Jeff Adams

To: King1@Zion.net.il

From: Jeff@kcbt.org

Subject: Follow Up Question

Dear Dr. Solomon,

Thank you so much for your recent words of wisdom. I shared them with my staff and we are grateful that you would take the time to help us understand more clearly how to apply some of the conflict resolution principles we have studied in your writings.

I am particularly appreciative of your openness to respond to my questions from time to time. What you have to say is so profound that it is most helpful to me to engage in occasional dialogue with the author to avoid assuming implications that were never intended.

My question today is one I have been asked many times. I have done my best to explain this verse to parents who are grieving over a wayward child. Let me quote you exactly from our authorized translation (KJV), though other English language translations are very similar in the way they express this particular proverb of yours.

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

Dr. Solomon, I do my personal study in the Spanish language and I can work my way through a few other languages; they are all consistent. I find that the difficulty with this proverb is not the translation but rather how literally one should take this statement.

People of my ilk have a high view of scripture and are committed to believe every word as literally as possible. After all, Dr. Solomon, you are the one who stated that every word of God is pure.  You can imagine the anguish of parents who have done their best to raise their children only to have one of them become a rebel. Viewing this statement of yours as a promise, they struggle with guilt, wonder what they have done wrong, or they engage in mental gymnastics trying to balance their commitment to scripture with the painful reality of a child’s rejection of godly living.

I know what I have answered over the years, and I think I have an idea of how you would explain this, but I thought it good to have your personal perspective and any additional thoughts you might add.  There is no urgency to get back with me, but when you do get a chance to address this, your input would not only help me but many others also.

Blessings!

Jeff Adams, PhD, senior pastor, KCBT

To: Jeff@kcbt.org

From: king1@zion.net.il

Subject: re: Follow Up Question

Dear Dr. Adams,

Greetings my friend! I was hoping to hear back from you, and I welcome the opportunity to clarify this most excellent question that you raise. I thrive on interaction with professional colleagues.

Since our previous correspondence, I took the liberty to peruse your fine website and learn a bit about you. As an author yourself, you know the frustration of seeing your words quoted by others in ways you never intended. Asking the author for clarification is far preferable to simply assuming you know the intent of a passage. I never grow tired of discussing what I have written.

Let me also say that I applaud your adherence to the integrity of scripture and its inspiration by the Most High. I am sure you are familiar with my bio in the Book of the Kings of Israel and remember that I personally composed some 3,000 proverbs. In addition, I have collected many more passed down from generations past. Obviously, only a small portion are included in my canonical book.

As I was in the process of assembling this collection of proverbs now included in Holy Writ, I had the most powerful sensation of knowing that only certain of them belonged here. Surely this sounds incredulous, but I don’t suppose I could ever explain how I knew which ones were special in this way; I just did. I’ve make many wrong choices in my life, but in this case I had full assurance that I was choosing just the ones that needed to be included.

Is my proverb on raising a child in the way he should go a general principle, or an absolute promise? Before touching on this specific proverb, let me call your attention to the most obvious. Look closely at the title of the book. I very specifically called this work Proverbs, not Promises. I don’t intend this to be in any way demeaning, but you folks in Western Civilization really don’t have have much of a clue about proverbs, do you? Proverbs are just such a integral part of the fabric of life in Middle Eastern and African cultures, that it simply never occurred to me in my wildest dreams that my proverbs would one day be read by people who had absolutely no understanding of what they are meant to be.

My dear Dr. Adams, you are an educated man. But you must do all you can to help people in your culture comprehend these most foundational aspects of scriptural understanding. Those who do adhere to the divine inspiration of scripture are usually quick to point out the need to understand the words of the Bible in their proper context. Sadly, many do not see that context goes far beyond mere words in close proximity to each other. Context necessarily includes history, culture, customs and, as in this case, literary forms and genre. Even the most wooden of those who literally interpret the Bible understand that expressions such as sunrise and sunset are meant to be figures of speech and not literal scientific descriptions.

For the life of me, I find it hard to understand why these same people have no further comprehension of proverb literature. I don’t mean to rant, but it is so frustrating to see people with perfect accessibility to education and information choose to remain ignorant of literary forms so common as the proverb.

This particular kind of proverb is simply a general guiding principle meant to provide reinforcement of foundational spiritual, societal and moral values. These proverbs express concepts that are generally true. They don’t come with footnotes and exception clauses. They are never intended to be a guarantee of what will happen in every case under every condition, but simply to set parameters for what is normative.

I believe you have an expression that says the apple does not fall far from the tree. True enough, unless of course the apple is caught up in a whirlwind, or thrown full force by an adolescent boy, or snatched off the branch and eaten by a passing horse, or … well, you get the idea. The overwhelming majority of apples, though, do not fall far from the tree. The exceptions only prove the rule, to quote another proverb.

The proverb in question, for example, is meant to be just that – a proverb, not an absolute promise. As a general rule, if you are diligent to raise your child in a godly, biblical lifestyle, that child will grow up walking according to those precepts.

It has been my observation that when families turn out to be dysfunctional, almost always multiple principles are consistently violated. Yet, even the most horrific of families occasionally turn out children who grow up to be excellent individuals. In contrast, the most exemplary family in no way guarantees that an individual child will not make horrible choices and suffer the consequences. Still, the normative concept of child-rearing is that your child will live to reflect quite accurately the way in which he or she was raised. This proverb is as true as the day I penned it.

Have these people who ask you this question never read the rest of my book? What about this example (I think you classify this as Proverbs 10:27)? Let me just paraphrase without searching for my English Bible. The fear of Jehovah will increase one’s days; but the years of the wicked will be cut short. Now, I remember enough American church history to know the case of David Brainard, a missionary to Native Americans in New England in the 1700′s who was known for his intense prayer, godliness and devotional life. Yet he died at the young age of 29. Was that because he was secretly a great sinner? Of course not! But it is still generally true that godly living is good for your health and adds years of life, unless, of course, you contract tuberculosis like Brainanrd and die.

Surely you remember the plight of our friend Job who was allowed of God to suffer incredible tribulation for purposes known only to the Almighty.  His three friends committed the same error of taking principles and proverbs that are most generally true and then misapplied them to the specific case of Job. They were Middle Easterners and should have known better. That, by the way, is why I have always suspected their basic problem to be jealousy toward Job.

Well, there are so many other examples I could mention, and I haven’t even begun to talk about my own experiences, positive and negative, in the adventure of child-rearing. We’ll save that for another day. I do hope we can continue these discussions. I find them both stimulating, and in some ways confessional.

I must get downstairs where some litigants are waiting for me. Yes, after all these years I still sit on the bench several days a month. Keeps me both current and young.

May the Lord bless you, keep you, make his face to shine upon you, be gracious unto you, lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Shalom,

Solomon I, PhD, ThD, JD, Son of David, King of Israel