In another thread the issue of foreknowledge came up as God's choosing or foreordination is said in scripture to be kata (according to) foreknowledge.
The two Greek words are prognōosis and progi(g)nōskō.
(In a classical Greek lexicon there will be the 2nd gamma [g], but not in a NT lexicon.
Prognōsis occurs twice:
acts 2:23
Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as ye yourselves know; him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay.
1 Pet 1:1-2
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
Progi(g)nōskō occurs a few times:
Acts 26:5
My manner of life then from my youth up, which was from the beginning among mine own nation and at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; having previously known me from the first, if they be willing to testify, that after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
[It is the person Paul was was known, yet things about Paul are evidently included in the knowing, namely that he was a Pharisee.]
2 Pet 3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand [προγινώσκοντες], beware lest, being carried away with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your own stedfastness.
Rom 8:28
For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained . . . .
Rom 11:2
God did not cast off his people [Israel] whom he foreknew.
1 pet 1:20
Christ: who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake, who through him are believers in God,
The BDAG Lexicon is the standard NT Greek Lexicon. For some reason (influence of Lutheranism?) BDAG claims that foreknowledge encroaches on the semantic domain of election (God's sovereign choosing). To me this encroachment seems unlikely from the general use of the terms and also by reducing election according to foreknowledge to a tautology: "elect according to election." [BDAG is abbridged & spaced for clarity]
προγινώσκω
1. to know beforehand or in advance, have foreknowledge (of)
τί someth. affliction Hermas Similitudes 7:5.
Abs.
προγινώσκοντες since you know this (i.e. what the context makes clear) in advance 2 Pt 3:17.
Of God πάντα Hermas Mandates 4, 3, 4.
—Closely connected is the idea of choice that suggests foreknowledge
2. choose beforehand τινά someone Ro 8:29. τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ 11:2
Pass. of Christ προεγνωσμένος πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου 1 Pt 1:20.
—Know from time past προγινώσκοντές με ἄνωθεν Ac 26:5
πρόγνωσις
1. foreknowledge πρ. λαμβάνειν τελείαν receive complete foreknowledge 1 Clement 44:2.
2. predetermination, of God’s omniscient wisdom and intention (LXX Judith 9:6)
w. βουλή Ac 2:23.
κατὰ πρόγνωσιν θεοῦ πατρός destined by God the Father (NRSV) 1 Pt 1:2
Since God is omniscient, included in his objective foreknowledge must be everything, including every detail about everyone, their temperaments, their attitudes, their natures, their attributes, their decisions, and whether or not they will believe in the Lord Jesus as Savior.
I was taught by an excellent Bible teacher that foreknow/foreknowledge is fore-entering into an intimate relationship with. And the proof text was from Amos where a Hebrew term (not having "fore-") on it was used to illustrate how "know" has a special use for intimate relationship (Israel is the only nation that God knew.)
But can one limit foreknowledge to a special meaning of knowledge (without "fore-")? Is it not true that His foreknowledge must include absolutely all there is to know about persons (& everything else!) Certainly part of God's foreknowledge must include the knowledge that persons will believe or not believe (not that the text specifies belief or anything in particular that was in the relevant knowledge).
Do you exclude the rest of God's omniscience from the foreknowledge (according to which God chose)?
It is obvious that had the Lord wished to make it clear with the idea of "fore-loved," He could have said precisely that (to wit, "chosen according to the love which the Lord had for certain persons in eternity past). But by saying that, it is hard to make choosing come logically after the loving, if the special love be confined to a certain group -- that would make election prior to the loving -- so it seems to me. So it looks like if one interprets foreknowledge as knowledge in the intimate sense of know:, then a sort of nonsense seems to result:
choosing based on fore-intimacy which was based on choosing!
While no text says that it was "a man's belief in Christ which was foreknown," some (like Thiessen's Systematic Theology (Thiessen believing in eternal security, BTW) explain that it was God's foreknowledge of man's belief in Christ which resulted in the election/choosing/foreordaining/predestination of the Christian.
I am mulling this over.
I put a link below to a good article on this:
http://chafer.nextmeta.com/files/v9n1_3the_meaning_of_proginwskw.pdf
The two Greek words are prognōosis and progi(g)nōskō.
(In a classical Greek lexicon there will be the 2nd gamma [g], but not in a NT lexicon.
Prognōsis occurs twice:
acts 2:23
Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as ye yourselves know; him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay.
1 Pet 1:1-2
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
Progi(g)nōskō occurs a few times:
Acts 26:5
My manner of life then from my youth up, which was from the beginning among mine own nation and at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; having previously known me from the first, if they be willing to testify, that after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
[It is the person Paul was was known, yet things about Paul are evidently included in the knowing, namely that he was a Pharisee.]
2 Pet 3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand [προγινώσκοντες], beware lest, being carried away with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your own stedfastness.
Rom 8:28
For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained . . . .
Rom 11:2
God did not cast off his people [Israel] whom he foreknew.
1 pet 1:20
Christ: who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake, who through him are believers in God,
The BDAG Lexicon is the standard NT Greek Lexicon. For some reason (influence of Lutheranism?) BDAG claims that foreknowledge encroaches on the semantic domain of election (God's sovereign choosing). To me this encroachment seems unlikely from the general use of the terms and also by reducing election according to foreknowledge to a tautology: "elect according to election." [BDAG is abbridged & spaced for clarity]
προγινώσκω
1. to know beforehand or in advance, have foreknowledge (of)
τί someth. affliction Hermas Similitudes 7:5.
Abs.
προγινώσκοντες since you know this (i.e. what the context makes clear) in advance 2 Pt 3:17.
Of God πάντα Hermas Mandates 4, 3, 4.
—Closely connected is the idea of choice that suggests foreknowledge
2. choose beforehand τινά someone Ro 8:29. τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ 11:2
Pass. of Christ προεγνωσμένος πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου 1 Pt 1:20.
—Know from time past προγινώσκοντές με ἄνωθεν Ac 26:5
πρόγνωσις
1. foreknowledge πρ. λαμβάνειν τελείαν receive complete foreknowledge 1 Clement 44:2.
2. predetermination, of God’s omniscient wisdom and intention (LXX Judith 9:6)
w. βουλή Ac 2:23.
κατὰ πρόγνωσιν θεοῦ πατρός destined by God the Father (NRSV) 1 Pt 1:2
Since God is omniscient, included in his objective foreknowledge must be everything, including every detail about everyone, their temperaments, their attitudes, their natures, their attributes, their decisions, and whether or not they will believe in the Lord Jesus as Savior.
I was taught by an excellent Bible teacher that foreknow/foreknowledge is fore-entering into an intimate relationship with. And the proof text was from Amos where a Hebrew term (not having "fore-") on it was used to illustrate how "know" has a special use for intimate relationship (Israel is the only nation that God knew.)
But can one limit foreknowledge to a special meaning of knowledge (without "fore-")? Is it not true that His foreknowledge must include absolutely all there is to know about persons (& everything else!) Certainly part of God's foreknowledge must include the knowledge that persons will believe or not believe (not that the text specifies belief or anything in particular that was in the relevant knowledge).
Do you exclude the rest of God's omniscience from the foreknowledge (according to which God chose)?
It is obvious that had the Lord wished to make it clear with the idea of "fore-loved," He could have said precisely that (to wit, "chosen according to the love which the Lord had for certain persons in eternity past). But by saying that, it is hard to make choosing come logically after the loving, if the special love be confined to a certain group -- that would make election prior to the loving -- so it seems to me. So it looks like if one interprets foreknowledge as knowledge in the intimate sense of know:, then a sort of nonsense seems to result:
choosing based on fore-intimacy which was based on choosing!
While no text says that it was "a man's belief in Christ which was foreknown," some (like Thiessen's Systematic Theology (Thiessen believing in eternal security, BTW) explain that it was God's foreknowledge of man's belief in Christ which resulted in the election/choosing/foreordaining/predestination of the Christian.
I am mulling this over.
I put a link below to a good article on this:
http://chafer.nextmeta.com/files/v9n1_3the_meaning_of_proginwskw.pdf
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