Spirit is in all things.

Wisdom is Mother.

And human beings are born of the Spirit.

What interpretation best accounts for all of that?

I do not think it is:

“The Father existed alone and then created another being called Wisdom from nothing.”

That explanation may appear simple when Sirach 1:4 is read by itself.

It becomes increasingly difficult when the rest of Scripture is allowed to speak.

I think the far more coherent explanation is this:

The Holy Spirit is eternal God. She was with God before creation because She did not begin with creation. When God brought creation into being, His eternal Spirit was established, brought forth, expressed, and poured out as Wisdom in relation to His works. She formed, ordered, animated, taught, guided, and nurtured creation. In that relationship She is not merely Wisdom but Mother—the divine Life-Giver from whom spiritual life comes.

A human mother does not begin to exist when she becomes Mother.

Neither, I believe, did the Holy Spirit.

Creation did not bring the Spirit into existence.

Creation brought forth a new relationship between the eternal Spirit and what God created.

And Scripture gives that relationship a beautiful name:

Wisdom.

The Spirit of Wisdom.

God the Mother.