Proverbs 8:23
in Proverbs 8From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, before the earth began.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, Before the earth was.
KJV
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
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This verse in Proverbs 8
Commentary
5 notes on this verseA commentator
Athanasius of Alexandria296–373
Discourses Against the Arians 2.22.72-74 · Written before 373.
Since the heretics, reading the next verse, take a perverse view of that also, because it is written, "He founded me before the world," namely, that this is said of the Godhead of the Word and not of his incarnate presence, it is necessary, explaining this verse also, to show their error.It is written, "The Lord in Wisdom founded the earth; if then by wisdom the earth is founded, how can he who founds be founded?
This site's exposition
The Lord possessed me in the beginning
on Proverbs 8:22-26
The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way is one of the most argued verses in the Old Testament, and the argument turns on one Hebrew word, qanah, which the King James renders possessed and the Septuagint rendered created me. On that Greek reading the Arians built their claim that the Son was a creature, and the church answered that begotten is not made; the history is stated as history. The readings today are named with their holders: wisdom as the personified attribute of God, older than every made thing (so most of the bench, Delitzsch among them), and the passage read toward Christ the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24), so the older writers, hearing in was brought forth the language of begetting rather than making. The verses themselves say what no reading can remove: before depths, fountains, mountains and fields, wisdom already was.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
I was set up from everlasting,.... I, a person, and not a quality; a person, and not a nature; the person of Christ as the Son of God, and not the human nature of Christ, which then did not exist; this phrase designs the ordination and constitution of Christ in his office as Mediator. So the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "I was ordained"; Christ was foreordained to be the Redeemer and Saviour of men, to be the propitiation for their sins, to be the head of the church, and the Judge of the world.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
I was set up - Rather, “I was anointed” (compare Psa 2:6 margin: 2Ch 28:15). The image is that of Wisdom anointed, as at her birth, with “the oil of gladness.” Or ever the earth was - literally, “from the times before the earth.”
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
on Proverbs 8:22-31
Strictly, God's attributes are part of Himself. Yet, to the poetical structure of the whole passage, this commendation of wisdom is entirely consonant. In order of time all His attributes are coincident and eternal as Himself.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מֵ֭עוֹלָם | meolom | from long ago | H5769 → | 438 times |
| נִסַּ֥כְתִּי | nisakhti | I was installed | H5258 → | |
| מֵרֹ֗אשׁ | merosh | from [the] beginning | H7218 → | 599 times |
| מִקַּדְמֵי־ | mikadmei- | from [the] beginnings of | H6924 → | |
| אָֽרֶץ׃ | ʾaretz | [the] earth | H776 → | 2504 times |
מֵ֭עוֹלָםfrom long ago
meolomH5769 →438 times
נִסַּ֥כְתִּיI was installed
nisakhtiH5258 →
מֵרֹ֗אשׁfrom [the] beginning
meroshH7218 →599 times
מִקַּדְמֵי־from [the] beginnings of
mikadmei-H6924 →
אָֽרֶץ׃[the] earth
ʾaretzH776 →2504 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 1:26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the…
it leads to
- Colossians 3:10
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
- Ephesians 4:24
and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
- Psalms 8:4–8
what is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?
- Genesis 3:22
Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life,…
- Genesis 5:1
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in His own likeness.
- Colossians 3:10
Through
Micah 5:2But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days…
it leads to
- Matthew 2:6
‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people…
- John 7:42
Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ will come from the line of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
- Matthew 2:6
Through
John 17:5And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world existed.
it leads to
- John 1:1–3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- John 1:1–3
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
On this chapter
About Proverbs
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Athanasius of Alexandria, Discourses Against the Arians 2.22.72-74; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).