Two other words are found in the Old Testament which are translated

'inventions' -- one in the Psalms, and one in the Book of Proverbs.  The word

used in the Psalms has two forms, maalal and alilah, both derived from the

same word meaning 'work'.  Is 'work' then to be condemned as evil?  Once

again we must examine the context:

'Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions' (Psa. 99:8).

'They provoked Him to anger with their inventions' (Psa. 106:29).

'They ... went a whoring with their own inventions' (Psa 106:39).

These are the statements.  Let us now consider the reason for the

Lord's attitude.  Hebrew poetry balances thought rather than sound, and so we

read in Psalm 106:39:

'Thus were they defiled

With their own works;

And went a whoring

With their own inventions'.

It is evident that the word 'works' here corresponds with 'inventions'.

In the same Psalm, the same word comes again in verses 13 and 35:

'They soon forgat His works'.

'But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works'.

The terrible expression 'to go a whoring' is used once more in the

Psalms, at the close of Asaph's experience in Psalm 73.  In this passage it

is used in direct contrast with that utter trust in the Lord that Asaph had

learned in the Sanctuary:

'Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I

desire beside Thee' (verse 25).

'Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from Thee' (verse 27).

Here again it will be seen that the real evil in these 'inventions' lay

in the fact that they undermined Israel's trust in the Lord, and substituted

something else in its place.

The reference to 'inventions' in Proverbs 8:12 does not call for

special comment, but the reader should notice the one occurrence of the word

in the New Testament -- in Romans 1.  Of all the terrible lists of sins that

are found in the New Testament, none, perhaps, is quite so black as that

which occurs at the end of Romans 1, and it is in this context that we find

the only New Testament reference to 'inventions': 'inventors (epheuretas) of

evil things' (Rom. 1:30).

Coming back now to our main subject, namely, man's legitimate sphere of

dominion in contrast with his attempted dominion over the forces of nature,

it is evident that the same principle was at work in the initial temptation

of our first parents.