Where Is Wisdom to Be Found

Abstract Chapter 1 reviews wisdom discourses from the Hebrew Bible to late antiquity that provide the contextual background against which the Qur’an articulates its own theology of ḥikmah, with brief indications of where these discourses are discussed further over the course of the study. One of the key themes that emerges from this chapter is the question of the relationship between wisdom and revelation. In the late antique period, this question is settled in diametrically opposite ways by Jews and Christians, with Jews on the whole equating wisdom to revelation, and Christians equating wisdom with natural law, by which they mean intuitive moral values, and then positing that this natural law both chronologically and ontologically precedes the revelation of the law to Moses at Sinai, and it was this natural law (and perhaps this natural law alone) that remained abidingly obligatory for Christians to follow.