NOGO

Bede, you should learn to fight your own battles.

I would like to know what is your count?

Here is mine.

NASB Proverbs 30: 18 - 20
18 - There are three things which are too wonderful for me,
Four which I do not understand: (or do not know)

The author itentifies two (2) groups
1) too wonderful
2) does not understand

He then proceeds to identify the items within the groups.
This is how I see it

Group 1: too wonderful - three (3) items as per v18
item 1: The way of the eagle
item 2: The way of the snake
item 3: The way of the ship

Group 2: does not understand - four (4) items as per v18
item 1 to 3: same as group 1
item 4: the way of a man with a maid
which is the same as
the way of the adulteress

Please show us your counts.

You made this statement
Bede:
He's talking about the wedding night when the girl is still a maiden. First time they make love - its a big deal and both wonderful and beyond understanding. Sadly, we seem to have lost a lot of that today.

So I take it that you classify "the way of a man with a maid" in the first group "too wonderful"

Please justify this classification.

Haran

Unfortunately I do not have it yet, but Rahlf's Septuaginta contains variants and may have the variants mentioned above on Prov. 30:19.

I looked in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (which is sort of like the NA27 or UBS4 for the OT) and, to my surprise, did not find any variants for this verse (BHS does list septuagintal variants among others though).

The BHS is difficult to understand because of the use of side notes with abbreviated Hebrew and a textual apparatus with latin abbreviations. There are some good help guides available if you're interested. I would recommend: A Simplified Guide to BHS (this helps with the abbreviations, etc.) and Old Testament Textual Criticism (this is about the TC of the OT, but it has an excellent chapter which shows pages from the BHS and explains the various symbols and how to read them - the end of the book takes you through the entire book of Ruth helping to explain the textual variants and how to read them - great read for those interested!). Both of these books come with a deal on Amazon where you can supposedly get one of them and the BHS for a better deal than separately. There are other great books on the TC of the OT. If anyone is interested, just say so and I can list them.

Evangelion

You're welcome.

Absolutely.

I'm not particularly concerned with the numbers, since they do not appear to have much bearing on the principles presented by the author. I can ignore them without detracting from his point.

Let's see:

• Proverbs 30:15-17.
  The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:
  The grave;1 and the barren womb;2 the earth that is not filled with water;3 and the fire that saith not, It is enough.4
  The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.

I see no reason to include "the eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother", since this statement is complete unto itself. The reference to the "eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother" is not connected to the preceding statement (as the other are) by a co-ordinating conjunction ("and.") It therefore stands outside the context of verse 16, and exists as a separate, unrelated saying.

I'm certainly not ignoring the numbers - but I see no reason to get worked up about them, either.

It is indeed part of the four.

You present this argument as if it constitutes a sine qua non. But I see no evidence that this is the case.

The terms "wonderful" and "know not" are clearly equivalent in the context of this passage. There is not a single hint that the author is contrasting the one against the other.

Irrelevant. The terms of reference are equivalent in this context.

It is both. Verse 18 contains a Hebraic parallelism; "too wonderful" is synonymous here with "know not."

We should not get too hung up on the English translation, since the word "wonderful" has an English significance which does not equate with the Hebrew in this case. "Wonderful" (in the English) usually signifies something positive; in the Hebrew of Proverbs 30, however, the meaning is very different.

Thus:

• Deuteronomy 28:59.
  Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.
  
• Psalm 139:6.
  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
  
• Proverbs 30:18.
  There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:

In each case, the word which has been translated as "wonderful" is the Hebrew pala

According to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, it means:

• To be marvellous, be wonderful, be surpassing, be extraordinary, separate by distinguishing action.
  
• To be beyond one’s power, be difficult to do.
  
• To be difficult to understand.
  
• To be wonderful, be extraordinary.
  
• Marvellous (participle.)
  
• To separate (an offering.)
  
• To do extraordinary or hard or difficult thing.
  
• To make wonderful, do wondrously.
  
• To show oneself wonderful or marvellous.

The LXX has...

• Moreover there are three things impossible for me to comprehend, and the fourth I know not:

...which carries the same sense.

NOGO

They are not equivalent.
"Wonderful" in the context is something which the author cannot do ... beyond his powers.
"know not" is something which he has never done.

These are certainly not the same.


wonderful = beyond one's powers, overpowering.

The word here is different than in Proverbs 30:18 although it comes from the same root but the meaning is different.

So what the author is saying is that there are four things which are beyond his powers to do, four which he has never done. Even stated as such the concepts are similar but not the same as you claim.

If you deny that the author is contrasting things then you missed the point. You are simply watering things down so that you can make them say whatever you want.