1 Peter 1:20

Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world ; rather, as in the Revised Version, who was foreknown indeed; literally, who hath been fore known . But the foreknowledge of God implies the exercise of his will, therefore the "foreordained" of the Authorized Version, though not here an exact translation, is true in doctrine. St. Peter had asserted the same great truth in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost ( Acts 2:23 ; comp. also Acts 3:18 and Acts 4:28 ). He had heard the words, "before the foundation of the world," again and again from the lips of Christ; he may possibly have read them in the Epistle to the Ephesians ( Ephesians 1:4 ). The incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ were not the result of a change of purpose to meet unforeseen circumstances; they were foreseen and foreordained in the eternal counsels of God. Those counsels are wholly above the range of our understanding; we cannot see through the veil of mystery which surrounds them; we cannot fathom the awful necessities which they imply. But was manifest in these last times for you; rather, as in the Revised Version, with the best manuscripts, was manifested at the end of the times for your sake . The aorist ( φανερωθέντος ) marks the Incarnation as an event which took place in time; the purpose of God was eternal, before all time. For the phrase, "at the end of the times" ( ἐπ ̓ ἐσχάτου τών χρόνων ), compare the reading of the most ancient manuscripts in Hebrews 1:1 ( ἐπ ̓ ἐσχάτου τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων , "at the end of these days"); also in Jude 1:8 ( ἐπ ̓ ἐσχάτου χρόνου ). "This is the last time," St. John says; or, rather, "the last hour ( ἐσχάτη ὥρα )" ( 1 John 2:18 ); the last period in the development of God's dealings with mankind is the time which intervenes between the first and the second advents of Christ.