Bible Literature: The Sophia of Jesus Christ: What is the relationship between Jesus and Sophia (Divine Wisdom) in the gospels?

The Sophia of Jesus Christ is by far the most different Gospel I've ever read, to say the least. The debate about dating is critical, since some argue that it reflects the true, recorded, sayings of Jesus, which is possible if they were to be dated as far back as the 1st century. Others argue that they are, in fact, considerably later, and constitute an unreliable secondary source. The author of this gospel is unknown. If you have ever read any of the Synoptic Gospels of the New Testament, then some of this might make sense to you, If you haven’t, then hold on because it’s about to be a bumpy ride. The Sophia of Jesus Christ begins with Jesus, resurrected and talking to his disciples and also a few women, one we know for sure was Mary.

They followed Jesus to Galilee and up on to a mountain called “Divination and Joy.” When they all arrived there they were confused and started to bombard Jesus with tons of questions, namely about the universe and the plan, the holy providence, the authorities and their power, and everything that Jesus is doing with them in his plan. He then appeared to them, but this time it was not in his previous form but in a form called the “invisible spirit”, as the text explains. The author says that Jesus was a great light but could not go on explaining what he was like because we as mortal beings could not handle it, but only pure and perfect flesh could endure his appearance.

Jesus then laughed and asked them what they were so afraid of and why they were so confused. This in particular is funny to me because of all the times in the Synoptic Gospels when Jesus constantly has to tell his disciples what is going on and they still don’t get it, so that in itself is one similarity to the canonized gospels. This gospel is simply devoted to all of the questions that his disciples ask him, and Jesus answers with some information that I have never even heard of, and I was raised in church. For the most part, Jesus is explaining to them God, who he is and what he is, and his plan for the universe and everything that went into it. Jesus also gives them some insight in deeper detail about who he is and what his purpose was. This is another similarity in the other four gospels, given the fact that he was clearly painted as the savior of the world. I think a difference in this text and the other four gospels is that Jesus goes into more detail about the big plan and really what everything means in the Sophia of Jesus Christ. In the other gospels he was like “yeah I’m the savior of the world”, but in this one he alludes to so much more than that. This text gives insight to so many different ideas that it’s honestly hard to describe and difficult to even comprehend. This is cheesy, but it really is like an onion…many layers. Jesus talks about god of gods, king of kings, and aeons,which are different emanations of God all throughout this text and the more he gives to his disciples, the more questions they continue to ask. I think the assumed audience to which this was written was really anyone who wanted to know more about God’s plan; I don’t think the author wrote it for a specific people.

I believe this gospel was not included because there are so many different ideas going on with the identity of God and Jesus and it would confuse modern day Christians, because again, this is some complicated information to take in. My question is what is the relationship between Jesus and Sophia (Divine Wisdom) in the gospels? Given the different perspectives on the relationship between Jesus and Wisdom as presented in the Gospels, people must ask whether Jesus is to be understood as a prominent prophet of Sophia, an incarnation of Sophia or as Sophia Incarnate. “Wisdom writings can be observed in both protocanonical texts such as Proverbs and Job, and in deuterocanonical texts including Sirach, Esdras, and the Wisdom of Solomon. In these Jewish texts, Divine Wisdom is personified as a female figure that is sometimes referred to as “Lady Wisdom.” Lady Wisdom is portrayed as a teacher, bride, sister, savior, mother, and beloved, who actively invites men to accept her. Philo referred to Sophia as “the daughter of God” and many scholars believe that Sophia was deliberately contrasted with the pagan goddess Isis, while at the same time taking on many of the characteristics attributed of Isis. It is has been pointed out that Sophia was meant to be a poetic reference to the Law/Torah of God, rather than a real or separate person within the Jewish tradition. However, in early Christian tradition, Sophia was often extended and understood to refer to Jesus Christ himself.”