BibleDaily Readings
cog

Settings

OLD TESTAMENTNEW TESTAMENT
Genesis
1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950
Exodus
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940
Leviticus
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627
Numbers
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536
Deuteronomy
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334
Joshua
123456789101112131415161718192021222324
Judges
123456789101112131415161718192021
Ruth
1234
1 Samuel
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
2 Samuel
123456789101112131415161718192021222324
1 Kings
12345678910111213141516171819202122
2 Kings
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425
1 Chronicles
1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829
2 Chronicles
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536
1 Esdras
123456789
Ezra
12345678910
Nehemiah
12345678910111213
Tobit
1234567891011121314
Judith
12345678910111213141516
Esther
12345678910111213141516
Maccabees 1
12345678910111213141516
Maccabees 2
123456789101112131415
Psalms
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142143144145146147148149150
Job
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142
Proverbs
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031
Ecclesiastes
123456789101112
Song of Songs
12345678
Wisdom of Solomon
12345678910111213141516171819
Wisdom of Sirach
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051
Hosea
1234567891011121314
Amos
123456789
Micah
1234567
Joel
123
Obadiah
1
Jonah
1234
Nahum
123
Habakkuk
123
Zephaniah
123
Haggai
12
Zechariah
1234567891011121314
Malachi
1234
Isaiah
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566
Jeremiah
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152
Baruch
12345
Lamentations
12345
Epistle of Jeremiah
1
Ezekiel
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748
Daniel
1234567891011121314
Prayer of Manasseh
1

Proverbs 8:22

The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
Read Chapter 8

Ambrose of Milan

AD 397
Hereby we are brought to understand that the prophecy of the incarnation, “The Lord created me the beginning of his ways for his works,” means that the Lord Jesus was created of the Virgin for the redeeming of the Father’s works. Truly, we cannot doubt that this is spoken of the mystery of the incarnation, forasmuch as the Lord took upon him our flesh, in order to save the works of his hands from the slavery of corruption, so he might, by the sufferings of his own body, overthrow him who had the power of death. For Christ’s flesh is for the sake of things created, but his Godhead existed before them, seeing that he is before all things, while all things exist together in him. His Godhead, then, is not by reason of creation, but creation exists because of the Godhead. –.
1 min1/25
Go to Commentary

Athanasius the Apostolic

AD 373
The fact is, then, that the Word is not from things created but is rather himself their creator. For this reason did he assume a body created and human: so that, having renewed it as its creator, he might deify it in himself and thus might introduce all of us in that likeness into the kingdom of heaven. A man would not have been deified if joined to a creature, nor if the Son were not true God; neither would a man have been brought into the Father’s presence if he had not been the Father’s natural and true Word who had put on the body. Since we could have had nothing in common with what is foreign, we would not have been delivered from sin and from the curse if that which the Word put on had not been natural human flesh. So also, the man would not have been deified if the Word which became flesh had not been by nature from the Father and true and proper to him. The union, therefore, was of just such a kind, so that he might unite what is man by nature, to him who is in the nature of th...
1 min2/25
Go to Commentary

Athanasius the Apostolic

AD 373
The Lord is God’s true and natural Son, and he is known to be not just eternal but one who exists concurrently with the eternity of the Father. There are things which are called “eternal” of which he is the creator, for in Psalm it is written, “Lift up your gates, O rulers, and be lifted up, O everlasting doors.” It is apparent, though, that these everlasting doors also came into being through his agency. But if he is himself the creator of the things which are “everlasting,” which of us can any longer doubt that he is more noble than these everlasting things and that he is made known as Lord not so much from his being eternal as from his being the Son of God? Being Son, he is inseparable from the Father, and there was never a “when” when he did not exist. He always existed. Moreover, since he is the image and radiance of the Father, he also possesses the Father’s eternity.… What is the basic meaning and purport of holy Scripture? It contains, as we have often said, a double account o...
1 min3/25
Go to Commentary

Athanasius the Apostolic

AD 373
Although the Word did indeed become flesh, it is to the flesh that affections are proper; and although the flesh bears divinity in the Word, it is to the Word that grace and power belong. He performed the Father’s works, then, through the flesh; but nonetheless the affections of the flesh were exhibited in him. Thus, he inquired and then raised Lazarus; he chided his mother, saying, “My hour is not yet come”; and immediately he turned the water into wine. Indeed, he was true God in the flesh, and he was true flesh in the Word. Out of his works, therefore, he made known both his own Father, and himself, the Son of God. By the affections of the flesh he demonstrated that he bore a true body and that it was proper to him.
1 min4/25
Go to Commentary

Athanasius the Apostolic

AD 373
“The Lord created me in the beginning of his ways for his works.” … He is called also in the Scriptures “servant,” and “son of a handmaid,” and “lamb” and “sheep,” and it is said that he suffered toil and thirst and was beaten and has suffered pain. But there is plainly a reasonable ground and cause why such representations as these are given of him in the Scriptures. It is because he became man and the Son of man, and took upon him the form of a servant, which is the human flesh, for “the Word,” says John, “was made flesh.” And since he became man, no one ought to be offended at such expressions, for it is proper to man to be created and born and formed, to suffer toil and pain, to die and to rise again from the dead. And as, being Word and wisdom of the Father, he has all the attributes of the Father, his eternity, and his unchangeableness, and the being like him in all respects and in all things. And [he] is neither before nor after, but coexistent with the Father. And [he] is the v...
1 min5/25
Go to Commentary

Athanasius the Apostolic

AD 373
Let them tell us, from what teacher or by what tradition they derived these notions concerning the Savior? We have read in the Proverbs, they will say, “The Lord created me a beginning of his ways unto his works.” This Eusebius and his fellows used to insist on, and you write me word, that the present men also, though overthrown and confuted by an abundance of arguments, still were putting about in every quarter this passage, and saying that the Son was one of the creatures, and reckoning him with things originated. But they seem to me to have a wrong understanding of this passage.… If then Son, therefore not creature; if creature, not Son; for great is the difference between them, and Son and creature cannot be the same, unless his essence be considered to be at once from God and external to God.
1 min6/25
Go to Commentary

Athanasius the Apostolic

AD 373
Salvation proceeds from the Savior, just as illumination does from the light. The salvation, then, which was from the Savior, being created new, did, as Jeremiah says, “create for us a new salvation,” and as Aquila renders: “The Lord created a new thing in woman,” that is, in Mary. For nothing new was created in woman, save the Lord’s body, born of the Virgin Mary without intercourse, as also it says in the Proverbs in the person of Jesus, “The Lord created me, a beginning of his ways for his works.” Now he does not say “created me before his works,” lest any should take the text of the deity of the Word. Each text then which refers to the creature is written with reference to Jesus in a bodily sense. For the Lord’s humanity was created as “a beginning of ways,” and he manifested it to us for our salvation. For by it we have our access to the Father. For he is the way which leads us back to the Father. And a way is a corporeal visible thing, such as is the Lord’s humanity. Well, then, ...
1 min7/25
Go to Commentary

Athenagoras of Athen

AD 190
[The Son] is the first offspring of the Father. I do not mean that he was created, for, since God is eternal mind, he had his Word within himself from the beginning, being eternally wise. Rather did the Son come forth from God to give form and actuality to all material things, which essentially have a sort of formless nature and inert quality, the heavier particles being mixed up with the lighter. The prophetic Spirit agrees with this opinion when he says, “The Lord created me as the first of his ways, for his works.” Indeed we say that the Holy Spirit himself, who inspires those who utter prophecies, is an effluence from God, flowing from him and returning like a ray of the sun. Who, then, would not be astonished to hear those called atheists who admit God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit, and who teach their unity in power and their distinction in rank?… We affirm, too, a crowd of angels and ministers, whom God, the maker and creator of the world, appointed to their severa...
1 min8/25
Go to Commentary

Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
The beginning of his ways is the head of the church, which is Christ incarnate, through whom there was to be given us an example of living, that is, a certain way by which we might reach God.…
< 1 min9/25
Go to Commentary

Augustine of Hippo

AD 430
According to the form of God it was said, “Before all the hills he has begotten me,” that is, before all the most exalted creatures, and, “Before the morning star I have begotten you,” that is, before all the ages and temporal things. But according to the form of a slave it was said, “The Lord created me in the BEGINNING OF HIS WAYS” Because according to the form of God he said, “I am the truth,” and according to the form of a slave, “I am the way.” For since he himself, “the firstborn of the dead,” has laid out the road for his church to the kingdom of God, to eternal life, of which he is the head even to the extent of giving immortality to the body. He was, therefore, created in the beginning of the ways of God for his works. .
1 min10/25
Go to Commentary

Bede

AD 735
The Lord’s “ways” are his works, through contemplation of which man has arrived at faith or knowledge of him. “For his invisible nature was seen by the rational creatures of the world through what he had made.” His ways are the illuminations through which he showed himself both to angelic spirits and to human minds. He possessed wisdom at the beginning of his ways because he had the Son with whom he arranged all things at the beginning of the nascent created order. Yet, lest anyone think that the Son began to exist at the beginning of his ways or at any other time, it adds vigilantly, … “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God; all things were created through him.” Let them perish, therefore, who deny that “the power of God and the wisdom of God,” clearly Christ, was begotten by the Father himself from the beginning and indeed before any beginning that could be thought or expressed. In another translation, this passage begins, “The Lord created me a...
2 mins11/25
Go to Commentary

Didymus the Blind

AD 398
Since wisdom is already eternal, it is not subjected to time. The “beginning,” then, is yoked together with created things. But having existed before creation as wisdom, the Son of God—even though, he says, “The Lord created me”—this assertion [“The Lord created me”] must be understood as referring not to substance but to his relationship toward creatures. For [wisdom] says that its works were at the beginning of the creative and providential ways of God, that is, a “cause,” introducing still another way of speaking. The Son of God was made man when he assumed the form of a servant. He is eternal before the ages, as he is God the Word. It says he was “created” because he was born of Mary and was made flesh. For those desiring to walk like God and with God, consult this teacher, an example of perfect life, who gives his teaching to those who follow him. The fact that the word “to create” does not mean everywhere “to make substance” is confirmed by David, who says, “Create in me a pure h...
1 min12/25
Go to Commentary

Eusebius of Caesarea

AD 339
The divine and perfect essence existing before things begotten, the rational and firstborn image of the unbegotten nature, the true and onlybegotten Son of the God of the universe, being one with many names, and one called God by many titles, is honored in this passage under the style and name of wisdom, and we have learned to call him Word of God, light, life, truth, and, to crown all, “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Now, therefore, in the passage before us, he passes through the words of the wise Solomon, speaking of himself as the living wisdom of God and selfexistent, saying, “I, wisdom, have dwelt with counsel and knowledge, and I have called upon understanding,” and that which follows. He also adds, as one who has undertaken the government and providence of the universe: “By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes become great.” Then saying that he will record the things of ages past, he goes on to say, “The Lord created me as the beginning of h...
2 mins13/25
Go to Commentary

Eustathius of Antioch

AD 337
For the human being who died rises up on the third day; but when Mary strives with longing to touch his holy limbs, he objected and says to her, “Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father; go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.’&nbsp;” God the Word, who comes from heaven and lives in the bosom of the Father, did not utter the phrase “I have not yet ascended to my Father.” The Wisdom that embraces all things that exist did not say it either; this was spoken by the very human being who was formed out of all kinds of limbs, who had been raised from the dead, and who after death had not yet ascended to his Father but reserved for himself the firstfruit of his passage. Discourse on the Text “The Lord Created Me in the BEGINNING OF HIS WAYS”
1 min14/25
Go to Commentary

Eustathius of Antioch

AD 337
If, therefore, the Word began to exist at the time he passed through the mother’s womb and wore the bodily framework, it is clear that he was born of a woman. But if God the Word was from the very beginning with the Father, and we say that all things were made through him, then the one who is and is the cause of all things that are made was not born of a woman but is, by nature, God, selfsufficient, unlimited and incomprehensible. But from a woman was born a human being, who was implanted in the virgin’s womb by the Holy Spirit. Discourse on the Text “The Lord Created Me in the Beginning of His Ways”
1 min15/25
Go to Commentary

Gaius Marius Victorinus

AD 400
Solomon says, “You have made me above your ways.” For, concerning spiritual generation, he immediately adds, “He has begotten me before all things.”
< 1 min16/25
Go to Commentary

George Leo Haydock

AD 1849
Possessed. As Christ was with God, equal to him in eternity, John i. Septuagint, "created "which many of the Fathers explain of the word incarnate, (see Cornelius a Lap ide; Bossuet) or he hath "placed me "(St. Athanasius iii. contra Arian. Eusebius) a pattern of all virtues. The Septuagint generally render kana, "possessed "as Aquila does here. (Calmet)
< 1 min17/25
Go to Commentary

Gregory of Nyssa

AD 394
The phrase “created me” refers not to the divine and the uncompounded but, as has been said, to that which had been assumed, in accordance with the divine plan, from our created nature. .
< 1 min18/25
Go to Commentary

Gregory the Theologian

AD 390
In their eyes [of the Arians] the following is only too ready to hand: “The Lord created me at the beginning of his ways with a view to his works.” How shall we meet this? Shall we bring an accusation against Solomon or reject his former words because of his fall in afterlife? Shall we say that the words are those of wisdom herself, as it were of knowledge and the creatorword, in accordance with which all things were made? For Scripture often personifies many even lifeless objects; as, for instance, “the sea said” so and so; and, “the heavens declare the glory of God”; and again a command is given to the sword; and the mountains and hills are asked the reason of their skipping. We do not allege any of these, though some of our predecessors used them as powerful arguments. But let us grant that the expression is used of our Savior himself, the true wisdom. Let us consider one small point together. What among all things that exist is unoriginate? The Godhead. For no one can tell the orig...
1 min19/25
Go to Commentary

Hilary of Poitiers

AD 368
Ignorance of prophetic diction and lack of skill in interpreting Scripture has led them into a perversion of the point and meaning of the passage, “The Lord created me for a beginning of his ways for his works.” They labor to establish from it that Christ is created rather than born, as God, and hence partakes the nature of created beings, though he excel them in the manner of his creation and has no glory of divine birth but only the powers of a transcendent creature. We in reply, without importing any new considerations or preconceived opinions, will make this very passage of wisdom display its own true meaning and object. We will show that the fact that he was created for the beginning of the ways of God and for his works, cannot be twisted into evidence concerning the divine and eternal birth, because creation for these purposes and birth from everlasting are two entirely different things. Where birth is meant, there birth, and nothing but birth, is spoken of; where creation is men...
1 min20/25
Go to Commentary

Hilary of Poitiers

AD 368
They attempt by a distortion of the sense and meaning to maintain that God was created rather than born because it was said, “The Lord created me for the beginning of his ways, for his works,” so that he belongs to the common order of created things, although in a higher class of creation, nor does he enjoy the glory of the divine birth, but the power of a mighty creature.
< 1 min21/25
Go to Commentary

Justin Martyr

AD 165
If you have followed me closely, you can see that Scripture declares that the Son was begotten of the Father before all creatures, and everybody will admit that the Son is numerically distinct from the Father.
< 1 min22/25
Go to Commentary

Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
This power and disposition of the divine intelligence is set forth also in the Scriptures under the name of sophia, “wisdom,” for what can be better entitled to the name of wisdom than the reason or the Word of God? Listen therefore to wisdom herself, constituted in the character of a Second Person: “At the first the Lord created me as the beginning of his ways, with a view to his own works, before he made the earth, before the mountains were settled; moreover, before all the hills he begat me”—that is to say, he created and generated me in his own intelligence.… By proceeding from himself he became his firstbegotten Son, because begotten before all things; and his onlybegotten also, because alone begotten of God, in a way peculiar to himself, from the womb of his own heart. –.
1 min23/25
Go to Commentary

Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
Since all things were made by the wisdom of God, it follows that when God made both the heaven and the earth in principio, that is to say “in the beginning,” he made them in his wisdom. If, indeed, beginning had a material signification, the Scripture would not have informed us that God made so and so in principio, at the beginning, but rather ex principio, of the beginning, for he would not have created “in,” but “of,” matter. When wisdom, however, was referred to, it was quite right to say, “in the beginning.”
< 1 min24/25
Go to Commentary

The Apostolic Constitutions

AD 375
O Lord Almighty, you have created the world by Christ, and … you have also appointed festivals for the rejoicing of our souls, that we might come into the remembrance of that wisdom which was created by you; how he submitted to be made of a woman on our account; he appeared in life, and demonstrated himself in his baptism; how he that appeared is both God and man; he suffered for us by your permission, and died, and rose again by your power: on which account we solemnly assemble to celebrate the feast of the resurrection on the Lord’s day and rejoice on account of him who has conquered death and has brought life and immortality to light. .
1 min25/25
Go to Commentary
About Privacy Policy Donate

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20

App Store LogoPlay Store Logo