Wednesday, December 26, 2018

3 John 10 as evidence for Contingent Foreknowledge

In 3 John 10, we read the following:

Wherefore, if I come, I will remember [Diotrephes'] deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content with, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the Church.

"If I come" is a proper translation of the Greek ἐὰν ἔλθω, being composed of (1) ἐὰν, a marker of condition and (2) ἔλθω, the first person subjunctive active of ερχομαι. With respect to εαν being coupled with a verb in the subjunctive, one leading grammarian wrote:

This is the use of the subjunctive in the protasis of conditional sentences. The conditional element is made explicit by the particle ἐάν. Both the par­ticle (a combination of εἰ and the contingent particle ἄν) and the subjunc­tive give the condition a sense of contingency. This is a relatively common usage of the subjunctive, occurring nearly 300 times in the NT. (Daniel Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, pp. 469-70)


In essence, John, while inspired by the Holy Spirit and writing God-breathed (θεοπνευστος) revelation (cf. 2 Tim 3:16) did not have exhaustive but contingent foreknowledge about his then-future actions.