The ancient Scriptures call us to wisdom

That our teaching wants us to be wise must be shown both from the ancient Jewish writings, which we also use, and no less from those written after Jesus and believed in the churches to be divine. It is written in the fiftieth Psalm that David, in his prayer to God, says: “You have made plain to me the hidden and secret things of your wisdom” (Psalm 51:6). Indeed, anyone who reads the Psalms would find the book full of many wise doctrines. Solomon too was approved because he asked for wisdom (1 Kings 3:9–12; 2 Chronicles 1:10–12); and in his writings one can see the traces of his wisdom, which hold great depth of thought in few words. In them you would find many praises of wisdom and many exhortations to take up wisdom.

So wise indeed was Solomon that the queen of Sheba, when she heard “his name” “and the name of the Lord,” came “to test him with riddles” (1 Kings 10:1). She “spoke to him all that was in her heart, and Solomon explained to her all her words; there was not a word passed over by the king that he did not explain to her. And the queen of Sheba saw all the understanding of Solomon” (1 Kings 10:2–4) and all that belonged to him; “and she was beside herself, and she said to the king, ‘True was the report that I heard in my own land about you and about your understanding; and I did not believe those who told me until I came and my eyes had seen; and see, they did not tell me the half. You have added wisdom and good things to them beyond all the report that I heard’ ” (1 Kings 10:5–7).

It is written of him that “the Lord gave Solomon understanding and very great wisdom, and largeness of heart like the sand that is beside the sea. And wisdom was multiplied in Solomon exceedingly, beyond the understanding of all the ancients and beyond all the wise men of Egypt. And he was wiser than all men, and wiser than Gethan the Ezarite, and Emad, and Chalcadi, and Arada, the sons of Mad; and he was renowned among all the nations round about. And Solomon spoke three thousand parables, and his songs were five thousand. And he spoke of the trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out through the wall; and he spoke of the fishes and the beasts. And all the peoples came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who heard of his wisdom” (1 Kings 4:29–34).

Our teaching so wants there to be wise men among believers that, to exercise the understanding of its hearers, it has spoken some things in riddles, some in what are called dark sayings (Proverbs 1:6), some through parables, and others through puzzles. And one of the prophets, Hosea, says at the end of his words: “Who is wise, and will understand these things? Or who is prudent, and will know them?” (Hosea 14:9). Daniel, and those who were taken captive with him, made such progress even in the learning practised in Babylon by the wise men around the king that they were shown to surpass them all “tenfold” (Daniel 1:20). And in Ezekiel it is said to the ruler of Tyre, who prided himself greatly on his wisdom: “Are you wiser than Daniel? Has not every secret been shown to you?” (Ezekiel 28:3).