(More) True Scientific Statements From Sheep Herders

(22) “The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; (23) I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be. (24) When there were no watery depths, I was given birth, when there were no springs overflowing with water; (25) before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth, (26) before he made the world or its fields or any of the dust of the earth. (27) I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, (28) when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, (29) when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. ~Proverbs 8:22-29

This is a Proverb. By their nature Proverbs are known to be a stand-alone wisdom statement(s). Easton Bible Dictionary defines a proverb as: “A trite maxim; a similitude; a parable." The Hebrew word rendered (mashal / מָשָׁל) has a wide meaning. It comes from a root meaning "to be like” or "parable." Holman’s Bible Dictionary goes on to say that proverbs, “...provide a godly worldview and offers insight for living”. They are written by Solomon but those that are Bible illiterate often stereotypically mock the Bible by saying it was written by ancient nomadic goat/sheep herders. I am playing off of the aforesaid cultural ridicule to reciprocate or give back to the culture - a little bit if their own sarcasm...it in jest of course. Hence the ironic title of the post.

Knowing the Proverbs are wisdom statements we should probably expect that when an ancient book makes claims that are more or less in the realm of modern science, they will be inaccurate or wrong. Knowing this we could assume that they are not written to be scientific statements of fact. Yet we have the Proverb above. It was a proverb I was merely reading as a daily devotional in the books of wisdom. Something caught my eye and I stopped to examine it more closely…and then the thoughts started pouncing on my brain, so here they are.

Naturalists and anti-supernaturalists love to spout off how much the Bible is scientifically inaccurate. All things considered, including the fact that the above proverb makes no claim to modern scientific accuracy…it is rather remarkable just how accurate it is by modern standards. Let’s look at it. My observations will be brief to get a point across not to reinvent the wheel here. If you want to take these points farther that’s up to you. If you want to refute the thoughts feel free, just don’t expect a response. These were merely meant to be musings not scientific and religious dissertations

The passage is in the context of wisdom (obviously). It refers to wisdom as a singular first-person.

(v. 22) “The LORD brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old”

We see statements about an active God back in a time immemorial. We see that wisdom was created and came from God. I figure it this way, until there was a man around, God did not need to limit His limitless knowledge and omniscience into an encapsulated form called wisdom so man could use it. God is vastly more than wise. I view wisdom as a limitation to God since He is so much more than wise…He is perfect. I believe the wisdom God gives to man is a limited encapsulate piece of knowledge from God. Complete and perfect wisdom is omniscience and probably should be considered something totally “other” just as God is “Other”.

(v.23) “I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be”

We see a repeat statement about wisdom’s creation and beginning in God. Here we also see a statement about the creation of world also. There is a grammatical tying of the creation of the world with the creation of wisdom as it is at the forefront / qedem / קֶ֫דֶם of the earth/world or at least the implication is here that wisdom existed from the very earliest times of the world’s creation. Based on the word qedem we could possibly even say that wisdom came previous to the world as it is sometimes translated: before.

(v.24) “When there were no watery depths, I was given birth, when there were no springs overflowing with water”

No matter how this is interpreted or framed…it is accurate. If we are dealing with the Biblical account we know that the wisdom had to have been before Genesis 1:2 because we know that the “deep” is mentioned by this time. I personally believe that the presence of God at the creation IS the presence of wisdom in its infinite form. If we look at this from a geophysical or geological point of view, there was more than likely no water on the earth when it was “formed”.

(v.25) “…before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was given birth”

“Settled into place…” or more properly "sunk" into place which implies a vertical up and down movement. This is an interesting terminology to use for mountains that at the time of the writing of this Proverb…probably appeared rather stationary and immobile (and quite large). We now know through plate tectonics that not only mountains but entire continents indeed move…a lot. Actually anyone that has experienced an earthquake would know and accede to the fact that the earth “moves” but we now know that not only do they move they actually float on the Earth’s mantle on convection currents. Mountains move both vertically by being pushed up and laterally by sliding against one another in a sheering force. Mountains are essentially the by-product of two tectonic plates crashing together like a car wreck and the mountains are the wrinkled or accordioned fender.

(v.27) “I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep”

We know from both the Bible and the “experts” of science that the heavens and earth were created or came into existence “ex nihilo” (out of nothing). Hence they were put into place since they had not previously existed. Stars and their planetary systems, galaxies, galactic clusters...all created at a given point in time. A beginning. A beginning that is better described in the Bible than it is by science. All science has done to this point to explain the inception of the universe was actually a corroboration of the Bible.

(v.28) “when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep”
(v.29) “when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth.”

Within this statement of wisdom we see clouds linked to the foundations of the deep forever tying together the oceans and the clouds in the Bible. We see a statement here that God created/formed the hydrological cycle (evaporation/precipitation) that produces clouds (mostly from the evaporation of ocean waters). I will even take these verses as being subsequent chronologically to (v.24). Having been formed first in the absence of water it is easy to understand how land will hem in water. The earth being primarily of solids such as rock (yes I know some are porous) will physically retain the water which is amorphous. One is solid (mostly) and one liquid…two different forms…two different phases or states of matter. They can work together but are molecularly and/or atomically distinct. A solid has a definite shape and volume. A liquid has a definite volume but it takes the shape of whatever it is in thereby making whatever it is in …its boundary. The land is solid and therefore acts as the holder of the oceans...like a water basin/sink and that is literally what it is called in Oceanography...an ocean basin.

Pretty impressive for a bunch of nomadic sheep herders.

I could nickel and dime some other verses from the Bible like the highly visible Genesis 1:1  but you folks are intelligent enough to take this the places it needs to go to draw your own conclusions. There are many other places where the Bible addresses things of the scientific realm albeit in a veiled form. The irony is that where these statements arise…I have never found them to run counter to their modern evidential/empirical validations. Where they have run counter to the scientific world such as in archeology it is often found that the Bible is still correct…it is science that is wrong. Too bad :( , perhaps someday science will get it right? Nah…probably not. lol.

As a parting shot across the bow of modern science I will state this. Since the beginning of the Enlightenment, science (and even some religion) has attempt to explain away the existence of God and anything attached to Him. In so doing they have made for themselves an awful small world and universe to live within. They have lost their sense of awe in both the universe and the Divine. They have lost their sense of awe in the omnipotent, the omniscient and just plain wonder of it all. They attribute the existence of universe and our lives to random chaotic forces and time. That...is a shame. I feel bad for them. The do not even realize they've painted themselves into a godless corner in a really dark box. They do not realize there is something outside the box because they have limited their thinking. It is like living their entire life inside of Plato's cave.