From: Donald Reiher (dreiher@netaxs.com)
Date: Tue Dec 19 1995 - 13:02:33 EST
>A friend and I are starting a study on 1 Peter. I ran into the following in
>verse 2:
>
>kata prognwsin theou patros, which, I promptly (which is amazing in itself)
>translated to, "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father"
>
>When I looked up prognwsis in BAGD, the same phrase was translated as,
>"according to the predestination of God the Father" and I was confused.
>
>After all, doesn't prognwsis come from the prefix pro and the root gnwsis
>and mean "to know before"? I see a definate difference between the english
>word "foreknowledge" and the english word "predestination." Without getting
>into a major eschatological debate, could anyone tell me if there is
>anything in the context that leads one to translate this phrase as
>"according to the predestination of God the Father"?
>
>Thanks in advance for the replies.
I think you are forgetting about verse 1 and the word EKLEKTOIS!
By the way, Election has a range of meanings also. I would say that
this is a very strong passage for the Father fore-ordaining something,
alhough it does not necessarily mean fore-ordaining that a person would
believe (obviously, because this election. . whatever it is. . is based
upon God's PROGNOSIS). The whole context here does not seem to be dealing
with the moment of a believer's faith delivering them from hell, but
with the bigger scheme of the Father sovereignly working behind the scenes
to bless believers (plural) in churches scattered abroad in Peter's day
(verse 1). They needed to recieve the "salvation of their souls" as a
result of this kind of faith (a temporal salvation, rather than salvation
from hell). Even if you translate PROGNOSIS "predestination" it still
could be a predestination other than the Dortian kind. . . inclusive of
God's sovereign working, but allowing for man's responsibility to respond
properly in the heat of persecution. The predestination could be that
no matter what happened to them (ie. if they responded properly in the
midst of persecution, or improperly), that God would be glorified either
way.
I think you also need to look at this in the light of Peter's ministry in
Acts, traveling around laying on of hands. . recieving the Holy Spirit . .
thus unifying the Church.
This was obviously in the midst of great persecution (verse 6). Looks as
if Peter is giving his readers a shot of God's sovereignty to give them
some backbone! I think PROGNOSIS should be interpreted in this light.
This is a rich & beautiful (and difficult) passage . . . one of my favorites.
(By the way I do NOT wish to debate the Sovereignty/Free Will issue here)
Don Reiher, MDiv, ThM.
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