Sophia, or Sofia (Koine Greek: σοφία, sophía—'wisdom') is a central idea in Hellenistic philosophy and religion, Platonism, and Gnosticism. Originally carrying a meaning of 'cleverness, skill', the later meaning of the term, 'sound judgement, intelligence, practical wisdom', is close to the meaning of phronesis (φρόνησις, 'practical wisdom, intelligence'), and was significantly shaped by the term philosophía ('love of wisdom') as used by Plato. In the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, the feminine personification of divine wisdom as Holy Wisdom (Ἁγία Σοφία, Hagía Sophía) can refer either to Jesus Christ the Word of God (as in the dedication of the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople) or to the Holy Spirit. References to sophía in Koine Greek translations of the Hebrew Bible are translated from the Hebrew term Chokmah (חכמה).
Greek and Hellenistic tradition
The Ancient Greek word sophía (σοφία) is an abstract noun formed from sophós (σοφός), which can mean 'clever, skillful, intelligent, wise'. The noun sophía as 'skill in handicraft and art' is Homeric and in Pindar is used to describe both Hephaestos and Athena. In Plato's myth in Protagoras, Prometheus steals "wisdom in the arts" (ἔντεχνος σοφία, 'éntechnos sophía') associated with Hephaestus and Athena. In Plato's Republic, the ideal city is said to require that philosophers rule (the "philosopher-king" idea). In Plato's Apology, Socrates reports that the Delphic oracle said no one was wiser than he (often paraphrased as "the wisest man in Greece"). The term sophía could also denote 'sound judgement, intelligence, practical wisdom' and is associated by LSJ with the kind of wisdom attributed to the Seven Sages of Greece, comparable to phrónēsis. The term philosophía (φιλοσοφία 'love of wisdom') is used in classical Greek for the pursuit of knowledge/wisdom. A later tradition credits Pythagoras as the first to call himself a "philosopher". Philo, a Hellenized Jew writing in Alexandria, attempted to harmonize Platonic philosophy and Jewish scripture. Also influenced by Stoic philosophical concepts, he used the Koine term lógos (λόγος) for the role and function of Wisdom, a concept later adapted by the author of the Gospel of John in its opening verses and applied to Jesus as the Word (Logos) of God the Father. In Gnosticism, Sophia is a feminine figure, analogous to the soul, but also simultaneously one of the emanations of the Monad. Gnostics held that she was the syzygy of Jesus (i.e. the Bride of Christ) and was the Holy Spirit of the Trinity.
Christian theology
Christian theology received the Old Testament personification of Divine Wisdom (Septuagint Sophia, Vulgate Sapientia). The connection of Divine Wisdom to the concept of the Logos resulted in the interpretation of "Holy Wisdom" (Hagia Sophia) as an aspect of Christ the Logos. The expression Hagia Sophia itself is not found in the New Testament, even though passages in the Pauline epistles equate Christ with the "wisdom of God" (θεοῦ σοφία). The clearest form of the identification of Divine Wisdom with Christ comes in 1 Corinthians 1:17–2:13. In 1 Corinthians 2:7, Paul speaks of the Wisdom of God as a mystery which was "ordained before the world unto our glory".
Christology Following 1 Corinthians, the Church Fathers named Christ as "Wisdom of God". Therefore, when rebutting claims about Christ's ignorance, Gregory of Nazianzus insisted that, inasmuch as he was divine, Christ knew everything: "How can he be ignorant of anything that is, when he is Wisdom, the maker of the worlds, who brings all things to fulfillment and recreates all things, who is the end of all that has come into being?". Irenaeus represents another, minor patristic tradition which identified the Spirit of God, and not Christ himself, as "Wisdom". He could appeal to Paul's teaching about wisdom being one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:8). However, the majority applied to Christ the title/name of "Wisdom".
Constantine the Great set a pattern for Eastern Christians by dedicating a church to Christ as the personification of Divine Wisdom. In Constantinople, under Justinian I, the Hagia Sophia ("Holy Wisdom") was rebuilt, consecrated in 538, and became a model for many other Byzantine churches. In the Latin Church, however, "the Word" or Logos came through more clearly than "the Wisdom" of God as a central, high title of Christ. In the theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Holy Wisdom is understood as the Divine Logos who became incarnate as Jesus; this belief being sometimes also expressed in some Eastern Orthodox icons. In the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church, the exclamation Sophia! or in English Wisdom! will be proclaimed by the deacon or priest at certain moments, especially before the reading of scripture, to draw the congregation's attention to sacred teaching. There is a hagiographical tradition, dating to the late sixth century, of a Saint Sophia and her three daughters, Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity. This has been taken as the veneration of allegorical figures from an early time, and the group of saints has become popular in Russian Orthodox iconography as such (the names of the daughters rendered as věra (вѣра 'faith'), nadéžda (надежда 'hope'), ljubovĭ (любовь 'love')). The veneration of the three saints named for the three theological virtues probably arose in the 6th century.
Iconography
The Christological identification of Christ the Logos with Divine Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) is strongly represented in the iconographic tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church. A type of icon of the Theotokos is "Wisdom hath builded Her house" (Премудрость созда Себе дом), a quotation from Proverbs 9:1 ("Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars") interpreted as prefiguring the incarnation, with the Theotokos being the "house" chosen by the "hypostatic Wisdom" (i.e. "Wisdom" as a person of the Trinity).
Christian mysticism
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