Playing Together

The LORD created me at the outset of His way,
the very first of His works of old.
In remote eons I was shaped,
at the start of the first things of earth….
And I was by Him, an intimate,
I was His delight day after day,
playing before Him at all times.
Hebrews 8:22-23, 30 (The Hebrew Bible, tr. by Robert Alter)

Selecting appropriate scripture passages for this upcoming Sunday, the first Sunday after Pentecost—particularly passages from the Old Testament—has long been challenging for the church. For the majority of Christians within the Western Tradition, the first Sunday after Pentecost is designated Trinity Sunday, a day in which we celebrate, although we don’t fully understand, the marvelous and mysterious communion that exists between the three Persons of the triune Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

As a youngster of perhaps 10 or 12, I was puzzled by the apparent contradiction between believing, on the one hand, in a monotheistic deity [“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” – Deuteronomy 6:4], and, on the other hand, reciting a creed that spoke of the Holy Trinity as Three Persons, with somewhat separate attributes, in One. I particularly wondered if the Son and/or the Holy Spirit was somehow subordinate to the Father? After all, as a child of the 50s and 60s, I was trained that I was indeed subordinate to and not of “one substance” with my earthly dad.

A Divinity School education taught additional nuances about the Holy Trinity, but I’ve also come to believe that there are many things—including the Trinity—that are simply beyond our understanding. If it was good enough for Clement I, the Bishop of Rome during the last two decades of the first century A.D., and other church fathers such as Ignatius of Antioch and Justin Martyr, then it’s good enough for me.

For better or worse, as the first/OT reading for Trinity Sunday [RCL, Year C], the Lectionary Committee appoints some beautifully poetic verses from Proverbs [8:1-4, 22-31]. While there is, of course, no direct mention of God the Son, nor God the Holy Spirit within these verses—rich, poetic verses that harken back to the Creation story itself—one does come away from them with a sense that the triune Godhead enjoys a mysterious sense of communion that envelopes all of Creation.

To set the general context, Proverbs 8 is part of a larger segment of OT literature that personifies Wisdom as a woman [the Greeks knew her as Sophia; in the Latin world she was Sapientia]. In this week’s reading, Wisdom is standing at the crossroads of the public square. An oracle offering instruction to all who pass her by, she is not at all timid, but strong, commanding, and deserving of trust. She offers her instructions to “all that live” (Proverbs 8:4).

And why should we listen to Wisdom? Well, for one thing, humanity should heed her words because she was created “at the outset of His way, the very first of His works of old” [Proverbs 8:22]. She was shaped “at the start of the first things of earth” [8:23]. She was spawned “before mountains were anchored” and before “the world’s first clods of soil” [8:25-26]. Wisdom, therefore, is literally “older than dirt.” When Yahweh “founded the heavens,” she was there [8:27]. Wisdom is “wise” because she has seen it all from the beginning. She is in step with the ancient notion, generally abandoned by our so-called “modern” society, that only the old can be wise.

“OK, OK,” we might say. “So, you (i.e., Wisdom) were around when Yahweh was doing Yahweh’s life-giving activity: speaking, breathing, creating. Anyone can watch!”

But Wisdom stresses that she did much more than merely watch. Depending upon the translation of ’amon in verse 30, which sometimes refers to an artisan, Wisdom was Yahweh’s “master worker” [see the NRSV and the NKJV]. Alternatively, she was “with Him forming all things” [the Douay-Rheims (Roman Catholic) translation]. Perhaps she was only “constantly at [Yahweh’s] side” [NIV].

In a footnote, however, the NRSV hints that there might have been something entirely different going on during Yahweh’s creative activity. That version of Holy Scripture stresses that there is an alternative translation for ’amon. Instead of master worker, it can also mean “little child.” This, of course, presents us with rather a stark choice: while Yahweh was creating, was Wisdom helping? Or, as the reminder of the verses clearly indicate, was she playing?

Since I am particularly unskilled in Hebrew—and not much better with Greek—when I encounter difficult translation issues in the Old Testament, such as those that are located here in Proverbs 8, I turn to Robert Alter, renowned OT scholar whose magnificent translation of the Hebrew Bible (with commentary) consumes more than 3,000 pages). Alter translates verses 30-31 as follows:

And I was by Him, an intimate,
I was His delight day after day,
playing before Him at all times,
playing in the world, His earth,
and my delight was with humankind
[Proverbs 8:30-31, emphasis added].

Not that my preferences mean anything, but for me, Alter’s translation resonates. Master workers perform labor; intimates are joyous; they delight and play. Why was Wisdom playing? Proverbs 8 communicates Wisdom’s childlike wonder in the midst of Yahweh’s creative activity. Wisdom is “beside” Yahweh as He engages in the Creation of the cosmos; she is also “beside herself” in excitement, in sheer delight, at and in Creation, and as she joyfully tells us, she was/is most delighted in Yahweh’s creation of humanity [8:31].

For Wisdom—Yahweh’s “intimate”—delight, joy, and play are the proper responses to the mystery and miracle of Yahweh’s Creation. Wisdom stood beside Yahweh on the seventh day, heard Yahweh’s declaration that it was “good,” and saw a world that filled her with delight and joy, a world filled with wonder and discovery. She no doubt laughed and danced as she saw giraffes and zebras, when she experienced the thrill of soaring eagles and the swift movement of whales through the waters. She no doubt lost her breath when she saw the majesty of earth’s tallest mountains. She was in awe as she saw the vast expanse of Yahweh’s oceans. She was surely spellbound when she saw the countless stars and planets in the heavens. Ah, but Wisdom was fully giddy when she saw the creation of Yahweh’s human beings [Homo sapiens—i.e., “wise” man/woman], particularly no doubt, because we are created in Yahweh’s own plural image. Do we share Wisdom’s giddiness when we encounter those with whom we share humanity?

Sunday’s Proverbs reading reminds us that while Yahweh is the Creator, He never creates alone. “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, …” [Genesis 1:26]. As our creeds teach us, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit were present with God the Father before Yahweh’s first utterance on “the first day.” John, the Gospel writer, teaches us that God the Son was in the beginning with God, that all things came into being through him, and that without Him nothing came into being [John 1:3]. And so, it’s important to remember that, according to this Proverbs text, while Wisdom was the first of the “created things”—the intimate who watched Creation unfold with squeals of delight—she is/was not part of the Trinity. The fullness of the Holy Trinity was the actual force through which the Created—including Wisdom—came into being.

This Sunday, as on all Trinity Sundays (and on many other days as well), we the finite, attempt to draw our arms and hearts around an infinite mystery, the mystery of a triune God who is both one and three. The communion and fellowship of the triune God is at the core of the Holy Trinity. This week’s lesson reminds us that just as Wisdom joyously played alongside Yahweh as His “intimate,” delighting in His creative activities, so we are to delight in them as well. If we are wise, we will delight both in our Creator and in His creative work. We should also delight in each other! We should be beside ourselves with joy that the triune God saw fit to fashion and form us in His image and for His own delight. Shall we play together? Wisdom calls.