WISDOM

WISDOM

Prov. 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Prov. 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.”

In these words we have a declaration of the fundamental principle of Hebrew wisdom that is philosophy. This book is one of the three Wisdom books in the Old Testament; the others are Job and Ecclesiastes. The first six verses of this chapter reveal the purpose of the book. It was written to teach wisdom and that rather in its application to life, than in theory. It consists of (1). A series of addresses on wisdom delivered by a father to his son; (2). Two collections of Proverbs; and (3). Two discourses in the realm of Wisdom, one by Agur, the other by Lemuel. Throughout, the purpose is practical, rather than theoretical. Here, after the introduction or preface, and before the series of addresses, the theory is stated in one inclusive definition. It is of importance to any study of this book that this fundamental and inclusive definition should be rightly apprehended; and in order to that, we halt with the word rendered beginning. In the King James Version we find a marginal alternative suggested, viz., "the principal part," and the English and American revisers marginally suggest "the chief part." Why this reading was relegated to the margin remains a mystery, for there is no doubt that this is the real meaning of the Hebrew word. The other truth emerges later (Prov. 9:10). The fundamental fact, then, is that in all knowledge, all understanding of life, all interpretation thereof, the fear of Jehovah is the principal thing, the chief part, the central light, apart from which the mind of man gropes in darkness and misses the way. Whether in prosperity or adversity, in light or in darkness, in life or in death, in order to intelligent apprehension, and true conduct, there must be the fear of Jehovah. That is the sum total of wisdom.