Every Predestination
All six occurrences of proorizo in the Greek New Testament, with the object of the verb in every one.
Six occurrences. Every one names a destination or has a non-personal object.
Occurrences whose object is “to believe,” “who would believe,” or the selecting of some individuals rather than others: zero.
The six, with the object of the verb
The King James renders this one verb with three different English expressions, which is why Acts 4:28 and 1 Corinthians 2:7 rarely appear in the argument: an English-only reader never sees that they are the same word.
| Reference | Greek | KJV renders | Object of the verb | Destination, in the verse's own words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acts 4:28 | proorisen | determined before | An EVENT. Greek genesthai, “to be done.” | “to be done” |
| Romans 8:29 | proorisen | did predestinate | PERSONS, with an object complement naming the destination. | “to be conformed to the image of his Son” |
| Romans 8:30 | proorisen | did predestinate | PERSONS, bare relative pronoun hous, no object of its own. | none restated; inherits verse 29’s |
| 1 Corinthians 2:7 | proorisen | ordained before | A THING. Greek sophian, wisdom. Not persons at all. | “unto our glory” |
| Ephesians 1:5 | proorisas | having predestinated | PERSONS, hemas, us. | “unto the adoption of children” |
| Ephesians 1:11 | prooristhentes | being predestinated | PERSONS, passive participle. | an inheritance (eklerothemen) |
Each one, in full
“For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.”
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
“Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”
“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:”
“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,”
“In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:”
The classification
| Class | Count | Which |
|---|---|---|
| Non-personal object | 2 | Acts 4:28 (an event); 1 Corinthians 2:7 (God's wisdom) |
| Persons, with a stated destination | 3 | Romans 8:29; Ephesians 1:5; Ephesians 1:11 |
| Persons, destination inherited | 1 | Romans 8:30, which restates no object and reaches back to 8:29 |
| Selection of who believes | 0 | none |
Words to keep distinct
These are the words an objection reaches for. None of them is proorizo, and the two most often confused with it never share a verse with it anywhere in the New Testament.
| Word | NT total | Note |
|---|---|---|
| tasso (G5021) | 9 | “Ordained” in Acts 13:48. Never overlaps with proorizo. Its other uses are ordinary appointment: a soldier under authority, a mountain appointed, a day set, the house of Stephanas who “addicted themselves.” |
| eklegomai (G1586) | 19 | “Chosen” in Ephesians 1:4, one verse before the predestinating of 1:5. Two different verbs, two acts. |
| proginosko (G4267) | 5 | “Foreknew.” Romans 8:29 places it before proorizo. |
| prothesis (G4286) | 12 | “Purpose.” Four of the twelve are the shewbread, the bread of presentation; two are ordinary human resolve. The theological uses are six, not twelve. |
| proetoimazo (G4282) | 2 | “Afore prepared.” Romans 9:23, unto glory; Ephesians 2:10, unto good works. Both name a destination, like proorizo. |
Method
- Source is STEPBible TAGNT (CC BY 4.0), the tagged Greek New Testament, 141,720 word-rows scanned.
- Each occurrence is matched on the word's own Strong's field. TAGNT also carries grammatical links pointing at the Strong's number of a different word, so a looser match returns articles and pronouns as false hits.
- All six are marked [NKO]: present in NA28, in the Textus Receptus and Byzantine text, and in the other editions alike. No manuscript variant anywhere adds or removes one. The count holds on the critical text and the Received Text equally.
- English is the King James Version.
What this census does not settle
A count can only carry what it counted. This one establishes one thing: across all six occurrences, the verb names a destination and never a roster. That is the finding, and it is the whole finding.
- It does not claim the Bible teaches no predestination. It does, and gloriously. The claim is about what the verb takes as its object.
- It does not settle Acts 13:48, Romans 9, or John 6. Those are different words or different passages, and each deserves its own reading.
- It does not settle whether a stated destination presupposes a prior selection. The Reformed inference is that being predestined to adoption presupposes being chosen to be saved. This census shows the text never writes that step. It does not show the step is wrong.
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Greek forms from STEPBible TAGNT (CC BY 4.0). The classification of each row and every conclusion drawn from it are the author's, and are argued in There Is No Calvinist Predestination in the Bible.