2 Chronicles 1 Bible study: Wisdom and knowledge

2 Chronicles begins where 1 Chronicles ended, with David's death, "and Solomon his son reigned in his place" (1 Chronicles 29:28). Its first verse is "Solomon the son of David was firmly established in his kingdom, and the LORD his God was with him, and made him exceedingly great" (1:1) (tap firmly established and great). In the verse Solomon is the one firmly established, and the LORD is the one who makes him great. 1 Chronicles had already said, "The LORD magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel" (1 Chronicles 29:25), and in Hebrew "made him exceedingly great" (1:1) and "magnified Solomon exceedingly" (1 Chronicles 29:25) are the same verb, gadal, with the same word for exceedingly. The words "the LORD his God was with him" (1:1) come back in the book's last verse, in Cyrus's decree: "the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up" (36:23).

2 Chronicles 1:12→leads to1 Corinthians 1:30

At Gibeon Solomon asked, "Now give me wisdom and knowledge" (1:10), and God answered, "therefore wisdom and knowledge is granted to you" (1:12). 2 Chronicles later calls it "his wisdom, which God had put in his heart" (9:23). Paul writes, "we preach Christ crucified" (1 Corinthians 1:23), and "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24), and "Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30). Paul doesn't cite 2 Chronicles 1, and no link between the Hebrew and Greek words is claimed, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on what both passages say of wisdom: it comes from God. Some see a likeness: at Gibeon God granted wisdom to one king, to judge God's people (1:10-12), and Paul says Christ Jesus "was made to us wisdom from God" (1 Corinthians 1:30). Others read Paul within his own letter, where the wisdom of God is Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23-24), set against "the wisdom of this world" (1 Corinthians 1:20), and 2 Chronicles 1 as God's answer to Solomon at the start of his reign, and don't look from one to the other.

מַדָּעmaddasay mad-DA

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "knowledge, thought". Strong's gives it as "from 3045" and "intelligence or consciousness". It is a rare word: the Hebrew Bible has it six times, and three of them are here (1:10, 1:11, 1:12), each time beside chokhmah, "wisdom" (tap wisdom). 1 Kings, telling the same night, doesn't use it; there Solomon asks for "an understanding heart" (1 Kings 3:9). The other three are "in your thoughts" (Ecclesiastes 10:20), "science" in Daniel 1:4, and Daniel 1:17, where, as here, God gives it with wisdom: "God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom".