Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

Ian Hutchesson wrote:
>
>The Proverbs 8 material is quite interesting, for Philo shows no knowledge
>of it -- as far as I can tell -- and, as you point out, it does in some way
>belong in the same tradition. Philo, writing in Alexandria and perhaps
>without Hebrew, may only have had the pentateuch and (some of) the psalms.
>The major problem in an analysis of Proverbs in the wider context of
>Mediterranean thought is that of dating (again). Is the personification of
>wisdom an independent development or does it partake in the tradition that
>comes from Heraclitus through Plato and onward to Posidonius, the Stoa and
>Philo? Dating could help to clarify.
>
>As to the Johannine Logos poem, Theophilus knows it, but gives away nothing
>to suggest that he knew the gospel. This suggests an independent life for
>that poem.
>
>
>Ian

Dear Ian,

Philo was aquainted with Proverbs. He mentions  Proverbs  in "On
Drunkenness (De Ebrietate)" (84) "And it appears to me to be very well said
in the book of Proverbs, "Men who see what is right before God and before
men."  In "On Mating with the Preliminary Studies (De Congressu Quaerendae
Eruditionis Gratia)"  (177)  he quotes Prov 3:11. "And it is from this
consideration, as it appears to me that one of the disciples of Moses, by
name the peaceful, who in his native language is called Solomon, says, "My
son, neglect not the instruction of God, and be not grieved when thou art
reproved by him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth; and scourgeth
every son whom he received."

He was also aquainted with Proverbs 8. In "That the Worse Is Wont to Attack
the Better (Quod Deterius Potiori Insidiari Soleat)" (115),  he calls
"wisdom" "nurse and foster-mother", and I draw a parallel with  )AMON in
Prov 8:30 (cf, the beginning of Bereshit Rabba). "Now these energies are
especially the food of the soul, which is competent to give suck, as the
lawgiver says, "Honey out of the rock, and oil out of the solid rock,"
meaning by the solid rock which cannot be cut through, the wisdom of God,
which is the nurse and foster-mother and educator of those who desire
incorruptible food; (116) for it, as the mother of those things which exist
in the world, immediately supplies food to those beings which are brought
forth by her; but they are not all thought worthy of divine food, but only
such are honoured with that as do not show any degeneracy from their
parent; for there are many which a scarcity of virtue, which is more
terrible than a scarcity of meat and drink, has destroyed"

Most interestingly, he also quotes Proverbs 8:30 directly in "On
Drunkenness (De Ebrietate)" (31) "Accordingly wisdom is represented by some
one of the beings of the divine company as speaking of herself in this
manner: "God created me as the first of his works, and before the beginning
of time did he establish me." For it was necessary that all the things
which came under the head of the creation must be younger than the mother
and nurse of the whole universe."

Almost all the Church Fathers, including Athanasius applied "wisdom" in
Proverbs 8 to Jesus.

In Philo's mind, wisdom was conceived of having three stages of existence.
(1) Wisdom existed from eternity as a thought of God; (2)  Wisdom was
created as a real incorporeal being and was used as God´s instrument, or,
rather a "plan", in the creation of the world; and (3) Wisdom  was
implanted within our world and acted as the instrument of divine providence
in every part of it.  Many of the Church Fathers, such as Ignatius, Justin
Martyr,Tatian, Athenagoras,Theophilus, Hippolytus, Novatian and Tertullian,
who held the subordinationist view of the Son in relation to the Father,
but at the same time held a two-stage theory of the Son´s generation from
eternity, seem to have adopted this two-stage view from Philo and
Middle-Platonism. There was also a one-stage theory among some of the
Fathers. It started with Irenaeus and was particularly voiced by Origen. He
quoted Proverbs 8:25 from the LXX, which has an imperfective verb: "Before
the hills he generates me (GENNAi)", and concluded that the Son was being
generated all the time (LXX also has EKTISE "created" in the same verse).
Both Origen and Plotin (who made Neo-Platonism into a coherent system)
studied under Ammonius Saccas, the originator of Neo-Platonism, and they
use quite a similar language. The formulation in the Athanasian creed that
the Son "is born from eternity" probably goes back to Origen and Plotin.
The different Fathers worked on ideas which later became formalised as the
trinity doctrine, and a very strong case can be made for the influence of
Philo and Middle-Platonism on the trinity through the two-stage view, and
the influence of Neo-Platonism through the one-stage view.

We find nothing that resembles these ideas in the letter to the Colossians
and the rest of the NT, and therefore I agree with you that "first-born" in
Col 1:15 should be taken in its normal sense.



Regards
Rolf


Rolf Furuli
Lecturer in Semitic languages
University of Oslo