| THE TRINITY OUR GOD IS ONE GOD In Three Persons
Proverbs 8, the Trinity Doctrine
The WISDOM in Proverbs
The WISDOM in 1 Corinthians
The WISDOM in Proverbs
Solomon, as one of his literary ways of teaching, personifies wisdom as a woman, whom we should choose to hear and follow rather than the strange woman. Both women, wisdom and folly, are out in the streets calling and inviting men. One woman entices into sin and destruction, the other (wisdom) leads to honour, righteousness, justice and well being. Each reader must make a choice which woman he will follow and befriend.
Personification: “is the representation of an abstraction as a person or by human form, (kindness reached out her gentle hands and melted his heart) OR personification can mean the embodiment of an abstraction (a man who personified kindness).” (See Webster’s dictionary)
Wisdom is being personified all through the book of Proverbs and so closely resembles a Divine Person that many have said that wisdom is not just an attribute of God but literally IS God, or the Son of God, or another God proceeding from the God.
Yet we need to understand that WISDOM here is an attribute of God, it is being personified as a woman, not a man. If this proverb is describing the divine nature of Jesus in eternity, as the anti-Trinitarian teachers say, then the divine nature of Jesus is female! Which is NOT true.
Yet, on the other hand, Christ DOES personify WISDOM in the highest, completest sense, but that does not mean the attribute is literally Christ.
Christ is the personification of all the attributes of God.
Christ is the wisdom of God, (1 Cor. 1:24)
Christ is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:24)
Christ is the righteousness of God (1 Cor. 1:30)
Christ is the truth of God, (John 14:6)
Christ is the love of God. (Romans 8:39)
Christ is mercy and goodness and justice.
Christ is the personification of all the attributes of God.
Yet, the deduction that since Christ is the personification of WISDOM, (as well as all the other attributes of God) that this means Proverbs is defining Christ’s origin before the incarnation, rather than the attribute of wisdom, is a faulty deduction.
Proverbs personifies the attribute of WISDOM as a woman.
It is correct to say that Christ is the personification of WISDOM, (as well as all the other attributes of God)
But to say WISDOM is literally CHRIST, is not correct.
For instance, was Christ only a spectator at creation?
Proverbs 8 says that when God prepared the heavens, Wisdom was there.
When God put the water systems in place, Wisdom was there.
The creation of all things shows the wonderful wisdom of God.
God delights in wisdom and understanding, truth and uprighteness.
We know from scripture that Christ was not just a spectator at Creation, for John tells us that:
The Word [Jesus] was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3)
It was by creating that God “brought forth” His wisdom. We often think of creation only in relationship with this world. But all things were created by God. The heavenly hosts, the angels, other worlds were already created before the creation of this earth. The war in heaven between Satan and Christ took place before the creation of this world. The justice and wisdom of God was questioned before the creation of this world. God’s wisdom was on trial. But He would bring forth His wisdom and present “her” in contrast to the “adulterous” woman who despises the wisdom of God and personates “folly”.
(Proverbs 1:7, 9:10)"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" .
God is the source of all wisdom. All wisdom begins with a reverence for God. Reverence for the Lord includes a deep respect for the power of God and a sober recognition of the consequences of trying to violate the laws which he has ordained.
Wisdom speaks and says, “When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth.” (Proverbs 8:24, 25)
As God planned His creative works, wisdom was brought forth in all His plans. Everything followed laws. When God assigned to the sea its limits, so that the waters might not transgress his command, wisdom was at His side. The universe is under unvarying moral and physical laws. It is this fact that gives us true freedom and security. His will and law are built on wisdom.
Prov. 3.19-20
The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.
By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.
Pr. 8:27-29 When He prepared the heavens, I was there: when He set a compass upon the face of the depth: When He established the clouds above: when He strengthened the fountains of the deep: When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment: when He appointed the foundations of the earth. All creation shows the WISDOM of God. All creation shows the justice and rightness of his ways and laws.
In contrast to Lady WISDOM, Proverbs 8 speaks of Lady Folly, the adulterous woman, who has no regard for moral law and is out seducing men into immorality which leads to destruction.
These two women represent the battle over people’s minds and hearts.
The first, the adulterous woman, represents the ways and character of Satan, who is out seducing them with “forbidden pleasures” but who leads them as a hunter “leads a deer into trap and shots him with arrows” and causes their destruction.
proverbs5:3-5
For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
The second, Lady Wisdom, represents the ways and character of God, who is calling people to walk in the way of God’s laws which are wisdom and will bring a high quality of life both in temporal and eternal aspects.
Pr. 4.11
I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.
8.19-20
My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.
I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment:
The thing we need to understand is that this wisdom is not the gnosis or esoteric knowledge of the Christianized/Greek Platonic reasoning ability, who used this passage to build their Gnostic beliefs as well as their gnostic interpretations about Christ. No, the WISDOM here in Proverbs is a wisdom that cannot exist apart from God, but is a reflection of who He is, what His character is like.
Pr. 23.4
Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.
Isaiah 47:10-11 Your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you; and you have said in your heart, I AM, and none else beside me. Therefore shall evil come upon thee; and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly.
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
9.24
But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the LORD.
So one thing is clear, TRUE WISDOM belongs only to God, it is His character, it comes from HIM, “brought forth” and revealed to the created. It is folly to define ones own ways apart from God.
Wisdom has been defined as the Holy Spirit:
“the spirit of wisdom,” (Ex. 28:3, 31:3 , 35:31“I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge”
1 Cor. 2:13 The Holy Ghost teaches [wisdom]; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
Of Christ it is written:
Is. 11.2
And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
Wisdom has been defined as God’s law.
Psalms 37.30-31
The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of judgment.
The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.
Ps. 111.10
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments.
Pr. 7.2-5
Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:
That they may keep thee from the strange woman.
Job 28.28
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.
Wisdom is the tree of life, in contrast to the tree of knowledge of good and evil:
Pr. 3.13
Happy is the man that finds wisdom, and the man that gets understanding.
3.18
She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retains her.
God is the source of all WISDOM and knowledge. Thus God personifies WISDOM.
Christ personifies WISDOM,
the Holy Spirit personifies WISDOM
God‘s law is the way of WISDOM
Romans 11.33-34
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
For who hath known the mind of the Lord?
The WISDOM in 1 Corinthians Does 1 Corinthians 1:24 prove that Christ is speaking in Proverbs 8 and that this proves Christ was “born” and had a beginning before this world was created?
That’s what the a group of anti-Trinitarians say:
They write:
In the first verse of Proverbs 8 it says that Wisdom is speaking. Who is Wisdom? In verse 8 it tells us that He has a mouth, and speaks.
“But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:24) “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30) Christ is spoken of as “the Wisdom of God” and is speaking in Proverbs chapter 8 under the symbol of Wisdom.
He said, “When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth.” (Proverbs 8:24, 25) Also in another version—The 1965 Bible in Basic English: “When there was no deep I was given birth, when there were no fountains flowing with water. Before the mountains were put in their places, before the hills was my birth.”
Look again at the first verses in Proverbs 8 and see that WISDOM is personified as a SHE, not a HE. It says she has a voice, and calls, and instructs. She is knowledge and has strength.
So already we see the anti- Trinitarians have “switched” the gender, and refuse to see that wisdom is personified as a woman.
Proverbs interchanges wisdom as a "she" and a "thing".
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. Prov. 4:7-8
Now lets look at 1 Corinthians.
It is interesting that Paul is doing the same thing as the author of Proverbs. He is contrasting the WISDOM of God with the FOLLY of the world.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
1 Cor.1: 18-20
So Paul is saying the world is too wise in their own eyes to believe in God’s wisdom and God’s plan of salvation. To them the story of redemption is foolishness. But now notice that Paul uses metaphors to describe Christ:
To some Christ and His sacrifice is A STUMBLING BLOCK.
To others Christ and His sacrifice is FOOLISHNESS.
But to the believers Christ is the WISDOM AND POWER OF GOD.
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1 Cor. 1.23-25
Paul’s point here is to emphasis the essential importance of Christ’s death upon the cross in the whole scheme of redemption. The cross is unquestionably the essential component . It is the POWER of God unto salvation. (vs. 18) For those perishing the cross is foolishness, YET it is the ONLY power that can save. Paul is stressing the point that even the WISDOM of the world’s WISEST philosophers and scholars is foolishness when it comes to the real issues of life.
Now of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
1 Cor. 1.30-31
Are we desiring “wisdom” actual wisdom? Can we understand the wisdom of God in the great sacrifice upon the cross? To those who accept Christ, His sacrifice is understood as wisdom, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Any spiritual wisdom and understanding of the great plan of salvation in Christ, which is made known to man, is given to them by God.
So again we see WISDOM is wisdom, and true WISDOM is centered totally in God.
Paul was not linking back to Proverbs in any attempt to define Christ’s origins as literal “born” before the earth was created.
In fact in the following verse Paul explains what was “brought forth” before the world was created.
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
1 Cor. 2.7
Yes, once again the plan of redemption through Christ is the “Wisdom of God”. And that plan was put in place “ordained before the world”.
Forasmuch as ye know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things...But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.
1 Peter 1.18-20
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev. 13.8
The plan of salvation was conceived and brought forth before creation was begun. The plan of salvation had been laid before the creation of the earth; for Christ is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8);
Before Creation was begun, God wrestled with the question with foreknowledge of the “rebellion” of the created against HIM. Would He create?
This is the WISDOM of God, that before the world was created, Christ became surety for the human race.
The second person in the Godhead, before the creation began, became “the LAMB OF GOD SLAIN FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.
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May the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
II Cor. 13:14
Proverbs 7:4
Say unto wisdom, "You are my sister," and call understanding your kinswoman.
7:5
That they may keep you from the strange woman, from the loose woman who flatters with her words.
7:25
Let not your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths.
Proverbs 8.1
Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
8.2
She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.
8.3
She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.
8.4
Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.
8.5
O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
8.6
Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.
8.7
For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8.8
All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.
8.9
They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.
8.10
Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.
8.11
For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
8.12
I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
8.13
The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
8.14
Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.
8.15
By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.
8.16
By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.
8.17
I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
8.18
Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.
8.19
My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.
8.20
I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment:
8.21
That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.
8.22
The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
8.23
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
8.24
When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.
8.25
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
8.26
While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
8.27
When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:
8.28
When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:
8.29
When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:
8.30
Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;
8.31
Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.
8.32
Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.
8.33
Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.
8.34
Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
8.35
For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.
8.36
But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.
9.1
Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars:
9.2
She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table.
9.3
She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city,
9.4
Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,
9:6
Forsake the foolish and live; and go in the way of understanding.
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