Charles Ellicott Commentary Proverbs 8:22

"Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, Before his works of old." — Proverbs 8:22 (ASV)

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way.— The Hebrew word translated "possessed" in this passage (qânah) seems originally to have signified "to set up" or "to establish." Its applications or further significations include the following:

1. The "forming" of the heavens (Genesis 14:19) and the "begetting" of a son (Deuteronomy 32:6).
2. Signifying "to acquire" (Genesis 4:1).
3. Signifying "to purchase" (Genesis 25:10).
4. Signifying "to own," as in Isaiah 1:3.

From the fact that "set up" and "brought forth" are used soon after as synonyms for it, it is most likely that the first of these meanings (related to "forming" or "begetting") is the proper one here. The sense of the passage is that Wisdom was "formed" or "begotten" before the Creation .

This interpretation agrees with the rendering of the most important Greek translation, the Septuagint (ἔκτισε). When, in Christian times, it was observed how well the description of Wisdom in Job and Proverbs harmonized with that of God the Son in the New Testament, such passages as this were universally applied to Him. The present passage was thus rightly interpreted as describing His eternal generation from the Father.

Such was the view, for instance, of Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian. But when the Arian controversy arose, this phrase was seized upon by the opponents of our Lord’s Divinity and claimed as teaching that He was, though the highest of created beings, still only a creature. The Catholics then changed their ground. Some stood up for the rendering of Aquila, ἐκτήσατο ("acquired" or "possessed"). Others applied the term ἔκτισε to Christ’s Incarnation (compare with first-begotten among many brethren, Romans 8:29), or to His being appointed as the first principle or efficient cause of His creatures, the beginning of the creation of God (Revelation 3:14). For references to the Fathers, see Bishop Wordsworth’s note, and for a like variation in the rendering of first-begotten of every creature, compare with Bishop Lightfoot’s note on Colossians 1:15.

In the beginning of his way.— That is, His way of acting, His activity in the Creation. However, the preposition "in" does not occur in this passage. From a comparison of Job 40:19, where behemoth (the hippopotamus) is termed the beginning of the ways of God (i.e., chief of His works), it is probable that this verse should be translated: He brought me forth as the beginning of His way, as the earliest of His works from of old (i.e., before the depths, mountains, hills, etc.).