Are the Holy Spirit and Wisdom the same in the Bible?

Answer 1

A: No. Wisdom, or 'Lady Wisdom', in the Book of Proverbs, was a spirit/goddess who became popular among the Jews from the time of the Babylonian Exile until the end of the first century CE. Proverbs portrays her as a benign and powerful spirit, rather than as the earlier goddesses like Asherah, although verse 8:23-31 says that Wisdom was with God from the very beginning, from time everlasting. She is referenced extensively in the Book of Proverbs, some of the Apocrypha and briefly in the gospels. B. Lang (Wisdom and the Book of Proverbs: An Israelite Goddess Redefined) says that in pre-Exilic times she was the Hebrew goddess of wisdom. Probably in post-Exilic Judaism, it was no longer possible to worship her as a true goddess.

The Hebrew word for 'spirit' is the same as for 'wind' or 'breath', so the various Old Testament references to the spirit of God do not necessarily mean either an emanation of God or a separate being like Wisdom. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit seems to be a powerful and sentient being, but not in the same way as a god or goddess. In later Christian thought, the Holy Spirit becomes one person of the Holy Trinity, yet somehow never the equal of God the Father or Jesus. Christians pray to God the Father and to Jesus, but not to the Holy Spirit.

ANOTHER ANSWER:

The Bible speaks of two kinds of wisdom, knowledge and understanding. There's the "wisdom, knowledge and understanding of the world" and the "wisdom, knowledge and understanding of God."

"FEAR OF THE LORD is the beginning of WISDOM. KNOWLEDGE of the Holy One results in UNDERSTANDING." (Prov.9:10 NLT New Living Translation)

"...my message and my preaching were very plain. I did not use wise and persuasive speeches, but the Holy Spirit was Powerful among you. I did this so that you might Trust the POWER OF GOD rather than HUMAN WISDOM. Yet when I am among mature Christians, I do speak with Words of WISDOM, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs TO THIS WORLD, and not the kind that appeals to the rulers of this world, who are being brought to nothing. No, the WISDOM we speak of is THE SECRET WISDOM OF GOD, which was hidden in former times, though HE MADE IT FOR OUR BENEFIT before the world began. But the rulers of this world have not UNDERSTOOD IT; if they had, they would never have crucified our Glorious LORD." (I Cor.2:4-8 NLT)

The Holy Spirit of God is HIS POWER... not a "person" as false religion teaches, but the Bible doesn't support. The use of the masculine, "him," in John's 14th chapter description of the "Comforter" [Holy Spirit - in the King James Version of the Bible] is a matter of "grammatical gender agreement" required by the Greek romance language, and not a making of the Holy Spirit into a "person."

Romans 8:16 proves this; an instance where "language gender agreement" isn't required: "The [Holy] Spirit ITSELF [not: HIMself] beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the Children of God..." (Rom.8:16 KJV).

The Holy Spirit of God is THE POWER OF GOD that binds God and His church, and MAKES THEM ALL ONE! Which is way more than the alleged THREE that false religion teaches, to try to LIMIT GOD:

"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that THEY ALL MAY BE ONE; as thou, Father, ART IN ME, and I IN THEE, that THEY ALSO MAY BE ONE IN US: that the world may believe that thou hast sent Me. And the Glory which thou gavest Me I HAVE GIVEN THEM; that THEY MAY BE ONE, EVEN AS WE ARE ONE: I in them, and thou in Me, that they may be made Perfect IN ONE..." (John 17:20-23 KJV).

The Holy Spirit is indeed the "Spirit of Wisdom"... but it wields all the facets of God's Power... of which Wisdom is but one:

"...I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in WISDOM, and in UNDERSTANDING, and in KNOWLEDGE, and in ALL MANNER OF WORKMANSHIP." (Ex.31:3 KJV)