Anakalypsis / Unveiling the Word

Proverbs 8:22

The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

KJV

Dominus possedit me in initio viarum suarum antequam quidquam faceret a principio.

Vulgate

Κύριος ἔκτισέν με ἀρχὴν ὁδῶν αὐτοῦ εἰς ἔργα αὐτοῦ,

LXX

Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, Before his works of old.

ASV

יְֽהוָ֗ה קָ֭נָ/נִי רֵאשִׁ֣ית דַּרְכּ֑/וֹ קֶ֖דֶם מִפְעָלָ֣י/ו מֵ/אָֽז

Hebrew

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In the original Hebrew

7 distinct Hebrew words appear in this verse.

אָ֣ז
'z
adverb · 139×
דֶּ֣רֶךְ
drk
noun · 709×
ה
h
noun · 87×
יְהוָ֖ה
yhvh
proper_noun · 6455×
מִפְעֲל֣וֹת
mp'lvt
noun · 3×
קְנֵ֣ה
qnh
verb · 86×
רֵאשִׁ֣ית
r'shyt
noun · 51×

Intertextual echoes

Quoted or echoed by 1 later passage.

  • John 1:1 · echo
    "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
    Proverbs: wisdom in the beginning — echoed in the Logos prologue

Themes

Prophecy

Historic Christian voices

16 passages from patristic writers, Reformers, and church catechisms citing this verse.

§288Thus the revelation of creation is inseparable from the revelation and forging of the covenant of the one God with his People. Creation is revealed as the first step towards this covenant, the first and universal witness to God's all-powerful love.126 and so, the truth of creation is also expressed with growing vigour in the message of the prophets, the prayer of the psalms and…
1. Our Lord Jesus Christ calls His coming in the flesh an exodus [or going out]: as when He says, The sower went out to sow. Matthew 13:3 And again, I went out from the Father, and have come. John 16:28 And in many places one may see this. But Paul calls it an [eisodus or] coming in, saying, And when again He brings in the First-Begotten into the world, meaning by this Bringing…
The rock and the gate are the Son of God. I said, "Sir, how is it that the rock is old, but the gate is new?" "Listen," said he, "and understand, thou ignorant man. The Son of God is older than all His creation, so that He was a counsellor with the Father in creating all things. Therefore also the rock is old." "But the gate, why is it new, Sir?" I asked. "Because," said he, "H…
Chapter 1. On God. 1. I know that some will attempt to say that, even according to the declarations of our own Scriptures, God is a body, because in the writings of Moses they find it said, that our God is a consuming fire; and in the Gospel according to John, that God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Fire and spirit, according to t…
1. How Christians are the Spiritual Israel. That people which was called of old the people of God was divided into twelve tribes, and over and above the other tribes it had the levitical order, which itself again carried on the service of God in various priestly and levitical suborders. In the same manner, it appears to me that the whole people of Christ, when we regard it in t…
1. I did indeed think that enough had been said already against the hollow professors of Arius's madness, whether for their refutation or in the truth's behalf, to insure a cessation and repentance of their evil thoughts and words about the Saviour. They, however, for whatever reason, still do not succumb; but, as swine and dogs wallow in their own vomit and their own mire, rat…
14. 'Has then the passage no meaning?' for this, like a swarm of gnats, they are droning about us. No surely, it is not without meaning, but has a very apposite one; for it is true to say that the Son was created too, but this took place when He became man; for creation belongs to man. And any one may find this sense duly given in the divine oracles, who, instead of accounting …
26. And that the Word of God is not a work or creature, but an offspring proper to the Father's essence and indivisible, as the great Council wrote, here you may see in the words of Dionysius, Bishop of Rome, who, while writing against the Sabellians, thus inveighs against those who dared to say so:— Next, I may reasonably turn to those who divide and cut to pieces and destroy …
Containing a general view of the subjects treated in Holy Scripture Chapter 1.— The Interpretation of Scripture Depends on the Discovery and Enunciation of the Meaning, and is to Be Undertaken in Dependence on God's Aid. 1. There are two things on which all interpretation of Scripture depends: the mode of ascertaining the proper meaning, and the mode of making known the meaning…
The things said concerning Christ fall into four generic modes. For some fit Him even before the incarnation, others in the union, others after the union, and others after the resurrection. Also of those that refer to the period before the incarnation there are six modes: for some of them declare the union of nature and the identity in essence with the Father, as this, I and My…
Tertullian argues that the Son proceeds from the Father as a ray proceeds from the sun — distinct yet inseparable. The Word was with God before all things, and the Word was God. The Son is a second Person, not a second God, sharing the same divine substance as the Father.
The Son was begotten of the Father before all ages — not in time, not by division of substance, but by an eternal and ineffable generation. Cyril appeals to Proverbs 8 and Micah 5 to demonstrate that the Son's origin is "from everlasting." He warns against both the Arian error (the Son is a creature) and the Sabellian error (the Father and Son are the same person).

Cross-references

  • 1Cor 1:24 — But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
  • 1John 1:1 — That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
  • 1John 1:2 — (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
  • Col 1:17 — And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
  • Col 1:17 — And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
  • Gen 1:1 — In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
  • Heb 1:2 — Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
  • Job 15:7 — Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?
  • Job 28:23 — God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.
  • Job 28:26 — When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:
  • Job 28:27 — Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.
  • Job 38:4 — Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
  • John 1:1 — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  • John 1:1 — In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  • John 5:20 — For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
  • John 8:58 — Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
  • John 17:5 — And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
  • Mic 5:2 — But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, f
  • Prov 3:19 — The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.
  • Ps 93:2 — Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.
  • Ps 104:24 — O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
  • Ps 104:24 — O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
  • Ps 136:5 — To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever.
  • Rev 3:14 — And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
  • Rev 14:7 — Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.