Literature.— Eertholet's monograph, Die Stellung d Igr. u. d. Jud. zu d. Frcinden (to wliicli the above article has special obligations); Driver, Deut. xxxjf., 98, 239; W. R. Smith, OTJC^ 279, 364f.; ChejTie, Jeremiah, 67; Schurer, UJP II. i. 61-56; Benzinger, Heb. Arch. 339f., 360, 479; Thayer, NT Lex.t and Cremer, Bib.-Theol. Lex. 8. iAAo^(vr,f, ixAcr^fof.
J. A. Seluie. FOREKNOW, FOREORDAIN.— Both these words translate the same Greek verb TrpoyiyiiaKnv, the former in Ro S-*, the latter in 1 P 1-°. ' Fore- ordain' does not appear before IGll, hut Tindale introduced 'ordain before' in 1 P P°, which was the more surprising that in Ro 8^ he translated both verbs correctly, oO? irpoiyvoj kclI TrpowpiacVy ' those which he knewe before, he also ordeyned before.' Both verbs are rare in English, the earliest certain example of ' foreordain ' found by Oxf. Eng. Dirt. being Norton's tr° of Calvin's Institutes (lotill, iii. 202, ' Some to be forcordeined to saluatioii, other some to destruction,' though the ptcp. is found in the Prol. to Wyclif's Mark (1420), 'The for-ordenede John.' RV tr. 1 P l-" correctly ' was foreknown,' and retains ' foreordain ' for irpoopi^im wherever it occurs, Ac 4-' (A V ' determine before '), Ro8-°"°(AV 'predestinate'), 1 Co 2' (A V 'ordain'), Eph !'• " (AV ' predestinate ').
FOREKNOWLEDGE As an attribute of God,
foreknowledge is simply a special case or a.spect of omniscience. God knows all things, therefore not only the present and the past, but the future also, must lie open to His sight. This is implied in all His pronii.'ies, whether they refer to the individual oiilv, as where ollspring is promised to Abraham (Gii 18'*), or are on a national scale, aa when the glorj' of Abraham's descendants is foretold (Gn 18" I. It is implied also in the tcnniing.i which God gives, or causes to be given, as in the story of Lot and Sodom (Gn lit), or in that of Mo.ses before Pharaoh (Ex 8-11). To an earlier Pharaoh God shows in n dream 'what he is about to do' (Gn 41*), and
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FOEEK^^OWLEDGE
FOREKNOWLEDGE
Bimilarly, at a later period, to Nebuchadnezzar ' what shall be in the latter days' (Dn 2'«- »). In all such cases, however, it may be objected that they are leas examples of foreknowledge than declarations regarding His own future action on the part of One who has full power of doing what He wills ; that they illustrate therefore omnipotence rather than omniscience. This close association of the two attributes must always be allowed for in the usage of Scripture. Where all events are re- ferred to the direct action of the Deit/y, it is not strange that He should know and foretell what He is about to do. It may be the sense that thus to foreknow and bring about events demonstrates the existence and activity of the divine, or it may be that the course of the world was already regarded as possessing a relative independence, which forms the ground of the appeal to the foreknowledge of God as proving His superiority to the idols of the nations. Such an appeal occurs more than once in Deutero-Isaiah.e.y. Is 42" Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare ; before they spring forth I tell you of them ' ; 46'° ' Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done ; sayin". My counsel shaJl stand ' ; cf. also 44*"* 48'- '• '. In the NT Jesus asserts foreknowledge on the part of God of wliat is yet hidden even from the Son (Mk IS**); and St. James (Ac 15'*), quoting the words of Amos (9"- "), substitutes for 'tne Lord that doeth this,' ' the Lord who maketh these things known from the beginning of the world.' All the references, indeed, to the fullilment of prophecy, which are so frequently found in the NT, are intelligible only on the assumption that they are taken as evidencing the foreknowledge of God.
It is, however, in its application, not to events generally, but to salvation, and that both of the individual and of the community, that the question of the divine foreknowledge has arrested the attention, engaged the thoiights, and sometimes tried the hearts of men. True piety refers all things to God, and rejoices to see in the individual life of faith and love the manifestation of divine activity. It seems to it that, were the case other- wise, tiiere could be no assurance of salvation, and the peace which is the most priceless possession of God s children would be impossible to them. It is argued that, as God is both able and wUling to bnng about the salvation of the individual. He must know beforehand, not only His purpose to do so, but its fullilment. We refer salvation, along w ith all other events, to the Divine Will ; but, as God is not orjy Supreme WiU but Supreme In- telligence, before, or accompanying the forthputting of that will there must be an act of knowledge. Thus foreknowledge comes to be associated with Election and Predestination (which see) as a constitutive element in the ultimate ground of the salvation made known in Christ. But in proportion as this conclusion removes difficulties on the one side, it raises them on the other. While theoretic- ally admitting the determinative influence of the divine action upon the course of events in general, we recognize that to us they are contingent, and we are not perplexed by a difficulty which we scarcely feel. But with the question of personal salvation it is difi'erent. Foreknowledge here im- plies a determinative action which seems to leave no room for choice, or moral freedom. Further, experience shows that there are gradations in the extent of spiritual privUeges accorded, and infinite variations m the degree to which men avail them- selves of these. Are we then to argue a limitation of the divine power, or of the divine will, to save ? The interests of piety and morality, the facts of religion and experience, seem incompatible here, the one demanding an absoluteness of determination