StrongerBible

proorizō

προορίζω

GreekG4309“predestine, foreordain, ...”

Appears 6 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Act 4:28Rom 8:29Rom 8:301Co 2:7Eph 1:5Eph 1:11
Compound of
proπρόbefore47G4253
horizōὁρίζωto determine8G3724
Word studyResearch-gradepro-or-ID-zohverb

What proorizō means

to decide something beforehand: to mark out or settle in advance what will happen

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

The word is built from a piece meaning "before" and a verb meaning "to set a boundary" or "to fix a limit." So at its root it pictures God drawing a line ahead of time around something, settling it before it ever happens. In the New Testament God is always the one doing it, and it always points back to a decision made before the world began.

What God settles in advance is not the same in every verse. Sometimes it is an event, such as the death of Jesus, or a plan, such as the hidden wisdom of the cross. Sometimes it is people and where they are headed, such as being shaped to resemble Jesus, being adopted as God's children, or receiving a promised inheritance. The two senses below sort the occurrences along that line: what is fixed in advance is either a happening or a plan, or else it is people and their destiny.

Because the verb only ever names a settled, before-time decision, that core holds across all six places. What scholars argue about is not what the word means but who or what it covers and how it fits with human freedom, and those debates are noted below rather than split into separate meanings.

Nuances

1ato settle an event or plan in advance: to fix beforehand what will take place
Act 4:281Co 2:7
1bto mark people out beforehand for a destiny: to settle in advance where God's people are headed in Christ
Rom 8:29Rom 8:30Eph 1:5Eph 1:11

What scholars say about proorizō

The lexicons (BDAG, LSJ, Louw-Nida 30.84, TDNT 5:452-56 [K. L. Schmidt], EDNT, NIDNTTE [Silva, s.v. horizo]) converge on the gloss "decide upon beforehand, predetermine, foreordain," built on horizo (to set a boundary, define) from horos (boundary-stone), with the prefix pro- (before). The verb is rare and late: LSJ records only one secure non-Christian attestation (Heliodorus, Aethiopica 7.24), the Demosthenes 31.4 reading being a disputed variant rejected by Moulton-Milligan and modern editors. It is absent from the Septuagint, Philo, and Josephus, which express predestinarian thought instead with eklegomai, boule/thelema theou, and protithemi/prothesis; Silva and Belcastro (Henoch 44/1 [2022]) accordingly judge it a Pauline or pre-Pauline Christian coinage, a fresh compound chosen in preference to the Greek and Stoic fate-vocabulary (heimarmene, moira, pronoia). Across the six occurrences the lexical sense is agreed; the object varies (the crucifixion event, Acts 4:28; the wisdom-plan, 1 Cor 2:7; conformity to Christ's image, Rom 8:29; adoption, Eph 1:5; inheritance, Eph 1:11). The substantive scholarly disagreement is hermeneutical and systematic rather than lexical, turning on the referent (individual versus the corporate church-in-Christ versus Christ as the elect one) and on the force of proginosko in Rom 8:29, which virtually all major commentators (Cranfield, Moo, Schreiner, Murray, Dunn, Fitzmyer, Wright, Witherington, Bruce, Byrne) read as covenantal-relational rather than bare prescience of foreseen faith.

Where scholars disagree about proorizō

Whether predestining in Paul marks out individuals, the corporate people of God in Christ, or Christ himself as the elect one in whom others share.

  • contestedIt marks out particular individuals, grounded in God's sovereign electing love rather than foreseen faith.; John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT (1959), 1:315-18; Thomas Schreiner, "Corporate and Individual Election in Romans 9," JETS 49/2 (2006): 373-86
  • contestedIt marks out the corporate people of God in Christ, which individuals join by faith.; N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God (2013), 1023-24; Brian Abasciano, "Corporate Election in Romans 9: A Reply to Thomas Schreiner," JETS 49/2 (2006): 351-71
  • contestedChrist is primarily the elect one, and humanity is elect only in union with him.; Markus Barth, Ephesians 1-3, AB 34 (1974), 107-108; Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics II/2
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDAG, s.v. προορίζωlexicon
  • K. L. Schmidt, "ὁρίζω, προορίζω," TDNT 5:452-56lexicon
  • Moisés Silva, NIDNTTE, s.v. ὁρίζωlexicon
  • Louw-Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, §30.84lexicon
  • L. C. Allen, "The Old Testament Background of (προ)ὁρίζειν in the New Testament," NTS 17 (1970-71): 104-08article
  • Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT (1996), 531-37commentary
  • Thomas Schreiner, Romans, BECNT (1998), 448-55commentary
  • Joseph Fitzmyer, Romans, AB 33 (1993), 522commentary
  • N. T. Wright, "Romans," NIB 10 (2002), 600-602commentary
  • Gordon Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT (rev. 2014), 100-116commentary
  • Harold Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (2002), 182-95commentary
  • Markus Barth, Ephesians 1-3, AB 34 (1974), 79-110commentary
  • Darrell Bock, Acts, BECNT (2007), 203-204commentary
  • D. A. Carson, Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility (1981)monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of προορίζω

aorist active indicative 3s

προώρισεν

Act 4:28, Rom 8:29, Rom 8:30, 1Co 2:7

aorist active participle nominative m s

προορίσας

Eph 1:5

aorist passive participle nominative m p

προορισθέντες

Eph 1:11