The nearest approach to a personification of Wisdom in the First Anthology is Proverb xx. 15: "There is gold and abundance of pearls, but the lips of knowledge are a (more) precious jewel." This expands in Job to a long list of precious things--gold, coral, topaz, pearls--all surpassed by Wisdom, and the similitudes journey on to the parables of Jesus, wherein the woman sweeps for the lost silver, and the man sells all he has for the pearl of price. This, however, was a comparatively simple and human development. And the first complete personification of Wisdom, growing out of "the lips of knowledge," and perhaps influenced by the portraiture of "the virtuous woman," is an expression of philosophical and poetic religion. This personification is in Proverbs viii. and ix., which are evidently far more ancient than the seven chapters preceding them, and no doubt constitute the original editorial Prologue to the so-called "Proverbs of Solomon," with the exception of some Jahvist cant about "the fear of Jahveh." We hear from "the lips of knowledge" a reaffirmation of the "excellent things" said in the Anthologies about the superiority of Wisdom to gems. (The word "ancient" given by the revisers in the margin to viii. 18 may possibly signify the antiquity of the Anthologies when this Prologue was written.) The scholarly writer of the Prologue had closely studied the ancient proverbs, and occasionally gives good hints for the interpretation of some that puzzle modern translators. Thus Wisdom, in describing herself as "sporting" (viii. 30), indicates the right meaning of x. 23 to be that while the fool finds his sport in mischief, the wise man finds his sport with wisdom. (This proverb may also have suggested the laughter of the "virtuous woman" in xxxi. 25.) In viii. 22-31, Wisdom becomes more than a personification, and takes her place in cosmogony. This passage, which contains germs of much of our latter-day theology, must be quoted in full, and comparatively studied. Wisdom speaks: 22. Jahveh acquired me in the outset of his way, Before his works, from of old. 23. From eternity was I existent, From the first, before the earth. 24. When no deep seas I was brought forward, When no fountains abounding with water. 25. Before the mountains were fixed, Before the hills, was I brought forward: 26. When he had not fashioned the earth and the fields, And the consummate part of the dust of the world. 27. When he established the heavens, I was there; When he set a boundary on the face of the deep; 28. When he made firm the clouds above; When the fountains of the deep became strong; 29. When he gave to the sea its limit, That the waters should not pass over their coast; When he marked out the foundation pillars of the earth: