Chap. Viii. 1-36. 97
CHAP. VIII.
1-36.
Ver.
I speak plain things.
The word dence" expresses a confidential or friendly relation.—the same idea which is elsewhere indicated by the Hiphil of the closely related verb po ; comp. Ps. cxxxix. 3
; Job xxii. 21.
Inasmuch aa the verb stands here with the simple accusative of the noun, without the prepositions ordinarily signifying "with" (for this construction comp. e. licre translated ' pliun " niiglit, it is true, designate "noble, princely tbiug.s," (conip. the a£jivd of the LXX, the "res magnie" of the Vulg., etc.); [So WoRDSw., H01.DEN, N. and M.], the parallelism however rentiers more natural the signification
"plain, evident"
(clara, mani/est'a) ; [So Stuart] ; comp. a similar term in ver.
This only appropriate sense we find already given iu the ChaMee and Syriac versions.
17.
. Ps. V. 6) many translated "I inhabit prudence" and so conceive of prudence either as the sheltering roof
(as e. g., U.mbreit explains), or as a property subject to the disposal of prudence (thus
Bertheau) ; but both are alike harsh and inapposite.
Tbe correct, view is found in Ewald, HiT/.iQ, Elstee, the last of whom illustrates the relation of wisdom to prudence by the remark, "prudence (Ha^^') denotes here right knowVer.
7. For my mouth meditateth truth, literally, "my palate," comp.
Song Sol. v.
1(5; Job xxxi. no.
The functio.i of speech docs not. appear to be here immediately associated with the palate, but, as the antithesis in the 2d clause shows, rather the inward moulding of the word as yet unspoken, by the silent working of the spirit,—the reflective consideration which precedes speech. ledge in special eases, in conti-ast with the mnro comprehensive idea of intelligence in general; the practical realization of the higher principle of knowledge found in wisdom (noDn) "—And Ver. 8. Right, literally, "in righteousness."
For this use of the prepo-ition employed
introduce the predicate, and forming as it were the transition to the
esscniix, compare passages ^ T : T ' find out know^ledge of sagacious counsels.
" To find out knowledge " here stands for "to know"
(comp. Job xxxii. 13); the expression as a whole would therefore find its equivalent in the simpler "and know sagacious counsels"
(ni^n J'nXI).
Comp. furthermore the notes on like ProT. xxiv. 5
; Ps. xxix.
4, and Ew.\ld,
L'17 f.
Ver.
9. Right to the man of understanding .
. plain to them that have attained kno'wledge.
Slrai;/ht and plain stand cunIriisted with the crookt:d and false of the preceding verse.
[Tuapp:
"Plain in things necessary to salvation ; for as all duties so all truths do not concern all men.
God doth not expect or require that every man should be a doctor in the chair; but those points that direct to duty here and salv:ition hereafter, are clear, express and obvious to them thatdesire to understand them."] i. 14.
Ver.
13. The fear of Jehovah is to hate evil.
Only thus far is the 1st member of tliis ver. to be carried; the following exjiressions, "pride," "arrogance," and "an evil way"
(literally, "way of evil ") are, in spite of the present accentuation, to be regarded as prefixed objects to the verb "I liate," so that the meaning of the entire verse is substantially this; "Inasmuch as the fear of God, this beginning of all wisdom (see i. 7; ix. 10) comprises within itself as a distinguishing characteristic the hatred of The " man of understanding " is he who is so wise as not to despise the words of wisdom, who rather duly takes them to heart.
" They that have attained knowledge," literally "the finders of knowledge," are those who have made progress in the sphere of ethical knowledge, the " knowing," the mature and experienced.
UmBREIT incorrectly interprets "to them that wish to find knowledge ;" the participle is here to be taken in a preteritive sense; comp.
Gen. xix.
Neh. x. 29.
[Other examples may be found cited by 15 ttcheu.
^ 997, 2, II.]
Ver. 10. Receive my instruction and not silver, i. e., when you have the choice prelVr my instruction to silver.
There is therefore here a comparison like that in the 2d clause, only Boniowhat otherwise expressed.—Rather than choice gold.
Hitzio. following the LXX and Chald., "than tried gold."
Bui IH^J means evil, I, wisdom, accordingly hate everything proud, wicked and crafty."
(Comp. Hitzio on this passage).
The general proposition forming the first member of the ver., which naturally gives us no exhaustive definition of the fear of God, but only a description of it by one of its chief characteristics (comp. Heb. xi. 1), is therefore, as it were, the major premise, from which the conclusion is drawn that forms the 2d and 3d members.
The minor premise, however, which might have had some such form as the first clause of chap. ix.
10, is omitted; the reasoning, as it here stands, taking the form of a lemma.
In opposition to the diverse methods of punctuating and interpreting, such as are found in Umbreit, Bertheau, and most of the earlier commentators, comp. Hitzig and Elster on this passage.—For the expression "mouth of deceit or "crafty mouth" comp. ii. 12; x. 31.
Ver. 14 Hitzio pronounces an addition growing out of the similar passage Job xii.
13, as he also explains the iwo following verses as "founded upon the reading of Isa. xxxii. 1," and condemns them.
But the accordance with these other passages is far too remote and partial to permit us to think of a derivation from them.
In the case of ver. 14 and Job xii. 13 we might more readily think of the converse relation of dependence, in case one must at all maintain any such relation as existing, which seems hardly necessary. For aa respects the expressions "wisdom,"
" eoun- "selected, chosen," and we have no trace elsewhere of the use of the partic. tn^J, which is indeed similar in form and easily substituted, for the designation of tncd gold (^lyjtia/oi^ dEihKi/^ao/ievov).
Comp. besides ver.
19, and in the foregoing, iii. 14; with ver. 11 comp. iii.
15.
Vers. 12-21.
I, Wisdom, dwell with prudence.
That Wisdom who is speaking here emphatically calls herself by name is doubtless to be explained by the fact that only just before, in ver.
11, she had spoken of herself in the Sd person.
Very unwarrantably Hitzig infers from this circumstance the spuriousness of this verse also.—The "dwelling" of wisdom " with pru-
THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
f el," ' understanding," and " strength," which gold" (in Hebrew properly two synonymous expressions for the idea of "fine gold," comp. Ps. xix.
1 1 ; xxi. 4
; Song Sol. v.
1 1 ) compare iii. 14.
Ver.
21. To ensure abundance to those that love me.
The word here translated " abundance " [^^) must here necessarily be a lire brought into combination in these verses, they are lound, with the exception of the second, combined elsewhere, especially in Isa. xi.
2, where they are adduced quite as they are here, as attributes of the true ruler.
The instances of paronomasia, however, in vers.
and 16, ("kings are kings," and "rulers rulers"), were substantive, of similar import with a derived form (D'CZ-in) occurring in ii. 7, and substantially of themselves so natural, and suggested themequivalent to the inrap^i^ of the LXX and the nhaia of the Venetian version.
For the verb "to ensure " plainly requires an object, and the position of this noun at the end of the clause shows that this is precisely the object governed by the verb.
Moreover, if Hitzig's conception selves so obviously, that neither for the author of our verses was there need of any reading of Isa. xxxii.
1, nor for Isaiah of any recollection of Prov. viii. 15, 16, to give occasion for the employment of this trope.
[Wordsw.
; Sound wisdom, the very essence of things, whence they derive tlioir soundness and strength].
I am underBtanding, I have (lit. "mine is") strength. of the expression as an impersonal verb in the sense of prxsto est, it is at my command, ("I have it ") were correct, we ought rather to have
Tliis change in the pronouns is certainly not undesigned: "understanding" is to be exhibited as one with wisdom, "strength" however [i.e., true a pronominal object ('y C'.', "there is to me").
The verse as a whole, therefore, forms a conclusion to the preceding, setting forth the object of Wisdom's walking in paths of righteousness as described in ver. 20; in other words, what result follows from such a course to her friends and attendants.
Comp. Bertheau on this passage.
After ver.
the LXX has the words, " If I declare to you the things that occur day by day, I will remember to enumerate the things that are from eternity" [tnv ai'ayyei?u vfiiv ra Ka^' jjiikpnv yivdfieva, fivTipovcvcD ra ff alijvoc efficiency or energy), as a possession, or more precisely a result of wisdom, just as previously in the Jirst clause "counsel" and "reflection"
(comp. with respect to them ii. 17) are named as constant products, possessions, or attributes of wisdom.
Ver.
16. And nobles, all Judges upon earth.
These two subjects, attached without any copula to the "princes" of the 1st clause, are plainly intended to signify that all possible diverse classes of princes or rulers derive their power from the celestial wisdom of God (comp. the simidpt'S/if/aai'].
This addition is evidently designed to prep.are the way for the subsequent description of the antemundane origin and working of Wisdom ; it appears, however, as ill adapted to lar enumerations in Eph. i. 21
; Col. i.
16, etc.).
The idea that this proposition can hold only ofJust rulers, owes its origin doubtless to the old readthis as to any possible place either at the beginning of the chapter, such as Jaeger proposes to assign it [Obscrvatt., p. 63), or again before ver. 10, where Hitzio would be disposed to transfer it. ing "judges of righteousness "
(P^Jf) instead of "judges of the earth"
(]'.7^.), (found in Syr., Chald., Vulg., R. NoRzi, and still preferred by BeFlTUEAU).
See objections to this mid arguments in support of the iIa.soretic texliu HiTziG.
Vers.
22-26.
In this delineation of the divine origin of the personal Wisdom, the first half directs attention first to her existence before time, or her creation as the first of all created things.
Jehovah created me as the beginning of his course.
Thus versions as old as the LXX (iKriof). Chald., Syriac, with most of the modern commentators;— while the exegesis of the ancient church from the time of the Arian controversy judged itself coniptUed to render the verb in the sense of possfdit me (Vulg.), or Ver.
17.
I love them that love me.
This conforms to the pointed text ('SnS).
The written text (nonS), "them that love her (Wisdom) " is not in keeping with the context, seems to have been occasioned by a w.'indering of the transcriber's eye to the form of the verb following [which although a peculiar form of the 1st person—see critical note above—might, unpointed, bo mistaken for a form of the od person], and has therel'ore with abundant reason been rejected by all the old versions, several MSS., and by most of the recent interpreters (Umbeeii', Ewaid,
Elster, and Hitzig).—VVith the 2d clause of ver. enrr/caTo (thus the Vers. Venet. and even Aquila): and this turn of expression was given, that the idea of a creation of eternal Wisdom, or what was equivalent, of the personal Word of God, might be excluded.
But against the rendering, "Jehovah possessed me," may be adduced, 1) the fact that the verb (HJp) does not signify 17, comp. i. 28.
Ver 18. Comp. iii. 16.
Increasing riches.
This is probably the meaning which, with Hnzio, we should adopt (growing means, " widisend Vermorjen") ; for the common rendersimply "to possess," but "lo attain to the possession," " to acquire," which latter signification would find here a poor application ; 2) the fact ing, "old" or "durable " riches, seems less appropriate, since the old is by no means necessarily the sound and permanent.
Comp. rather, with reference to the idea of a steadily growing or thattheadjunct of the verb (13'^^ Tt'^t';!) agrees better with the idea of creating than that of possessing; 3) that the double mention of Wisdom's "being horn," in vers.
24.
25, and not accuiiiulaliug wealth, Ps.
Ixii.
10.
And righteousness.
Wliat this here signifies is more less the expression in ver.
23, "I was set up"
("or wrought out"), corresponds belter with the fully explained in the first clause of ver. 20.
Ver. li). Better is my fruit, comp. the representation of wisdom as the tree of life in idea of a creation than with that of possessing or having ; and 4) that the parallel passages.
Ecclesiast. i.
4, 9 ; xxiv.
8, which are evidently chaj). iii.
18, and to illustrate the "purest, ftncst
CHAP.
VIII.
1-36.
formed on the model of that before us, also employ the verb Kri^eiv (create), and not some such expression like that occurring in Isa. xxiii. 7
(yiX riDTp), denoting the earliest primseval as Ixetv or KeiiT?/ai)ai (have or possess).
Even period, the time of the beginning, the origin of the earth.
How this establishment or production of Wisdom "from the foundation of the earth" thouo'h accordingly the personal Wisdom is represented as one created at the beginning of the divine activity, not begotten, as a Knaiia, ov is to be understood, namely, in the sense of an existence of Wisdom even prior to the earth (comp.
Ps. xc. 2), appears from the three following verses. yii'vr/ua, si ill we may by no means draw from this the conclusion of the correctness of the well-known Arian dogma that the Son of God is Ver.
24. When there were as yet no floods.
Hitzig regards the meniion of the waters before the mountains as inappropriate, and therefore conjectures that the verse is spurious.
As though in Ps civ. 6 and Job xxxviii. 8 the seas were not mentioned immediately before the earth as a whole, and also before llie mountains !
Fountains abounding -virith water.
The meaning is, doubtless, tlie springs from which the floods or the deep broke forth
; comp.
Gen. vii.
11, and below, ver.
28.
Ver. 2.5. Before themountains-wereasyet settled, with their "roots ' (Job xxviii. 9) in the pliant earth ; comp. Job xxxviii. 6, where mention the first creation of God.
For the delineations of the whole passage before us are of a poetical nature, and are not adapted to a direct application in forming dogmatic conceptions
; and the personal Wisdom of our didactic poem is by no means simply identical with the Logos, or the Son of God.
Comp. the Doctrinal notes. — "The beginning of His way" is a second accusative depending on the verb; "as beginning or first fruit of His way," i. e.
His activity.
His creative efficiency. His selfrevelation.
Instead of the singular, "His way," we ought perhaps, with the LXX, the Vulgate, and many recent expositors, especially Hitzig, to read in the plural "His ways" (Oil); the parallel expresis made of the settling even of the pillars of the earth (in the infinite space of the heavens).
With the second clause comp.
Ps. xc.
2. — Land and plains.
The LXX had in their day corsion "before His works" seems to spe.ak decidedly for this reading.
Before his ^^orks.
The word here translated "works"
(D'7>'30)
rectly rendered niXin by aoiKi'/Tovc [uninhabitable places] ; these are " unoccupied commons or plains," regions lying outside the occasionally occupied land (comp.
Job v.
10).
The first clods of the earth.
Thus, wiih HiTztG, are we to understand this expression, and not "the sum or mass of the clods of the earth" (CocCEics, ScHULTESs. Bektueau, EiSTER, e(c.); and still less "the first men"
(Jarchi), or even " man as born of the earth" (U.mbreit); these last interpretations are plainly too far-fetched. occurs only here; yet comp. the corresponding feminine form in Ps. xlvi.
(niS^'SD).
The word translated "before" (Dip) Hitzio regards as also a substantive, synonymous with "beginning "
(n't^XT), and therefore translates " as foremost of His works "
Yet the conception of it as a preposition is favured by the usage of the 0. T. elsewhere.—Of old liXO), long ago, literally, "from long ago," comp Ps. xciii.
Ver.
2.3.
From eternity.
It seems necessary, with the expositors of the early church and many of recent times, such as Umbi'.eit,
Bf;RTHEAD,
Elster, (Ic, to regard thi.s difficult verb which follows as a Niphal from ^DJ, and 6.
Vers. 27-31. From the aniemundane existence X){ Wisdom the poet now passes over to the description of her active cooperation in the creation of the world.
The same progress from the pre-existence to the world-creating activity of the divine Logos is found in sever.al passages of the N.
T., especially in John i. l-», Col, i.
1.5-16.
—When he stretched out the firmament over the deep, i. e. when He fixed the vault of heaven, the arch of heaven (comp. Gen. i. 8; Job xxii.
14), over the waters of the earth, as a bari^ier between the upper and lower waters (Gen. i.
6; Job xxvi.
10).
Over the deep, in the Hebrew literally " upon the surface of the deep," comp. Gen. i.
Ver.
28.
When he fixed the clouds above.
Literally. " when He made firm, made strong" (iV3X2); i. e. the clouds are, as in Job therefore to transhate it "I was anointed," t. e. consecrated to a priestly royalty ; comp. the ' ordinila sum of the Vulgate.
But the verb is not elsewhere used in this conjugation ; and the parallelism with ver. 22, as well as with those following, calls for a, verb having some such meaning as " establish, create, call into being."
It seems therefore needful to read with the LXX, "I was established" (^^^D1J=" jiJf/ieA/ucrev^e"), or, which would be better advised, so to interpret the form in the text as to give the idea of a being created, or something equivalent.
To this end we may either translate, with the Versio Veneta, comparing Ecclesiastic.
(fff^ffv avTf)v), Ki:xvuai, " 1 was poured forth," or which is on the whole to be preferred, with Hitzig we may vary the punctuation ('nilD:), so that the xxvi. 8; xxxviii. 37, conceived of as bags, which only in case they are suitably secured and do not burst, prevent the mighty outpouring of the upper waters upon the earth.
When the fountains of the deep (see ver.
above) raged violently.
This is the interpretation to be given, with Umbreit, Winer, Hitzig, elc; for the verb here unquestionably has the intransitive meaning, inralescere, vehementer agitari (comp. in Isa. xliii. 16 the "mighty waters").
The transitive signification, "when He made firm, i. e. restrained, bound up"
(LXX; most of the other versions, and recent interpreters expression shall stand as Perfect Niphal, of the verb ^DD, and have the signification "I was woven or wrought ;" with this may be compared
Ps. cxxxix.
1.):
Isa. xxxviii.
12.
From the beginning, from the foundation of the earth " From the beginning," ae in Isa. xiviii 16.
"The foundation of the earth," an
THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
12, 18, 31); comp. also Wisdom vii, 22, 27, 29 sq.
A reference of these expressions in ver.
31 to any period subsequent to the creation (Umereit:
" In his earth do I now delight and am the joy of the children of men," comp. MerCERns and many of the elder interpreters, and also Luther), is suggested by nothing in the context, and is rather decidedly at variance with the connection.
Not before ver.
does the author with "and now" return from the past to the present.
When Hitzig feels constrained to strike out as spurious the second clause of ver.
("and I was in joy of heart day by d,ay"), and also the 1st clause of ver. 31 ("sporting in His earth"), this results from the fact that he has wholly missed the progressive character of the description, which gradually descends from God and His seat in the heavens to earth, and more specifically to the human race; just like Elstee) is inadmiBsible from the absence of the suffix with the infinitive.
Ver.
20. When he set to the sea its bounds.
"Bound" here in its local sense, limit, barrier, as in Jer. v. 22; substantially the same as -'its border" (1"3) in the 2d member.
For this expression (D'H '3) mouth or shore of the sea, instead of the phrase, elsewhere usual,
"lip of the sea" (D'H ^1317), as in Gen. xli. 3; comp. Isa. xix. 7
; and for the description of the separation between the sea and the land in general, see Gen. i.
9, 10; Ps. xciv.
When he settled the foundation pillars of the earth; end of the description of the earth's creation, comp. Job xxxviii.
(J.
Ver. 30. Then was I at his side as directress of the vTork.
This noun, derived from a verb (|"5Xj signifying to be firm, true, reliable as, in his representation which shows throughout a peculiarly external and mechanical conception of the nature of wisdom, he maintains, "The (and also liindred to ['3', dexter, "the right hand," yet not to be regarded as Hoffmann talces it, Sclu-iflbeu-., I.
0.3, us an infinitive abso1st clause of ver. 31 comes into contradiction with the first of ver. 30: for if wisdom is near Jehovah she cannot appropriately be at the same time disporting herself on the earth lute used adverbially, but necessarily as a substantive), denotes like the parallel form found in Song Sol. vii. 2, " arlifcx, artist, master of the work."
[So WoKDSw., Hold., Mue.nsch., Notes; Stuart translates •confidant."— A.] Comp. the description, undoubtedly based on the passage before us, found in Wisdom vii. 21
: j? ™i'
! "
A mere hasty glance at the later representations of the nature and activity of the hypostatic Wisdom, like Wisd. vii. 8; Ecclesiast. xsiv., etc., might have convinced Hitzig of the superficial and untenable nature of such a view.
Yet this TzavTuv rf^^i'Znc (7o0/a ("wisdom which is the worker of all things") ; comp. the epithet apuoCwna (adapting) in the LXX, and the cuncia componens of the Vulgate, in our passage.
In is in truth nothing more than the necessary fruit of his entire rationalistic view of God and the world. opposition to the rendering of JION by " fos7.
Vers.
32-36.
Concluding admonition and promise, based on ver. 22-31 as well as ver.
1-21.
—Ver.
33.
Hear instruction, etc.
Hitzig would have this whole verse stricken out "because it has no rhythm," and because it comes in only as a disturbing element between the benedictions in ver. 32, 2d clause, and ver. ter-child, ff/u?nn!i.s, nutri'cius"
(.\qi-ila, ScnrLTENS, RosE.N.MnELLnR, Elster) may be urged first, that then in accordance with Lam. iv. 6 we ought to point p'3N, [wliich pointing BottCHER favors, see ^ fi'JO, 6 and n.
1], and then, that this form could hardly have stood in the 34.
But the lack of rhythm that is asserted rests on the conception of the subjective taste: and text as a substantive without some adjunct defining it more closely.
The verb should be rendered, not "then became I" (Bertheau), but " then was I."
For the existence of wisdom before the world's creation and at the time of the world's creation formed the principal subject of the preceding description, and not, e. g., her passing from previous rest to more active relathe position between two benedictions produces no distraction whatever; all the more since to the first and shorter of these two sentences beginning with "Blessed," a corresponding admonition had been prefixed, ver. 32, 1st clause.-^ And be not rebellious.
Thus with Ujibreit, Elster, etc., must we understand the prohibition tions.—And was delighted day by day.
Literally, "
I was delight day by day."
This abstract noun plainly stands in the predicate quite as appropriately as the parallel term in the without a grammatical object (1>'">3n 7N1).
To supply from the 1st clause the idea "instruction " is unnecessary, especially since the intransitive "and be wise " had been interposed as the immediate antithesis to the verb " refuse, or ra3d clause (the participle ^pO?"?) ""'^ aims like this expression to indicate that wisdom enjoyed and delighted in her creative activity.
For the idiomatic use of this abstract noun comp. e.
</., Ps. bel,"
For the etymology and signification of this verb (i'"'3) see, furthermore, notes on:. 25.
Ver. 84. That hearkeneth to me, watchcix. 4 ("but I am prayer"); also notes on vii. 10 above.—The verse following then declares that ing, efc.
The expression, " sr, that he watch ^ this her delight and exultation relates particularly to the manifold creatures of the earth, npiv'?) like the following pnrase "so that hs keep," expresses not so much the design as tha chiefly to man.
The creative agency and control of the wisdom of God in (he origin of the earth and its inhabitants, is therefore here represented as attended and sustaineil by the heartiest satisfaction in the natvtres that are created, especially result of hearkening to wisdom ; these expressions give, as it were, the manner of this hearkening, and thus correspond with the ablative of the gerund in Lutin, or with the pres. participle
(LX.\:
(ijpi'TvrJ)'— T7jfitjv). —For whosoevei findeth me, findeth life.
This is in accordin man, the personal image of Goil ; and this is quite in harmony with the "God saw that it was good" of the six days of creation (Gen. i.
10, ance with the K'ri.
The K'thibh is somewhai
CHAP.
VIII.
1-36.
more artificial, " for the finders of me are finders einiffkeit Gottes (Letter to Lucke, in the Slud. und of life," i. c, those who find me, they find life.
One may choose between the two readings which Krit., 1841, ii.
; especially pp. 310 sq.).
In the picture of wisdom drawn in our chapter tlic two conceptions of the divine wisdom, and the wisdom of the creature, or of the celestial type of the Hhokmah and its earthly and human counterpart, are plainly so combined that they more or less flow into each other, and without a clear discrimination of their difference interchange, (as in the shorter description of the proin import do not differ.
[Ruetschi proposes (Stud. u. Krit, Jan.
1868, p. 134) to solve the difficulty in another way, retaining the consonants of the K'thibh, but modifying the punctuation, so that the two forms will be singular and apparently identical ('K!fD}, the second being a form artificially constructed with '" as a tection and blessing going forth from God's creative wisdom for those who honor it,—chap. iii.
"union vowel,"
(Ewald, ^ 211, 6, 1), so as to secure the juxtaposition of two forms app:irently
19-2(1).
That wisdom is at the outset introduced the same.— A.].—And obtain favor from Jehovah.
Literally "and draws forth,"' i.e., gains for himself, harvests, bears away. as teaching and preaching (vers.
1 sq.), shows at once that she is regarded essentially as a selfconscious personal being, as a reflection therefore of the absolute personality, or the Godhead.
And even within the first section (vers. 4-21), which refers in the first instance only to her manifestations in the moral and religious life of man, several features suggest the supernatural Ver. 36. And \whosoeversinneth against me.
Literally "who misseth me" in contrast with " who findeth uie " in ver.
3.5.
Comp. Job V. 24; Judges xx.
111.
All they that bate me love death.
Comp. iv.
13, 22; vii.
27, and in her nature and relations. Thus especiallj' the predicates "counsel, understanding, strength," also Ezek. xviii. 31.
(in ver. 14) with which she is endowed as the Messiah is in Isa. xi.
So also the allusion to the fact that she imparts to and preserves for the kings, rulers, princes, and judges of the earth,
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL.
For a correct understanding of the section before us two things in general are to be observed; 1) that the entire discourse is poetical, and that therefore the personification of Wisdom which forms its chief subject is also to be regarded as essentially, and in the first instance, the product of a bold poetical sweep of thought, and of a vivid oriental imagery; 2) that, howall their power (vers.
1.5, 16) ; and finally, with no less plainness, the declaration that she " lovea them that love her," and accordinglj' shows lierself to be the dispenser of all benefits and blessings to her faithful ones (ver.
16-21).
Of a purely earthly and creature principle all this could not be asserted.
It is plainly not an abstract conception of moral philosophy, or any de- 'ever, because of the solemn earnestness and profoundly religious character of the discourse, its figurative element cannot possibly be viewed as the mere play of fancy: or an empty ringing of phrases, but must rather every where stand in more or less exact harmony with the superseneuous truth that is to be set forth.
Wisdom, which here appears personified, as the principle of the world's creation, as well as of its preservation and government, having sprung from (jod himself, and being absolutely supernatural, is no unsubstantial pbantom, no unreal fiction of the finition pertaining to the moral and intellectual conduct of men, that is thus described, but something higher, a nature fundamentally identical with the divine providence, the activity of God in preserving and ruling the world,—a personal principle belonging to God's revelation of Himself, which is not essentially different from the Logos of the New Testament or the Son of God.
This conception of the idea of a superhuman wisdom, which determines and controls with absolute power and knowledge the destinies of our race, conducts, however, immediately to the proper and hypostatic representation of Wisdom as an emanation from God's eternal nature, as the partaker and mediator in His absolutely creative fancy, no poetic creation without an underlying higher reality.
It is rather a result of the profoundest religious an'l ethical inquiry, an object of the purest and most genuine knowledge of divine things, nay a product of divine revelation only that this revelation has here passed through the medium of a poetic conception and representation, and for that very reason appears in its formal relations partially reflected, broken, or inaccurately exhibited.
It is really thifree poactivity.
From the description of Wisdom as the mediating principle in divine Providence (vers.
14-21), the poet passes to the exhibition of her mediating participation in the creation of the* world, and in this connection he reveals in the same act tlie deepest sources and beginnings of her nature (vers. 22-Sl ).
Wisdom is, it is true, etic form, ideal in its portraiture, to wliicli must be ch.arged whatever in the .statements before us also a creation of God, but one coming into being before all other creatures, a " first born "
(ivpuis partially inadequate, inconsistent, and not directly applicable in the formation of dogmatic ideas.
The substance, which is easily separable from this form, bears the impress of tlie most genuine divinely revealed truth, and forms one of the most important and strongest of the foundation pillars of Old Testament theology, on which the theology and Christology of tlie New Testament is reared, the doctrine of the Trinity TdKTLnrov) a "beginning of the creation of God "
[apxv r^c KTioeug tqv r^eov), comp.
Rev. iii.
14.
And for that very reason she took part in His work of creation; she was not merely witness, but helper in the revelation of His power in the primitive creation that called His heavens and earth into being.
She maftifested herself as the regulative and formative principle, who in those mighty acts of creation "rejoiced before Him," in the ancient church, and indeed the whole glorious structure of Christian dogmatics.—Comp.
Staui'ENMAier, Die Lehre von der Idee, pp. 31 sq., end particularly Nitzsch, Ueber die weaentl. Dreii.
«., developed before Him in free, happy action, as it were in joyous sport and play, her infinitely
lOti
THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
rich life, and thus produced an infinite number and variety of creature forms.
This creative acThe connection, it is true, with a right exegesis of the main points involved (see notes on vera.
22, 23, and 30, above), does not reach so far that wisdom is described outright as a child of God, begotten in eternity and " anointed," i. «.
, solemnly consecrated and sealed,—and so is attended by those characteristic predicates with which Christ describes His absolutely unique metaphysical relation as Son to God (.John x. 36; v. 26
; xvii.
5; comp. i.
1, 18).
And yet when she also is declared to have been created as beginning of the ways of God, there are surely not wanting emphatic intimations that her character is absolutely above that of creatures in both respects, that which concerns her coming into being before all creatures, and also her intimate fellowship of essence and of life with God.
While furthermore the primaeval consecration to be a ruler overall things, to the ranks of a priestly regal mediatorship between God and His creation is not to be found among the points expressly emph.asized in the description of Wisdom, yet the way in which she is described in vers. 14-16, aa possessor and dispenser of all sovereign power and wisdom, reminds us distinctly enough of the omnipotence in heaven and earth that is given to the Son, and of His being endowed with the undivided fulness of the Divine Messiah-Spirit, which Isaiah in his day pronounces a spirit of tivity of wisdom found however its end and its completion in the creation of men in whom she has her delight in an altogetlier pre-eminent degree (ver. 31) for they are called to be her conscious recipients, and under her enlightening influence to grow up into a walk in holy fellowship with God.
Precisely for this reason the possession of wisdom, i. e., in the first instance tliat comparative, creative wisdom which is identical with the fear of God and righteousness, is the sura of all that can be recommended to man as the means to the attainment of the highest temporal and eternal welfare.
For tliis relative wisdom is in fact nothing but the reflection and emanation of that which is absolute.
It is the absolute divine wisdom as this has found its individual reflection in the life of individual man, —the eternal wisdom of God entering into the subjective conditions of man, and so becoming creaiural.
When the concluding verses of the chapter (vers. 32-30) emphatically advise (he obtaining of this wisdom which has thus become mundane and human, and point to the blessed consequences of its possession, they seize again upon that which was the starting-point in the whole admonition, and show how the secondary wisdom is derived from the primitive and conducts again to it, how the same holy life-power all wisdom and understanding, all counsel, all strength, knowledge, and holy fear (Isa. xi.
2; comp. John iii 34; Matth. xxviii.
18).
And although, finally, the name "son" or "child" is not given to her, and the "exultation" in the presence of God at the time of His creative acinfinite in its perfection, which was active in the first creation of the world and of man, must also be efiicieut in their moral recreation .lud their perfecting after God's likeness. Comp. Stachk.nM.\IER, as cited above, p. 38: "The eminence of man consists not merely in the fact that wisdom comes in him to self-consciousness, but also in the fact that by the Creator there has been conferred upon him in the gift of freedom the power tivity, cannot fitly be conceived of as the intimation of a relation in any way like that existing between a sportive favorite child and his father, still the appellation "directress of the work" characterizes this being distinctly enough as a personal emanation from the very nature of God.
And a mediatorial participation not only in the to become as it were the second creator of his own life according to the innate divine idea.
This idea appears therefore now a practical one: the impulse to become practical existed already in its living energy, or was this very energy ; and with this it is at the same time clear that man with his freedom has pre-eminently a praccreative, but also in the redemptive and sanctifying activity of God is suggested, if only in gentle intimation, by what is said of her "delight in the sons of men."
To these points of correspondence which are presented in the chief individual features of the picture in Prov. viii. 22 sq., there may be added sever.al unmistakable allusions to our chapter found in the New Testament. Among these the essential identity of the creative wisdom tical religious and moral problem set before him.
Since however by this very freedom he also has it in bis power not to follow his destination, and even to resist it. Wisdom appeals to him to hear her voice, and does this as she speaks to him both from within and from without,—from within by ideas (through the voice of reason and conscience), from without, through divine revelation in which absolute wisdom dwells." of God that is here described, with the Logos or tlie pre-existent Christ stands out most distinctly.
When our Lord in Matth. xi. 19 (Luke vii. 35) and probably also in Luke xi. 49
(comp. Van OosTERZEE on this passage) designates hiiuself as 3.
This representai ion of wisdom as a personal principle mediating between God and man. existing in God as the prototype, in man in the antitype, plainly stands in the closest relationship the "Wisdom of God," and at the same time speaks of "children of this wisdom," meanitig by this the men who are subject to her revealing and enlightening influence, especially the Jcw.m, to the doctrine of the Logos in the New Testament.* as having been Divinely intiuenced by law and prophecy, He can have chosen this mode of designating Himself only with His eye upon the * Comp. NiTZSCH as cited above : " Do you aeo here no triice of a "iivine process a j^erul of Hn ontotogical selt-distiDCIion
Biblical delineations that were familiar to His ill liod?
For ttiis Wisdom is indeed a' first God's coinmiini- «atiou localized in the world, particularly in man, and still more especially in Israel.
Yet it will tie understood aa no mere creature liite otliers, no angel, no dependent power or effect; it claims in lie known and honored in its divinity.
Without exhausting the idea of divinity it claims to lie ftod of tlod—".Ti'hovah created me"—a creation wliicii according to the connection gi k'ea no natural, creatnrely heing liut has a significance pliiinty transcending these bounds, tte.'" hearers ; and to these, beside EcclesiaslicUL xxiv. and Wisdom vii.-ix., etc., the passage beThe truth of this representation holds also ai against that which VoN IIoFMAN.l {S-hriflhrm, I. pp. 9)sq.) his tirought f irwaid in support of the opposite view, i.e., that whicli donies tliLhypostatic nature ot wisdom in our passage.
CHAP.
VIII.
1-37.
fore us would pre-eminently belong.
When John ascribes to the Divine Logos both alike, the acting as medium of the activity of God in the creation of the world, and the accomplishment of His enlightening and saving efficiency on the world. when he in doing this distinctly characterizes the Logos not as a mere attribute or impersonal reason of God, but as a hypostasis self-conscious and freely coming forth from the absolute ground of the Divine essence, as a Divine personality seeking incarnatiou (.John i.
1-18), the harmony of this description of his witn Solomon's praise of the Divine Wisdom cannot have continued to be merely unconscious.
And this is all the less possible, from the consideration that this wisdom had already before his time and in manifold instances been designated by the name Aojof, e. g.,
Eoclesiast. i. 4 (comp. xxiv.
3), Wisdom, ix.
When Paul in numerous passages asserts the same of his pre-existent Christ (especially 1 Cor. lament, near as he may have come to the idea, was therefore unable to rise to an altogether clear discernment of the relation existing between God and His eternal Word, who in all His likeness of nature is yet personally distinct, and while appearing as the " first-born of every creature," still on the other hand appears also as the only begotten Son of the living God, or as eternal personal emanation from the Divine essence.
The hypostatic Hhokmah of our author (and also the SoijJm of the Apocrypha, which differs from it in no essential characteristic) appears accordingly as an imperfect introduction and preparation for the idea of the Logos in the NeuTestament, the conception not having yet reached a full symmetrical development.
So also the "Spirit of God" in the prophetic literature of the 0.
T. shows itself to be the prototype, the germinal basis for the Trvn/ia ayinv of the N. T., this distinctly personal third Divine agent in salvation, with the Father and the Son.* viii. 6
; Col. i. 15 sq.; Phil. ii. 5 sq.), among the passages from the Old Testament lying at the foundation of his views in this matter, Prov. viii.
In any event, however, this conception stands much nearer to the idea of the Logos or the Son in the New Testament, and contributed more directly to its development, than that personification of the creative " word of Jehovah" which appears here and there in Psalmists and prophets
(e. g., Ps. xxxiii. 6; cxlvii.
15; Is.
Iv.
11, etc.).
For this last expression has, after all, no other value than poetic figures in general, hastily thrown out.
The Hhokmah of our passage, however, is, notwithstanding the poetic character of its drapery, a conception developed with the greatest care, a fruit of profound and consecrated speculation, a bright ray of Divine revelation, which, among the Messianic prophecies of the 0.
T. that relate to the Divine side of the Redeemer's nature, holds one of the most conspicuous places.
Comp. Nitzsch, as above cited, pp. 319, 320.
'11 sq., cannot have been wanting.
And furthermore his designation of the Son as the " Wisdom uf God"
(I Cor. i. 24, 30; comp. Rom. xiii. 27
; Col. ii. 3) cannot have developed itself on any oilier basis.
The same holds tinally also of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (see Heb. i. 2 :?q. ), as well as of the writer of the Apocalypse, who. by his emphatic use of the name of the Logoi (Rev. xix. 13), shows himself plainly enough io be no other than the Evangelist John.
His pjculiar designation of Christ, already adduced above, as ' the beginning of the creation of God" (chap. iii. 14) may perhaps be viewed outright as a literal allusion to verse
of our chapter.* If this were the case, the idea of a "beginning of the creation of God" would by no means for that reason require to be interpreted in the -Vrian sense.
For in an author who elsewhere adopts the doctrine of the Logos the representation of Christ as the first creature of God would palpably be a monstrosity.
John can in this expression intend to designate the Lord only as the active principle in the creation (comp. Dcesterdieck [5. The error in our English exegetical and theological literature with respect to our passage has been, we think, the attempt to force upon it more of distinctness and precision in the revelation of the mysteries of the Divine nature than is disclosed by a fair exegesis.
Sometimes it is the doctrine of the Logos that is made to stand out with all the clearness of the New Testament announcement
; sometimes it is " the eternal gene ration of the Son" that Solomon is made, as tho Spirit's mouthpiece, to reveal.
Owen's elaborato arguments (Comm. on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Exercitalion xxvii,), and IIolden's extended and learned comments (Comm. in loc), appear to ua very plainly to err in this excess.
If it be not unworthy of the Holy Spirit to employ a bold and graphic personification, many things in this chapter may be said of and by the personified Wisdom; which these and other similar authors regard as triumphantly proving that we have here the pre-existent Christ, the Son of God.
How weak would that personification be whicli did not ascribe to the imagined person hate, love, power, etc. (see Holden) !
Why cannot a personified attribute, if the personification be at all successful, be represented as being born, as being by or near the Deity, as rejoicing in His sight, oil this passage).
In just this active sense shall we be obliged to interpret the expression which possibly suggested John's language,—the ''beginning of the ways of Jehovah " in our chapter,
!. e , as relating to that activity of the eternal Wisdom of God which commenced His manifestation of Himself in creation, its mediating cooperation in God's world-creating act (see remarks on this passage above).
4. The only noteworthy difference between the idea of the Logos in the New Testament, and the hypostatic Wisdom of our passage consists, therefore, in the decidedly created character ascribed to the latter by the expression " Jehovah created vii" in ver.
22, and the parallel expression in ver.
23.
Our teacher of wisdom in the Old Tes- * We herrt prt'snppo^e ttio spurious character of the iKicKjfiTia% (which, besides, was early expunRed by the correctors of Ilie text) standing in the place of xTttjew? in the djd. S'n If tiii-f lem^rkable readiiijj: were ge:iiiioe, the meaiiiug of ih" expression would certainly be altngether different
Hut tile iis^umption can hardly be avoided that there etc. (see Holden again) '?
And yet we need not i.s here ail atti-nipted emendation in the interest of the Anliuiouarehians or Anti-arians.
* Comp. also subsequent notes on ch. xxx. Ssq.