he who made these things known so long ago.’
Parallel translations
- WEB All of God’s works are known to him from eternity.’
- KJV Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
- BSB that have been known for ages.’
- NKJV “Known to God from eternity are all His works.
- NASB Says the Lord, who makes these things known from long ago.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
All God's works have been known to Him from eternity. Gentile inclusion is no afterthought but God's eternal plan.
Overview
James concludes the citation by affirming God's foreknowledge of all He does. The salvation of the Gentiles was not an emergency adjustment but part of God's settled, eternal purpose. This assures the council that they are recognizing, not inventing, what God had always intended.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Eph 3:9and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ;
- Eph 1:4even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love;
- Isa 46:9–10Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me.
- Eph 1:11in whom also we were assigned an inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will;
- 1 Pet 1:20who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake,
- Acts 17:26He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,
- Num 23:19God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
- 2 Th 2:13But we are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth;
- Matt 13:35that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.”
- Rev 17:8The beast that you saw was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into destruction. Those who dwell on the earth and whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel when they see that the beast was, and is not, and shall be present.
- Isa 44:7Who is like me? Who will call, and will declare it, and set it in order for me, since I established the ancient people? Let them declare the things that are coming, and that will happen.
- Rev 13:8All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been killed.
- Isa 41:22–23“Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen. Declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.
- Matt 25:34Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
- Isa 45:21Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I, Yahweh? There is no other God besides me, a just God and a Savior; There is no one besides me.
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Christ at the center
Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.
How Acts 15:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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