From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, before the earth began.
Parallel translations
- WEB I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth existed.
- KJV I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
- NKJV I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.
- NASB “From eternity I was established, From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.
- NLT I was appointed in ages past, at the very first, before the earth began.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Wisdom was established from everlasting, before the earth existed. She belongs to the eternal foundations of God's purposes.
Overview
Wisdom's origin is placed in the remotest past, 'from everlasting,' underscoring her priority over the created order. This poetic personification highlights that God's wise design preceded and undergirds the world he made. Christians see this ultimately fulfilled in the eternal Word, through whom and for whom all things were made (Colossians 1:16-17).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- John 17:24Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, that they may see the glory You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
- Gen 1:26Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.”
- Ps 2:6“I have installed My King on Zion, upon My holy mountain.”
- Mic 5:2But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.
- John 17:5And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world existed.
- 1 Jn 1:1–2That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have gazed upon and touched with our own hands—this is the Word of life.
- Eph 1:10–11as a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 8:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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