Acts 15:18

Act 15:18. Γνωστὸν ἀπʼ αἰῶνος, known from the beginning of the world) James infers this from the prediction itself, and from the words of the same prophet, which appeal to the days of eternity [LXX., αἱ ἡμέραι τοῦ αἰῶνος: Engl. Vers. Amo 9:11, “I will build it as in the days of old”]; and to these words the apostle, returning back again to the same prophecy, alludes. We have commented on the words in our notes above. GOD predicted ἀπʼ αἰῶνος, “As He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began” (from eternity, “a seculo”), Luk 1:70: therefore He knew from eternity. Wherefore we ought not to shrink from this (the admission of the Gentiles) as something strange and marvellous. GOD did not give circumcision in such a way as that it was always to last: for at the same time He predicted the conversion of the Gentiles. An admirable Axiom; as Sir 23:20, πρινὴ (= πρὶν ἢ, Lat. prius-quam) κτισθῆναι, τὰ πάντα ἔγνωσται αὐτῷ, all things were known to Him before that they were founded, or created. And from this the Divine prescience of all things is demonstrated; for all the works of GOD, especially rewards and punishments, presuppose all the motions (even including the free motions of will and deed) of His creatures.—τὸ ἔργον αὐτοῦ, His work[89]) The singular number has peculiar emphasis. It is to be referred to the words, Ὁ ΠΟΙῶΝ ΤΑῦΤΑ, who doeth these things, Act 15:17.

[89] Not works, as Engl. Vers. with Ee and later Syr. BC Memph. and Theb. omit all but γνωστὰ ἀπʼ αἰῶνος: so Tisch. But ADd Vulg. and Iren. read τὸ ἴργον αὐτοῦ, as Beng. and Lachm.—E. and T.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 15:18 . In R.V. the phrase ἀπʼ αἰῶνος is connected closely with the preceding clause, see critical notes: “who maketh these things known from the beginning of the world” (“of time,” Ramsay), or margin, “who doeth these things which were known” etc. St. James may perhaps have added the words freely to the LXX to emphasise his argument that the call of the Gentiles was a carrying out of God’s eternal purpose, but there is nothing corresponding to the words in the Hebrew, although at the end of Act 15:11 we have ׃בִּימֵי עוֹלָם : LXX, καθὼς αἱ ἡμέραι ἀπʼ αἰῶνος , and somewhat similar phrase in Isa 45:21 , see Zöckler, in loco , for different authorities, and for further discussion of the words, Klostermann, Probleme im Aposteltexte , p. 128. ἀπʼ αἰῶνος is peculiar to Luke in N.T., cf. Luk 1:70 , Act 3:21 ; it may simply = “of old time,” see Plummer, St. Luke, l. c. , but here it may intimate that St. James refers to that purpose of God revealed by all the prophets, as in Act 3:21 . In Psalms of Solomon , Act 8:7 , ἀπʼ αἰῶνος seems to be equivalent to “from the creation of the heaven and earth,” cf. Ps. 118:52. If the conference was held in Greek, as we may reasonably conclude from the fact that Gentile interests were at stake, and that many of the Gentiles, as of the Hellenistic Jews, would probably be present, it is very significant that St. James, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, quotes the rendering of the LXX so apposite for his purpose, and that he should see the spiritual restoration of the house of David in the kingdom of Jesus, and the fulfilment of prophecy in the reception of the Gentiles into the kingdom of the Messiah, so exclusively guarded by the Jews.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And therefore nothing cometh to pass by fortune, but by God’s appointment.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Known unto God are all his works from the beginning--He who announced these things so long before, and He who had now brought them to pass, were one and the same; so that they were no novelty.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning] As if he had said, This is not a new counsel of God: he had purposed, from the time he called the Israelites, to make the Gentiles partakers of the same grace and mercy; and ultimately to destroy those rites and ceremonies which separated them from each other. He therefore has sent the Gospel of his Son, proclaiming equally peace to him that is afar off, the Gentiles, and to him that is nigh, the Jews.

The whole of this verse is very dubious: the principal part of it is omitted by the most ancient MSS., and Griesbach has left γνωϚα απ' αιωνος doubtful, and has thrown εϚι τῳ Θεῳ παντα τα εργα αὑτου out of the text. Of the former clause, Professor White, in his Crisews, says, "forsitan delenda," "probably these words should be blotted out." And of the latter clause he says, "certissime delenda," "most assuredly these should be blotted out." Supposing the whole to be genuine, critics have laboured to find out the sense. Some very learned men, and particularly Schleusner, contend that the word γνωϚα, from γινωσκειν, to know, should be understood here in the same sense in which ידא yada is in many parts of the Old Testament, which not only signifies to know, but to approve, love, c. They therefore would translate the passage thus: All the works of God are ever dear unto him. And, if so, consequently we might naturally expect him to be merciful to the Gentiles, as well as to the Jews and the evidence now afforded of the conversion of the Gentiles is an additional proof that all God's works are equally dear to him.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Known from the beginning. This is a prevention, to put away the hatred which might have risen upon the novelty; for the sudden change might have been suspected, and therefore did it trouble weak minds. Therefore James preventeth, showing that this was no new thing with God, though it fell out suddenly otherwise than men thought; because God saw, before the world was created, what he would do, and the calling of the Gentiles was hidden in his secret counsel. Whereupon it followeth, that it must not be esteemed according to the sense of man. Furthermore, James hath respect unto the words of the prophet, when he affirmeth that God, who should do all these things, was also the author of the prophecy. Therefore, his meaning is, that, seeing God speaketh by his prophet, he saw then, yea, from the very beginning, that neither uncircumcision nor anything else should let him, but that he would choose the Gentiles into his family. Nevertheless, there is comprehended under this a general exhortation, that men do not take upon them to measure, with the small measure of their wit, the works of God, the reason whereof is oftentimes known to none but to himself; but rather let them cry, being astonished, that his ways are past finding out, and that his judgments are too deep a depth, (Romans 11:33.)

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(18) Known unto God are all his works.—The better MSS. give “all His work”—i.e., the great work of the government and education of mankind. The words are an implicit answer to the charge of innovation. If the work were of God, it could not be so called, for His mercies are everlasting, and the work which He carries on now must be thought of as contemplated and purposed from eternity. The principle has clearly a wider range than that within which St. James applies it. We do well to remember, whenever we are tempted to offer an obstinate resistance to what seems to us a novelty, and which we therefore are ready to condemn, that we ought first to inquire whether the “signs of the times” do not indicate that it is part of the divine plan, working through the ages, that the old order should change and give place to the new.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Known unto God are all his works,.... These are the words of James, and not of Amos; all the things which God does in the church and in the world, they were all foreknown and predetermined by him: from the beginning of the world; or from eternity; even all his works of creation, providence and grace: the Alexandrian copy, and Beza's most ancient copy, and the Vulgate Latin version, read in the singular number, "his work"; the work of the conversion of the Gentiles; this was fixed and resolved on by God in eternity; he knew it would be, because he had determined it should be; and accordingly he foretold it, and spoke of it in various periods of time before it came to pass; and therefore it should not be looked upon as some new and strange thing, that was never known, spoken or heard of: and this holds true of every other work of God, and agrees with what the Jews sometimes say (z), that

"every work which is renewed in the world, the holy blessed God has commanded (or ordered) it from the day the world was created.''

(z) Zohar in Exod. fol. 78. 2. Vid. ib. in Lev. fol. 25. 4.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.

Ver. 18. Known unto God, &c.] And consequently the calling of the Gentiles is foreknown and foreappointed by him, as a thing to be done in due time, though they be never circumcised.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Known unto God ... - See the notes on Act 1:24. The meaning of this verse, in this connection, is this. God sees everything future; he knows what he will accomplish; he has a plan; all his works are so arranged in his mind that he sees everything distinctly and clearly. As he foretold these, it was a part of his plan; and as it was a part of his plan long since foretold, it should not be opposed and resisted by us.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

To the Lord was known his own work. He bringeth it to pass, as he hath decreed, though his decrees are to us unknown. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

This the apostle adds, that they might not be offended with the seeming novelty and surprise of the calling of the Gentiles, and abrogation of the ceremonies; for it was no other than what God had before determined to do, and therefore they ought to rest satisfied in the wise and holy appointments of God.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Known… from the beginning—God is not taken by surprise; nor has he changed the eternal plans of his own conduct. What seems a great change to us is, in fact, fully accordant with Jehovah’s most comprehensive plan, which takes all the wise changes into its own scope.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Who maketh these things known, etc., for who doeth all these things (in ver. 17 of A.V.); known for known unto God are all his works, A.V. and T.R. Known from the beginning of the world. The above passage from Amo_9:11, Amo_9:12, is quoted, not very exactly, though with no change of sense, from the LXX, where it ends with the words, "saith the Lord, who doeth all these things," as in the A.V.. But the LXX ver. 17 differs widely from the present Hebrew text. For whereas the Hebrew has, "That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen that are called by my Name," the LXX (Cod. Alex.) have Opwv a ejkzhthswsin oiJ kataloipoi twn ajnqrwpwn torion kainta ta eqnh k.t.l., where it is evident that they read Wvrdyi, seek after, for Wvrye, possess, and a; men, for Edom. There is every appearance of the LXX, followed here by St. James, having preserved the true reading. As regards the reading of the R.V in ver. 18, it is a manifest corruption. It is not the reading of either the Hebrew or the Greek version of Amos, or of any other version; and it makes no sense. Whereas the T.R., which is the reading of Irenaeus (3:12.), as Meyer truly says, "presents a thought completely clear, pious, noble, and inoffensive as regards the connection," though he thinks that a reason for rejecting it. Nothing could be more germane to St. James"s argument than thus to show from the words of Amos that God"s present purpose of taking the Gentiles to be his people was, like all his other works, formed from the beginning of the world. (comp. Eph_1:9, 10 3:5, 6; 2Ti_1:9, etc.) As regards the interpretation of the prophecy of Amos intended, the idea seems to be that that apparent ruin of the house and family of David which culminated in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus would be followed by those "sure mercies of David," which consisted in his resurrection from the dead, his exaltation to the right hand of God, and the gathering in of the Gentiles to his kingdom. The phrase, "the tabernacle of David," is rather difficult, because the word in the Hebrew is dyzid; tKsu, tabernacle or booth of David. It is the word used for the booths at the Feast of Tabernacles, and denotes a temporary shed of branches or the like of a very humble character. It is difficult to say why this word was used, unless it was to show that the house of David had fallen to a low estate before it was pulled down.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Known unto God are all his works from eternity - Which the apostle infers from the prophecy itself, and the accomplishment of it. And this conversion of the Gentiles being known to him from eternity, we ought not to think a new or strange thing. It is observable, he does not speak of God's works in the natural world, (which had been nothing to his present purpose,) but of his dealing with the children of men. Now he could not know these, without knowing the characters and actions of particular persons, on a correspondence with which the wisdom and goodness of his providential dispensations is founded. For instance, he could not know how he would deal with heathen idolaters (whom he was now calling into his Church) without knowing there would be heathen idolaters: and yet this was a thing purely contingent, a thing as dependent on the freedom of the human mind, as any we can imagine. This text, therefore, among a thousand more, is an unanswerable proof, that God foreknows future contingencies, though there are difficulties relating hereto which men cannot solve.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

See notes on verse 13

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. ποιῶν ταῦτα γνωστὰ ἀπ’ αἰῶνος. This is the reading supported by most authority, and the sense must be either (1) ‘the Lord who maketh these things known from the beginning of the world,’ or (2) ‘the Lord, who doeth these things that were known from the beginning of the world.’ The first of these renderings is the more difficult to understand, and it must be taken as somewhat hyperbolic. God made known by His prophets the calling of the Gentiles in very early days, and this early revelation may be all that is intended by the stronger phrase. But the second sense seems to suit better with the context. This reception of the Gentiles seems to the Jew a new and startling thing, but God has revealed it by His prophets, and He who is doing it is but carrying out what He had known and designed from the beginning of the world.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18.] The variation of reading here is remarkable. The text which I have given is in all probability the original, and the words inserted in the rec. have been intended as a help out of their difficulty. Not only are they wanting in several ancient mss., but they bear the sure mark of spuriousness,—manifold variations in the mss. where they do occur. The sense, and account of the text seem to be this: the Apostle paraphrases the ὁ ποιῶν (πάντα) ταῦτα of the LXX, adding γνωστὰ ἀπʼ αἰῶνος, and intending to express ‘saith the Lord, who from the beginning revealed these things,’ viz. by the prophet (of old, see reff.) just cited. The addition in the rec. has been made to fill up the apparently elliptical γνωστὰ ἀπʼ αἰῶνος, which not being found in the passage of Amos, was regarded as a sentence by itself. These last words, κύρ. ὁ ποι. ταῦ. γν. ἀπʼ αἰ., may perhaps be an allusion to the mystery of the admission of the Gentiles into the, church, which was now being revealed practically, and had been from of old announced by the prophets: cf. Rom 16:25, Rom 16:26; Eph 3:5, Eph 3:6, &c.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Known unto God, etc. The best texts join these words with the preceding verse, from which they omit all; rendering, The Lord, who maketh these things known from the beginning of the world.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.