Proverbs 8:22-23

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Proverbs 8:22-31

That it is an intelligent and divine person that here speaks seems very plain, and that it is not meant of a mere essential property of the divine nature, for Wisdom here has personal properties and actions; and that intelligent divine person can be no other than the Son of God himself, to whom the principal things here spoken of wisdom are attributed in other scriptures, and we must explain scripture by itself. If Solomon himself designed only the praise of wisdom as it is an attribute of... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 8:22

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way ,.... Not "created me", as the Targum and the Septuagint version; which version Arius following gave birth to his pernicious doctrine; who from hence concluded Christ is a creature, and was the first creature that God made, not of the same but of a like nature with himself, in some moment or period of eternity; and by whom he made all others: the Word, or Wisdom of God is never said to be created; and if as such he was created, God must have... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Proverbs 8:23

I was set up from everlasting ,.... I, a person, and not a quality; a person, and not a nature; the person of Christ as the Son of God, and not the human nature of Christ, which then did not exist; this phrase designs the ordination and constitution of Christ in his office as Mediator. So the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "I was ordained"; Christ was foreordained to be the Redeemer and Saviour of men, to be the propitiation for their sins, to be the head of the church, and the Judge of... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Proverbs 8:22

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way - Wisdom is not acquired by the Divine Being; man, and even angels, learn it by slow and progressive degrees; but in God it is as eternally inherent as any other essential attribute of his nature. The Targum makes this wisdom a creature, by thus translating the passage: בריתיה בריש בראני אלהא Elaha barani bereish biriteiah , "God created me in the beginning of his creatures." The Syriac is the same. This is as absurd and heretical as some... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Proverbs 8:23

I was set up from everlasting - נסכתי nissachti , "I was diffused or poured out," from נסך nasach , "to diffuse, pour abroad, as a spirit or disposition," Isaiah 29:10 . See Parkhurst. Or from סך sach , "to cover, overspread, smear over, as with oil;" to be anointed king. Hence some have translated it, principatum habui, I had the principality, or was a ruler, governor, and director, from eternity. All the schemes, plans, and circumstances, relative to creation, government,... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 8:1-36

14. Fourteenth admonitory discourse concerning Wisdom—her excellence, her origin, her gifts. She is contrasted with the strange woman of Proverbs 7:1-27 ; and the exceeding greatness of the blessings which she offers exhibits in the most marked manner the nothingness of the deceiver's gifts. One is reminded of the celebrated episode of the choice of Hercules, delineated by Xenophon, 'Memorab.,' 2.1. 21, etc. The chapter divides itself into four sections. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 8:22

The Lord possessed me. Great controversy has arisen about the word rendered "possessed." The verb used is קָנָה ( kanah ) , which means properly "to erect, set upright," also "to found, form" ( Genesis 14:19 , Genesis 14:22 ), then "to acquire" ( Proverbs 1:5 ; Proverbs 4:5 , Proverbs 4:7 , etc.) or "to possess" ( Proverbs 15:32 ; Proverbs 19:8 ). The Vulgate, Aquila, Theodotion, Symmachus, Venetian, give "possessed;" Septuagint, ἔκτισε , "made," and so Syriac. The... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 8:22-31

Wisdom speaks of her origin, her active operations, the part which she bore in the creation of the universe, her relation to God (see on Proverbs 1:20 and Proverbs 3:19 , and Introduction). It is impossible to decide what was the exact view of the writer with regard to the wisdom of which he speaks so eloquently; but there can be no doubt that he was guided in his diction so as to give expression to the idea of him whom St. John calls the Word of God. The language used is not applicable to... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 8:22-31

The primeval glory of Divine wisdom I. THE HIGHEST WISDOM IS CREATED BY GOD . "The Lord created me as the first of his way." This idea was suggested to the Greeks in the myth of Athene, who sprang from the head of Zeus. It is the poetic form of the great truth that God is the Creator of thoughts as well as of things; and it suggests that he not only called individual intelligences into being, but originated the primary laws and conditions of all intelligence, just as he... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Proverbs 8:22-31

The excellency of Divine wisdom: No. 3 We have here additional features of the wisdom of God, viz.— I. THAT THE WISDOM EVERYWHERE ILLUSTRATED DWELT IN THE DIVINE ONE FROM ETERNITY . ( Proverbs 8:22-26 .) Before anything visible was created, in the "far backward and abysm of time," even to eternity, wisdom was an attribute of the infinite God. II. THAT CREATION AND PROVIDENCE ARE THE DELIBERATE OUTWORKING OF THE DIVINE IDEA . "When... read more

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