Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
In Proverbs 8, Wisdom speaks in the first person. From verse 22 that voice looks back before creation itself. Two questions have divided readers for centuries. Who is really speaking here? And does "possessed" mean that God made this Wisdom?
Some readers deny that this chapter speaks of Christ at all. They treat Wisdom as one of God's qualities. One writer reports how the objection came up in a discussion:
"As to Proverbs 8, one man was definite, and no one challenged him when he said: 'Wisdom is not Christ... I cannot love Wisdom, it is a quality.'"
Commentators differ. But most answer that Wisdom cannot stay an idea here, because of what Wisdom says and does:
Solomon traces wisdom back to a time when there was no beginning. He writes as if Wisdom were a person speaking: "I was set up [anointed] from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth was" (chap 8:23). Only One who is God could say this. It is Deity who speaks here. Again, "I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me early will find Me" (v. 17). You can admire a quality. You cannot love a quality. We can love a Person, and in this case rejoice that this wonderful Person loves us.
One verb in this verse has caused centuries of argument. Read one way, it makes Wisdom sound like the first thing God made:
The word "possessed" has also the meaning of "formed". "This word has been a battleground of controversy since the days of the Arian heresy. But it is worth remembering this. Set all theological questions aside: whatever translation we choose, the word cannot mean that wisdom ever had a beginning, or that wisdom was ever created in the strict sense of that word. Wisdom is inseparable from any worthy conception of Him who is 'the only wise God' (1 Tim. 1:17), and therefore is like Him 'from everlasting to everlasting'" (Perowne).
Another writer reaches the same point from where Wisdom stands — with God, and before all His works:
"Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way." There was Wisdom, not simply in Him, but with Him. John 1:1 says the same of the Word: "the Word was with God" — and just as surely, He "is God"... "I was set up [lit. anointed] from everlasting, from the beginning before the earth was." He was not a creature God made; He existed before His works.
This is not first about the skill God showed in making the world:
The point here is not that wisdom showed itself in creation (no doubt it did). The point is that wisdom had its place with God before the world existed... No doubt wisdom showed itself when He prepared the heavens and drew a circle on the face of the deep; but wisdom was there before it all.
Wisdom is with God before anything else exists. So the chapter shows one Divine Person delighting in another:
Christ is set before us as the object of Jehovah's daily delight. Scripture presents to our faith, in language fitted to our spiritual understanding, One Divine Person Who finds His delight in Another Divine Person (verse 30).
Some translations read "in the beginning of his way" — the course God was about to take. This verse tells us who stood at the start of it:
Here is One who filled the thoughts of the Creator "in the beginning of His way." The way He was going to take, to carry out the thoughts of His gracious mind, had to do entirely with this Person whom the Lord possessed. So only those who have learned something of Him can trace His way, and no step of that glorious way was taken without Him... Nothing was done without Him. Everything was done with reference to Him.
Another writer explains what God's "way" means:
The first statement is this: Jehovah already possessed this wisdom when His way began — the move to produce anything outside Himself, to reveal Himself.
What begins before creation does not stay there. The chapter runs on to the human race:
Christ was the object of God the Father's delight, as the centre and fullness of all wisdom. In turn, men have been the delight of Christ, and so have the parts of Jehovah's earth where people live. We see Christ in connection with men when we consider Him as uniting and unfolding in Himself every feature of the wisdom and counsels of God.
- A Person — Wisdom loves, calls and rejoices. A quality cannot do those things, and you cannot love a quality back.
- No beginning — writers have argued over "possessed" since the Arian dispute. On any translation, Wisdom never had a start. God is "from everlasting to everlasting," and so is His Wisdom.
- Before the works — Wisdom is not skill shown off in creation. It was already with God when nothing existed to display it in.
- Two Persons — the chapter sets One Divine Person before us as the daily delight of Another. That is John 1:1 in Old Testament words.
- Down to us — God's way began with Christ, and the delight fixed on Him before creation ends up resting on men.
I was set up from eternity, from the beginning, before the earth was.
In this chapter wisdom speaks in the first person, and here that voice reaches back to before the earth existed. The writers quote older translations, which read "from everlasting" where the ESV reads "Ages ago."
The claims made here go far past anything an abstract quality could make. One writer tests them with a simple observation about love.
Solomon traces it back to a time when there was no beginning. He writes as if Wisdom personified were speaking: "I was set up [anointed] from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth was" (chapter 8:23). This could only be said of One who is God — it is Deity who speaks here. Again, "I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me early shall find Me" (v. 17). You can admire a quality. You cannot love a quality. We can love a Person, and in this case rejoice that this wonderful Person loves us.
Another writer puts the same question to the wording of the verse itself:
How could a mere attribute correct people, demand obedience, give counsel, rejoice before God, or be sinned against? Words like these strongly recall John 1: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way before His works of old." "I was set up from everlasting, before the earth was." "When there were no depths I was brought forth!" (vv. 22, 25). Here we have twice the thought of "generation" — "I was brought forth," "I was brought forth." How can we avoid the conclusion that it is the Eternal Son who was then brought forth? Eternal sonship and eternal existence in the past clearly fit together, however much human reason may stumble.
Commentators read "set up" as meaning anointed. One writer follows that word forward into the New Testament.
The Anointed, or Christ, is more than a Jewish title. "Set up" is the same as anointed. He was anointed from everlasting. So He was the Christ in the mind of God in the past eternity. He was the Christ in God's purpose before incarnation. In history He was anointed as Christ at His baptism. And God made Him Lord and Christ, confirming Him as such, in resurrection.
The word "possessed" in verse 22 can also be rendered "formed." People have argued over it for centuries. One writer answers that neither rendering makes wisdom something that began.
Whatever rendering we adopt, the word cannot mean that wisdom ever had a beginning, or was, strictly speaking, ever created. Wisdom cannot be separated from any worthy thought of Him who is "the only wise God" (1 Tim. 1:17). So wisdom is like Him, "from everlasting to everlasting." Wisdom, the Son of God, was always with God from everlasting. Nothing had yet been created. The mountains did not yet stand, and the earth had not been made. He was. And when creation began He was there.
Another writer sets the verse beside the opening of John's Gospel.
Wisdom was not simply in Him, but with Him. John 1:1 says the same of the Word: "the Word was with God" — and just as surely, He "is God." "I was set up [literally, anointed] from everlasting, from the beginning before the earth was." He was no creature of God. He already existed before His works.
Many read this passage as praise for God's skill in making the world. One writer argues the point sits earlier than creation — and that man was already in Wisdom's thoughts.
People often take that passage as celebrating God's wisdom in creation, which every devout mind gladly owns. But that is not its object. It declares that wisdom was in God before creation, before His ways began. "I was set up from everlasting." The statement is that wisdom was there before the earth existed, when there was no creation. What was in the mind of Wisdom, of which the created earth was only the sphere? … Man occupied Wisdom's thought: Wisdom's delight was there.
This wisdom does not stay in eternity past. One writer ties the wisdom that shaped the universe to the way we walk now.
In this wonderful chapter we see wisdom at work in the creation of the universe. It is this same wisdom that is available to us in the passage we are considering. The One who ordered creation rightly for the pleasure of the Godhead presents that same wisdom to us. So we may walk rightly in that creation, for the pleasure of the Godhead.
- Before — the verse reaches back past the earth's beginning to a point where there was no beginning at all. No rendering of the word makes wisdom something that started.
- Beside — wisdom is not described as inside God but with Him, echoing the words about the Word in John 1:1.
- Anointed — "set up" means anointed, so the title Christ reaches back into eternity, long before His baptism.
- A Person — you can admire a quality, but you cannot love one. This speaker loves, gives counsel, rejoices before God, and can be sinned against.
- Available — the same wisdom that ordered the universe is offered to you, to order your own walk.
When there were no depths, I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water.
This verse sits inside a long speech by Wisdom. She describes her own existence before the seas and the underground springs were there. Two questions follow. Who is this speaker? And what does it mean to be "brought forth" before the depths existed?
The chapter does not describe a quality God has. It presents someone who speaks, corrects, and claims a history older than the world. One writer points to the New Testament to settle who that is:
No honest mind taught by God can doubt that this chapter sets Christ before us. Some say we cannot apply abstract principles to Divine Persons, but Luke 11:49 clearly disproves this: "Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles.'" Here a divine Person is speaking. We can be sure that the voice which speaks as a woman in our passage in Proverbs is the same voice that speaks in Luke 11. God has made divine wisdom available to us in Christ, as we read, "And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God" (1 Cor. 1:30).
Another writer asks what a quality on its own could ever do:
How could a mere attribute correct people, demand obedience, give counsel, rejoice before God, or be sinned against?
The verse measures His existence against the oldest things anyone could name: the deep waters and the springs. He stands on the other side of the line from everything that was made.
"I was set up [literally, anointed] from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth was." He was no creature of God. He already existed before His works. When there were no depths, and no fountains abounding with waters, He was brought forth. This was before the mountains or the hills were settled, and while He had not yet made the earth, or the fields, or the first dust of the world. He was there for the making and ordering of everything, just as He was there before anything.
(Older translations say "fountains" where the ESV says "springs." The verse 23 wording inside the quote, with its bracket, is this writer's own rendering of the Hebrew.)
The Hebrew word behind "brought forth" appears twice in this passage. One writer traces it to other places in the Old Testament, where the same word describes being born.
Here we have the thought of "generation" twice: "I was brought forth," "I was brought forth" (Hebrew chul; see Job 15:7, "Were you brought forth before the hills?" and Psalm 51:5, "I was brought forth in iniquity"). How can we avoid the conclusion that it is the Eternal Son who was then brought forth? Eternal sonship and eternal existence in the past do not contradict each other, however much human reason may stumble.
Verse 22 can be read as "possessed" or as "formed." People have argued over that word for centuries. One writer answers them on their own ground:
This word has been a battleground of controversy since the days of the Arian heresy. But we should remember this, apart from all theological questions. Whichever translation we choose, the word cannot mean that wisdom ever had a beginning, or that wisdom was ever created in the strict sense. You cannot think worthily of Him who is "the only wise God" (1 Tim. 1:17) apart from His wisdom. So His wisdom is like Him, "from everlasting to everlasting."
The list of created things is not scenery.
To press the marvel of this, the passage brings in various works of creation, to show that they are lower than the One who is the wisdom of God and the power of God. So the earth came after Him, and so did "the depths" and "the fountains abounding with water."
It is easy to read the chapter as praise for God's skill in making the world. One writer marks the sharper claim:
Wisdom has brought light into this world of confusion — divine light. But wisdom existed before the world did, in the thoughts and counsels of God, with Christ as the centre of all these counsels and the object of God's delight. … The point here is not that wisdom was displayed in creation (no doubt it was). The point is that, before the world existed, wisdom had its place with God. We have to trace its path in creation, which is now ruined; but God's mind and thought came before it all.
- Person. Wisdom here corrects, counsels and rejoices — things no attribute can do. Commentators identify the Speaker as Christ, who "became to us wisdom from God."
- Before. The depths and the springs are the oldest things imaginable. He is older still — He already existed before God's works, and is not one of them.
- Born, not made. "Brought forth" carries the sense of being born. Writers read it as pointing to the Son, who always existed and was always the Son.
- Contested. People have argued over the wording of verse 22 for centuries. On any translation, it cannot make Wisdom something that began.
- Ahead of everything. God's mind and thought came before the world. The wisdom that planned creation is the wisdom God has made available to us in Christ.
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth;
Twice in this chapter Wisdom says, "I was brought forth." The measure here is the mountains and hills, and the verse forces one question: is the speaker a quality God has, or a Person who was already there before anything was made?
Commentators point to a change of voice inside the chapter itself. The opening verses report what wisdom does; from verse 12 someone speaks in the first person.
In the first 11 verses the writer reports the actions and words of the woman wisdom. But from verse 12 it is not a report. A Person speaks directly, calling Himself "I Wisdom." This is not just a matter of how we feel; it is a matter of fact. So the emphasis is not on how people are affected, but on truth that is true no matter how it affects men.
What Wisdom does — and how Wisdom speaks of coming forth — points the same way:
How could a mere attribute reprove, demand obedience, counsel, rejoice before God, or be sinned against?... Here we have twice the thought of "generation" — "I was brought forth," "I was brought forth." How can we avoid the conclusion that it is the Eternal Son who was then brought forth? Eternal Sonship and eternal existence in the past clearly go together, however much human reason may stumble.
One writer sets Wisdom beside the Word of John 1, then follows the chapter's list of "befores" from the depths and the hills up to the heavens:
Wisdom was not simply in Him, but with Him, as John 1:1 says of the Word: "the Word was with God," and just as surely He is God. He was no creature of God. He already existed before His works. He was brought forth when there were no depths and no springs full of water. This was before the mountains or hills were set in place, and before God had made the earth, or the fields, or the first dust of the world. He was there for the making and ordering of everything, just as He was there before anything. And He did not come before the lower scene only, but before the heavens that contain all.
"Brought forth" sounds like having a start date, and that troubles readers. The surrounding verses rule it out:
Some object to applying these verses to the Lord Jesus. In verses 24 and 25 Wisdom speaks of being "brought forth," and they suppose this must mean that wisdom did not always exist, while Christ always existed. But this view fails to consider verses 22-23, where Wisdom says that the Lord possessed Him in the beginning of His way, before the earth was. So we cannot take being "set up" or being "brought forth" as a point in time when this happened. Just as He was "set up from eternity," so He was brought forth from eternity.
Commentators differ over the words used for this. A note attached to Grant's article warns against one of his terms:
The author seeks to defend (and rightly so) the truth that Christ was eternally the Son of God. However, the term "only-begotten" should not be taken to imply an idea of eternal generation (which would be a contradiction in terms).
The passage sets one Person beside another before anything existed. That points to a distinction within God Himself:
Here, as in John 1:3, the idea that matter is eternal is refuted. Our Lord, under the figure of Wisdom, comes before all created beings and all created things. God as God is Creator, but Wisdom exists together with Him... The "then" of verse 30 covers both the "before" of verses 22 to 26 and the "when" of verses 27 to 29. So within the uncreated Godhead, divine Persons are revealed to reverent faith. They can be told apart: the One and the Other, the One being the Object of the Other.
The verse is not about age alone. The One who came before the mountains had His eye somewhere else:
Here was a truth more wonderful even than creation. It tells of the divine Associate who brought His Father's plans into being and delighted in them. Yet His eyes were on other objects: "My delights were with the sons of men."
- Person, not principle. From verse 12 a speaker says "I Wisdom." He reproves, counsels and rejoices — things a mere quality cannot do.
- Before. Mountains and hills are the measure. He was there before the depths, the dust and the heavens.
- Brought forth, not begun. Set up from eternity and brought forth from eternity go together. The words mark no date on a calendar. One writer hears in them the voice of the Eternal Son; commentators differ over the term to use.
- Two, not one alone. One divine Person is the delight and Object of Another before any creature existed.
- Toward us. The One older than the mountains already delighted in people. Creation's Associate had His eye on us.