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should be exchanged for the less ambiguous word "hope". The word that is used in
Eph. 1: 12 is a compound, proelpizo, the pro being translated in the Authorized Version
"first", but although pro occurs forty-eight times in the New Testament it is never so
translated in the Authorized Version elsewhere. "The Companion Bible" sums up the
meanings of pro, in Appendix 104/14: thus:
"Pro governs only one case (the Genitive) and denote the position as being in sight,
or before one, in place (e.g. Luke 7: 27; 9: 52; James 5: 9), time (e.g. Matt. 5: 12;
John 17: 24; Acts 21: 38), or superiority (e.g. James 5: 12; I Pet. 4: 8).
Just as the preposition pro indicates of place, time and dignity so is it when used in
combination with other words. When used as a prefix to the Greek verbs ago "to lead",
erchomai "to come", and poreuomai "to go", it is translated "to go before". When
prefixed to lego "to speak", grapho "to write", or epangellomai "to promise", it is
rendered "in time past", "aforetime" and "afore". These refer either to priority of place
or of time. The third usage is that of priority in position, dignity or advantage.
Proerchomai "better" (Rom. 3: 9), Proegeomai and prokrima "prefer" in two senses
(Rom. 12: 10; I Tim. 5: 21); prokopto, prokope "profit" and "wax" (Gal. 1: 14;
I Tim. 4: 15; II Tim. 3: 13).
We cannot quite eliminate the third sense, of dignity, from such passages as
John 1: 15, 27 and 30, which say "He was before me", for each passage use the word
"preferred", and in one, John the Baptist expands this meaning by saying "Whose shoe's
latchet I am not worthy to unloose", which has nothing to do with time. The same may
be said of Col. 1: 17, 18 for the words "before all things", "beginning" and "firstborn",
refer not only to time, but especially to dignity "that in all things He might have the
pre-eminence". To tell the members of the One Body, believers during the dispensation
of the mystery, the period when Israel's hope is deferred, that "we hoped-before" and
mean by that, the hope of the believer during the Acts, is manifestly without point. Right
up to the dispensational boundary of Acts 28:, the "hope of Israel" was uppermost
(Acts 28: 20), so to tell the Ephesians that the Apostle or his fellow believers, hoped
before the Ephesians did, is to tell them nothing relevant to the object with which
Ephesians was written. If we believe that the "we" of Eph. 1: 13 refers to one company,
namely the Jewish believer, and the "ye" refers to the Gentiles, are we going to take the
argument to its logical conclusion, and say that the words "Blessed US", "Chosen US",
"WE have redemption" , "WE have obtained" in the preceding verses are also exclusive
to the Jewish believer? We believe that the meaning of the Apostle can only be discerned
if we perceive that the word pro is used to indicate priority of position or dignity.
The word "predestinate" is used twice in this great charter of the church, and enables
us to see that the wondrous acceptance in the Beloved, is echoed by this condition of
being in a state of "prior" hope, thus: