PROVERBS 8:12, 22-23
“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence....The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way....From everlasting I was established....”
The Society’s New World Translation translates Proverbs 8:22 as “Jehovah himself produced me as the beginning of his way.…” They use these verses in Proverbs 8 attempting to prove that Jesus was created and thus has not always existed. Although the Society admits that these verses in context are speaking of wisdom personified, they claim that this passage is “actually a figure of speech for Jesus as a spirit creature prior to his human existence.”—Should You Believe in the Trinity?, p. 14 |
If the “wisdom” in Proverbs 8 is actually referring to Jesus, who is the “prudence” that Jesus (as wisdom) dwells with? If wisdom had to be created (was “produced”), are we to conclude that God had no wisdom until a certain time when He created it? It is obvious that God wouldn’t be God if there was a time when He was without wisdom. Therefore, we must recognize that wisdom is just as eternal as God is. In fact, the same Hebrew word translated “everlasting” or “time indefinite” (owlam) which is used to express God’s eternal nature at Psalm 90:2 is used to express the eternal nature of wisdom at Proverbs 8:23. The New American Translation better translates these passages as it states that God “possessed” wisdom, rather than “produced” wisdom. These passages reveal how God brought forth wisdom to take part in His creation.
PROVERBS 8:22-23 | PSALM 90:2 |
“The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. From everlasting [owlam] I was established, From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.” | “…Even from everlasting [owlam] to everlasting, Thou art God.” |
At Proverbs 1:20-21, wisdom is personified as a woman who cries in the streets. As is seen by examining the context, there is no indication in this passage that the wisdom which is being discussed in Proverbs 1-9 is to be associated with Christ. Nevertheless, even if one takes the position that the Watchtower Society maintains (that this wisdom is referring to Christ), one would have to come to the conclusion that Jesus is just as eternal as God is, since it is obvious that wisdom could not have been created. Proverbs 8:22-23 cannot be used to prove that Jesus is a created being. In fact, quite the opposite is true, for by utilizing the Society’s position, one can argue for the eternal nature of Christ from these passages!
You will notice that in most translations verse 22 says, “The Lord Himself possessed me...” However, in the New World Translation this verse reads, “Jehovah himself produced me...” Producing suggests the idea of bringing something into existence or starting something. Starting what, though? In Proverbs 8, God’s wisdom is described. But isn’t God’s wisdom eternal and uncreated? If God is eternal, then surely His attribute of divine wisdom is eternal. There could never have been a time when God was without wisdom. So “possessed” is a more accurate translation than “produced.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses point out that Proverbs 8 personifies wisdom, and they assume that the Scripture must be describing Jesus in His pre-human state. However, this is an unproven assumption. Having mistranslated verse 22, they go on to emphasize verse 30, where wisdom speaks: “...And then I came to be beside him [that is, beside Jehovah] as a master worker, and I came to be the one that he was fond of.” So they create the idea of Jesus under the figure of wisdom, being brought into existence as the first of Jehovah’s creative work, and then walking alongside His Father like a master worker.
The important thing to do here is to bring their attention to what it says in Proverbs 8:1–2: “Does not wisdom call out and discernment lift up her voice? On the top of the heights by the way she has stationed herself.” Although wisdom is personified, it is in the feminine gender; wisdom here is pictured as a woman. The same thing occurs in Proverbs 9:1: “True wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars.” I suggest to you that the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, *is not going to be typified or represented in the Old Testament under the figure of a woman. Most likely the writer of Proverbs was using figurative language, describing God’s attribute of wisdom in the form of a “handmaid” to the Lord, ever present to carry out His will.
This use of the feminine gender was such an irritant to the New World Translation committee that they changed it! Their Bible at Proverbs 8:1–2 reads, “Does not wisdom keep calling out and discernment keep giving forth its voice? On top of the heights by the crossing of the roadways it has stationed itself.” They eliminated the feminine gender and replaced it with the neuter gender. So wisdom is no longer personified as a woman: Interestingly, the Jehovah’s Witness leaders themselves have admitted that the original Hebrew is in the feminine gender. In their book entitled God’s Eternal Purpose Now Triumphing for Man’s Good, page 28 we read,
“Our thinking here reminds us of what is said in the 8 th chapter of the Book of Proverbs, where divine wisdom is depicted as a person who talks about himself. Of course in the original Hebrew text of Proverbs, the word wisdom is in the feminine and speaks of itself as a female person. Divine wisdom does not have any separate existence apart from God. Wisdom always existed in Him, and so was not created. For this reason it is interesting to hear how wisdom speaks of herself as a feminine person.”
So there, without any real explanation of why they did so, they have admitted that they have changed that portion of Scripture from feminine to neuter without any satisfactory reason for doing so. It should be mentioned that Hebrew has only masculine and feminine genders. So feminine nouns would, at times, be given neuter pronouns by the translators. However, Proverbs 7:4–5 indicates clearly that the writer of Proverbs intended Wisdom to be presented as a woman.
The Witnesses' New World Translation renders verse 22 to say, "Jehovah himself produced me as the beginning of his way, the earliest of his achievements of long ago," and JWs interpret this as applying to the prehuman Jesus Christ--proof that he is not God but was "produced" or created by God as the first angel.
However, the "me" who is speaking throughout Proverbs 8:1 through 9:12 is identified as "wisdom," and many other translations reflect the fact that feminine pronouns are used. Wisdom raises her voice in 8:1; she takes her stand in 8:2; she cries out in 8:3; wisdom has built her house in 9:1; she has prepared her table in 9:2--hardly the language one would expect if Jesus Christ were meant. (King James Version, Revised Standard Version, Jerusalem Bible, Modern Language Bible, The Living Bible, A Literal Translation of the Bible in the Pocket Interlinear Old Testament)
Besides, the best translations agree with the King James Version in saying that God "possessed" wisdom from the beginning. In fact, it is illogical to say that God produced or created it, since this would imply a time prior to that when the Almighty lacked wisdom.
The reply is so simple it can easily be overlooked. If Jesus was not eternal, then neither would God's power and wisdom be eternal. Note, however, that the next verse in the NWT has "wisdom" saying: "From time indefinite I was installed . . . " (KJV, NASB: everlasting). The Hebrew word here is olam (Strong's word #5769), which Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon of the OT defiones as "time before the creation of the world (i.e., eternity), Prov 8:23." This word is used in describing Jesus at Micah 5:2, the well-known messianic prophecy regarding His birth, but most importantly, it is used in the most explicit way in describing God the Father's ("Jehovah's") eternity, in verses such as Psalms 41:13, 90:2, 93:2, 106:48, Isaiah 40:28 (all, time indefinite in the NWT). If the word means "eternal and uncreated" when applied to Jehovah, then it must mean the same when applied to Jesus.
That is assuming, however, that "wisdom" in Proverbs 8 is referring to Jesus in the first place. I would argue that it is an example of the poetic devise of personification of an abstract, non-personal concept (common in Hebrew poetry). This is easily shown by the reference to wisdom as "it" in 8:1-3 of the NWT (most translations use she). In Proverbs 9:1-4, the NWT refers to "wisdom" as "it" and then "she"; Proverbs 1:20-2:11 uses "it" in the same way. JWs do not deny the maleness of personhood of Jesus, so this "proof" is demolished.
The Watchtower actually agrees with this interpretation in one place, while asserting the proof text against Jesus in others:
". . . it is not unusual in the Scriptures for something that is not actually a person to be personalized or personified. Wisdom is personified in the book of Proverbs (1:20-33; 8:1-36); and the feminine pronominal forms are used of it in the original Hebrew, as also in many English translations . . . Wisdom is also personified at Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:35." (Insight on the Scriptures, 1988, vol. 2, 1019)
Unfortunately, once again, even though the Watchtower stumbled upon a truth here, they use it to support a falsehood. The above citation occurred in the article on "Spirit" -- with regard to the personal attributes so often used to describe the Holy Spirit in the Bible. It is stated that these are merely instances of personification, so that the Holy Spirit need not be regarded as a Divine Person (as in orthodox Christian trinitarian theology).
Proverbs 8, Personification, and Christ
Because some readers understand the Old Testament's Lady Wisdom as a type and shadow of Christ (in spite of her erroneous gender), the Jehovah's Witnesses hope, if they can get at her, they can get to Jesus Christ.
Some modern translations render 'qanah' as 'created': "The LORD created me at the beginning of his work..." (NRSV). But the word literally means 'purchase', thus by implication to possess. 'Qanah' is not translated 'created' even once in the determinedly literal KJV: [07069] qanah: AV - Buy 46, get 15, purchased 5, buyer 3, possessor 3, possessed 2, owner 1, recover 1, redeemed 1, misc 7; 84
If 'qanah' = 'create,' then did the poor man create his little lamb?: "But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought [qanah] and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter." (2 Samuel 12:3). The poor man did not create the little lamb, rather he owned it.
Or do we ourselves possess the ability to 'create' wisdom? Yet we are commanded in the Bible to "get" [qanah] wisdom: "Get [qanah] wisdom, get [qanah] understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth." (Proverbs 4:5).
Paul himself suggests Lady Wisdom as a type of Christ: "For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:22-24). Many of the early Christian writers adopt this identification.
The Septuagint translates the 'qanah' of Proverbs 8:22 with 'ktizo,' which the seventy also sometimes use as a translation for the Hebrew 'bara,' 'create.' Many of the early church writers quote this verse from the Septuagint. The Greek word 'ktizo' can also mean 'found, ordain, or establish.' It's used, for example, of the founding of a city: "of a city, to found, plant, build, Od., Hdt." (Liddell and Scott, Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon.) It can also mean 'made.' Though in the NT 'ktizo' and related words usually refer to creation, the meaning of 'ordain' is still Biblical: "Submit yourselves to every ordinance ['ktisis'] of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;..." (1 Peter 2:13). Do the early church writers who quote this passage from the Septuagint understand it to mean that the Son, whom they identify with Wisdom, was 'created,' that is to say brought into being from non-being? Or do they understand it to mean He was ordained the beginning ('arche,' origin or principle) of creation, as Brenton translates it: "The Lord made me the beginning of his ways for his works. He established me before time was in the beginning, before he made the earth:..." (Brenton Septuagint, Proverbs 8:22-23). Given what these writers say about the eternity of the Son, I would think the latter.
It is possible that the Septuagint translators used this word because they perceived a relationship between it and 'ktaomai,' meaning, 'acquire.' The English word 'create' can also potentially mean 'ordain,' though its more familiar use is to bring into being: "create...To originate or cause; to bring into being; to cause to exist; to make or form, by investing with a new character; to constitute; to appoint ( to create a peer)..." (Webster's International, 1965). This idea of 'investing with a new character' is what I think Brenton understands the passage to mean, that is to say, that Wisdom was made the 'arche,' i.e. originating principle, of all things at the time of creation.
Jehovah Witnesses, did you know about the mistranslation of Proverbs 8:22?
In regards to Proverbs 8:22, it was translated in the Septuagint as, 'The Lord created [qanah] me in the beginning of his ways...,' and in the New World Translation as, 'From time indefinite I was installed [qanah], from the start, from times earlier than the earth,' although in [every] instance where the Hebrew term 'qanah' appears in the Book of Proverbs, it means to 'acquire,' 'possess,' and to 'get.' Proverbs 8:22 was a crucial verse in the Arian controversies of the fourth century CE. This verse was used both to support [and] refute the Arians' claims.
For instance, let us consider:
- Proverbs 1:5, 'A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire [qanah] wise counsel... .'
- Proverbs 4:5, 'Acquire [qanah] wisdom! Acquire [qanah] understanding! Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.'
- Proverbs 4:7 says, 'The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire [qanah] wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get understanding.'
- Proverbs 15:32, 'He who neglects discipline despises himself, But he who listens to reproof acquires [qanah] understanding.'
- Proverbs 16:16, 'How much better it is to get [qanah] wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver.'
- Proverbs 18:15, 'The mind of the prudent acquires [qanah] knowledge, And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.'
- Proverbs 19:8, 'He who gets [qanah] wisdom loves his own soul; He who keeps understanding will find good.'
It is absolutely absurd to think that God would need to create Wisdom, implying there was a time when he lacked Wisdom. The NASB renders Proverbs 8:22 correctly, and is consistent with the rest of Proverbs when it says, 'The LORD possessed [qanah] me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old.'
You will say, "Proverbs 8:22 is similar to Genesis 4:1, where Eve clearly did not mean she 'acquired' or 'bought' Cain, but that she 'produced,' 'begat,' or even 'created' Cain."
However, let us look at Genesis 4:1,
'Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, 'I have gotten [qanah] a man child with the help of the LORD.'"
Given the context of Genesis 4:1, I would argue that it doesn't suggest that Eve 'created’ anything. No, rather, it says that she had received, gotten, or acquired a child with the [help of the LORD]. Thus saying, it was through the LORD which she had acquired a child. Never is the term 'qanah' used in reference of 'creating.' It is always used in terms of receiving, getting, acquiring, possessing. Words translated from the Hebrew term 'qanah' are words such as, acquire, acquired, acquires, bought, buy, buyer, buying, buys, formed, gain acquisition, gained, get, gets, gotten, owner, possessed, possessor, purchased, purchaser, recover, redeemed, sold, and surely buy.
With that said, you should take notice that the term "bara'" is used in reference of "creating,” “producing,” or “making.” Example, Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created [bara'] the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:27, “God created [bara'] man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Another example is seen in Ecclesiastes 12:1, “Remember also your Creator [bara’] in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, ‘I have no delight in them’;” Also see Genesis 1:21, Genesis 2:3-4, Genesis 5:1-2, Genesis 6:7, Exodus 34:10, Deuteronomy 4:32, Psalm 51:10, Psalm 89:12, Psalm 89:47, Psalm 102:18, Psalm 104:30, Psalm 148:5, Isaiah 4:5, Isaiah 40:26, Isaiah 40:28, Isaiah 41:20, Isaiah 42:5, Isaiah 43:1, Isaiah 43:7, Isaiah 43:15, Isaiah 45:7-8, Isaiah 45:12, Isaiah 45:18, Isaiah 48:7, Isaiah 54:16, Isaiah 57:19, Isaiah 65:17-18 – you get the point.
Further, you’ll point to texts such as Deuteronomy 32:6, and say, “Well, see, here’s an example of where ‘qanah’ is rendered as ‘created!’” However, it actually reads as, 'Do you thus repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise people? Is not He your Father who has BOUGHT [qanah] you? He has made you and established you.' Cross reference with Psalm 74:2. Psalm 74:2 of your own New World Translation says, ‘Remember your assembly that you ACQUIRED [qanah – ‘acquired,’ ‘purchased,’ ‘bought’] long ago, The tribe that you redeemed as your inheritance, This Mount Zion in which you have resided.’
Likewise, Genesis 14:19 reads as, “He blessed him and said, 'Blessed be Abram of God Most High, POSSESSOR [qanah] of heaven and earth;'” Cross reference with Genesis 14:22, "Abram said to the king of Sodom, 'I have sworn to the LORD God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth,'" and Psalm 24:1, 'The earth is the LORD'S, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it.'
So, you really can not use the Book of Proverbs to prove Jesus as a created creature, because that’s not what it actually says, is it?
