The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
All Commentaries on Proverbs 1:7 Go To Proverbs 1
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
You should regulate your life and conduct by the commandments of God, which we have received to enable us to lead a good life, beginning with a religious fear, for “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” whereby human pride is broken down and weakened. Second, with a mild and gentle piety you should refrain from objecting to passages of the holy Scriptures which you do not yet understand and which seem to the uninstructed devoid of sense and selfcontradictory. And you should not try to impose your ideas on the meaning of the holy books but submit and hold your mind in check rather than savagely attack its hidden meaning. .
