Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 6 Study # 3
July 7, 2019
Humble, Texas
(142)
1769 Translation:
33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [
are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, [
are] all things: to whom [
be] glory for ever. Amen.
1901 ASV Translation:
33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
35 or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
36 For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him [
be] the glory for ever. Amen.
- I. The "Depth" of the "Wealth" of the "Wisdom" of God.
- A. "Wisdom" is essentially the ability to bring "goals" to pass.
- 1. In our text/context, "wisdom" is set in harmony with two major concepts.
- a. First, Paul's revelation of the mystery of God that had been kept hidden from the foundations of the world included God's intentional "cyclical" pattern of dealing with fallen humanity along the lines of "provoking" by "jealousy" so that the "fallen" might be attracted to God because of the benefits which He pours out.
- b. Second, Paul uses an "A,B, A,B" pattern in which "wisdom" is the first "A" and knowledge is the first "B" (he wrote of the depth of the wealth of both "wisdom" and "knowledge") and "judgments" are his second "A" and "ways" are his second "B".
- 1) At issue are four concepts.
- a) There is "wisdom". This is a concept that, by the specific word translated "wisdom", is only mentioned this one time in Romans. In a general, biblical, sense, "wisdom" is presented as the opposite of "foolishness" (as in 1 Corinthians 1:20-22) within a context of "having goals come to pass because of the skill of the one who established those goals and pursued them by effective means". Thus, Paul's declaration that God "will destroy the wisdom of the wise" means that God will not permit the "goals" of the "wise" to come to pass. This assumes the "wise" are either in pursuit of "goals" that God determinedly opposes, or the "methods of pursuit" are rejected by Him. Thus, by setting up "goals" that God despises, or pursuing them by treacherous means, the "wise" set themselves up to be shown to be "fools". I conclude, then, that "wisdom" has to do with two major issues: "goals" and "methods".
- b) There is "knowledge". This is the second concept that, by the specific word translated "knowledge", is only mentioned in three texts of Romans.
- i. In Romans 2:20 Paul asserts that the "Jews" (2:17) think of themselves as "instructors of the foolish" and "teachers of babes" because they have what he calls "the form of knowledge" in the law. This strongly implies that the content of The Law provides a "knowledge base" that allows those who possess it to "instruct" and "teach" those who are ignorant of that content. This makes "knowledge" a collection of a myriad of details that all cling together in a harmonious whole that will, by the learning of them, allow a person to "live" well.
- ii. The second use is our current text.
- iii. The third use is found in 15:14 where Paul declares that, because of a fulness of goodness combined with a fulness of knowledge, the Romans are able to "admonish" one another (give wise counsel).
- iv. The conclusion I draw is that "knowledge" is the "whole of the details" which "Life" contains so that by those details "applied" one may live (be successful as a "wise" person). Knowledge is the details in light of "goals" and "methods"; wisdom is the application of them in decisions made.
- c) There are "judgments". This is the third concept that, by the specific word translated "judgments", is used in six texts of Romans.
- i. Romans 2:2 makes the case that God's "judgment" corresponds to "Truth". This means that "Truth" (the details of "knowledge") governs what the "judgment" is to be. This verse also, however, says that this "judgment" is "against" evil men so that a "judgment" is either a decision with a consequence in mind, or it is the execution of a "judgment" (the "consequence") itself. The more likely concept is that of God "making a decision" out of "Truth".
- ii. The next verse (2:3) maintains this concept of "making a decision about the legitimacy of an action" by using the verbal form ("you...judge them which do such things" does not, of itself, mean that "you execute Justice upon them"; it merely means "you criticize the behavior of others for its illegitimacy") and by also using the noun in the phrase "the judgment of God" which phrase strongly implies more than a decision; it also signals a particular activity which the judging God will take in respect to the one He has deemed "illegitimate" in his/her behavior.
- iii. Then 3:8 comes along and pronounces the "justice" of a "judgment" against certain ones who make wicked accusations against the apostle.
- iv. In 5:16 the word is used to refer to Adam's "decision" to "sin"; a "decision" that brought "condemnation" (an intensified form of the same word: katakrima) upon all of humanity.
- v. 11:33 is our current text.
- vi. And in 13:2 is Paul's final use of this word in this letter: this use strongly leans to the idea of an actual imposition of a judgment made.
- vii. My conclusion is that "judgments" are, primarily, "decisions made" with a view toward a consequence imposed.
- d) There are "ways". This is the fourth concept that, by the specific word translated "ways", is only mentioned in three texts of Romans.
- i. In 3:16 the "ways" are "pursuits along a given path" that, this text says, include certain experiences because they are built-into the "path". If "thorns" are on the "way", and a person pursues his course along that "way", he will run into the thorns as a natural consequence.
- ii. In the next verse (3:17) Paul declares that there is a "way" that has "peace" as a natural result of walking that path, and that the wicked never take that path.
- iii. And 11:33 is the focus of our current study.
- iv. My conclusion is that a "way" is the specific "method of pursuit" taken in order to arrive at the destination settled upon and that that "way" has built-in experiences for the person who takes it.
- 2) The organization of Paul's parallelism between "wisdom" and "knowledge" on the one hand, and the "judgments" and "ways" on the other.
- a) "Wisdom" is parallel to "the judgments made" according to the skillful application of "knowledge" to the "goals" at the end of the "ways".
- b) And "Knowledge" is parallel to the "ways taken" because of the extensive details involved. If a person "knows" the details, he/she can walk along effective paths (paths that bring one to the place the person desired to be).
- c) This makes the pattern A,B A,B.
- 2. In our text/context, "wisdom" is most fundamentally set in harmony (given the pattern A,B A,B) with "judgments" that are described as "unsearchable".
- a. The word translated "unsearchable" is only used here in the entire New Testament.
- b. The word so translated is etymologically a word with a negative particle affixed to the word as a prefix that denies the following word (as a+theist = one who denies "theism"; or, "un" + "searchable" = "incapable of being searched out").
- c. The word so translated is only found in the "un" negated form ("searchable" without the negation of an "un") once in the New Testament in 1 Peter 1:10, and there it proves to be a basic verb with a prefix that means "out of" in the sense of "to search thoroughly to draw 'out of' the search some significant details.
- d. And, finally, we come to the "un" prefixed basic verb: it is found in six texts of the New Testament and consistently means "to search" in the sense of "going through all of the details so that the actual facts are able to be highlighted". The outcome of this "searching" is that certain conclusions are now able to be drawn.
- e. Now, granting the possibility of being guilty of the "etymology error" (the assumption that the word still means what it was first coined to mean; which is often not the case), my conclusion is that Paul chose a rare word in order to declare the absolute impossibility of any creature's access to "all" of the data involved in the "knowledge" issues of infinite omniscience so that human "wisdom" is never capable of making "judgments" that can be regarded as "absolutely" understood. Because the "judgments of God" are beyond the reach of finite creatures, it behooves all creatures to have a bit of humility in their claims to be "wise".
- B. The "depth of the wealth" of Wisdom's ability to bring goals to pass is, therefore, rooted in the follow-up issue of the "depth of the wealth of the knowledge" of God.
- 1. Wisdom is distinct from "knowledge" in that wisdom is a "skill" that involves sifting through an infinity of "data" ("knowledge-bits") in order to pull out a "judgment" about how things will develop over long periods of time and implement it so that eventual success will be obvious to even those who are "finite-limited" in both knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom is an implementation skill.
- 2. This "implementation skill", when it comes to God, is far beyond our capacity to get our minds wrapped around it. It is extraordinarily dangerous to put oneself in opposition to this "wisdom" but it is extraordinarily beneficial to simply cooperate with the specific instructions of the revealed-to-men wisdom of God.