1 Peter 1:20

1 Peter 1:20. Who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world. The cost of this redemption is still in view, and is presented in a yet stronger light by a statement bearing at once on the dignity of the Efficient Agent, the date of the Divine purpose, and the character of the subjects for whom it was destined. Peter reverts to the idea of 1 Peter 1:2, and represents the Efficient Agent of the redemption as appearing indeed in time, but provided and kept in view before all time. The phrase, ‘before the foundation of the world,' used by Paul (Ephesians 1:4), and by Christ Himself in reference to His own pre-incarnate life (John 17:24), and occurring also repeatedly in the form ‘ from the foundation of the world' (Matthew 13:35; Matthew 25:34; Luke 11:50; Hebrews 4:3; Hebrews 9:26; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 17:8), carries us above all time into an eternity out of which time and history issued, and in which God's purpose was formed. In this pre-mundane eternity Christ was contemplated and recognised as that which He was shown to be in time. The E. V. here departs from the literal translation, which it retains in the other six places in which the verb or its noun occurs, and substitutes ‘foreordained' for ‘foreknown.' The foreknowledge no doubt here, as in 1 Peter 1:2, means not mere prescience, but recognition, and lies near the idea of providing or determining. But while knowledge and will may be identical or coincident in the Divine mind, they are distinct things in our minds. The revelation of God, adapting itself to the modes of our thoughts, distinguishes between these two things, prescience and foreordination, and Peter himself indeed mentions them as distinct (Acts 2:23). It is right, therefore, to keep the literal sense ‘foreknown,' the idea being simply this that Christ was eternally in God's view and before God's mind as the Agent of this redemption. It is not necessary, therefore, to suppose (with Hofmann, Alford, etc.) that there is a comparison here between the lamb that was singled out of the flock and marked out for the Passover sacrifice some days before the occasion (Exodus 12:3-6), and Christ predestined in eternity for a service in time.

but was manifested: the tense changes here. The ‘foreknown' is expressed by the perfect; literally, ‘has been foreknown,' in reference to the place held and continuing to be held by Christ in the Divine mind. The ‘manifested' is in the past, since what is in view is the historical manifestation once for all accomplished. The verb, which in 1 Peter 1:4 is used of the future advent of Christ, is to be understood here neither of the continuous manifestation of Christ by the preaching of the Gospel, nor of His coming forth from the secret counsel of God, but simply of His first advent. And as the verb describes the revelation of a ‘previously hidden existence' (Fronmüller), the best exegetes agree in regarding the statement as inconsistent with the theory of a merely ideal existence of Christ before His appearance in history, and as a clear witness to Peter's belief in His real pre-incarnate existence. The A. V., unlike almost all other Versions, curiously renders the participle ‘manifested' here by the adjective ‘manifest.'

at the end of the times. So we should read, with the best authorities, instead of ‘in these last times.' The present time, the interval between Christ's two comings, is the end of the times as being the period beyond which there is to be no new revelation of grace. It is Christ's first advent that has made the present time the last.

on account of you. The preciousness of the redemption has been carefully set forth by four different definitions of its cost which have risen in a climax from the simple notice of blood, to that of blood with all the value arising from the ethical quality of Him who shed it, to that of Christ's blood, and finally to that of the blood of the Christ who was eternally in God's view as the Ransom. A fresh wonder is added to it now by these words, which bring it home personally to the readers, and show the interest of degraded Gentiles, such as they, to have been contemplated by it all.