When your theology professors are not very good

 Before I go on to recount how Richard Davidson thinks that the Gen. 15 account of God walking between the sacrificed animals is somehow actually a covenant between the Godhead, e.g. God the Father and Jesus Christ pre-incarnation. I thought it would be good to point out his technique of interpretation of the Bible.

  In The Sanctuary Doctrine | Richard Davidson (Part 3) podcast with an interview of Richard Davidson an Andrews University professor. We have these interesting quotes.

Quote: 40:09 Here's Lucifer and he's not allowed to enter into the councils of divinity. And so this jealousy arises. He considers that God is not fair. And so then comes the other Hebrew word in Ezekiel 28 where it says that he was filled with recula which means um (interviewers: is that the violence) no he it it means to let me look let's go to Ezekiel 28. I don't want to speak out of turn here. I get the wrong term. I'll look it up here. Okay. So yes, oh yeah, recula. It is right. If the other word was avala, that means injustice. And then he's filled with reculah, which is slander. And he begins to slander God. Going around from one angel to another saying God can't really be trusted. And so the whole great controversy starts over who can you trust? Can you trust God or not?

Now to clarify he is using Ezk. 28 which says nothing of Lucifer, which is the mistranslation from Is. 14

Ezk. 28:15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. 16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; So he is giving the Hebrew for Violence ESV

Mickelson's Enhanced Strong's Dictionaries of the Greek and Hebrew Testaments
H7404 רְכֻלָּה rkullah (rek-ool-law') n-f. trade (as peddled). [feminine passive participle of H7402] KJV: merchandise, traffic.

Root(s): H7402 The word used according to lexicon is: H2555 חָמָס chamac (chaw-mawce') n-m. 1. violence. 2. (by implication) wrong. 3. (by meton.) unjust gain. [from H2554]

KJV: cruel(-ty), damage, false, injustice, X oppressor, unrighteous, violence (against, done), violent (dealing), wrong.

Root(s): H2554

So here he completely takes the verse out of the context of Ezek 28:12 “Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD: “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. And asserts it to Satan aka Lucifer, and the"trade" becomes slander going to angel to angel with the slander.

Then he later ends with:

I can put this whole thing that I just told you without mentioning Ellen White once. It's not all in Ezekiel 28. You got to go to also to to uh Proverbs chapter 8 where I can show you from scripture that that the son of God who was divine, who was called wisdom existed from the beginning and he was he was given a new office of a mediator mediating between divinity and human between infinity and finitude. And it's all there in the text. And so one of my favorite things to do is to show from the biblical text. Here is the narrative. And then I say, have you ever heard that somewhere else?

If you're an Adventist, that's what Ellen White says. But I didn't get anything from Ellen White. I'm getting it all from here. And so I don't deny that Ellen White is a prophet. And I don't deny that she had visions and filled in gaps that we may not find explicit in scripture. But I haven't been let down yet that the major contours of what we say about the great controversy and other topics are there in scripture. We've been the lazy ones not to dig them out. And Ellen White herself said, "If you had only studied the scripture like you should have, you wouldn't have needed me." Right? 44:53

He can only make it fit by inserting extra biblical authority into the Bible, in this case a heavy dose of Tradition and John Milton popularization, and this is an Andrews University Theology professor! I get the impression that some do not think the Lucifer Myth is a big deal, but it is; it is the foundation of Ellen Whites Great Controversy theme. And here is an Andrews University professor who seems to think that inserting Satan into Is 14 and Ezk 28 is consistent, yet there is absolutely no hermeneutic method that allows for this. Maybe if somewhere else in Scripture it said those things, you could say they were a foreshadowing in those chapters in Isaiah and Ezekiel. But since the Bible does not give us that, it is just a ploy to support an extra-biblical presumed prophet. Which is one of the reasons that a vast amount of Biblical scholarship rejects what I call the Lucifer Myth.

But that is not all he said. Consider the usage of Proverbs 8 here:

 You got to go to also to to uh Proverbs chapter 8 where I can show you from scripture that that the son of God who was divine, who was called wisdom existed from the beginning and he was he was given a new office of a mediator mediating between divinity and human between infinity and finitude. 

That sounds pretty bold, but there are at least 6 views on Proverbs 8, and the idea that Christ is given a new office is not one of them; it is also very difficult to get that from Proverbs 8. It would be far easier to assert the Arian view than the new office view. Here is a summary of the main views:

While Proverbs 8 is most universally read as a poem celebrating and personifying wisdom, there are several distinct and rich interpretations regarding who or what Wisdom actually represents. Because biblical poetry is highly artistic, "Lady Wisdom" is not a technical definition but a multifaceted symbol that has been interpreted in different ways throughout history. [1, 2, 3]

The main interpretations of this chapter include:

1. The Theological Interpretation: God’s Wisdom in Creation

In this view, Wisdom is a literary personification of God’s own attribute of order, intelligence, and skill. The passage describes how God used divine wisdom to design the cosmos—making it the "master workman" (or architect) alongside God at the beginning of time. Under this interpretation, Proverbs 8 teaches that the universe is not random; it was created with a logical, moral, and functional design. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

2. The Christological Interpretation: Jesus Christ

This is a prominent view within Christian theology, particularly in the early church. Because the New Testament (such as in 1 Corinthians 1:24) directly identifies Jesus as the "wisdom of God," early church fathers and theologians interpreted Lady Wisdom as a figurative and prophetic depiction of God the Son. In this view, Christ existed in eternity past and was the active agent alongside the Father in the creation of the world. [1, 2]

3. The Controversial Arian View: Wisdom as a "Created" Being

This specific interpretation stems from Proverbs 8:22, which reads in some translations (like the Greek Septuagint): “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work.” In the third century, a theologian named Arius used this verse to argue that if Jesus is the wisdom of God, and wisdom was created, then Jesus cannot be eternal and is not fully God. This view was later formally declared a heresy by the Council of Nicaea, which established that the verse refers to the "begetting" or "possessing" of an eternal attribute, not a literal creation event in time. [1, 2, 3]

4. The Pneumatological Interpretation: The Holy Spirit

Some Jewish and Christian scholars have interpreted Lady Wisdom as a figurative expression of the Holy Spirit. Similar to the Holy Spirit, Wisdom is described as being poured out on humanity. She breathes life, truth, and conviction into people, guiding them away from folly and into alignment with God's will. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

5. The Anthropological / Practical Interpretation: The "Art of Living"

Many secular and modern theological commentators treat the personification of Wisdom purely as a highly effective pedagogical tool. In this view, Solomon is writing to "his son" to instill practical, ethical, and social "know-how". Personifying Wisdom as an attractive, noble woman calling out in the city gates contrasts with the seductive "Adulterous Woman" of Proverbs 7. Here, the chapter is a practical call to choose the path of life, justice, and prudence over the destructive path of foolishness. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

6. The Comparative Near Eastern Interpretation: Ma'at

From a historical and academic perspective, some biblical historians note that Proverbs 8 shares striking parallels with ancient Egyptian literature. In Egypt, there was a goddess named Ma'at, who represented the cosmic order, truth, and right judgment. These scholars suggest the authors of Proverbs may have used the well-known ancient literary motif of a divine, feminine figure of order to explain God's wisdom to an audience familiar with surrounding Near Eastern cultures. [1, 2, 3, 4]

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