Proverbs 8:23-31

8:23 From eternity I was appointed, ¹ 

from the beginning, from before the world existed. ² 

8:24 When there were no deep oceans ³  I was born, ⁴ 

when there were no springs overflowing ⁵  with water;

8:25 before the mountains were set in place –

before the hills – I was born,

8:26 before he made the earth and its fields, ⁶ 

or the beginning ⁷  of the dust of the world.

8:27 When he established the heavens, I was there;

when he marked out the horizon ⁸  over the face of the deep,

8:28 when he established the clouds above,

when the fountains of the deep grew strong, ⁹ 

8:29 when he gave the sea his decree

that the waters should not pass over his command, ¹⁰ 

when he marked out the foundations of the earth,

8:30 then I was ¹¹  beside him as a master craftsman, ¹² 

and I was his delight ¹³  day by day,

rejoicing before him at all times,

8:31 rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, ¹⁴ 

and delighting ¹⁵  in its people. ¹⁶ 

Matthew 25:34

25:34 Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

John 17:24

17:24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, ¹⁷  so that they can see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world ¹⁸ .

Acts 15:18

15:18 known ¹⁹  from long ago. ²⁰ 

Romans 16:25

16:25 ²¹ Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that had been kept secret for long ages,

Romans 16:1

Personal Greetings

16:1 Now I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant ²²  of the church in Cenchrea,

Romans 1:20-23

1:20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people ²³  are without excuse. 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts ²⁴  were darkened. 1:22 Although they claimed ²⁵  to be wise, they became fools 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings ²⁶  or birds or four-footed animals ²⁷  or reptiles.

Revelation 13:8

13:8 and all those who live on the earth will worship the beast, ²⁸  everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world ²⁹  in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who was killed. ³⁰ 

[8:23]  ¹ tn The first parallel verb is נִסַּכְתִּי (nissakhti), “I was appointed.” It is not a common word; it occurs here and in Ps 2:6 for the coronation of the king. It means “installed, set.”

[8:23]  ² tn The verb “existed” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation in the light of the context.

[8:24]  ³ sn The summary statements just given are now developed in a lengthy treatment of wisdom as the agent of all creation. This verse singles out “watery deeps” (תְּהֹמוֹת, tÿhomot) in its allusion to creation because the word in Genesis signals the condition of the world at the very beginning, and because in the ancient world this was something no one could control. Chaos was not there first – wisdom was.

[8:24]  ⁴ tn The third parallel verb is חוֹלָלְתִּי (kholalti), “I was given birth.” Some (e.g., KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV) translate it “brought forth” – not in the sense of being presented, but in the sense of being “begotten, given birth to.” Here is the strongest support for the translation of קָנָה (qanah) as “created” in v. 22. The verb is not literal; it continues the perspective of the personification.

[8:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “made heavy.”

[8:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “open places.”

[8:26]  ⁷ tn Here רֹאשׁ (ro’sh) means “beginning” with reference to time (BDB 911 s.v. 4.b).

[8:27]  ⁸ sn The infinitive construct בְּחוּקוֹ (bÿkhuqo, “to cut; to engrave; to mark”) and the noun חוּג (khug, “horizon; circle”) form a paronomasia in the line.

[8:28]  ⁹ tn To form a better parallel some commentators read this infinitive בַּעֲזוֹז (ba’azoz), “when [they] grew strong,” as a Piel causative, “when he made firm, fixed fast” (cf. NIV “fixed securely”; NLT “established”). But the following verse (“should not pass over”) implies the meaning “grew strong” here.

[8:29]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “his mouth.”

[8:30]  ¹¹ tn The verb form is a preterite with vav consecutive, although it has not been apocopated. It provides the concluding statement for the temporal clauses as well as the parallel to v. 27.

[8:30]  ¹² tn Critical to the interpretation of this line is the meaning of אָמוֹן (’amon). Several suggestions have been made: “master craftsman” (cf. ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV), “nursing child” (cf. NCV), “foster father.” R. B. Y. Scott chooses “faithful” – a binding or living link (“Wisdom in Creation: The ‘Amon of Proverbs 8:30,” VT 10 [1960]: 213-23). The image of a child is consistent with the previous figure of being “given birth to” (vv. 24, 25). However, “craftsman” has the most support (LXX, Vulgate, Syriac, Tg. Prov 8:30, Song 7:1; Jer 52:15; also P. W. Skehan, “Structures in Poems on Wisdom: Proverbs 8 and Sirach 24,” CBQ 41 [1979]: 365-79).

[8:30]  ¹³ tn The word is a plural of intensification for “delight”; it describes wisdom as the object of delight. The LXX has the suffix; the Hebrew does not.

[8:31]  ¹⁴ tn The two words are synonymous in general and so could be taken to express a superlative idea – the “whole world” (cf. NIV, NCV). But תֵּבֵל (tevel) also means the inhabited world, and so the construct may be interpreted as a partitive genitive.

[8:31]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and my delights” [were] with/in.”

[8:31]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the sons of man.”

[17:24]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “the ones you have given me, I want these to be where I am with me.”

[17:24]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “before the foundation of the world.”

[15:18]  ¹⁹ sn Who makes these things known. The remark emphasizes how God’s design of these things reaches back to the time he declared them.

[15:18]  ²⁰ sn An allusion to Isa 45:21.

[16:25]  ²¹ tc There is a considerable degree of difference among the mss regarding the presence and position of the doxology of 16:25-27. Five situations present themselves from the ms tradition. The doxology is found in the ancient witnesses in three separate locations: (1) here after 16:23 (Ì⁶¹ א B C D 81 365 630 1739 2464 al co), (2) after 14:23 (Ψ 0209^vid Ï), or (3) after 15:33 (Ì⁴⁶). The situation is further complicated in that some of the mss have these verses in two places: (4) after 14:23 and after 16:23 (A P 33 104 2805 pc); or (5) after 14:23 and after 15:33 (1506). The uncertain position of the doxology might suggest that it was added by later scribes. But since the mss containing the doxology are so early and widespread, it almost certainly belongs in Romans; it is only a question of where. Further, the witnesses that omit the doxology are few: F G 629 Hier^mss. (And of these, G has a blank space of several lines large enough for the doxology to belong there.) Only two positions (after chapter 14 only and at the end of the letter only) deserve particular notice because the situation of the mss showing the doxology in two places dates back to the 5th century. Later copyists, faced with the doxology in two different places in the mss they knew, may have decided to copy the doxology in both places, since they were unwilling to consciously omit any text. Because the textual disruption of the doxology is so early, TCGNT 472 suggests two possibilities: either (1) that Paul may have sent two different copies of Romans – a copy lacking chapter 16 and a copy with the full text of the epistle as we now have it, or (2) Marcion or some of his followers circulated a shortened form of the epistle that lacked chapters 15 and 16. Those mss that lacked chapters 15-16 would naturally conclude with some kind of doxology after chapter 14. On the other hand, H. Gamble (The Textual History of the Letter to the Romans [SD], 123-32) argues for the position of the doxology at 14:23, since to put the doxology at 16:25 would violate Paul’s normal pattern of a grace-benediction at the close of the letter. Gamble further argues for the inclusion of 16:24, since the mss that put the doxology after chapter 14 almost always present 16:24 as the letter’s closing, whereas most of the mss that put the doxology at its traditional position drop 16:24, perhaps because it would be redundant before 16:25-27. A decision is difficult, but the weight of external evidence, since it is both early and geographically widespread, suggests that the doxology belongs here after 16:23. For a full discussion, see TCGNT 470-73.

[16:1]  ²² tn Or “deaconess.” It is debated whether διάκονος (diakonos) here refers to a specific office within the church. One contextual argument used to support this view is that Phoebe is associated with a particular church, Cenchrea, and as such would therefore be a deacon of that church. In the NT some who are called διάκονος are related to a particular church, yet the scholarly consensus is that such individuals are not deacons, but “servants” or “ministers” (other viable translations for διάκονος). For example, Epaphras is associated with the church in Colossians and is called a διάκονος in Col 1:7, but no contemporary translation regards him as a deacon. In 1 Tim 4:6 Paul calls Timothy a διάκονος; Timothy was associated with the church in Ephesus, but he obviously was not a deacon. In addition, the lexical evidence leans away from this view: Within the NT, the διακον- word group rarely functions with a technical nuance. In any case, the evidence is not compelling either way. The view accepted in the translation above is that Phoebe was a servant of the church, not a deaconess, although this conclusion should be regarded as tentative.

[1:20]  ²³ tn Grk “they”; the referent (people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:21]  ²⁴ tn Grk “heart.”

[1:22]  ²⁵ tn The participle φάσκοντες (faskonte") is used concessively here.

[1:23]  ²⁶ tn Grk “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God in likeness of an image of corruptible man.” Here there is a wordplay on the Greek terms ἄφθαρτος (afqarto", “immortal, imperishable, incorruptible”) and φθαρτός (fqarto", “mortal, corruptible, subject to decay”).

[1:23]  ²⁷ sn Possibly an allusion to Ps 106:19-20.

[13:8]  ²⁸ tn Grk “it”; the referent (the beast) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:8]  ²⁹ tn The prepositional phrase “since the foundation of the world” is traditionally translated as a modifier of the immediately preceding phrase in the Greek text, “the Lamb who was killed” (so also G. B. Caird, Revelation [HNTC], 168), but it is more likely that the phrase “since the foundation of the world” modifies the verb “written” (as translated above). Confirmation of this can be found in Rev 17:8 where the phrase “written in the book of life since the foundation of the world” occurs with no ambiguity.

[13:8]  ³⁰ tn Or “slaughtered”; traditionally, “slain.”