Wisdom

There are several Old Testament books that Catholics use that Jews and Protestants do not use.  One  of them is Wisdom.  In feminine terms the author in chapter 7  praises Wisdom as holy, unique, almighty, a breath of the power of God, a reflection of eternal light, an image of divine goodness.  "She is more beautiful than the sun and excels every constellation of the stars....Against Wisdom evil cannot prevail. She reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other, ordering all things sweetly and well."
The author even writes about how the people have been saved by Wisdom..  She saved those in the Ark; she delivered the people from slavery in Egypt (10:4,13).  These texts are actually referring to the one God of Israel but in female rather than male language.   God is beyond gender.  In the diaspora Jews were scattered all over the Mediterranean world.  Other religions had female goddesses like Isis and Athena.  It's possible that, to fit in, rabbis began to emphasize the female figure of Wisdom.  Elizabeth Johnson writes, "Within strong monotheistic belief, she is neither a replacement for nor an addition to Yahweh but an alternative way of speaking about the one unfathomable God of Israel who creates and redeems the world."
Almost all of the above is from Johnson's Creation and the Cross.  Check my entry on May 16 "What's In A Name?"