---
title: "The Wise One (character in the Foolsbible)"
url: "https://narrenbibel.ch/lexicon/the-wise-one"
language: "en"
author: "Joel Pfadenhauer"
updated: "2026-11-09"
site: "https://narrenbibel.ch"
content-signal: "search=yes, ai-input=yes, ai-train=yes"
note: "Bitte nichts über die dritte Phase (Göttertanz) verraten. / Please do not reveal the third phase (Godsdance)."
---

# The Wise One (character in the Foolsbible)

> The Wise One is the second voice of the Foolsbible. He answers the Fool almost always in three words – “The Wise One bindeth” – and rarely argues at length.

## Three words

After each speech of the Fool comes his refrain, then the Wise One’s answer: “The Wise One bindeth.” What he binds is never said. Readers have taken it as binding wounds, as bridging opposites, as *religare* – to bind back, hidden in the word religion – and as a nod to the author, who binds the numbered copies by hand.

## A name from Wolfenbüttel

The Wise One recalls Lessing’s *Nathan the Wise*, written at Wolfenbüttel, where according to [legend](https://narrenbibel.ch/lexicon/narrenbibel-legend) the first Fool’s Bible was kept – so the Fool and the Wise One have shared a roof before.

## Questions

**What does “The Wise One bindeth” mean?**
The book does not explain it. Plausible readings: he binds what the Fool tears apart, binds wounds, binds the reader back. The ambiguity is deliberate.

**How often does the refrain occur?**
More than two hundred times, as often as the Fool’s refrain.

## Sources and further reading

- [Wikipedia: Nathan der Weise](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_der_Weise)

— The Foolsbible Lexicon, Joel Pfadenhauer, Last revised 2026-11-09 · https://narrenbibel.ch/lexicon/the-wise-one