 All right, good afternoon. Can you hear me? All right, thanks for coming by. Is this where I have to compete? The time where I have to compete with Father Anthony's jokes? I understand. But they're in the tent outside. So we see where the serious crowd is. Well, it's good to have you. Did you all pick up a handout coming in? Great. So we're going to use that as our opening prayer, not the whole thing. Serac 24. How many of you have ever read through the book of Serac? One, two, three, a few. Not just the handout. Yeah, the handout should be in the back. So a few of you. All right, I'll begin with a friendly exhortation for you guys all to read through the book of Serac in the near future. It's a wonderful book. Actually, quite a long one, 51 chapters. But really worth reading. It's something that is only in the Catholic Bible. It's a part of the Deuterocanonicals. And so our Protestant brothers and sisters are really missing out. That and the wisdom of Solomon. I guess a lot of you did not have the handout. They didn't have them out. So we're going to pray. How about we pray the first 12 chapters? That would be a long prayer. The first 12 verses of Serac 24. So if you think that Serac has 51 chapters, verse 24 is pretty much straight, just about straight in the middle. And some would say it's the hinge of the book. So we're actually going to cover a lot more ground than Serac this afternoon. But this will be really the heart of it. And I see I misspelled Serac. That's not a good start at the top. So only one C, sorry. Okay, let's place ourselves in the presence of the Lord and let's pray together these first 12 verses of the praise of wisdom in the book of Serac. We ask the Holy Spirit to come down upon us and lead us in this study of your holy words. As we pray together, wisdom will praise herself and is honored in God and will glory in the midst of her people. In the assembly of the most high she will open her mouth and in the presence of his host she will glory. In the midst of her people she is exalted. In holy fullness she is admired. In the multitude of the chosen she finds praise. And among the blessed she is blessed, saying, I came forth from the mouth of the most high, the first born before all creatures. I ordain that an unfailing light should arise in the heavens and I cover the earth like a mist. I dwelt in high places and my throne was in the pillar of cloud. Alone I have made the circuit of the vault of heaven and have walked in the depths of the abyss, in the waves of the sea, in the whole earth and in every people and nation I have gotten a possession. Among all these I sought a resting place. I sought in whose territory I might lodge. Then the creator of all things gave me a commandment and the one who created me assigned a place for my tent. And he said, make your dwelling in Jacob and in Israel, receive your inheritance. And among my chosen put down your roots. From eternity in the beginning he created me and for eternity I shall not cease to exist. In the holy tabernacle I administered before him and so I was established in Zion. In the beloved city likewise he gave me a resting place and in Jerusalem was my dominion. So I took root in an honored people in the portion of the Lord, who is their inheritance and my abode was in the full assembly of the saints. In our Lady seat of wisdom, pray for us in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. So as I daringly mentioned last night, this is actually a little nutshell of my PhD dissertation. Gasp, lock the doors. If things go south, there's always the saxophone over there that I can resort to. So this is quite different to me on this side of the stage than the other. So the topic of this presentation is courting Lady Wisdom. Wisdom as nuptial mystery through salvation history. So I hear that kind of nuptial things and love and marriage are kind of a theme for much of this conference. I was teaching this morning, so I heard, I was not here, but I heard rumors that you heard already about the Song of Songs and the Gospel of John. So Dr. Han stole half of my talk that I gave before this one and Dr. Bergsma stole half of mine that I was gonna give right now. But that's okay, because I have more material than I need, so I will shift the focus on things that you did not, I sat down next to him at lunch, so I got on the information on what he talked about. That will focus on what you did not cover and I will test you on what you did cover as far as nuptial symbolism in the Gospel of John. So we're gonna do some kind of equally Old Testament and New Testament in this presentation. And so as you can see from these pictures, so we're gonna talk about four major stages in salvation history that is reflected in the Wisdom books, especially the book of Sirac that we're gonna focus on. But I'll mention a few things from Proverbs and Wisdom of Solomon and other books as well. So we know that God's love for his people is all over the scriptures, all over biblical literature, and that the covenant between God and his people, Israel and the Old Testament and the church and the New Testament is always often portrayed as a marriage covenant, right, as this bond of love between man and woman. And conversely, when Israel fails to keep the covenant, it's portrayed as adultery or fornication. So idolatry is portrayed as prostitution, infidelity as adultery, and basically disobeying the law is this abandoning God's spouse of love. But still, God always remains faithful, right, throughout both Old and New Testament. So if we look at this idea of the marriage covenant, we're gonna see it reflected at four major moments that cover basically all of salvation history from beginning to end. So we're gonna look at how this marriage has an original prototype at the very beginning, okay? And this prototype is followed by a crash, a fall from grace and a break in the covenant. That's gonna require number two, a redemptive event, something that fixes this break. And this redemptive event is gonna be just kind of one moment in time that needs to be extended through time and we're gonna see how that is extended through time in the liturgy, so both the liturgy of Israel and also the liturgy of the church. And this extension through time is an anticipation of the end of this final fulfillment of the kingdom of God, all right? So those are four moments, original prototype, redemptive event, liturgical extension into time, and eschatological fulfillment. So I won't get into the profits for this talk because we wanna focus on the wisdom literature, but if you wanna look it up, you'll find a lot of this nuptial imagery in Hosea, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the latter parts of Isaiah, like 52 and the 60s of Isaiah, a lot of this symbolism of covenant. And in the prophets, you would see that the covenant is often expressed in the language of creation. Even among the prophets, they speak in this language of Genesis. They speak about the love of the betrothal of Israel taking place at the time of the Exodus. So what is the Exodus, but the great redemptive moment of the old covenant, isn't it? And then we're gonna see, well, we're not gonna see, I'm just summarizing now that the spiritual adultery of Israel basically is cultic worship of Baal, Baal, the Canaanite God, and the future restored marriage is gonna be portrayed in the prophets as this return to Zion. So that's kind of the background to wisdom literature. You'll find that in the prophets, but we shall not get into it this afternoon. We wanna go straight into the wisdom literature. See how good I am to you? We have already finished the first chapter of my dissertation. So wisdom literature is really cool and really different because when you think of the nuptial or marital imagery between God and Israel, so who's the husband? It's always God, right? And so who's the wife? Who's the bride? It's always Israel in the Old Testament. And in the New Testament, it's kind of the same thing. So who's the bridegroom in the New Testament? It's Christ, and who's the bride? The church. So it's always the divine figure is the bridegroom and the human figure is the bride. What do we see in wisdom literature? Turns around, right? So in wisdom literature, we see this figure who is really unique, the whom we call Lady Wisdom. And we see God who kind of takes a step back in wisdom literature. He's not as directly present as we see in the prophets. So there's no direct, nuptial relationship between God and his people, but he is now represented by this beautiful figure of Lady Wisdom. And lo and behold, Lady Wisdom is, you have guessed it, she is a lady and she is a woman. So this, now we have this quasi-divine figure of wisdom who is female. And so who's the bride, so to speak? Well, I guess she's the bride. So who does she court? Now the humans have the male figure, right? As you see how this is kind of flipped around from what we see in the prophets and in the New Testament. And the other difference is that human protagonists are no longer collective, like all of Israel or all of the church. But in wisdom literature, they're really individuals. We see wisdom who courts individuals and tries to woo them into a relationship with her. So we see that in these four books, Proverbs Ben-Sirah. Ben-Sirah is another, the Hebrew name for Sirach, Baruch, and the wisdom of Solomon. So we're gonna look a little bit at Proverbs and then a lot at Sirach and then a little bit at Wisdom of Solomon before we get to the New Testament, all right? So what does Proverbs tell us about this Lady Wisdom and this romance that she wants to have with us? So if you've read anywhere between Proverbs 1 and 9, she appears many times, standing in the streets, calling everyone to follow her. She's not always the most soft-spoken person. She's a bit aggressive sometimes, right? She invites the simple ones to follow her. She is exhortative, sometimes criticizes the simple for losing their way. And we know she has a rival, right? Some call her Dame Folly or the adulterous woman. And so there's this, Dr. Han talked about choosing loves last time and we see that well expressed in Proverbs 1 to 9 in this choice, which Lady are you going to want to follow? And so Proverbs expresses that very much in the language of love, like Proverbs 4, get wisdom, get understanding, love her and she will keep you, exalt her and she will promote you. She will bring you honor when you embrace her. And this is really the root for giving a hug to Wisdom. So she has very, very tender language. Proverbs 8, 17, I love those who love me and those who seek me diligently will find me. And she's also the first one of creation. So if any of one of you were at my previous talk, we prayed from Proverbs 8, 20, well, we prayed more than that, but wisdom is not someone who just shows up halfway through salvation history. She's there right at the very beginning, right? She says, she's a part of God's creation. The Lord created me, but so she was there at creation and she was also active in the creation of the world and the creation of mankind. And at the previous talk, I talked about how wisdom is there in the Garden of Eden and through each one of the covenants. But now we're looking at from a different perspective from the actual wisdom books. So Proverbs speaks about this love relationship with wisdom, but it's also one of instruction and of discipline and of following God's commandments. And what's the beginning of wisdom? What is the fear of the Lord? Very good. So this fear of the Lord is, Sirach says it's both the beginning and the crown of wisdom. So when are you done with the fear of the Lord? You start with it and then when you get wisdom, it's like, good, I'm done with the first one. No, the fear of the Lord is also the crown of wisdom. So the more you grow in wisdom, the more you grow in fear of the Lord. Not servile fear of punishment, right? But fear of offending your beloved. Is that what happens when we love, we don't want to offend the beloved or hurt our beloved. So this is why we never reach a point where we can do without the fear of the Lord in this good sense of fear. So what else in Proverbs? We see in Proverbs nine, she invites us to this banquet. She has this meal to share with us. And that was very much the foundation of Dr. Hans talk last night, these seven pillars. So she slaughtered her beast, mixed her wine, set her table and has this invitation from the highest places saying whoever is simple, let him turn in here. To him who is without sense, come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Beautiful typology, right? For something we know, a feast where we partake of apparently bread and wine. And if you look at the end of that same chapter, we see Dame Folly who invites us to drink stolen water and her stolen bread that is sweet. Doesn't sound like much of competition, but somehow sometimes we still prefer to drink the stolen waters of Dame Folly in her lives, don't we? And wisdom is also a tree of life, one of my favorites. So how was wisdom in the Garden of Eden? She was there through the way, the truth and the life that Jesus came later to restore. So she's truly true, a tree of life to those who lay hold of her and those who hold her fast are called happy. So wisdom is truly this open way to happiness and to life well lived. This hochma is the Hebrew term. So that's kind of the background. Proverbs, one of the earlier wisdom books. So now if we go to Sirach or Ben-Sira, Ben-Sira has lots to say about this wedding imagery and we'll get to chapter 24 in a minute. So we know Sirach also presents wisdom as having been created before all things. Let's see, and she says also much about courting wisdom and loving her. So whoever loves her loves life and those who seek her early will be filled with joy. Whoever holds her fast will obtain glory and the Lord will bless the place she enters. Those who serve her will minister to the Holy One. The Lord loves those who love her. Beautiful, no? So wisdom is before everything else, it's a relationship. Yes, it is growing in knowledge. Yes, it involves study. Yes, it involves self-discipline. But it's all for the sake of entering into this relationship with this living entity who we might say becomes incarnate in the New Testament. Doesn't she? So here too in Sirach we're told that she feeds us and gives us to drink, satisfies our needs. There's also this motherly image. There's the bridal image but also the motherly image. So she's like a mother and like the wife of his youth she still welcomes him. She'll feed him with the bread of understanding and give him the water of wisdom to drink. So we're gonna see much of this fulfilled in the words of Christ in the New Testament. So let's go to this chapter 24 and let's spend a bit of time on this because it's so rich and it's connecting with so many things in the scriptures. So we already had a good introduction in our prayer. So what do we see happening in this text? We're gonna see, as a broad outline, spoiler warning. So the first seven chapters we're gonna see wisdom as universal all over creation. Okay. And then we're going to see, if you recall from our prayer, somehow wisdom was not completely satisfied being all over creation. So God tells her to do something. God gives a commandment to wisdom to go do what? That's verses eight to 12. Even though she's omnipresent all over creation. God tells him, listen, go and dwell in a little hotel on earth. Go on a little journey and go down from heaven from where you are everywhere. And so there's a type of contraction of wisdom. Wisdom decides to make herself small and to come and dwell in Israel and know specifically where? In the holy tabernacle, verse 10. So we're gonna see her contract herself and come dwell in the sanctuary of Israel. Then we're gonna see in verses 13 to 34, kind of she expands herself so that she grows like this great vegetation and she takes over essentially the whole world with a lot of beautiful imagery. And that's gonna remind us of many things. So we're gonna see trees and spices imagery. We're gonna see her inviting us to banquet here too. And then we're gonna see her identifying herself with, that's verse 23, the book of the covenant of the most high, namely the Torah. So wisdom will identify herself with the Torah given at Mount Sinai. Then we're gonna talk about rivers and streams and different mountains. So that will keep us occupied for the next few minutes. All right? So let's look at this text. Where is wisdom as we begin? She's honoring God in the midst of her people. What people? In heaven on earth? It sounds like she's in heaven. Verse two, in the assembly of the most high, she will open up her mouth and in the presence of his host, she will glory him. So wisdom opens her mouth to do what you think. It sounds a lot like God's words at creation, doesn't it? So God through wisdom created the world. And so it means she was and is present at creation. And so probably there's people that she's talking about is the angelic host. She's there up there in heaven with the hosts of heaven, the angelic beings. So she finds praise and among the blessed, among the blessed she is blessed saying, I came forth from the mouth and the most high, the firstborn before all creatures. What does that sound like? Who's the firstborn of all God's creation? Well, kind of Christ. Actually that's a heresy too because Christ is not a creation. But in the context of wisdom, here she portrays herself still as being created. And so she comes forth from the mouth of the most high. She kind of anticipates Christ as being the word of God, doesn't she? This eternal word of God who is right there at creation and the firstborn before all creatures. So what happens next in verse three? I ordained that an unfailing light shall arise in the heavens. So the imagery of light, right? And there was light. We see this is totally drawing from Genesis one right there, isn't it? And I covered the earth like a mist. Does that sound familiar to you? The spirit of the Lord was hovering over creation and there was the mist over the face of the deep. All this language from Genesis. I dwelt in high places. There she is in heaven. But then there's another illusion. My throne was in a pillar of cloud. Huh, that sounds like another place in the Bible. Where is that? Pillar of cloud now in the exodus, right? Guiding the Israelites. So, whoa, wisdom is there at creation. All of a sudden she zooms herself to the time of the exodus. But now verse five, she's right back at creation again. I have made the circuit of the vault of heaven. I walk the depth of the abyss. There's the deep again of Genesis. But she's also on earth, not just in heaven, is she? In the waves of the sea and the whole earth and in every people and nation I have gotten a possession. So where is she? Where is she not is the question. She's everywhere. She's in heaven. She's on earth. She's in the sea. She's in the drag ground of the earth. She's among every people and nation. So from there you could say we have a lot of our theology of the natural law, don't we? That all nations, all people should have access to some wisdom. Dr. Hahn talked yesterday about Greek philosophy, for example, where they have the love of wisdom. Any philosophy is a search for wisdom. So wisdom is universal. She is the driving force behind the natural law. Anything that is true in the world. But now verse seven is our transitional verse. Among all these I sought a resting place. I sought in whose territory I might lodge. So she's looking for a home, isn't that cute? Wisdom is, she doesn't have a problem being all across creation, but she's looking for something a little more intimate, something a little more cozy to dwell in. So that comes, that we come to God's commandment now. She's working together with God, so to speak. And he assigned a place for my tent. And he said, make your dwelling in Jacob and in Israel receive your inheritance. And among my chosen, put down your roots. So he's going to send her off among a certain people, right? The people of Israel. So in verse nine, it's like almost she backtracked. She said, oh, from all eternity in the beginning he created me, she goes back to her universality and for eternity I shall not cease to exist. So she's truly eternal from the beginning to the end. But then verse 10, we see her taking on a liturgical role. In the holy tabernacle I ministered before him and so I was established in Zion. So there on the picture you can see the holy place in the tabernacle of Israel. So there's your exodus. But then she jumps around in time again. What happens in verse 11? Oh, all of a sudden she's in the beloved city. He gave me a resting place and in Jerusalem was my dominion. So now she's in Jerusalem. So that has to be much later, right? Only David conquered Jerusalem. So I took root in an honored people in the portion of the Lord who is their inheritance and my abode was in the full assembly of the saints. So what have we done so far? Wisdom is at creation. She's in the pillar of cloud guiding the Israelites. She jumps into the tabernacle in Israel's ministry and then again now she's in Jerusalem at the time of the Davidic kingdom. Cool, no? Hard to keep up with her. So what happens next? So now Sirach is gonna use a really different type of imagery. So what's going on in verses 13 and on? I grew tall like a cedar in Lebanon, like a cypress on the heights of Herman. I grew tall like a palm tree in Engeti, like rose plants in Jericho, like a beautiful olive tree in the field and like a plain tree I grew tall. Cassian Camelstone, I gave forth the aroma of the aroma of spices. Choice myrrh I splattered pleasant odor, like galbenum onnican stackedi, like fragrance of frankincense in the tabernacle. That's a lot, isn't it? Like a terribent I spread out my branches. My branches are glorious and grateful like a vine I caused loveliness to bud. My blossoms became glorious and abundant fruit. There's a lot of echoes here. Echoes of what? What does it sound like? A lot of trees, vegetation. It sounds like a type of garden of Eden, doesn't it? All right, so she's expanding her territory, taking over the whole earth and this description of trees and spices. So for sure there's an illusion to the garden of Eden here. Any other book of the Bible that this echoes, cedar, cypress, myrrh galbenum onnican stackedi, did you not hear about myrrh? Is it Nard maybe you heard about this morning? Does this create a certain atmosphere that reminds you of something? How about the song of songs? Right, I mean here we have a lady who's kind of flirting with us. Yeah, and all this imagery, a loose to the garden of Eden, but it's also very much nuptial imagery of kind of this secluded garden where you have lover and beloved who are courting one another with this rapturous love song. And explicitly you'll find almost all these things in the song of songs. You'll hear about cedars, cypresses, do I have the quotes here? I don't, but there are so many that it would fill the slide. So you hear of roses, you hear of lilies in the song of songs, of olives, myrrh is certainly there, galbenum onnican stackedi, frank incense is there as well. So you can almost smell all these beautiful fragrances that have like almost an erotic illusion that you find in the song of songs. So song of songs, we have allusions to the garden of Eden. Actually Ezekiel has a reference to the garden of Eden that is a little known, but that describes all these various trees because Genesis doesn't tell us about what types of trees were there, right? Just told about the tree of life and the tree of knowledge. So there's a book called the Book of Jubilees. Dr. Bergsmer actually wrote his dissertation on this and it's a non biblical book, but from about the 200 before Christ. And here's a little quote from Jubilees that describes the garden of Eden. It says, on that day in which Adam went forth from the garden, he offered as a sweet savor and offering frank incense, galbenum, stackedi, and spices in the morning with the rising of the sun from the day when he covered his shame. Is that cool? So what did Adam take from the garden with him? Apparently all these spices that Sirac is alluding to. So Sirac is bringing us back to the garden of Eden. Seek wisdom, find wisdom, you'll find yourself in the type of restored garden of Eden in the fullness of presence of God. But you hear of other things. If you look up, if you have your Bibles, maybe turn to Exodus 30, 34. So what do you find in Exodus 30, 34? You find the making of the incense and also another few verses before after that speak about making the anointing oil for the tabernacle. And how did you make the anointing oil and the incense in the tabernacle with galbenum, onica, and stackedi? So what is Sirac bringing us to now? It's the garden of Eden, but no, it's also the tabernacle. You're going into the holy of holies when you seek wisdom. First Kings 5.7 is the building of the temple which involves cedar also and cypress and palm trees. And so even Solomon's temple is connected with that. But there are more illusions. Well, how do you think the prophets portray the final, I mean, the messianic age? They say the wine's going to be, the vine will produce its fruit and there will be lilies and this verdant fauna and flora all over creation. So the prophets also speak about the end of days being this kind of total restoration of nature. So what is Sirac doing? Where is Sirac taking us? Where's wisdom found in the garden of Eden, in the tabernacle at Mount Sinai, in the temple, but also at the end of days, by making all these connections. Cool, no? All right, so from this travel throughout salvation history, now she invites us to a feast. Verse 19. Come to me who you who desire me and eat your fill of my produce. For my teaching is sweeter than honey. In my inheritance, sweeter than the honeycomb. My remembrance lasts throughout all generations. Those who eat me will hunger for more. Those who drink me will thirst for more so you can eat and drink wisdom. Whoever obeys me will not be put to shame and those who work with my help will not sin. Huh, any echoes there? It's a feast, right? It's abundant eating and drinking. But look at, especially the last verse, shame, sin, echo of Eden, right? Of the fall of Adam and Eve. So remember that fruit that was desirable to make one wise. So the temptation to eat this fruit that offered false wisdom and what was the result? Shame, hiding oneself. And now wisdom says, if you seek me you will not be put to shame. And those who work with my help will not sin. So Lady Wisdom's Banquet. We have a lot of eating and drinking and the canticle also in the song of songs, don't we? Pomegranates and honey and milk and wine. So there is your great love banquet, your love feast. There was feasting and Eden. All the trees were fair game to eat, except for one. And of course they go for that one. The other references are from apocryphal books of Enoch, where you have a lot of allusions to great feasting in the Garden of Eden. At Mount Sinai, what do you think Moses and the elders did when they went up the mountain? You think they were just engaged in spiritual talk? Offered sacrifice and had a barbecue on top of Mount Sinai with Moses, Aaron and the 70 elders. It's a great covenantal feast with the sacrifices. In the temple, you also ate of the sacrifices. So communion with God always involved eating. Good God, no? You know what's the definition of a Jewish feast? Definition of a Jewish feast. They tried to kill us, they failed. Let's eat. It's true, every Jewish feast, the Passover, right? Pharaoh, book of Purim is the book of Esther. Always some genocidal maniac tried to kill the Jews, they failed and they have a party. So that's what you see here too, this great banquet of wisdom, celebratory banquet. And of course the prophets also speak of this great eschatological feast at the end of times when we will all feast with somehow, with the Lord at his covenantal table. So there we have Lady Wisdom through all this verdant plant and spice analogy and flowers. And then we have also this feast analogy that takes us also through back to the Garden of Eden in the Tabernacle at Mount Sinai and the end of days, we're anticipating the end of days. Good, we're doing a good headway. Now we come to verse 23. So you might say, so Andre, okay, this is kind of cool and nice imagery, but what does that mean practically for us or at least for Israel who are reading this? And Sirach knows that he wants to make it practical. So how do you eat at the Lord's banquet for ancient Israelites? You ask, good thing you asked. So verse 23, all this is the book of the covenant of the Most High, the law which Moses commanded us as an inheritance for the congregations of Jacob. So how do you find wisdom practically? Well, you worship in the Tabernacle, but you also study the Torah, the Torah, which is a source of life. As Deuteronomy says, it's wisdom for Israel, for the nations and it's also blessings and life. And if you abandon the Torah, it's curses and death, right? So here wisdom says, hey, I am the Torah. In my previous talk, I mentioned this. What does Torah mean in English? Those where there are no. The rest of you are silent because you know it's a trick question. What is Torah in English? What does everybody always say that Torah means? It's law, right? But it's actually not law. So Torah means really instructions and is from the same root as Yara, which means to shoot an arrow and to hit the mark. So Torah means you, if you follow the Torah, you hit the mark for your life. You hit the mark for that, for which you were created. I also, I didn't say in the last talk that Torah is also the same root as Morah or Moray, which means a teacher in modern Hebrew. So if you need a Hebrew teacher, you need a Moray or Morah, which is exactly the same root as Torah. So you want to live well, you follow the Torah, says Sirach. And then she goes into another metaphor. This chapter is so rich, it freaks me out every time. It fills men with wisdom, like the Peshon and like the Tigris at the time of the first fruits, makes them full of understanding like the Euphrates and like the Jordan and Harvestime. Makes instruction, shines forth like light, like the Gichon at the time of vintage. What's all that? What are these? Those are rivers. Have you heard of those before? Peshon, Tigris, Gichon and Euphrates. There's one anomaly, the Jordan is the one that doesn't fit. Where do we hear of those rivers? Genesis, the Garden of Eden. So now, if you were not convinced yet, hopefully this will convince you that, so who is this? This wisdom is a type of river, but what river? Not any river, the four rivers of the Garden of Eden plus the Jordan, which is the main river in Israel. So we have these four plus one, these five rivers. And just as the first man did not know her perfectly, so there's Adam, he kind of knew some wisdom but not perfectly. The last one has not fathomed her. So when do we seize and when do we grasp the fullness of wisdom? Never, right? For her thought is more abundant than the sea and her counsel deeper than the great Abyss. So here we have the wisdom now as a flowing river. And then she's not done. I went forth like a canal from a river and like a water channel into a garden. And I said, I will water my orchard and drench my garden plot and behold, my canal became a river and my river became a sea. Does this sound familiar? All you Bible scholars. A little stream that grows into a river into a large stream that becomes life-giving. Any book in the Bible that you've heard of that before? Who? Psalms, perhaps. There's one that has a river coming out of the temple. Ezekiel, very good. So Ezekiel 47, we see this river in Ezekiel's eschatological temple. We've never actually seen this temple and actually Joel and Zechariah have the same imagery of this river that comes out of the temple, begins as a little stream and then turns into this wide river and alongside this river grow trees of life. So these waters that became a source of life, this is wisdom also, renewing creation and bringing back fertility and fruitfulness from a barren land. So you'll find all these references in Isaiah as well about this river, this life-giving river. So I will make, where are we? Verses 32, I will make again instruction shine forth like the dawn. I will make it shine afar. I will again pour out teaching like prophecy and leave it to all future generations. Observe that I have not labored for myself alone but for all who seek instruction. So our lady who invites us to court her and to flirt with her is also this garden of Eden and this return to the sanctuary. We encounter her through liturgical worship but also she becomes this source of instruction to the whole world and that's an allusion to the mountain of the Lord in Isaiah chapter two in Psalm two. The scriptures are full of this idea of the mountain Mount Zion, right? Out of which comes the Torah, the light that shines forth to the entire world. And so this is what wisdom is. She will be on a rooftop and on this mountain to be seen and known from all. So here's another passage from Jubilees. Now it speaks about Enoch, the ancient patriarch Enoch that says that Enoch breathed its incense at the sanctuary, sweet spices acceptable before the Lord. And the Lord has four places on earth, the Garden of Eden, the mysterious Mount of the East and this mountain on which thou art this day, Mount Sinai and Mount Zion, which will be sanctified in the new creation. Weird Jubilees, you're like conflating all these things together, like Garden of Eden, Mount Zion, Mount Sinai, all these are different facets of the same reality of wisdom who comes and reveals herself to us. Here's another one, Noah after the flood. He knew that the Garden of Eden is the holy of holies and the dwelling of the Lord and Mount Sinai, the center of the desert and Mount Zion, the center of the navel of the earth. These three were created as holy places facing each other. So when you have enough of studying the Bible, you can look online, you can find the book of Jubilees and it's really a fun book to read. It's apocryphal, but it shows us a lot of these very cool ideas from the time before Christ that Jews believed in. So, all right, makes sense. We did well with our book of Sirach 24 and we see that wisdom is found in all these places. So, how are we doing? 4.25, we have until five o'clock, correct? What, what's so funny? Isn't that true? What do we have until five? 3.45 to five, yes, yes. You mock me, but I still have much to say. All right, so the wisdom of Solomon, just a few words about that, we see the wisdom of Solomon that, as I said in the previous talk, this is the latest book of the Old Testament written in Greek and reflects a lot of Greek ideas, but really emphasizes Judaism at the same time. And now we see wisdom in Sirach wisdom is still created, but in this wisdom of Solomon, she is a breath of the power of God and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty. So what does that make wisdom? It's like the sun and its rays. She's almost uncreated here, right? She's this emanation of God, she's this radiance of God himself. Therefore, nothing defile gains entrance into her. She's a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God and an image of his God, of his goodness. Can you kind of see this as kind of Greek thought? This sounds really kind of different from the Hebrew books of the Old Testament. This sounds almost like the New Testament, much more kind of descriptive thought. But the wisdom of Solomon also has nuptial imagery. I loved her and sought her from my youth. I desired to take her from my brides. I became enamored of her beauty. She glorifies her noble birth by living with God and the Lord of all loves her. Therefore, I determined to take her to live with me. It's a marital cohabitation with wisdom. Take her in, but be faithful to her. Don't have an affair with her, be married to her, says the wisdom of Solomon. Okay, so nuptial symbolism is, we see in Proverbs, we see in Syrac, we see that in the wisdom of Solomon. And what's the summary of all this is that wisdom is present at creation. He's identified with the eternal Torah. So you find her through your study of the law. She came down on earth and dwelt in the temple. So she's accessed through liturgical worship and she's described in the scatological terms. You seek wisdom, you're having a foretaste of the glory of the messianic age or of the final days. So there we have it, creation, garden of Eden. You see wisdom revealed at Mount Sinai through the law, the Torah. She is present in the tabernacle and anticipates the eschatological age. You all with me? So that's wisdom in the Old Testament. How does this all play out in the New Testament? So following this little introduction, we can get into the heart of this talk. Ha, ha, that was a joke. All right, so we come to Jesus who is revealed as a bridegroom. So what we're gonna do, we're gonna look, draw out some things of the Gospel of John and I'm gonna test you guys for the things I think you studied this morning and go real quick about on a, well, just a real quick survey and overview of a few things that Paul says and then we'll go to the book of Revelation. So we will have done the whole Bible in an hour and a quarter, it's not bad, no? So the Gospel of John, what do we have in the Gospel of John? A lot of things, here's an outline of some aspects of nuptial symbolism and most of the nuptial symbolism as Dr. Bergsma talked about this morning is kind of hidden, right? It doesn't jump at you immediately, you have to kind of scratch below the surface to see the illusions like the crucifixion and Mary Magdalene in the garden after the resurrection. So Jesus is portrayed as a lot of things in the Gospel of John. He's the eternal Logos, the word and now we all know that this word is wisdom herself, right? He's a new Adam, new temple, he's bridegroom, he's king messiah, paschal lamb of God and so we're gonna hear of all these illusions in the Gospel of John. That speaks a lot, Echo is the language of marriage, family, birth and all that. John talks constantly about faith and there's a lot of water imagery in there too, right? Yeah, can you think of certain conversations? Baptism? So let's go through a few things in the Gospel of John. How does John begin with, in the beginning was the word and the word was God, the word was with God and the word was God. So all this language of John in the beginning, what do you think John is echoing? The beginning, right, creation. He speaks about, there's this light imagery, he was the light and the first chapter of the Gospel of John, did you ever count the days? Are you familiar with his teaching? John the Baptist shows up the next day, John the Baptist taught this, the next day, behold the Lamb of God. So you have the next day, the next day, the next day, four times and then on the third day there was a wedding at Cana. Seven days, remind you of something. So John begins a new creation, right? The seven days of a new creation. So John the Baptist now introduces us to the bridegroom Messiah with the wedding at Cana occurring on a new creation. So what's this new creation? It's a wedding. It's a wedding. Dr. Bergzmann said he did not talk about the wedding at Cana this morning, correct? No, okay, all right. So I won't test you on this one. So at the wedding at Cana, Jesus speaks a little bit rudely to Mary, doesn't he? Woman, what does this have to do with me or for you? They have no wine. Why do you think Jesus calls Mary woman? I will put enmity between you and the woman between your seed and her seed, Genesis 3.15, right? So there's an echo of this woman and her fight against the devil and you can see that in Revelation 12 as well. And the same woman who goes and fights against this dragon in Revelation 12. So John 1.14 tells us the word became flesh. Does that sound familiar? The eternal wisdom of God who comes and dwells among her people. The word became flesh and dwelt or tabernacled among us. Does that sound familiar? Wisdom in Sirach who contracts herself and becomes one of us and we beheld his glory. Where did God reveal his glory in the Old Testament? Mount Sinai, yeah, where the law was given. And now we beheld his glory at this new creation of the Son of God. And Jesus says to Mary woman, what does this have to do with you? My hour has not yet come. When is his hour? It's gonna be at Semine and the crucifixion where he will reveal his death and you're all prepared for this because of Dr. Bergzma. And you know that his hour is actually his the wedding moment of the bridegroom, right? This sacrificial offering for his bride. Jesus provides the wine. Well, who do you think provided wines at ancient weddings? That's a disadvantage of PowerPoint. I give you all the answers before you think about them. So yes, the bridegroom was the one in charge of providing the wine at weddings. So there's a lot of humor in the wedding at Cana. It's like, we're out of wine. Jesus says fill the jars with water. They taste it, wow, this is really good wine. The master of the feast calls the bridegroom. We have no idea who this bridegroom is, right? He's totally anonymous. You can imagine the bridegroom comes. You've kept the best wine until the end. He's going, what the, what best wine? I thought we ran out. He has no idea what's going on. And then kind of Jesus sitting back and saying, you, who do you think is the bridegroom who provided the wine? It's Jesus, right? Jesus is not called bridegroom in the wedding at Cana, but implicitly because he provides the wine, it's kind of saying that he is the bridegroom. So Cana occurs on the seventh day of the new creation, but also on the third day. What else happened on the third day? Of Mount Sinai, the Israelites arrived and they had to wait for three days until God showed up on the mountain. And what did the Israelites, how did the Israelites respond to God at Mount Sinai? Well, they were scared and blah, blah, blah. And then Moses went up on the mountain, they make the covenant and they said, whatever the Lord says, we will hear and obey. Did it sound familiar? We will hear and obey, we will hear and do. Whatever he does, whatever he says, do it. So all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. Mary, when she says to the servants, whatever he says to you, do it. She's echoing the words of Israel at Mount Sinai. So what's going on here? We have a wedding, that's a new creation. That's also a new Sinai. What do you think is an analogy for the Torah in Judaism? The Torah is like a good wine. The law, the instructions of God are a good wine that bring joy to the hearts. And so when Jesus provides this good wine, here's a new Sinai where he reveals his glory, where he gives a new Torah, where Mary echoes the words of the Israelites at Mount Sinai. So this Cana's wine is messianic Torah. It's also the wisdom of God. And it's the beginning of this eschatological wedding feast. Here's a prophecy from Amos, how the mountains will drip with sweet wine at the end of times. Okay, cool, no? A lot of hidden things. I could talk lots more about this. This is also one chapter of my dissertation, which sells for the modest price of $210 on Amazon. It was not my choice, and I make zero royalty, so it's not my fault. Just an academic book that only libraries buy. So pray for me that I find time to write a popularized version of this. Okay, so Jesus has a new temple. I think you did talk about this this morning, right? With Dr. Bergsmann. So Jesus, we know that Jesus portrays himself as the temple, destroy this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it, and he spoke about the temple of his body. So where was wisdom according to Sirach? Garden of Eden, Mount Sinai, and the Tabernacle. Now, if Jesus is the new temple, where do we find wisdom? Wisdom comes and dwells in him, right? So if he's going to be the lamb of God, the sacrifice, he is also the way by which we find wisdom. So the only place where Jesus is explicitly called the bridegroom is in John chapter three. Who calls on the bridegroom? John the Baptist, he says, I'm the friend of the bridegroom. So John the Baptist is a type of matchmaker. In Jewish thought it's called the Shosh Bin, and this is like the guy who brings together the bridegroom and the bride, or the friend of the bridegroom. So what's the context of John? New birth, Jesus talks with Nicodemus. If you're not born, again, if you're not born of water and the spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. And then we find John the Baptist baptizing, and Jesus and his disciples are baptizing as well. So what's the deal with baptism? If Jesus is the bridegroom. You know, in Judaism, when women get married, they have to go through a mikvei. They have to go and undergo ritual immersion, which is like their bridal bath for ritual purity before she goes into the marriage chamber with her husband. So baptism is a type of bridal bath, which means that baptism is essentially the wedding between the believer and Christ since he is the bridegroom. And guess what we talk about in the next chapter of John? What's in John chapter four? A conversation with a certain woman, right? And they happen to be talking at a well. Now, what happens at Wells in the Old Testament in the book of Genesis, Exodus? It's the pickup bar of the ancient Near East, right? So who meets who? We see Rebecca's, no, Abraham's servant who meets Rebecca. He's on the search for a wife for Isaac, right? We see Jacob who meets Rachel. A lot of romance going on there. Moses meets Sephora in the book of Exodus. So this is where when a guy and a girl meet at a well, it's like, ooh, there's love in the air, right? And so what do you think your ancient reader who's aware of that reads like, Jesus is meeting this woman at the well? Hmm, what's gonna come out of this? What, Jesus Samaritan? That's not a good match. And what do they talk about? Give me to drink. If you knew who you were talking to, you would ask me to drink. What do you mean? Water is that will spring up for everlasting life. So what are these waters? Later we're gonna hear it's the Holy Spirit. But does this ring a bell now? Wisdom, rivers, rivers that flow out of the Garden of Eden, right? The river from the temple of Ezekiel. So Jesus is echoing a bunch of things in salvation history in Ezekiel and Sirach in the Garden of Eden. So there we go, Eden, Ezekiel's temple, Lady Wisdom's streams, Lady Wisdom and her own waters of life. And recall what she says in Sirach. Where is it? Those who eat me will hunger for more and those who drink me will thirst for more. What does Jesus say? He who drinks of this water, these living waters will not thirst again. So Jesus is echoing wisdom here. Jesus knows Sirach, right? So you better know it too. Read Sirach. So the woman is a representative of the Samaritan people. It so happens that if you read 2 Kings 17, you know the origin of the Samaritans, they worship five foreign gods. You can read about that in 2 Kings 17. And then they became involved in this syncretistic cult. They kind of worship the Lord, but they kind of didn't. It was a mix. That's why the Jews despise the Samaritans. So when the woman says, now they're talking about marriage, go call your husband, I have no husband. You have spoken truthfully, you have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband. What is Jesus doing? He's alluding to the history of the Samaritan people and their five foreign gods that they worshiped and now that they're not truly worshiping the Lord. So what's going to happen? Jesus is speaking to this woman at the well. If you're an ancient Jewish reader, you think, is this going to end with a wedding? Are they going to fall in love? And we know that they don't. We never hear of the Samaritan woman anymore. But what happens? All the Samaritans come and they believe in Jesus. So what do you think faith is for John? When you come to believe in Jesus. Faith is a wedding, right? For John, faith and baptism, this bridal bath, this is how you come into this nuptial covenant with Jesus. John is so rich, but if you just read it, you can miss all that. It takes, you need to be kind of versed in all this ancient Jewish tradition to make all these connections. So just like Genesis 29, Jacob and Rachel, it ends with a wedding. John 4 ends with this community coming to faith in Jesus. So the whole community coming to faith, this is the wedding. It's a spiritual wedding between Jesus and the Samaritans. Okay, we fast forward to John 12. This you did talk about this morning. And you now know that John 12 alludes to what? Nard. The house was filled with the fragrance of Nard. It alludes to Song of Songs 112, while the king is at his table. My spiked Nard, spiked Nard sends forth its fragrance. Only two places in the entire Bible that we hear of Nard. Actually, Mark mentions Nard as well in the same account. So John is echoing the Song of Songs and Mary of Bethany's great devotion pouring the Nard on Jesus' feet alludes to again, this bridal courtship between lover and beloved with the king on a couch, a woman, a loving woman, Nard and his fragrance. So what's going on with the pascal mystery? What's nuptial about that, this gruesome execution? Well, think of Jesus' speech before. He says, I will go prepare a place for my disciples for you in my father's house, right? So he's saying he's using all this familial language of just like the bridegroom used to take his bride home after the wedding. And so this pascal sacrifice and messianic wedding, we see this in the crown of thorns, right? We see this in the birth analogy with the water and blood coming out of Jesus' side. What is that? If Jesus is the temple, you have this river flowing out of Jesus. There's Ezekiel 47, again, the river coming out of the temple. So it's a birth, it's the living waters that Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit. And it's also a type of new Eve, isn't it? Just like the first Eve was taken from the side of Adam, now we see this new Eve taken from the side of Christ. Jesus is in bond with Myrrh and Alois. Where do we hear of those? Psalm 45, Proverbs 7, Song of Songs, right? So these are kind of, they have erotic connotations in, they're always used in this nuptial meaning. And the fact that Jesus is arrested and buried in a garden probably alludes to the Garden of Eden as well. All right, you're keeping up? A lot of things, right? So you talked this morning about the resurrection appearance? Yes? So we have Mary Magdalene who arrives at the tomb when it's still dark, she's looking for Jesus. They've taken away Myrrh, she turns around, she turns around again, thinks that he's the gardener and then says, do not hold on to Me for I have not yet ascended to the Father. This echoes what? Song of Songs, chapter three. A woman who gets up by night, looks for her beloved. She turns around the city, in the streets and the squares, seeking the one her soul loves. She runs into Watchman, right? Have you seen the one who my soul loves? And then says, until I found him, I want to bring him in my mother's house, the chamber where of her that conceived me. So Jesus and John are directly echoing the Song of Songs in this resurrection appearance. Very, very tender, beautiful. The first one that Jesus appears to according to John is Mary Magdalene. Okay, so much for the Gospel of John in a nutshell, the nuptial symbolism in John. So now even quicker, what Paul says, so we see nuptial symbolism in the Old Testament, nuptial symbolism in Jesus in the Gospels, but then what happens in our own life? Well, Paul speaks about the body being a temple of the Holy Spirit, right? And on this basis he says we should avoid at all costs sexual immorality because we become one flesh with a prostitute. It's a type of nuptial union without the nuptial, right? And that's kind of the basis why sexuality has to be within the framework of the covenant of marriage because of our identity as temples of the Holy Spirit who now have received these living waters that God spoke about. These living waters of wisdom. In 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks of the church as a chaste virgin to Christ and that we're in danger of being tempted just as a serpent tempted Eve, right? So once again, we the temple, but also like little mini-adams and Eve that were also still prone to these temptations. So now Paul is the one who appears to be the matchmaker between the Corinthians or between us and Christ. Whereas we are compared to Eve who are tempted by the serpent. In other words, pursuing Dame Folly instead of Lady Wisdom, right? Okay, Ephesians 5, I'm not even gonna go into the text because this is the greatest the greatest chapter on nuptial symbolism in the scriptures or at least in the New Testament. And we know that Paul used this analogy of Christ who offered himself for the church as an analogy of how a man should offer himself for his wife, right? Love your wife as Christ loved the church. So this beautiful analogy brings together again the sacrificial temple imagery with the nuptial imagery that Paul quotes Genesis one and two and says, well, this man leaving his father and mother being joined to his wife, it's a great mystery and this is what Christ and the church do. This is wisdom. This is wisdom. Wasn't that Dr. Tree's talk on sacrifice as the highest form of wisdom? So Christ sanctifies the church making her holy and without blemish. So this purifying, sanctifying love that begins with baptism and offering his very flesh and blood for us. Isn't that the reality of the Eucharist? Receiving the flesh of blood of our beloved who offers himself for us, Christ and the church. Okay, we come to the end, the last book of the Bible. Do we hear of marriage, of wedding in the book of Revelation? Certainly, first in Revelation 12 we hear again of this battle between the woman and the serpent. So it ties Genesis, the beginning and the end of the Bible. We meet a lamb that was slain so there's our sacrificial aspect, the Alpha and the Omega who is sacrificed on the altar. But last but not least, at the end of the book of Revelation, we encounter this new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And then John hears a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he would dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself will be with them. So here's your final marriage of this sacrificial lamb, this incarnate wisdom who comes and tabernacles among us. You see Sirach again? Wisdom that comes down to dwell with us and now wisdom is fully revealed in heaven. There's no need for a temple anymore because this wedding will be a cosmic wedding as all the redeemed will be joined to Christ and his eternal temple of heaven. And following this wedding in the very last chapter of the Bible, what do we encounter? A river of life flowing from the throne of God. So we hear the voice of God, we see the Alpha and the Omega and then what is this river of life? Here we have the Blessed Trinity, don't we? Father, Son and Holy Spirit, here the living water is that Christ spoke of. Here is wisdom's streams that flow onto all the nations in this book of Revelation, this tree of life that is for the healing of nations that produce these fruits that bring healing in life. So here's our return to the Garden of Eden. Not bad and makes it really worth pursuing wisdom, doesn't it? Because that's what connects everything in Salvation history. The return to the tree of life, this is what wisdom is. So in summary, here's a little summary chart of everything we've looked at. If we look at the Old Testament, right? We see the Garden of Eden, this is our prototype or ideal at the very beginning followed by a crash, the fall, sin and what's the redemptive event? God redeems Israel at Sinai and gives them the law, but the law, this is only a one-time event, so how is this prolonged into time through liturgical worship in the temple and the temple anticipates the messianic age? That's what the Old Testament tells us. If we go to the Gospel of John, Jesus is the culmination of a new creation. He's a new Adam, right? So he retraces the steps of the first Adam. He, at the wedding at Cana, he institutes a new Mount Sinai by giving the wine of the new Torah and also the crucifixion by shedding his blood and instituting the new covenant. Jesus is also a new temple, so by encountering Jesus in the temple of his body, we enter into his presence. And Jesus speaks to the woman, Samaritan woman, he says you will worship, there will be a time when you will worship in spirit and truth. So in the Gospel of John, we see Jesus recapitulating those four major stages in his own life and announcing how that's gonna work for us in the church. So what happens with Paul? Well, I guess who we are. If Christ is the new Adam, we the church are the new Eve. How do we enter into this nuptial mystery? Through a bridal bath, which is baptism. How are we joined to our bridegroom, the wisdom incarnate, by receiving his body and blood, this one flesh union with him. And that is what makes us temples of the Holy Spirit. As we receive his body and blood, we receive the Holy Spirit, the rivers of life, of wisdom. And that gives us this expectation of the final wedding, the wedding of the lamb. And that's what we find in the book of Revelation. Revelation alludes back to the woman of Genesis 3.15. We encounter the eternal lamb of God who was slain on the altar. We see the heavenly Jerusalem and the heavenly temple opened for the redeemed. And this is the final marriage supper of the lamb. Scripture is cool, isn't it? You think it almost sounds like it's divinely inspired. So if you're familiar, anyone familiar with the four senses of Scripture? So if you teach Scripture, you should know that because it's in the Catechism, 115 to 118. And Scripture speaks of, this is really kind of a postscript to this talk because we're done. You know that Scripture speaks, when you read a script, when you read Scripture, that you always begin with the literal sense, then you go to the allegorical sense, which is the Old Testament events fulfilled in Christ. Then you have the moral sense, the Old Testament events fulfilled in the life of the believer. And then the anagogical sense, Old Testament events fulfilled in eternity. So isn't that exactly this? Right, so you have the literal sense, allegorical, moral or topological sense in anagogical. So that is the richness of Scripture, of seeing how, oops, how these four senses of Scripture are right there in the gift of wisdom in the Old Testament and the book of Sirach and in the Gospels, the Epistles and the book of Revelation. That's what I have to say, any questions? We have six minutes for questions. Yes. That's why you're all here at Applied Biblical Studies. So the lady said that it takes a long time and a lot of readings of the Bible. And to be honest, even if you read the Bible as often until you turn blue in the face, it does require kind of a knowledge of the Judaism of Jesus' day. I quoted the book of Jubilees, which is not well known among most, you know, non-scholars. So yes, it does require a lot. It shows how wisdom is inexhaustible. The more, you know, the saying goes, like when you come out of high school, you think you know everything. And then when you have your undergrad degree, you think you're pretty smart. And when you have your masters, you think you have really lots to learn. When you get to your PhD or dissertation, you realize you're clueless about everything. So that's the mark of humility, right? The more you learn, the more you realize you're only scratching the surface and that wisdom truly is inexhaustible. So hopefully it's a motivation, not discouraging, but a motivation for us to really invest in the word of God and seek wisdom and pursue her with all our heart. Other questions? Yes. So the comment is at every mass, we hear happier those who come to the supper of the lamb. So I could have gone on in this talk and show how this applies really to our own liturgical life, right? So this is exactly what the mass does, the liturgy, in connecting us with the lamb who's offered and receiving wisdom in and through the liturgy and the mass also anticipates, we proclaim your death, oh Lord, until you come again. So the mass always connects us with the past and the future. It's connection between time and eternity, heaven and earth. Yes, sir? Yes. Well, Sophia is just the Greek word for wisdom and philosophy, right? Love of wisdom. So in Hebrew it's hochma, hochma, and Greek it's Sophia. So it's a beautiful female name as well for wisdom. Other questions? Great, well thanks very much, yes ma'am? Well it is, the Holy Spirit is wisdom. There's no separation because wisdom, so she asked, what's the difference between this wisdom and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit? Well, the living waters flowing out of Christ, this is the Holy Spirit. He mentions that in John 7 actually, which I did not go to when Jesus says, he refers again to the living waters and John says this was about the Holy Spirit who had yet to come. So you might say there's no competition between the person and the Trinity, right? The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, some of the church fathers say that Christ's wisdom, others would say that, well the Holy Spirit is also wisdom because we receive the Holy Spirit. Very good, thank you very much for coming. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without ends. Amen, name of the Father, Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen, have a good dinner and a good evening.