In her initial appearance in Proverbs, Sophia was seen as a symbolic figure in female guise, who took on some of the roles traditionally associated with Yahweh, while remaining quite clearly within his control. At the same time, when we asked the question 'What is She?', we saw that it would be foolish to deny completely the possibility that the symbol was drawn to a degree from the religious environment in which Israel lived—that is, there was probably at least some element of borrowing from ancient Near Eastern goddess speculation.