Epiphany: Anna #19

  

One wise in his own eyes,

   is worse off than a fool.

   (Proverbs 26:12)

Dear Anna,

I found “The Parable of the Ring” you wanted me to read—act three, scene seven in Nathan the Wise, right? On my way there—to act three, scene seven; I got to know Nathan the Wise. Though he is called “wise”; he will not acknowledge such for himself. Reminds me of the proverb quoted above. “One who deems himself wise is worse off than a fool.”

That’s the meaning of “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Within the sphere of the Fear, God allows us to pursue wisdom, but he never allows the wise to get the upper hand. Watch how God does away with a good and wise and, one could argue, even true proverb (Ezk 18:1-4):

The word of the Lord came to me: What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel,

    “The parents have eaten sour grapes,

           and the children’s teeth are set on edge”?

As I live, says the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Know that all lives are mine; the life of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine: it is only the person who sins that shall die.

There is nothing technically wrong with the proverb. It is a wise and witty saying. It’s just that God has had enough of it. Or again, like Elrond in Rivendell, when the council of the wise, by surprise, chose Frodo to take the One Ring and cast it into the fires of Mount Doom. Elrond muses:

This is the hour of the Shire-folk,
        when they arise from their quiet fields
        to shake the towers and counsels of the Great.
Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it?
        Or, if they are wise,
Why should they expect to know it,
        until the hour has struck?

(Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Bk Two, chp. II)

 In short, like Nathan the Wise, wisdom knows it doesn’t know it all: “Where is wisdom to be found?” (Job 24 a repeated refrain) Who knows? It is the wise who wonder where wisdom is to be found.

Love, PAPA