JESUS AND WISDOM IN THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS WITH A SPECIAL REVIEW OF GOSPEL REFERENCES TO THE OLD TESTAMENT WISDOM

The article is primarily dealing with the usage of the noun in the synoptic gospels and shows that the noun appears once in Mark's Gospel, three times in Matthew's Gospel, and six times in Luke's Gospel. Of course, the very appearance of the noun does not by itself point to the influence of Old Testament sapiential literature, but the aforementioned statistical indications remain as an introduction to deeper study of sapiential places in individual gospels. Thus, the first part of the article focuses on those places at which the noun appears and demonstrate that Mark does not show much interest for the noun and its semantic circle, that Luke speaks about Jesus as a teacher and mediator of wisdom, and that only Matthew realises, already on this level, the identification of Jesus with Wisdom. In the second part of the article, the author studies those texts of synoptic gospels that contain allusions to sapiential literature of the Old Testament or implicit quotations of that literature. Similar conclusions follow: Mark is not interested in the idea of wisdom, Luke emphasises Jesus's mediating role in relation to wisdom here as well, and Matthew identifies Jesus with personified Wisdom.