The Nugget:
Pro 8:22 The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. (KJV)
Pro 8:22 “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. (ESV)
Pro 8:22 The Lord made me the beginning of his ways for his works. (LXX, Brenton translation)
Pro 8:22 “The LORD already possessed me long ago, when his way began, before any of his works. (GW, God’s Word translation)
Pro 8:22 From the beginning, I was with the LORD. I was there before he began
Pro 8:23 to create the earth. (CEV, Contemporary English Version)
My Comment:
Those who believe that Jesus is not God often refer to Proverbs 8:22 to show that Jesus was the first of God’s created beings. Here is the evidence I submitted in a continuing discussion that I believe refutes this view:
Pro 8:22 The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
possessed. Heb. acquired. S# H7069. Rendered “possessed” at Psa 139:13; Pro 8:22; Jer 32:15.
This verb occurs elsewhere in Proverbs in the following passages: Pro 1:5; *Pro 4:5; *Pro 4:7; Pro 15:32; Pro 16:16; Pro 17:16; Pro 18:15; Pro 19:8; Pro 20:14; Pro 22:23.
It is frequently rendered by “get” or “buy” (Pro 4:5; Pro 4:7; Gen 4:1, Pro 23:23; Gen 47:19; Rth 4:4; Rth 4:8; Jer 32:7, 8; Jer 32:8; Jer 32:25).
The Syriac (compare Lamsa’s rendering: “The Lord created me as the first of his creations”) and LXX. (compare Charles Thomson’s rendering: “The Lord created me, the beginning of His ways, for His works” or the rendering in Bagster’s LXX.: “The Lord made me the beginning of his ways for his works”) render it “created.” This rendering is significant to the Arian controversy of the fourth century and since: is Wisdom a personification of Christ? and if so, is Christ then a created being? If Christ is a created being, then he could not be eternal, or God, as the second member of the Trinity. Since the Hebrew verb does not mean “create,” as an examination of its occurrences and renderings will show, this text does not furnish evidence to support the notion that Jesus Christ is, in his pre-incarnate nature, a created being.