Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Peter 1:20 - 1:20

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Peter 1:20 - 1:20


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

20. προεγνωσμένου = designated beforehand as God’s appointed agent. This was true not only of the Messiah as the long-expected King, but also of the suffering Messiah, the Lamb. This is the usual interpretation of Rev 13:8, “whose name hath not been written in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain from the foundation of the world” (ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου), but see R.V. margin.

In Eph 1:4 God is described as having chosen us in Christ πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου, and one factor in the execution of God’s purpose is “redemption by Christ’s blood.” Again, in Mat 25:34, the Kingdom is said to have been prepared for God’s children ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου, and in Rev 5:9 the Lamb slain is said to have purchased men for God of every nation to be a kingdom and priests by His blood. In St Peter’s speech on the day of Pentecost Jesus is described as being delivered up (ἔκδοτον) by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge (προγνώσει) of God, Act 2:23.

φανερωθέντος. The eternal purpose of God was not manifested to the world until the “fulness of the times” was come; cf. 1Ti 2:6 and Rom 16:25-26.

ἐπʼ ἐσχάτου τῶν χρόνων, at the end of the times, cf. καιρῷ ἐσχάτῳ, 1Pe 1:5. The Christian dispensation is regarded as the climax for which all the earlier periods of God’s dealings with the world were preparatory. Cf. 1Co 10:11, the story of Israel in the wilderness was written “for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come”; Heb 1:2, God has spoken to us by the Son, ἐπʼ ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων; Heb 9:26, Christ sacrificed Himself “at the end of the ages,” ἐπὶ συντελείᾳ τῶν αἰώνων.