Page 55 - BV16

Hope of Israel Mail Bag 55

These verses are speaking of the great WISDOM and consequently on later Christological doctrine, is evi-
that our Creator God YEHOVAH possessed BEFORE He dent.”
created this universe -- NOT of any “pre-existent” savior!
This is corroborated by The Anchor Bible, Proverbs, Due to “allegorical exegesis” the OBVIOUS
which states: “In the same way, when we read in Prov. Iii sense of the verses in Proverbs 8:23-31 was TWISTED
19 that ‘Yahweh through wisdom founded the world’ (cf. AND PERVERTED -- and other scriptures in the New
Also Ps. Civ 24), ‘wisdom is neither instrument nor agent Testament were later incorrectly translated to reflect these
but the attribute displayed by Yahweh in creating. This is lies! It is a fact that the Hellenistic Judaism of the time be-
important for the interpretation of Chapter viii, which re- tween the two testaments did not think of WISDOM as a
capitulates and develops the thought of iii 13-20 and can- “hypostasis” or “intermediary being” any more than the
not be treated in isolation from the earlier passage.’ Old Testament writers and the rabbis did. Wisdom, like
YEHOVAH’s WISDOM is boundless! Think of the wis- the name, the glory, the spirit of YEHOVAH, was a way of
dom it took to create the human body with all of its intri- asserting YEHOVAH’s nearness -- His involvement with
cate parts and functions. Think of all the created things on the world and His concern for His people. Pre-Christian
this planet -- great and small! Psalm 104:24 clearly tells us Judaism NEVER understood “wisdom” as a divine being
that YEHOVAH did all of these things in (with/by) in any sense independent of YEHOVAH. There is also NO
WISDOM -- “O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In EVIDENCE whatsoever in Yeshua’s ministry that he un-
WISDOM You have made them all. The earth is full of derstood himself as Wisdom, or as the incarnation of
Your possessions --” The huge planets that light up our (pre-existent) Wisdom. Despite what people “think” Paul
night sky -- magnificent and awe-inspiring to behold -- wrote in I Corinthians 8:6, Colossians 1:16 and Hebrews
were all made by YEHOVAH God before the creation of 1:2 (i.e. That Yeshua was there in the beginning), Yeshua
mankind. The amount of WISDOM YEHOVAH pos- was the MAN wisdom became. Yeshua fully embodied
sesses is beyond comprehension; and THIS is what is the creative and saving activity of YEHOVAH his Father,
shown in Proverbs chapter 8. This chapter shows us that that YEHOVAH in all His fullness was in him, that he rep-
great WISDOM was with YEHOVAH -- and that this resented and manifested all that YEHOVAH is in His out-
same WISDOM should be desired by all whom reach to men. This does NOT mean that WISDOM was a
YEHOVAH has called out according to His plan. divine being, or that Yeshua himself was “pre-existent”
with YEHOVAH -- but simply that Yeshua was (and is)
The fact that these verses in Proverbs 8 were the embodiment of divine Wisdom, that is, the climactic
falsely interpreted to “say” that Yeshua the Messiah him- and definitive embodiment of YEHOVAH’s own creative
self was speaking had a far-reaching influence on later power and saving concern.
doctrines about the nature of the Messiah. Notice what
The Anchor Bible, Proverbs (pps. 69-70) says regarding Melchizedek
this: “The problem is important not only for the under-
standing of the poem itself, but because of the far-reach- Many people think Melchizedek was Yeshua the
ing influence of the poem’s central passage (vss. 22-31) on Messiah in his prenatal state. However, the Bible speaks of
later theological thought. The Wisdom of Solomon speaks Yeshua as “ANOTHER” priest! Notice! “Therefore, if
of ‘Wisdom, the fashioner of all things’ (vii 22 EV), as ‘an perfection were through the Levitical priesthood (for un-
associate in His works’ (viii 4), and as ‘fashioner of all that der it the people received the law), what further need was
exists’ (viii 6). Philo (de Sacerdot 5) says that ‘the uni- there that ANOTHER PRIEST should rise according to
verse was fabricated’ through the agency of the the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to
Logos-Wisdom; the same thought appears in John i 3, the order of Aaron?” (Hebrews 7:11). This passage clearly
‘through him all things came to be’; in Col. i 15-16, ‘the shows Yeshua to be a different person than Melchizedek --
firstborn of all creation, for in him all things were cre- neither of which were Levitical. But what we find in He-
ated’; and in Heb. i 2 ‘through whom also he created the brews 7:3 is more difficult to resolve. Melchizedek is here
world.’ The influence of Proverbs viii on these passages, said to have been “without father, without mother, without

The Berean Voice July-August 2002