The book of Proverbs is full of apparent contradictions, in which one statement is set against another with the obvious intention that they should be compared and balanced, for the one is incomplete without the other… One of the more famous and obvious of these paradoxes is given in Proverbs 26:4,5, in which apparently contradictory statements are set side by side: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool accordingly to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.”
It has many times been the subject of mirth that the writer seems to be contradicting himself. But what kind of intelligent person could unconsciously make such an obvious error? He is clearly challenging our attention, and inviting us to see all round the subject. In the first statement, for example, the effect on the one who responds to the fool by imitating his foolish speech is in view. In the second, it is the effect on the fool himself. If you reply to foolish men in the same vein, you only become “like unto them”. Rather, answer as his folly deserves, and you may have some hope of making him see the silliness of his words, and so save him from thinking himself very clever…
Perhaps if we consider a real situation it may help us to see the wisdom of Solomon in action. A believer may sometimes find his faith under attack from an ignorant and belligerent opponent, who confidently affirms things he knows little about, based on false assumptions. As a result the believer may be provoked into an angry and heated response. Yet this would only be descending to the level of the other’s foolishness. It would, indeed, be “answering a fool according to his folly.” Better far would be a patient response appealing to the reasonableness of faith, without personal venom or injured pride, which may help him to see that he is not really as clever as he thinks.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One