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“Like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver”: The Portrait of Wisdom in Jonathan Edwards's Commentary on the Book of Proverbs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Stephen J. Stein
Stephen J. Stein
Affiliation:
Mr. Stein is professor of religious studies in Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
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Extract

In 1710 the English biblical commentator Matthew Henry declared that no book was more “serviceable” for the “right ordering” of human behavior than the biblical book of Proverbs. According to him, that scriptural collection of precepts and maxims comprised “a complete body of divine ethics, politics, and economics” which exposed vice and recommended virtue. The book of Proverbs provided “rules” governing “every relation and condition.” Henry noted that Proverbs was written for the use of all persons, but especially for the simple, the ignorant, and the young. Youth is the time of learning, he stated, the age of instruction and impressions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , September 1985 , pp. 324 - 337
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1985

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References

1. Henry, Matthew, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 6 vols. (Old Tappan, N.J., 1970), 3:790, 792.Google Scholar

2. Dwight, Sereno E., ed., The Works of President Edwards: With a Memoir of His Life, 10 vols. (New York, 1829–1830), 1:70,Google Scholar hereafter cited as Works.

3. Ibid., 1:86, 101.

4. Buttrick, George Arthur, ed., The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, 4 vols. (New York, 1962), 3: 936–937.Google Scholar

5. Works, 1:101.

6. The texts of the “Resolutions” and the “Diary” appear in Works, 1:68–73, 76–94, 99–106. The manuscripts of the “Notes on Scripture” and the “Blank Bible,” the latter formally titled “Miscellaneous Observations on the Holy Scriptures,” are part of the Papers of Jonathan Edwards at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. The sermons on Proverbs are also part of the same collection. The author wishes to thank the staff of the library for permission to quote from the manuscripts. The section of the “Blank Bible” dealing with Proverbs is located on pages 460–476, with additional entries cross-referenced elsewhere. An early edition of the “Notes on Scripture” appeared in Works, 9:113–563. The text of the “Blank Bible” will appear in The Works of Jonathan Edwards being published by Yale University Press.

7. “Blank Bible,” Prov. 25:11, pp. 471–473.

8. Ibid.

9. Erdt, Terrence, Jonathan Edwards: Art and the Sense of the Heart (Amherst, Mass., 1980), pp. 63–64.Google Scholar

10. Works, 9:357.

11. Poole, Matthew, Annotations, 2 vols. (London, 1683–1685).Google Scholar The first edition contains no pagination. For the evidence relating to Edwards's early use of the Annotations, see Edwards, Jonathan, Apocalyptic Writings, ed. Stein, Stephen J., in The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven, 1977), pp. 60–61.Google Scholar

12. Poole, Annotations 1, at Prov. 4:23.

13. Henry, , Commentary, p. 815.Google Scholar

14. Ibid.

15. Sermon on Prov. 4:23 (MS).

16. “Theological Miscellanies,” no. 359. Edwards's “Miscellanies” are being edited by Thomas A. Schafer of McCormick Theological Seminary.

17. “Blank Bible,” Prov. 2:1–5, p. 461.

18. The Nature of True Virtue (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1960), pp. 48, 14.Google Scholar

19. “Blank Bible,” Prov. 15:33, p. 450.

20. Ibid., Prov. 3:7, p. 461; Prov. 15:21, p. 376; Prov. 23:4, p. 472; Prov. 28:26, p. 475. This essay poses special problems relating to contemporary usage of non-exclusive language. At several points the author has chosen to retain older language patterns in order to preserve historical accuracy and the mental framework of the authors involved.

21. Poole, Annotations 1, at Prov. 8:1.

22. “Blank Bible,” Prov. 8:1, p. 464; Synopsis Criticorum aliorumque Sacrae Scripturae Interpretum et Commentatorum, Summo Studio et Fide Adornata, a Matthaeo Polo Londinensi, 5 vols. (Frankfort, 1678).Google Scholar

23. Ibid., vol. 2, cols. 1415–1416.

24. “Blank Bible,” Prov. 8:12, p. 464.

25. Henry, , Commentary, pp. 831, 833, 835, 836–837.Google Scholar

26. Ibid., pp. 833–835, 837–838.

27. “Blank Bible,” Prov. 8:1–3, pp. 462, 464.

28. Sermon on Prov. 7:7 (MS).

29. Sermon on Prov. 23:13–14 (MS).

30. Sermon on Prov. 27:22 (MS).

31. Sermon on Prov. 5:11:13 (1) (MS).

32. “Blank Bible,” Prov. 10:25, p. 465.

33. Ibid., Prov. 10:25, p. 465; Prov. 9:13, p. 464.

34. Ibid., Prov. 29:18, p. 475; Prov. 10:10, p. 347; Prov. 12:10, p. 461; Prov. 16:30, p. 418; Prov. 21:4, pp. 469–470; Prov. 27:21, p. 474.

35. Ibid., Prov. 12:19, p. 449; Prov. 16:21, p. 427; Prov. 10:21, p. 443.

36. Ibid., Prov. 10:10, p. 347; Prov. 10:8, p. 349; Prov. 24:2, p. 472; Prov. 12:19, p. 449; Prov. 10:13, p. 346.

37. Ibid., Prov. 11:12, p. 465; Prov. 13:3, p. 466; Prov. 15:4, p. 342; Prov. 10:31, p. 465.

38. Ibid., Prov. 10:6, p.445 Prov. 10:11, p. 347; Prov. 18:4, p. 437; Prov. 10:14, p. 345; Prov. 15:7, p. 467; Prov. 26:9, p. 441; Prov. 27:14, p. 472; Prov. 29:9, p. 475; Prov. 29:20, p. 475.

39. Ibid., Prov. 5:14, p. 462; Prov. 15:31, p. 454; Prov. 10:9, p. 348.

40. Ibid., Prov. 15:21, p. 376; Prov. 16:21, p.427.

41. Ibid., Prov. 6:18, p. 463; Prov. 21:27, p. 471; Prov. 10:23, p. 465; Prov. 12:24, p. 442; Prov. 26:16, p. 439; Prov. 26:18–19, p. 474; Prov. 27:3, p. 474; Prov. 30:15–16, p. 476; Prov. 9:13, p. 464.

42. Works 1:59, 61, 64.

43. “Blank Bible,” Prov. 19:2, p. 343.

44. Ibid., Prov. 24:21, p. 472.

45. God Glorified in the Work of Redemption, by the Greatness of Man's Dependence upon him in the Whole of it (Boston, 1731);Google Scholar and A Divine and Supernatural Light, Immediately imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God, Shown to be both a Scriptural and Rational Doctrine (Boston, 1734).Google Scholar

46. “Personal Narrative,” in Hopkins, Samuel, The Life and Character of the Late Reverend Mr. Jonathan Edwards (Boston, 1765),Google Scholar reprinted in Jonathan Edwards: A Profile, ed. David Levin (New York, 1969), p. 38.Google Scholar