Does Proverbs 8:22 refer to Jesus?

Proverbs 8:22  “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.

The writer of this poetry had in his mind that he was personifying wisdom as a beautiful woman who leads men to righteousness and happiness, in contrast to the superficially attractive prostitute described in Proverbs 7 who leads men to desolation and death.

Does Proverbs 8:22 refer to Jesus pre-existing at the time that the Book of Proverbs was written? Clearly, no. Some readers, pre-disposed to believe that Jesus existed before his birth search for appearances of Christ in the Old Testament not as prophecies and foreshadows, which the Old Testament does contain, but for actual evidence that Jesus had a life in heaven before he was conceived and born. It has to be clearly said that, no, Proverbs 8:22 does not use the image of Wisdom as a beautiful woman, in the sense that Trinitarian or Arian or Oneness readers sometimes claim, as proof that Jesus existed before birth as the second person of the Trinity, or as an archangel, or in any other personal sense.

Nevertheless we can look for foreshadows of Jesus in every book of the Old Testament. This is how Jesus himself taught his disciples to read the Hebrew scriptures:

Luke 24:27 And Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets.

When John wrote his prologue, the primary reference would be to verses such as Psalm 33:6  “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made” (where the Greek Old Testament has Logos), but other verses including  Proverbs 8:22 would not have been far from John’s mind:

John 1:1-5  In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.  (2)  The word was in the beginning with God.  (3)  All things were made through it, and without it nothing was made that was made.  (4)  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  (5)  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (Greek – note that Greek uses “it” for word)

The Greek expression for “word” (Greek logos) is the basis of our English word “logic”. In just the same way that “wisdom” is personified as a woman in Proverbs, God’s word, plan or “logic” was from the beginning. This purpose was made actual when Jesus the son of God was born.

Sometimes God has more in mind than did an Old Testament prophet:

1 Peter 1:10-12  Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,  (11)  inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.  (12)  It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

It was not just a matter of John making use of an old Hebrew poem to express a new truth (though it was that too). The old Hebrew poem was originally intended by God to express a greater truth that would come to fruition hundreds of years after the poem was written; Jesus was planned by God from the very beginning.

So, yes. Proverbs 8:22 refers to Jesus. But looking forward, not already existing when Proverbs was written.