Sophia (wisdom)

Sophia (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.