Proverbs 8:27-31
I [wisdom] was there when He established the heavens,
when He laid out the horizon on the surface of the ocean,
28 when He placed the skies above,
when the fountains of the ocean gushed forth,
29 when He set a limit for the sea
so that the waters would not violate His command,
when He laid out the foundations of the earth.
30 I was a skilled craftsman always rejoicing before Him.
31 I was rejoicing in His inhabited world,
delighting in the human race.

Here is a blog I found by Eric Carpenter recommended by David Black Online. I like his style. Here are some posts on evolution.

Proverbs 27:17 NRSV
Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens the wits of another.

Here is a post I previously wrote on Proverbs 27:17. I will say that when I said, “This doesn’t sit well with me” is a very invalid way to judge an interpretation of Scripture. But I think my conscience was telling me something so I looked into it and posted on what I found with the tools I have.

Here is a much better post dealing with it from the original language and various interpretations from other scholars at Ancient Hebrew Poetry. If some parts are too heady, skim them and you can still get a good idea of various interpretations.

Proverbs 26:4-5
4 Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or you will become as foolish as they are.
5 Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools,
or they will become wise in their own estimation.

Do these contradict each other?

Here is an entry from Adam Clarke’s commentary:

On this and the following verse Bishop Warburton, who has written well on many things, and very indifferently on the doctrine of grace, has written with force and perspicuity: “Had this advice been given simply, and without circumstance, to answer the fool, and not to answer him, one who had reverence for the text would satisfy himself in supposing that the different directions referred to the doing a thing in and out of season;

1. The reasons given why a fool should not be answered according to his folly, is, “lest he (the answerer) should be like unto him.”
2. The reason given why the fool should be answered according to his folly, is, “lest he (the fool) should be wise in his own conceit.”

1. “The cause assigned for forbidding to answer, therefore, plainly insinuates that the defender of religion should not imitate the insulter of it in his modes of disputation, which may be comprised in sophistry, buffoonery, and scurrility.
2. “The cause assigned for directing to answer, as plainly intimates that the sage should address himself to confute the fool upon his own false principles, by showing that they lead to conclusions very wide from, very opposite to, those impieties he would deduce from them. If any thing can allay the fool’s vanity, and prevent his being wise in his own conceit, it must be the dishonor of having his own principles turned against himself, and shown to be destructive of his own conclusions.” – Treatise on Grace. Preface.

Psalm 12:6 TNIV
And the words of the Lord are flawless,
like silver purified in a crucible,
like gold refined seven times.

Psalm 66:10 TNIV
For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver.

Proverbs 2:1-5 TNIV
My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding–
3 indeed, if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.

Silver, in the form of electrum (a gold-silver alloy), was coined to produce money in around 700 BCE by the Lydians. Later, silver was refined and coined in its pure form. Many nations used silver as the basic unit of monetary value (see Silver standard). The words for ‘silver’ and ‘money’ are the same in at least 14 languages.

–Wikipedia

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Bible: TNIV Thinline
Flower: Impatiens

I had this verse memorized in NIV for a very long time.

As iron sharpens iron,
so one man sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:17 NIV

The guy who helped me become a Christian emphasized that it’s the friction between people that sharpens each other. That never sat well with me.

Then recently I came across Proverbs 17:17:

A friend loves at all times,
and a brother is born for adversity.
Proverbs 17:17 NIV

So having the friction idea in mind I naturally think this means that there will inevitably be adversity between brothers that will help them grow. Again this bothers me. So I looked into it.

NRSV says:
A friend loves at all times,
and kinsfolk are born to share adversity.
Proverbs 17:17 NRSV

and TNIV:
A friend loves at all times,
and a brother is born for a time of adversity.
Proverbs 17:17 TNIV

These express what most commentators would say the Scripture means. Matthew Henry says, “A brother is born to succour a brother or sister in distress, to whom he is joined so closely by nature that he may the more sensibly feel from their burdens, and be the more strongly inclined and engaged, as it were by instinct, to help them.” John Gill says, “and a brother is born for adversity; for a time of adversity, as Jarchi: he is born into the world for this purpose; to sympathize with his brother in distress, to relieve him, comfort and support him;” Adam Clarke says, “A friend loveth at all times – Equally in adversity as in prosperity. And a brother, according to the ties and interests of consanguinity, is born to support and comfort a brother in distress.”

Back to Proverbs 27:17, NRSV says:
Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens the wits of another.
Proverbs 27:17 NRSV

The emphasis should be on the sharpening not on the friction. Henry says, “Wise and profitable discourse sharpens men’s wits;”

This isn’t to say that there won’t be friction or adversity between brothers and sisters (in the Lord) and that God wouldn’t use it for our good, but that’s most likely not the primary intent of these verses.