Wisdom
July 19th, 2009 It is ironic that the possibility exists that the most well known Biblical verse in the world may have been erroneously translated into our English language when the King James Bible first came to print in 1611, and the mistake has not been corrected to this day. The scripture I am referring to is one that almost anyone who has ever heard of the Bible can recite, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1.
The problem, though, actually stemmed back to St. Jerome’s fourth century Latin Vulgate, as well as even the earlier Greek Septuagint that came on the scene in 1 BC. The phrase in question is the very first one in the Bible, “In the beginning…,” for although the original Hebrew word, “Be’reasheet” could possibly mean “in the beginning of,” it is not possible for it to mean “in the beginning” without the “of.” Since there was no object in that sentence for the preposition “of,” the translators just dropped it.
In reality, however, be’reasheet is a compound word with the “be’ “ more literally meaning “with,” and reasheet meaning “first wisdom.” The more accurate translation, therefore, is the one used in the 2100 year old Jerusalem translation into Aramic. That older version of God’s Word reads, “With wisdom God created the heavens and the earth.”
That subtle difference points us to the true original building block of everything, God’s wisdom. And that thought was emphasized later in the Bible in Psalm 104:24, “How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all.”
Later, the wisest of all, God, instructed the wisest human of all, Solomon, to strongly advise us in Proverbs 1-4 to seek wisdom. Phenomenally, you and I can not only seek wisdom, but we can receive it, for God graciously gave us the two sources of perfect, divine wisdom. The first of those easy to access sources is the ever exciting Bible, God’s true words for mankind. Our second source is prayer, our 24 hour a day direct line to the personification of all wisdom, our awesome heavenly Father. In fact, God’s Holy Word says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt.” James 1:5-6.
The Bible and prayer, our two doorways to true wisdom, for as we just learned, “With wisdom God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1.
July 19th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Very nice. It is truly amazing how often the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament have been erroneously mistranslated, often by those who wanted to hang on to a “tradition” which had become a religion in itself. I love that translation, “with Wisdom God created…….”
July 20th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Such great news! How did God create? With his mouth. Prov 18:21 reads that life and death are in the power of the tongue! Gen 1:3 “God said…” Gen 1:5 “God called…” Gen 1:6 “God said…” Gen 1:8 “God called…” Gen 1:9 “God said…” Gen 1:10 “God called…” Gen 1:11 “God said…”
It keeps going on. and on; God said, God said.
God used his wisdom and words to create. Awesome wonders!
July 22nd, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Neat stuff. Thanks for sharing this.