This morning I began reading Ephesians again. As I did so I became more curious about the translation of the word “predestinated” as used in chapter 1:5.
4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
(Emphasis Added)
I went to look at the word in different translations and as I read them some additional insight came to me about the verse. Prior to today I read those verses with entirely one meaning: that those to whom Paul was writing were the “elect of the elect” and predestined or foreordained before the world was.
I looked in the New American Bible Revised Edition to see exactly what it said there and I was greeted with some different formatting that clarified what Paul may have been talking about:
“as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will,”Ephesians 1:4-5 NABRE
Rather than speaking of a select few people, it may actually be talking about the Great Plan of Happiness. Speaking to “us” as in mankind, the offspring of God, we were all presented a plan before the world was created that gave us a way to be holy and cleansed through the Atonement (adoption to himself) of Jesus Christ
