The second in our series on King Suleyman's book of proverbs. View the first article here
As we, Christian and Ismaili, begin to study and attempt to understand the words of the wisest human of all time, King Suleyman, we should start with his own introduction. In the opening to his book of Proverbs, he gives us a statement of intent:
“To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth”
That's quite a goal! Our hope is that as we read together we'll find he meets it. Clearly both Jews and Christians alike believe Suleyman's words are able to impart wisdom, knowledge and instruction – both faiths have included the book of Proverbs in their religious scriptures. A later Christian leader, Paul of Tarsus, clarified this when he wrote, “All Scripture is God-breathed”.
In other words, the Christian belief is that every word recorded by human penmanship actually finds its origin in God. Just as God breathed life into Adam at creation, so He breathed words and inspiration into the more than 40 authors of the 66 books that make up the Christian Bible. God's common breath of life is in each of us but is expressed uniquely each time through the body of each life-bearer. So too God's breath of inspiration is common to each writer but was expressed uniquely each time through the style of each author.
It is God who inspired the writers. It is God who inspired Solomon, both in filling him with wisdom at his request and in breathing into him inspiration for each proverb. As we read the wisdom of Suleyman we are, in fact, reading the wisdom of God. Since the Almighty One is the creator of wisdom, of 'aql, knowledge and all gnosis, who better to learn from?
So then, as Suleyman continues,
“Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.”
View the next in this series here.