Egyptian-Hebrew stream·The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch)·Book II — Book of Parables (Similitudes)·Chapter XLII — The Departure of Wisdom
Wisdom found no dwelling among men
Wisdom went forth to dwell among the children of men and found no dwelling; she returned to take her seat among the angels. Unrighteousness went forth from her chambers and dwelt among men like rain in a desert.
Source context
- Theme
- Wisdom's withdrawal from earth and her dwelling in the heavens among the angels
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Hebrew Wisdom literature (Proverbs 8; Sirach 24)The personified figure of Hokhmah (Wisdom) seeking a dwelling among humanity and finding none on earth mirrors the Enochic Wisdom's failed descent, establishing cross-tradition congruence between apocalyptic and sapiential strands of Second Temple Judaism.
- Neoplatonic henologyThe motif of a transcendent Wisdom-principle that cannot anchor itself in the material world exhibits cross-tradition congruence with Plotinus's account of Nous remaining at the level of the One rather than fully descending into matter (Enneads V.1).
- Gnostic Sophia mythologyThe Enochic Wisdom who returns to heaven after finding no fit reception on earth shares structural cross-tradition congruence with the Valentinian Sophia who withdraws from the Pleroma after her failed impulse outward, though the soteriological resolution differs sharply between the two traditions.
Chapter XLII
XLII. The Dwelling-places of Wisdom and of Unrighteousness.
CHAPTER XLII.
1Wisdom found no place where she might dwell;
Then a dwelling-place was assigned her in the heavens.
2Wisdom went forth to make her dwelling among the children of men,
And found no dwelling-place: Wisdom returned to her place, And took her seat among the angels.
3And unrighteousness went forth from her chambers:
Whom she sought not she found, And dwelt with them, p. 62 As rain in a desert And dew on a thirsty land.
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