The Nature of Wisdom and Creation

Regarding some corruption. Prov 12, 14. He brings in the corrupted one, reproaching himself as one who hated instruction, and says: 'I would have perished even if I had not been corrupted, having wasted my flesh in dissipation, and having made this life small.' Therefore it became evident that my discipline was in the midst of the Church and the Synagogue. For the voice has repented, and not having occurred, it has become little by little. Similar is the saying, 'By little by little my waters were poured out' (Song 8:16). For having recovered and having perceived, he says: 'Where is the little by little?' How then can one console the madness which is from nature?

Prov 15. Knowledge is both a cistern and a fountain; to those coming to the virtues it is a cistern, but to those perfected by them, a fountain. And knowledge is called mother, and wife, and sister; mother, because through her we are born by the teacher; wife, because being joined it brings forth virtues and right doctrines; sister, because from one God we have become. And I called wisdom sister.

Prov 19, 17. See how it shows not only ease through abundance, but also having no one a partner in enjoyment; and it doubles itself and calls it possession; for one knows the pleasure of the matter.

Prov 6. Even if you imitate the natural work of the irrational: or be, that is, go forth. For many do good works from theory or hearing, and not from knowledge. A prophet and apostles say it is like bees, whose labors are useful to the great for their order and to the small; he says the matters are the wax, but the honey is the contemplation of these things. Just as the shepherd guides the goats, so the essence guides the bees. Therefore, in all things, order is good for life.

Prov 12. The fool is the atheist who has lost the theoretical, but the lawless one is he who has lost the practical.

Prov 1. Guard the common, so that it may be yours, he says, and to live an eternal life, and to become discerning. For the keeping of the divine commandments will shine for us much more brightly than the light of the eyes.

Prov 3. The hand is the whole action, but the finger is the more partial. Convinced, he says, you will have a wide heart for the reception of the virtues.

Prov 18. She makes it a point to dwell with a man, as if living according to law; and she rejects all things fearful and hindering, proposing a departure from the one dwelling with her.

Prov 27. For the house...

The ways of Hades, leading down into the chambers of death. For those who are persuaded by it, becoming earthly and mortal through it, thus they shall perish. But regarding 'Upon a moment of Hades,' the others spoke of a depth. Verse 22.

Signifying many things, as we have said, the principle now denotes the eternal, and the cause, and the productive. And the principle of some things is a principle, and signifies a relation, but not subsistence. For things toward something are such: as the right and the left. Therefore, the Wisdom of God, being a subsistence, is not a principle of any things; for before creation, Wisdom exists. But when it receives a relation toward created things, then it becomes a principle of the productive and providential ways of God, toward the works which have their existence from the Creator, having contributed nothing to it toward being Wisdom; but the relation through which it is called principle and creator, that came to be when the created things came to be. For a principle does not pre-exist those of which it is a principle; nor are these said to exist with it, if the creatures possess their subsistence in time. For Wisdom, being eternal, is not subject to time.

3 Therefore the principle is a spouse to the creatures. The Son of God, pre-existing the creation, being Wisdom, if he says, 'The Lord created me,' he does not have the thought of subsistence, but rather a relation toward the creatures. For he says he is created for works, being the principle of the productive and providential ways of God, that is to say, the cause, to speak more introductory. The Son of God has become man, taking the form of a slave; and being from before the ages and eternal, in that which God is the Word, he is said to be created because he had birth from Mary, becoming flesh; so that those who wish to walk according to God and toward God may use a teacher, providing a pattern of excellent life and instruction to those who follow.

That 'created' does not always signify subsistence, is shown by David saying, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God' (Psalm 51:10). For he asks not as one not possessing, to receive, but as one having cast it away, to receive it again having been cleansed. And Paul, saying the two are created into one new man (Ephesians 2:15), does not signify the subsistence of men, but a union from concord; just as those who interpreted 'He created me' brought it forth. Verse 23. Instead of, He brought down both cause and foundation of the creatures; according to, 'All in...