(This is part 3 of 6; Click for: part 4; part 2; part 1. Appendix available upon request)
Foreknowledge can also be argued to apply to either individuals or to groups. We can look at Israel as an example of its application to a group. Does the Bible say that Israel will be saved as a group? Then foreknowledge could look at the individual as a member of Israel and then deduce salvation as part of that group.
In speaking of the translation of προέγνω in Romans 8:29 and 11:2, Wuest says it should be rendered in connection with Israel as the foreordained people of God. He continues in saying that, “It speaks of the sovereign act of God foreordaining certain from among mankind to be saved.” [13] J. Murray says that Paul sees God’s foreknowledge as a foresight of the faith of persons. He sees Romans 8:29 as saying “whom he foreknew.” Whom then would be collective. [14]
Interpreters emphasizing God’s sovereignty as the only aspect of election see foreknowledge not as speculative or neutral knowledge, but instead as the knowledge which expresses a movement of the will. The Dictionary of Paul and His Letters calls this a semitic sense of inclination toward someone, reaching out in personal relationship. [15] Προγινώσκω has a very personal meaning. Cremer translates this term to mean “unite oneself before with someone.” [16]
The Dictionary of Paul and His Letters says, “Paul distinguishes between divine foreknowledge and divine predestination in Romans 8:29.” [17] The plan that Paul says is part of God’s foreknowledge, the blueprint He is building from, is how He will carry out the history of salvation. [18]
Eskola says that προγινώσκω has a special meaning in both the Old Testament and in Paul. In the Old Testament the similar verb used to mean “to know” יךע most often expressed election by God. “When God announces that He knows Abraham or one of the prophets, He expresses their election,” says Eskola. [19]
God first foreknows the saint. He foreordains the sinner to salvation. Now God predestines that saint to be conformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. [20] Those foreordained and in the process of conformation are the ones God has called. [21] Paul’s concern in this passage is to provide assurance to the individual believer. [22]
(This is part 3 of 6; Click for: part 4; part 2; part 1. Appendix available upon request)
[13] Wuest, 144.[14] Hawthorne and Martin, 310.
[15] Hawthorne and Martin, 310-1.
[16] Francis Davidson, Pauline Predestination (London: Tyndale, 1946), 13.
[17] Hawthorne and Martin, 311.
[18] Eskola, 169.
[19] Ibid., 170.
[20] Wuest, 144.
[21] Wuest, 146.
[22] Moo, 533.
