I find there is a feminine angle to the book of
Proverbs, as Wikipedia points out -
Wisdom is personified throughout the text as a female
figure who was the absolute first of God's creations and who existed before
life inhabited the earth. When Wisdom speaks she speaks in the first person feminine [7] and identifies herself not just as the first companion of
God, but also as the preserver of justice in civilization and the source of
human advancement.[8] Injustice by contrast is personified as a female
adulteress luring unsuspecting male youths to their early death at the hands of
a wrathful husband.[9]
Also, Wikipedia finds parallels between the
roles of Wisdom and Christ -
It has been noted by some Christian
exegetes that Col 1:15-16 is dependent on this chapter of Proverbs.[21] The parallels in the roles of Christ and Wisdom, they argue, lend
credence to understanding as possessed rather than created. They argue that
"Wisdom was, before the Lord made even a particle of matter (verse 26) or
gave order to creation (verse 29); Wisdom participated in the creation story.
This strongly parallels the role of Christ in Colossians, where he is the
“first-born of all creation” and in him were all things created. To add to the
identification of Wisdom with Christ, we find that Wisdom was identified with
the Greek concept of logos, which was in turn identified with Christ."[22]
Hence
its correlation with Christian Science. Eugene Peterson’s introduction to Proverbs in The
Message (e.g. Petersen writes that “Wisdom is the art of living skilfully in
whatever actual conditions we find ourselves.”) seems
to me to describe what Christian Science teaches us in the matter of daily
living here on earth i.e. “As in heaven,
so on earth” Matt 6: 10 (from the Lord’s Prayer) and its spiritual
interpretation from page 17 of Science &
Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. We have to know that
heaven is not some after-life destination, but available here and now.
Father-Mother God is, for me, brought out in Proverbs 1:8 – “My son, hear
the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.” The
source of all wisdom is God, Mind, Principle.
Now here is an interesting fact: Mrs. Eddy does
not mention, or quote from Proverbs, yet I have the feeling that she was very
close to its teaching. Did she know them off by heart?
Dummelow’s One
Volume Bible Commentary has some good stuff, but he strongly suggests we read
the text in the Revised Version of the Bible.
How many counsellors and
psychologists use these recommendations in their work, I wonder?
Joyce
Voysey
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