Pastotor John,
I am studying Proverbs along with your book Solomon’s Wisdom…
On page 24/124 of your book where Wisdom is talking in Proverbs 8, you wrote: “When all these things were created, I was beside Him as His Son.” By saying “as His Son”, do you mean to imply that Wisdom is identified as Christ? This is confusing to me. In the Bible the Hebrew for Wisdom is a feminine pronoun. Is that right? I’m not very good at this at all. I am very confused with Wisdom being synonymous with Christ, if this is what you are saying.
Thank you for your help.
Diane H.
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Hi Diane.
Thank you for your question; it is a good one.
In 1Corinthians 1:24, Paul wrote that “we preach Christ, the Power of God and the Wisdom of God.” In Greek as well as in Hebrew, the noun “wisdom” is feminine (as well as the noun “power”), but as you can see, Paul felt free to apply those feminine words to Christ. So, the fact that the Hebrew word “wisdom” in Proverbs 8 is feminine does not mean it cannot be used to refer to a man.
The New Testament speaks often about God’s Son being in the beginning with the Father, but he was hidden by God until “the fullness of time”, in Paul’s words. In Proverbs 8, the hidden Son described through David his sweet life with the Father in the beginning, before God created all things (by the Son, as men learned after the Spirit came). The Son often spoke through holy men of God before he took on flesh and walked among us as Jesus Christ, but since he was hidden, no one understood, in ancient time, that it was the Son speaking. You might be interested in reading chapter 4 “The Son in the Old Testament” in my online book, God Had a Son before Mary Did. It is here:
https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_books.html?tname=fands
In that chapter, Proverbs 8 is also translated and dealt with. Thank you again for your good question. Please stay in touch if you have any more questions or comments.
Pastor John