Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Apology of Rufinus/Book I/Chapter 30

30. But let us proceed in our study of these Commentaries; otherwise, in dwelling too long upon a few special points, we may be prevented from taking notice of the greater number. In the same book and the same passage are the words &#8220;To the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.&#8221; His comment is:

&#8220;If it had been simply said &#8216;We have trusted in Christ,&#8217; and there had not been the prefix &#8216;before,&#8217; which stands in the Greek &#960;&#961;&#959;&#951;&#955;&#960;&#953;&#954;&#8057;&#964;&#949;&#962;, the sense would be quite clear, namely, that those who have hoped in Christ have been chosen in due order and have been predestinated according to the purpose of him who orders all things according to the counsel of his own will. But, as it stands, the addition of the preposition &#8216;before,&#8217; compels us to explain it according to the same ideas which we argued in a former place to be necessary for the explanation of the passage, &#8220;Who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him:&#8221; namely, that God had blessed us before in heaven with all spiritual blessing, and had chosen us before the world was framed; and that thus we are said to have hoped in Christ &#8216;before,&#8217; that is, in the time when we were elected and predestinated and blessed in heaven.&#8221;