πρόγνωσις

From the study of Acts 2:23

Range of meaning

Knowing beforehand: foresight, foreknowledge. In medical Greek it means a doctor's prognosis. In Jewish usage it means God's advance knowledge as the basis of his acts, close to 'forethought' or 'prior decision'.

Against the English

All major English versions say 'foreknowledge'. That is correct as far as it goes, but readers may hear only 'God saw it coming', without the purposeful sense that the pairing with 'fixed plan' gives.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX Judith 9:6: 'all your ways are prepared, and your judgment is ἐν προγνώσει (in foreknowledge)', where God's foreknowledge goes hand in hand with his prepared decisions. NT: only here and 1 Pet 1:2 ('chosen according to the foreknowledge of God'). The verb προγινώσκω appears in Rom 8:29; 11:2; 1 Pet 1:20 (Christ 'foreknown before the foundation of the world').

From the study of 1 Peter 1:2

Range of meaning

Knowing beforehand: prior knowledge, foresight. In ordinary Greek it was the medical word for a 'prognosis' (the Hippocratic Prognostikon), meaning predicting how an illness will go. In Jewish and Christian use about God, it means God's advance knowing that is tied to his purpose. The verb proginōskō can mean 'know before' in the sense of 'choose before' or 'set one's regard on beforehand'.

Against the English

'Foreknowledge' in English means simply knowing facts about the future, as in prediction. That is part of the Greek range. But when the Bible uses it of God, it leans toward the Hebrew sense of 'know' (yada') as relational and choosing: 'You only have I known of all the families of the earth' (Amos 3:2); 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you' (Jeremiah 1:5).

How it drifted

English 'foreknow' carries only the information sense. Later debates about election made the word a battlefield, and some read it as 'foresaw who would believe' while others read it as 'chose beforehand'. The word alone does not settle that, but its use in 1 Peter limits the options.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX Judith 9:6 ('your judgment is in foreknowledge') and 11:19 use it of advance knowledge tied to a plan. Wisdom 8:8 and 18:6 use the verb of things known beforehand. In the NT, Acts 2:23 joins it to God's 'determined plan' (hōrismenē boulē). Romans 8:29 and 11:2 ('his people whom he foreknew') use the verb with a person as object. Most decisive here is 1 Peter 1:20, where Christ is proegnōsmenou, 'foreknown before the foundation of the world, but revealed at the end of the times'. That cannot mean God merely foresaw facts about Christ. It means God had him in view and purposed him beforehand.