For Someone Who Can Read Hebrew

[Resurrexi]

Would a Church Scholar mind explaining for me how the following (Proverbs 8:22) would be best translated:

יהוה קנני ראשית
דרכו קדם מפעליו
מאז׃

Some translations (e.g. the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition) translate it as "The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.

Other translations (e.g. the Douay-Rheims) have a radically different reading: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made any thing from the beginning."

Obviously if Wisdom is going to be understood as the Son and Word of God, it would make no sense for it to state that Wisdom was created. I am wondering, however, if Wisdom does indeed need to be interpreted as Christ.

Thank you!

[CatherineM]

[quote name='Resurrexi' post='1932245' date='Jul 26 2009, 12:09 AM']Would a Church Scholar mind explaining for me how the following (Proverbs 8:22) would be best translated:

יהוה קנני ראשית
דרכו קדם מפעליו
מאז׃

Some translations (e.g. the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition) translate it as "The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.

Other translations (e.g. the Douay-Rheims) have a radically different reading: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made any thing from the beginning."

Obviously if Wisdom is going to be understood as the Son and Word of God, it would make no sense for it to state that Wisdom was created. I am wondering, however, if Wisdom does indeed need to be interpreted as Christ.

Thank you![/quote]
I read it as: "The LORD made me as the beginning of His way, the first of His works of old."

[StColette]

[quote name='Resurrexi' post='1932245' date='Jul 26 2009, 01:09 AM']Would a Church Scholar mind explaining for me how the following (Proverbs 8:22) would be best translated:

יהוה קנני ראשית
דרכו קדם מפעליו
מאז׃

Some translations (e.g. the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition) translate it as "The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.

Other translations (e.g. the Douay-Rheims) have a radically different reading: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made any thing from the beginning."

Obviously if Wisdom is going to be understood as the Son and Word of God, it would make no sense for it to state that Wisdom was created. I am wondering, however, if Wisdom does indeed need to be interpreted as Christ.

Thank you![/quote]

I double checked with my Hebrew dictionary and Hebrew Interlinear. The second word in the verse is קָנָנִי can mean to possess, acquire, to get, buy, and create. I would lean more toward the definition of it being possess rather than create because it is a less complicated translation to explain.

According to the Haydock Commentary, both possess and create seem to be acceptable or explainable

Ver. 22. Possessed. As Christ was with God, equal to him in eternity, John i. Septuagint, "created," which many of the Fathers explain of the word incarnate, (see Cornelius a Lapide; Bossuet) or he hath "placed me," (St. Athanasius iii. contra Arian. Eusebius) a pattern of all virtues. The Septuagint generally render kana, "possessed," as Aquila does here. (Calmet)

So it seems that possess or create are both valid translations and it looks like the Fathers addressed both.