First of all, I believe that this is one example of many in which Jehovah Witnesses do eisegesis–which means reading a meaning into the text, rather than from the text.  This is a pattern with this group.  They have a pre-conceived theology, and what they do is they scan the Bible in order to find passages which, whether in context or not, can be used to support their position.  If we begin our study of Scripture in order to prove a pre-conceived doctrine or theology, we will be successful every time.  This is the hermeneutic process for the Jehovah Witness group.

Having said this, I have not started to answer your question!  So, let me do so.  You do not specify what verses of Proverbs 8 you have in mind, so please allow me to choose a couple of passages which have been used in this way.  For example, in reference to wisdom (Hebrew hakmah) Proverbs 8:22-23 has “The Lord brought me (ie wisdom) forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be.”  Jehovah Witness literature identifies “wisdom” here as Jesus Christ.  If they are right, then Jesus is a created person.

There are two nearly insurmountable problems with this interpretation.  First of all, what is being used in Proverbs 8 is a literary device known as personification.  In other words, the writer has no intention of identifying “wisdom” as a person.  This is a common literary device, used especially in poetical writings such as Psalms (and to a lesser extent Proverbs).  There are many passages such as “the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40).  We all know that stones do not cry out!  Stones are not people!  We also know that wisdom is not a person.  As far as I know, no serious scholar takes the personhood of wisdom in Proverbs 8 seriously (except the Jehovah Witnesses of course).

The second nearly insurmountable obstacle to this interpretation that the writer of Proverbs is talking about Jesus Christ as a created person is that the context in no way demands identification with Jesus Christ.  In other words, let us for a brief moment allow the extremely unlikely possibility that “wisdom” in Proverbs 8 is a person.  Who, then, might that person be?  One small problem with this interpretation is that wisdom in Proverbs 8 is in the female sense (Proverbs 8:1).  Also, in Proverbs 8:12 we find, “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence.”  OK, so who is prudence?  If wisdom is a person, then so is prudence, if we are being consistent.  So, perhaps prudence is the Holy Spirit.  But then again, the Jehovah Witness deny that the Holy Spirit is a person.  Honestly, this idea that the natural interpretation of the supposed person wisdom is that he(?) is Jesus borders on ludicrous.  In fact, I suppose the only reason JWs make this interpretation is so that they can use it to claim that Jesus is a created person.  This is not only extremely poor hermeneutics. It is circular reasoning.

We can safely and without any doubt reject this fantastical interpretation of Proverbs 8.

John Oakes