Would that You Reigned

Continued from Plato's Shambling Feet

So, you're telling me the wisest guy that ever lived wrote a book about it and you’re not reading it?

Enough with Plato. What I want to know is why the Christian Church, which claims to be the backbone of western civilization, gives such short shrift to Solomon. 

I understand that we’re lazy, standing on the shoulders of giants with our own backs hunched forward, our heads downcast to stare into the abyss of magical portals selling us more plastic. I get that we’re overtaxed, zooming about in thundering iron chariots, always threatening to either run over, run into or run out of something that demands our time and attention. I can see that we’re so busy we barely have time to ponder what happened twenty minutes ago, let alone what some ancient king scribbled in hieroglyphic post-caveman speak. But seriously, for a bunch of “bible-believing” disciples of the Master of the universe, we sure don’t give the guy much credit. 

One of the most astounding bits of feedback I remember getting after founding the Sons of Solomon prayer order, a simple liturgy of the hours rooted in the Proverbs and Psalms of the Bible, was from a Lutheran pastor who wrote to inform me that I should be ashamed of myself because the Solomon of the Bible was an unbeliever who is burning in hell. Without getting into the details of how his is only one way of viewing the ultimate end of Solomon’s life when taking the Biblical texts into account, it seemed to me that his main case implied that the book of Proverbs ultimately did not belong in the Bible at all.  

Just as convoluted is another argument I’ve heard (again, exclusively from Lutheran pastors) that the book of Proverbs is not that helpful to Christians because it is “Law” and not “Gospel.” Or, to put it another way, “There is no Jesus in it.” As the thinking goes, while it might be well and good for the mostly ignorant person once upon a time, the New Testament believer has no real business reading proverbs because “justification.” 

Now, just because something is “Law” hardly means that it is not valuable to the Christian, nor is the assertion that there is no Jesus in the proverbs very aware of the New Testament declaration that “Jesus is LORD.” But for the trifecta of ignorance, such scoffing also appears unaware that the book of Proverbs is quoted and referenced in the New Testament as much as any other Old Testament book outside the Psalms, and perhaps Isaiah, though that is debatable. From Peter and James both quoting Proverbs 3:34 to Paul exhorting imprecatory do-gooding in Romans 12:20 to Jesus lifting “Seek and you will find” directly out of Proverbs 8, there can be no question that, “these things were written for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11.)

But, I will admit that Proverbs is not an easy book to read. On the one hand, it can come off like an ad naseum exhortation to “get wisdom” said in excessively flowery poetry, and on the other it can read a laundry list of disconnected nuggets that belong more on a verse-of-the-day calendar than in your daily devotional schedule. To make matters worse, the entire book is woefully under-translated. By that, I mean no disrespect to the ardent men of King James who undertook the yeoman’s task of putting the work into modern(ish) English. They did all that they could with the tools that they had, and their goal was to translate the entire bible into the most succinctly readable format that they could manage, not devote all there attentions to the marvelous nuances ensconced in one under-studied book. But I do believe in their urgency to complete the monumental task, they thus underestimated not only the potency of Hebrew vocabulary, but with it the exceedingly keen insight of Solomon in particular. 

If ”the Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright—words of truth,” and if “the words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd” (Ecc. 12:10-11,) then perhaps using the same English word “fool” for no less than five different Hebrew terms, each with its own edge and layering, might just layer a little confusion on top of the definitive categories the original wunderkind created.

But before we tread any further, I think it best that we just start at the beginning. The under-translation in the book of Proverbs starts the word “proverb” itself: 

מִשְׁלֵי שְׁלֹמֹה בֶן-דָּוִד מֶלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל  

The Proverbs of Solomon, Son of David, King in Israel. (Pr. 1:1)

It’s easy to go passed it. After all, every letter in the New Testament begins with, “Some guy’s name, to some place I don’t really know.” So what? It’s just a greeting. Let’s get on to the important stuff, right? 

But all of this downshifts hard when you start with the assumption that this guy was the greatest genius there ever was. Double down on that reality with the promise that he wasn’t just writing for himself, but with the inspired pen of God and as his chosen instrument. 

This guy didn’t mince words.

Son of David - Who is that? What are the promises made to him? What is the meaning of his throne? Who truly sits on it? What did the blind man sit by the road and cry? Who, then, wrote this book?

King in Israel - Who is that? What was his anointing? How do you say “anointed” in Greek? What was the accusation that got Jesus crucified? How is a King different than a judge? “Where did this man get this great wisdom?” (Mt 13:54)

Solomon - The root of the name is שְׁלֹמֹ (shalom) which means “peace.” It can also mean prosperity, health, success and a host of other wonderful things. But this means that Proverbs is written by the Son of David, King of Israel, whose name is Peace. 

Who, again, wrote this book?

I won’t give more time to this going forward, but these names are an essential part of believing that the book of Proverbs is something more than a poor man’s Sun Tzu. These titles are wild, divine, claims which we Christians ought pay careful heed to, as if everything that follows were written specifically for us, because it was.

But now we come to the motherload, the first word in the book, משׁל (mashal) which is translated mostly-rightly as “proverb.” Indeed, by habitual usage the word has come down to us to mean “a wise saying,” or, “a good thing which is said.” But what is missing from this translation is the semantic field of the root, its history and other meanings as a word. 

Like most words in Hebrew, mashal does more than one duty. That is, it has more than one meaning. Many English words that have multiple meanings, but they are often the happenstance of linguistic decay (for example the “ship” in “fellowship” has nothing to do with boats.) But Hebrew words are related to each other. The word for “head” is also the word for “beginning“ because the head is the beginning, whether of a human, a river or time. One word for “usury” is also the word “snakebite” because debt and heavy interest rates tend to come back and bite you, a slow poison like one might receive from a viper, to say nothing of the slithery nature of the type of person who would trap you in such a bargain. 

The root of the word mashal has nothing to do with proverbs. It’s not about puns or wordplays, anecdotes or pithy insights. The primary and dominant meaning of the word mashal throughout the old testament is “to rule” or “to reign,” as in ”the thing that a King does.”

These semantics make sense. No matter how many swords or soldiers a king may employ, at the end of the day the only way a king may rule is with his words. He must say to one “do this,” and expect him to do it. He must say to another, “go here,” and his power rests in the fact that the one who listens to him hears and obeys. As Solomon himself will later say, “Divination is in the mouth of the King” (Pr. 16:10.) Indeed, the way the Solomon ruled so wisely was with his proverbs.

What this all means is that, very loosely, we may paraphrase Proverbs 1:1 as, “The Reign of the Man of Peace, the Son of David, the King of Israel.” Or, perhaps even more clearly, “The Reign of Jesus the Christ.” 

Seeing as from the beginning of his ministry Jesus of Nazareth came preaching, “The reign of God is at hand,” might it not be worth our time to consider that Old Testament treasure trove wherein, say, as a twelve year old boy, he found such powerful words? More than this, with his reign now in our heart, on our mind and upon our lips, as we learn to speak the reign like firm goads for every situation, might we not also find ourselves inspired to reign with him now? Having found the well-driven nails given by our Shepherd, there is only one word for the Christian has the book of Proverbs in his bible but does not read it: that man is a fool.

Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments… Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there… that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart…. (Deut. 4:5-9)

To be continued…

Artwork