What Wisdom Is

Quid est autem sapientia, et quemadmodum facta sit, referam, et non abscondam a vobis sacramenta Dei:sed ab initio nativitatis investigabo... Quid autem est sapientia, quasi dicat: ita invitavi vos ad sapientiam, et ut acquiescatis, referam etc. Vel sic continuandum: hucusque monui ad sapientiam; autem, pro sed; amodo referam, quid est sapientia etc. Ecce, magna promissio; abscondita enim est ab oculis omnium viventium, lob vigesimo octavo; verumtamen revelatione Spiritus sancti nosci potest. Quid est, inquam, sapientia, increata, id est qualis; de ipsa enim non potest sciri nec dici, quid sit, scilicet secundum essentiam, sed qualis, quoniam bona, aeterna, omnipotens etc. De sapientia vero creata sciri potest et dici, quid sit; unde Augustinus: Sapientia est cognitio rerum divinarum. Et quemadmodum facta sit, id est qualiter genita de Patre, scilicet aeterna Sapientia, quae est Dei Filius; primae ad Corinthios primo: Christum Dei virtutem et sapientiam. Vel: quemadmodum facta, id est creata, si exponatur de creata; Ecclesiastici primo: Prior omnium creata est sapientia; item ibidem vigesimo quarto: Ab initio et ante saecula creata sum, id est disposita creari. Et non abscondani a vobis sacramenta Dei, id est sacra et secreta opera sapientiae Dei. Contra: Tobiae duodecimo: Sacramentum regis abscondere bonum est. Dicendum, quod tentatoribus debet abscondi, amatoribus debet revelari; unde loannis decimo quinto: Vos autem dixi amicos, quia omnia, quaecumque audivi a Patre meo, nota feci vobis. Item, abscondenda superbis sapientibus, sed revelanda parvulis humilibus; unde Matthaei undecimo: Abscondisti haec a sapientibus et prudentibus, et revelasti ea parvulis, id est humilibus. Item, non gulosis, sed abstinentibus , ut patet Danielis primo. Sed ab initio nativitatis, id est humanae, vel ipsius sapientiae; investigabo, oslendendo, ipsam a Deo Patre procedere. Et ponam in lucem, scilicet manifestationis, scientiam illius, clare docendo; Ecclesiaslici vigesimo quarto: Qui elucidant me vitam aeternam habebunt. Et non praeteribo veritatem, falsa admiscendo; Ecclesiastici trigesimo septimo: Ante omnia opera verbum verax praecedat te; Augustinus: Bonorum ingeniorum insignis indoles est, in verbis verum amare, non verba. Sanctus Bonaventura, Commentarius In Librum Sapientiae, Caput VI Source: Here, 381b-382a

But what wisdom is, how it came to be, I will make known, and I will not hide from you the mysteries of God, but from the beginning of that birth I will enquire... 1 'But what wisdom is,' as if he says: 'I have invited you to wisdom, even that you might acquire it.' Or it could be continued as: 'Until now I have given advice about wisdom, now I will declare what wisdom is.' This is indeed a great promise, because 'it is hidden from the eyes of all living,' in the twenty eighth chapter of Job. 2 Yet it can be known by a revelation of the Holy Spirit. I speak of what uncreated wisdom is according to what sort of a thing it is, for what it is in its essence, cannot be known nor spoken of, only what sort of a thing it is, namely, good, eternal, all powerful etc. However what created wisdom is can be known and spoken of, whence Augustine says: 'Wisdom is the knowledge of Divine things.' 3 Even of how it came to be, that is, how it was born from the Father, that is, the uncreated Wisdom which is the Son of God. In the first letter to the Corinthians it is said: 'Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.' 4 Or how created wisdom came to be, that is, if its creation is to be explained. In the first chapter of Ecclesiasticus 'Before all things wisdom was created.' 5 And in the same book: 'I was created from the beginning and from before the world,' 6 that is, ready to be created. 'I will not hide from you the mysteries of God,' that is, the sacred and secret workings of the wisdom of God. But against this, in the twelfth chapter of Tobit: 'It is good to hide the secret of a king.' 7 It must be said that it should be hidden from those who exasperate but it should be revealed to those who love, whence in the fifteenth chapter of John: 'I have called you friends because I have made everything known to you that I have heard from my Father.' 8 Likewise it must be hidden from the wise who are proud, but it must be revealed to little ones who are humble. So in the eleventh chapter of Matthew: 'You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to little ones,' 9 that is, the humble. Likewise, revealed not to the greedy but to the abstemious, as is clear in the first chapter of Daniel. 10 'From the beginning of that birth,' that is, I shall enquire into the human birth, or into the birth of wisdom itself, by showing that it proceeds from the Father. And I shall place it in the light, that is, I shall make it manifest by teaching the understanding of it clearly. In the twenty fourth chapter of Ecclesiasticus: 'They who explain me shall have eternal life.' 11 And I will not pass over the truth by mixing in lies. In the thirty seventh chapter of Ecclesiasticus: 'Before every work let the true word go before you.' 12 Augustine says: 'It is a distinctive feature of good minds to love what is true in words, not merely words.' 13 Saint Bonaventura, Commentary On Wisdom, Chapter 6 1 Wisd 6.24 2 Job 28.21 3 Aug De Trint 14.1 4 1 Cor 1.24 5 Sirach 1.4 6 Sirach 24.14 7 Tobit 12.7 8 Jn 15.15 9 Mt 11.25 10 Dan 1.8-17 11 Sirach 24.31 12 Sirach 37.20 13 Aug De Doctrina Christiana 4.11