We looked at the broad audience of Proverbs last week, but today let’s examine more specifically what types of people Solomon expects to be present in the community.
Various authors in Scripture view people through different frameworks. The author of Hebrews sees people as either immature or mature. From one angle, the apostle Paul divides people into Jew or Gentile; from another he considers them to be justified or condemned. Jesus often distinguishes people as having faith or not, being for him or against him, sheep or goats or wolves.
These differing frameworks are not mutually exclusive; they merely represent different perspectives or intentions on the part of the particular author.
In Proverbs, Solomon organizes people into three main categories: the wise, the foolish, and the simple. These categories are not dependent on age, class, race, gender, or socio-economic status. Rather, they are determined by one’s direction in reference to the Lord.
1. Those who are moving toward the Lord are called wise. These are not perfect or intelligent people, but rather people who will gain understanding and change their lives based on what they hear in Scripture (Prov 1:5).
2. Those who are moving away from the Lord are called foolish. These are not ignorant or uneducated people, but rather people who don’t want to change anymore. They think they’re doing just fine on their own and don’t need any more help, especially not from the Lord (Prov 1:7).
3. Those who are not moving at all with respect to the Lord, on account of age, inexperience, or incapacity of some sort are called simple. These are not unreligious or immoral people (at least not yet), but rather children or child-like people who are only starting out on the path of life and thus are about to decide whether to move toward the Lord or away from him (Prov 1:4).
The crossroads are before you; which fork will you take? We must understand, however, that we cannot remain simple forever. It’s okay for a baby to smear spaghetti in her hair, but by the time she turns 30, more will generally be expected of her. Or, more elegantly, “one does not stay still: a man who is emptyheaded will end up wrongheaded.”[1]
[1]Kidner, Proverbs: An Introduction & Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1964), p.13. (Affiliate link)
This post was first published in 2012.
You define simple as child-like but doesn’t Jesus call us to be child-like repeatedly in the NT? How do you resolve this? Are we to be simple? Or is the definition just not adequate? This will be good because I have been seeing this theme in my bible study.
Jesus wants us to have child-like faith (Mark 10:13-17), completely trusting the Lord, but he doesn’t want us to be childish (immature). I was using the “child-like” image in the latter sense. Solomon wants to help spiritually immature people become mature in the Lord.
Thank you for your Clarity on this subject in the Bible and now I can explain it to my Grands.
In the verse you are referring to “we are to be as little children of God . It is a relational comparison in a famile, (family) way. god is out father. Even as a young adult, there were times I would seek advise from my dad
Like Peter Krol’s explaination too.
Where is the fourth type of person – the Scorner?
Yes, he’s spiritually Foolish, but I don’t believe he is Simple – he’s a whole different type of the Un-wise. He is wise to do evil and intends to do so as he confidently rejects Wisdom. The Scorner is worthy of specific attention and warning to the faithful wise.
I know this is an old article, but I’m just reading for the first time – I’m embarking on preaching in Proverbs at our church after our study of Romans.
The scorner could certainly be worthy of special attention, but I would broadly consider the scorner to be a sub-category of the “fool.” The scorner is moving away from the Lord in a particularly aggressive way. And there are many sub-categories of fool: not only scorner, but also sluggard, proud, and angry, for example.
One reason to keep the primary cast of characters to three is that Solomon mentions only those three in the prologue (1:2-7). But I would not quibble if you deemed it worth including the scorner as a separate fourth category.
Hello,
I found your article as I was contemplating on what the Bible refers to a simple person. Thank you for the short but clear, concise explanation.
Blessings!