Does the Bible Speak Science?

1 Does God Speak Science? An exercise in biblical exegesis By Teddy Lishan Desta, Ph.D. 2019 Dallas, Texas © TLD, 2019 - 2059. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Teddy L. Desta and with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. 2 How God’s Word Foresaw Science and Technology The Bible declares that God’s wisdom is infinite, both in its abilities and scope (Da. 2:1922; Prov. 8; Is. 40:25-26, 28; Rom. 11:33-35). God created the physical universe. (Gen. 1; Job 38; Ps. 33:6-7, 119:90-91; Prov. 8; Is. 40; Jer. 10:11). The universe consists (persists) because of God’s Word (Heb.12:2; Col. 1:15-17). God created man (Gen. 1:26-28, 2:7,18-25; Ps. 139:15-16; Is. 45:12) and knows his thoughts altogether (Jer. 23:23; 1 Chr. 28:9; Heb. 4:13). He is the lord of history (40:23; Job 34:24-30; Acts 17:26). He knows the end from the beginning (Is. 46:9). God wants to make accessible His knowledge and wisdom to all those who meet His requirement. First, God invites us to the storehouse of his wisdom and knowledge (Prov. 2:1-7, 4:1-13, 9:1-6; 1 Cor 2; Col. 2:3). Second, accessing God’s infinite knowledge and wisdom starts by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus is the storehouse of God’s wisdom (Col. 2:3. Cf. Lk. 11:31; Is. 52:11-13; Rev. 5:12). Third, accessing the wisdom of God (i.e., through the Word) requires the infilling of the Spirit of God. Only the Holy Spirit can search (explore) all the secret (sealed) wisdom of God (1 Cor. 2; Eph. 1:17-19; Jn. 16:12-15). Fourth, the Holy Spirit, from the believer, requires a life of obedience as well as diligence in studying the Bible (Job 28:12-28; Prov. 2:3-5, 8:34-35). However, this knowledge and wisdom of God to be accessed through the Holy Spirit, is it something limited only to spiritual and moral matters, or does it also include knowledge and wisdom we generally consider the realm of secular education and research? That is, does God’s 3 Word contain knowledge (i.e., facts and principles) and wisdom (i.e., applied science or technology), which we usually acquire through formal education and research? This paper is based on the claim that God's Word (when revealed by the Holy Spirit) contains all knowledge and wisdom today located in the secular world's corpus of knowledge and wisdom. Before attempting to prove this point, first, I present my premises for such an argument. o God’s knowledge and wisdom are unlimited. The implication is God cannot be a stranger to man’s most advanced science and technology. o The Word of God (i.e., the Bible) is the storehouse of divine knowledge and wisdom. The implication is the Word of God contains (represents) the mind of God (Jn. 1:1-5; Prov. 8:22-31). o The Bible contains all the knowledge and wisdom that which the secular world has accumulated over the centuries. The implication is one can show what is in the sciences in the Bible. o The knowledge and wisdom of God contained in the Bible is in the hidden (or coded) form (Col 2:3; Prov. 25:2). The implication is it requires the Holy Spirit to reveal the hidden wisdom and knowledge of God (1 Cor. 2). 4 In Search of God’s Knowledge and Wisdom To illustrate my point, I will take two books from the Bible, namely, the books of Job and Proverbs to show, how (in concealed or coded ways) the Word of God contains knowledge and wisdom related ideas well-recognized among academic and scientific circles. To begin the study, I will start with the last chapters of the Book of Job (i.e., chapters 38 thru 41). In these four chapters, God addresses Job directly, but in a way that barely addresses Job’s incessant cry to God for an answer. No wonder that the Book of Job’s closing chapters come as a surprise to many Bible readers. God seems to have gone tangent (by making an extended speech on cosmology) while ignoring Job’s misery and cry for mercy. God barrages Job with questions, overwhelming his mind with cosmological and natural science matters. But the question is: How can a wise and compassionate God do such a heartless thing to Job? Many Bible commentators say God adopted this strategy to silence Job’s whining and fault-finding with God. God intentionally wanted to reduce Job to silence: If Job cannot understand any part of God’s creation, how can he dare to question God’s ways in his life? Because God is so powerful and wise, a man should trust God, the individual knows little about God’s ways.1 I cannot gainsay that there is a theological agenda behind God's lengthy speech. However, in this paper, I argue a different reason behind God's speechmaking. I hypothesize that God's words in the Book of Job, chapters 38 thru 41, are intended for the modern man's ears to challenge him for all his learning and achievements. I will show how the words of Job chapters 38 thru 41 apply to modern man. I base this argument on the claim that God's Word has a lasting quality to it 1 https://www.hebrew4christians.com/Articles/Suffering/Theology_of_Suffering/theology_of_suffering.html 5 because God orders the prophets to write the last man in mind: "Now go, write it before them on a tablet, And note it on a scroll, That it may be for time to come, Forever and ever" (Is. 30:8). But why would God like to make the modern man His ultimate addressee? Because God foresees the end of the ages where man's pride in his secular knowledge and wisdom would make him question God's wisdom and even the existence of God (see, for example, 2 Tim. 3:1-5). This paper will show how God expects the modern man's progress in knowledge and wisdom. God is making such statements beforehand because He foresaw man's twin follies of pride and atheism because of his scientific achievements. Thus, in the real sense, Job chapters 38 thru 41 are God's "I-told-you-so" step to reduce humankind to silence when humankind tries to write-off religion as ignorance. (See, for example, Is. 33;18, 48:5-8). I argue the last chapters of Job foretell the discoveries of science, and God is making the long speech to stop mankind from bragging too much about its learning and scientific discoveries. Interpretative Framework Since one way in which God has hidden knowledge and wisdom in the Bible is through His use of figurative language (analogies, imagery, and metaphors), I will follow the symbolic interpretation method to decode the Bible to reveal hidden wisdom and knowledge. The symbolic may not be the appropriate interpretative approach for all parts of the Bible, but I choose and use it as well-suited for the purpose at hand. Therefore, I adopt a few assumptions and premises in using the symbolic interpretive method to Job chapters 38 through 41. 6 1: God is issuing an invitation and a challenge to mankind to investigate the intricacies of the universe. 2: God challenges mankind to do certain things to prove man’s capabilities and inventiveness. 3: The message to the last man is about scientific knowledge and this message is communicated using analogy, imagery, and metaphors. 4: The symbolic line of interpretation puts some extra burden on the shoulder of the general reader. The burden is of two types. First, the reader should have some familiarity with non-literal (symbolic) interpretation of the Bible. Second, some knowledge about the history of scientific and technological discoveries. 5: The reader should be cognizant that God is communicating scientific ideas and technological discoveries through the vocabulary and experiential limitations of someone who lived around 1500 BC. Progress of Scientific Discoveries I will try to demonstrate how key scientific and technological discoveries have been coded in the Bible millennia before their discoveries by the modern man. The following excerpt taken from Remo Ceserani nicely summarize the scientific discoveries the paper shows as encoded in God’s Word. Among the innovations that have deeply affected the collective sensibility and imagination of modern societies and have provoked general and diverse reactions, I have 7 singled out those that seem to have had the strongest impact: the arrival of the train in the peaceful life of pre-modern communities, the possibility of reproducing images through the optical and chemical process of photography, and the enormously impressive changes in our visual, auditory and mental perceptions brought about by the introduction of such means of communication as the telegraph, the telephone and the wireless of the "old radio days” (Remo Ceserani).2 Some Illustrative Cases Next, I will present a few scriptures from the books of Job and Proverbs which I believe contain predictions about future man’s achievements in science and technology. (a) Commanding the Lightning Bolt “Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?” (Job 38:35) We can understand those words in two ways: either, literally in a meteorological sense, or figuratively, in a scientific-technological sense. In the first sense, we can say that God is challenging man to exercise meteorological powers in commanding the thunderbolt like the gods. If that is the sense, then, God is asking man if can command the lightening to strike where he wants to strike. If that be the question, then the answer, of course, would be: “Not yet, Lord.” So far, we know, mankind has little meteorological powers, including starting and direct of a bolt of lightning. 2 Remo Ceserani. “The Impact of the Train on Modern Literary Imagination.” Stanford Humanities Review (1999). https://web.stanford.edu/group/SHR/7-1/html/ceserani.html 8 But if we understand God’s challenge implied in this question in modern scientific terms, then the answer would be, “Yes, Lord, we have been able to do so.” Our response could be true only in understanding the term ‘bolt of lightning’ in a metaphorical sense with scientific connotations. And since the 18th century, science has proved that lightning is an electro-magnetic phenomenon. wave. Today, the drawn picture of a bolt of lightning is the widely adopted symbol (image) of elector-magnetic wave (or, in practical terms, of wired and wireless communication). Hence, we can argue that (based such symbolic interpretation of Job 38:35), God did anticipate that one day humankind will harness electro-magnetic waves to do his biddings or errands. It took mankind a while (actually, millennia) before it can meet God’s challenge in harnessing “lightning” to its will. Mankind has first to arrive at the age of the Enlightenment before it can achieve anything significant by way of commanding the ‘lightning bolt’. It has been through the experiments of scientists like Ben Franklin (1706-90), Michael Faraday (1791-1867), Samuel Morse (1791-1872), James Clerk Maxwell (1831-79), Heinrich Hertz (1857-94), Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), Thomas Edison (1847-1931), and many others. Historically, through scientific progress, man has addressed God’s challenge about commanding the ‘lightning bolt’ in three steps. First, starting with the work of Ben Franklin (170690), man has discovered that thunderstorm is a natural phenomenon and that lightening is a surge of electricity. Franklin has demonstrated how through a properly designed and located lightening rod, man can safely conduct a bolt of lightning underground. In this first sense, then man answering God’s challenge in Job 38:35 has learned how to make lightening “to report” to his aerial rod and go where it sends it (i.e., under the ground). 9 Second, mankind has created his own version of a ‘bolt of lightning’, namely electricity, which he now commands to perform different kinds of tasks. It was two scientists, Thomas Edison and Nikola Telsa, who in the late 1800s, pioneered their respective versions of methods of mass generating and transmitting electric power. Today man can send electricity to homes and factories through insulated wires many miles away from power generating centers. At a flip of a switch, man can put electric powered gadgets to perform myriad of tasks. In mastering electricity, mankind has met God’s challenged presented in Job 38:35. Electricity under man’s command has relieved mankind from tedious and laborious tasks, enabling humanity to lead a much more comfortable existence. Third, the principles of electromagnetism have been mastered to enable man to send images and voice over long-distance. From a humble beginning, the idea of telecommunication has grown to include today man-made communication satellites orbiting in the sky. The Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1865 showed how electric and magnetic fields arise and interact. He made the prediction how a changing electric field would produce a magnetic field. Thereby he predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves, which we now know include light, radio, and X-rays. […] In late 1880s, the German physicist, Heinrich Hertz, through series of experiments proved the existence of electromagnetic waves. His apparatus demonstrated how to generate and detect radio waves. […] In 1901, Guglielmo Marconi sent and received electromagnetic waves across the Atlantic Ocean, setting the stage for radio, TV, satellite communication, and cellular telephone.”3 3 ‘The World Book Encyclopedia” Vol 6. World Book 16 criteria. This is the untamed power of fire/ heat, which man later harnessed through first the technology of the steam engine and later the internal combustion motor-engine. Through the works of inventors such as James Watt, early engines converted steamgenerated heat energy into mechanical energy, replacing animal power in many tasks. Later, through the invention of the motor engine, mankind could convert chemical energy into mechanical energy. The manufacture and adoption of a motor-engine driven farm machinery, such as tractors, harvesters, threshers, and trucks, revolutionized agriculture, increasing farm productivity many times over. Today, at a push of a button and a pull of a lever, farmers make such farm machinery their obedient servants, from cultivating fields to harvesting crops to hauling grain to the silos. After the day’s heavy work on the farm, as the Divine word suggests, they quietly rest next to the barn (Job 39:9). So, the “wild ox” God challenges man to tame today we recognize as the power of fire/ heat now harnessed through the engine-motor system. Soon, farmers may even completely leave their farm work (i.e., cultivating, weeding, fertilizing, harvesting, etc.) to computer-driven farm machinery, fulling the divine challenge: “Will you leave your heavy work to it?” (Job 39:11). (d). The Foundations of the Earth “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundati on? Tell me, if you understand. 5Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? 6On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— 7while the morning stars sang together and all the angels a shouted for joy? 8“Who shut up the sea behind doors 17 when it burst forth from the womb, 9when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, 10when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, 11when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’? (Job 38: 4-11) The path mankind has taken to answer these questions makes much of the history of modern scientific discovery. Beginning the 16th century, scientists such as Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton, man has made breakthrough discoveries about the universe which for millennia remained a mystery to him. Starting with these key scientists, man has discovered several natural laws that explain the intricacies and marvels of the solar system. Through breakthrough insights and discoveries in the areas of mathematics, astronomy, and physics, man has been able to answer most of the questions God has posed to him through Job. Science has discovered the laws of gravity and motion, the principles of thermodynamics and electromagnetism, and the composition of the earth and of the atmosphere. Science has proved that the earth is of a certain distance from the sun and the moon, tilts 23 ½ degrees on its axis, and has layers of gases covering as a blanket. Science has shown that earth has diurnal and seasonal cycles, ocean tides and currents, and experiences destructive-creative forces such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes. All these because of the operation of natural laws and in-built natural processes, which guarantee to the earth’s ability to sustain life.7 Man’s scientific 7 For example, watch the following video clips for some insight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGXi_9A__Vc [earth – origin] 18 investigation has shown it that in an otherwise barren universe (filled with burning stars and barren planets and moons), the earth stands as a gem and a marvel. Hence, man has wondered whether the earth is a cosmic accident or a result of the act of a wise God. As the words of God to Job show, the earth is not a mere cosmic accident or a probabilistic outcome of selective evolutionary processes. But the earth is His workmanship, a planet created under the guiding hand of an infinitely wise God. (e ). Miscellany of Motion Marvels "There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a young woman.” Proverbs 30:18-19 The speaker’s name is given as Agur; but that matter it can be King Solomon, the Wise, himself.8 In sum, Solomon is reflecting and expressing wonderment different forms motions, which he calls the “the way”. Some of these amazing motions, most, relate to physical movement; while, at least one, is a motion only in a figurative sense. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9CRt3-bns0 [dynamic natural processes on earth] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwChk4S99i4 [ocean currents] 8 At least according to: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers. 19 The first two motions are ‘natural’ as they relate to the creatures of God, the eagle and the snake. The third motion is ‘artificial’ meaning it is man-made. It relates to a ship sailing on the waters. The fourth, ‘the way of a man with a woman’ is a ‘social’ motion, the romantic moves (interaction) a man makes with a woman. If we limit ourselves to the literal sense, there is little impressing about these words. We may be forced to ask: “What are you telling us, Agur, about these things we do not already see for ourselves? What deep things you are revealing to us about each of them?” We can easily dismiss his musings as trite, at the literal level they are mundane. Such simple statements do not impress us much about Agur. Or, as someone said about Agur: “the range of his thought, as compared with that of other authors, is pedestrian.”9 Here, I argue the contrary. I argue that Agur is not a pedestrian in his thoughts. Rather, he is a man of deep visionary experience who saw future technological developments well in advance. His words look pedestrian only because he is trying to communicate to us about future marvels which were out range for a man who lived circa 900 BC. Truly, we have to admire Agur is serving God in trying to transmit to us the marvelous motion things which would occur in the distant future. Agur is describing never-before seen moving objects using analogy and imagery drawn from his daily experience. And only when we start seeing Proverbs 30:18-19 from this perspective does we start appreciating the wisdom and knowledge of God preserved for us in the Bible regarding about our future. 9 International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. 20 The case of the eagle: “The way of the eagle in the sky” This suggests a flying object in the case of futuristic science and technology. Hence, Agur’s eagle in imagery sense is some flying object like an airplane. For example, what the commentator Matthew Poole writes about the literal eagle can easily apply to the figurative eagle. “The manner of her flight, which is exceeding high, and swift, and strong. Or rather, the way or part of the air through which she passeth, without leaving any print or sign in it, which though it be true of all birds, yet is here attributed to the eagle, of whom this is more true, because she flies out of sight, where neither her body nor any sign of it can be discerned.”10 The American brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, invented and pioneered the first powered, sustained, and controlled airplane flight (1903) and also built and flew the first fully practical airplane (1905).11 Their achievement was a breakthrough, because: For several years at the turn of the century, dozens of groups in Europe and America had been trying to get a flying machine to work. But defying gravity wasn’t proving easy. Nevertheless, Wilbur and Orville Wright, after a long period of trial and error, found a formula that seemed to work. The problem they and everyone else had faced was how to generate enough power to get the machine off the ground and to keep it going once it was up in a stable and steady flight. The Wrights had developed a lightweight 25-horsepower engine which provided a much higher power to weight ratio than anything that had gone before.12 Today, we have “eagles” that fly through the sky at the imaginable speed. A typical civilian jet airplane travels at a speed close to 500 mph, with a range of 3,000 miles, and rising to a height of 10 Matthew Poole’s Commentary. 11 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wright-brothers 12 https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/video/wright-brothers-first-flight-1903 21 30,000 feet. Modern day “eagles” cross oceans in non-stop flights at amazing speed, while sustaining hundreds of tons of weight.13 The case of the snake: “The way of the snake on a rock” In the literal sense, this motion is a wonder because, “The snake’s mode of progression by the lever-like motion of its ribs might well awake surprise, but the point is still the tracklessness of its course. On a sand or soft ground, its movements might be traced by the impression made. but this could not be done on hard rock; it could push itself along on such a surface without leaving any track.” Suffice that about the literal snake, but what kind of technology does the imagery of the movement of the snake suggest in terms of modern-day technology? We have to ask, what is Agur’s vision about the “snake” whose motion on the rock that aroused his wonderment? In technological terms, the nearest thing that Agur could have seen in a visions resembling a snake moving on the rocks is the locomotive. I believe Agur could likely saw a locomotive passing through rugged mountainous terrain, fast winding (i.e., coiling) itself around the bends. Railway tracks are rarely laid down in a straight line, instead, they are winding, making the fastmoving train appear like a metal snake in its journey.14 For one who looks from a distance at 13 The prophet Isaiah may have the modern jet in mind when he gives us this comparison by inspiration. “But those who trust the LORD will find new strength. They will be strong like eagles soaring upward on wings; they will walk and run without getting tired.” (Is. 40:31) 14 “The Iron Snake is an ancient tribal prophecy attributed to both the Maasai and Kĩkũyũ tribes in Kenya in which a railway is described as an iron snake. […] A similar end-of-the-world myth speaking of snakes of iron appears in the Hopi tradition of the New World as the fourth sign on Hopi tablets. In 1965, Ronald Hardy published a book about the building of the East African 22 fast-moving locomotive negotiating the sides of hills, its ceaseless twisting motion can create in him the mental image of a twisting iron serpent. For example, there are a series of metaphors, analogies, and imageries applied to the locomotive that can establish such figurative connection (resemblance) between the locomotive and the serpent. For example, what Remo Ceserani has gleaned from the literature underscore this point: Numerous texts, starting with the first decades of the century, represent the train and railroads as disturbing and uncanny inventions, that threaten to completely unbalance both the social landscape and the individual sensibility. It is from these texts that some very successful images and metaphors come to us: the engine as an inflamed and smoking monster, that renovates the ancient myth of Vulcan, god of fire and craftsmanship; the train that unwinds like a serpent or ejects fire and smoke like a dragon; the straight railroad lines that cut the natural landscape, perforate the mountains, violate nature. (Remo Ceserani)15 Also, one of the most stylistic writers of modern times, Flannery O’Connor, applies the imagery of the serpent to a locomotive, as follows: “[…] the train glided past them and disappeared like a frightened serpent into the woods […]”16 If modern-day writers describe the train as an “iron snake” or a “smoking dragon”, then it is likely that what Agur is seeing in a vision and describing in the imagery of a serpent is likely a Railroad called The Iron Snake (Collins, London).” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iron_Snake 15 Remo Ceserani. “The Impact of the Train on Modern Literary Imagination.” Stanford Humanities Review (1999). https://web.stanford.edu/group/SHR/7-1/html/ceserani.html 16 Flannery O’Connor. “The Artificial Nigger.” The Kenyon Review, vol. 20, no. 1, 1998, pp. 161–176. 23 train. Agur is describing an out-of-range futuristic object using the closest thing he can muster from his life experience. His marvels at the "snake”, we too now sound. Still, it strikes us as wonder how such a heavy metal object, a locomotive (which invariably draws scores of wagons behind it) could keep its balance while moving at great speed on two narrow tracks, sometimes around mountain ledges and down deep valleys. The case of the sailing ship: “The way of a ship on the high seas.” This may not seem to demand much imagination on the part of Solomon because in his days they had seafaring ships (1 Kgs. 10:22). But still Solomon may marvel seeing in a vision the modernage mega ton steel ships sailing on the oceans. He can understand wood floating on water, but he could have found tons of metal floating of the oceans most astonishing. Still, he would have been dumbfounded to see the modern-day ships self-propelled and not driven by wind. The strength of the ships to withstand the strongest of the sea storms could have marveled him, more. The case of a man and his girlfriend: “The way of a man with a young woman” Nearly all commentators agree that Agur (i.e., King Solomon) here is referring to the seductiveness of a man’s words with a woman he desires to win her hand. For example, the Pulpit Commentary notes: The proverb says that the sinful act to which it alludes leaves no outward sign by which it can generally be recognized; it escapes man's knowledge. This is exemplified and confirmed in the following verse. It is not sufficient to refer the saying to the insidious arts of the seducer, by which he saps the principles and inflames the passions of his victim. The sin of unchastity is signified, which demands secrecy and affords no token of its commission. (The Pulpit Commentary on Proverbs 30:19) 24 Here, again we have to force ourselves beyond the familiar territory. We have to try to live the visionary experience of Agur and ask ourselves what probably God is showing to him about the future and he is trying to describe given the limitations of his 900 BC experiences. Keeping to our assumption that God is showing Agur about future technologies that involve motion, we ask what kind of technology captures movements in relation to a man and a young woman? And the technology relates to romance, a love affair between a man and a woman. In the literal sense, there is little to marvel about two lovers taking a walk. Agur’s description of the lovers becomes a marvel only if we assume, here too, that he is using imagery to describe a futuristic technology. We know one-way in which modern-man depicts romance through the technology of the motion picture.17 Hence, this presupposes that Agur’s travel in time also included watching a cinema in visionary experience. This time Agur is watching a non-material motion (i.e., virtual movement) configured on a silver screen, where he follows the turns and twists of some romance between a man and woman. If the next verse (v. 20) is associated with the preceding verse (v. 19), then Agur may be seeing some form of the seduction underway. Such a plot in a movie story does not come as a surprise as a theme or scene of sexual promiscuity is a common fare in many modernday movies. To summarize, a close examination of the motions Agur sees reveal some insight: • The three motions are material (i.e., space-time displacements), while the fourth one is non-material (i.e., virtual) motion. 17 This can also include watching romance on some other visual media, including TV and the Internet. 25 • Among the four motions, only one (i.e., ship) is presented literally, as-it-is. The other three motions are presented (because they are out of the range of Agur’s life experience) in the form of imagery or analogies. • A ship is a common vehicle in the days of Solomon. But the discovery of the scientific principle behind a ship’s motion on the water is still in the future. So, Agur may be wondering how a heavy object is not sinking, but effortlessly sailing on the water. • The four motions arouse curiosity in Agur because they defy some natural law; namely, the law of gravity (“eagle”), buoyancy (ship), friction and center of gravity (“snake’), and materiality (“scene of romance”). The idea of the motion picture (i.e., cinema) is also implied in other parts of the Book of Proverb. One possible example is Proverbs 25:10: Like apples of gold in settings of silver Is a word spoken in right circumstances. (Prov. 25:11) Here I will discuss how the original Hebrew words of “like apples of gold in settings of silver” contain the idea of the future technology man will develop, namely, the motion picture. The word translated settings in Prov. 25:11 holds the key to understanding the whole expression in terms of futuristic technologies. The word “settings” in the original Hebrew is תוֹּ֥ י ִּכ ְּש ַמ ְּב (be·mas·ki·yo·vt) is related to showpiece, figure, or imagination. For example, Matthew Poole translates the first line of Prov. 25:11, as close as to the original, in noting: “The golden apples appearing through net-work of silver, or being engraven or portrayed upon tablets of silver” (Matthew Poole Commentary). The Pulpit Commentary also communicates the same idea, saying: “apples of gold in pictures of silver. There is a doubt about the meaning of the word