“as many as were ordained to life everlasting believed”: και επιστευσαν οσοι τεταγμενοι εις ζωην αιωνιον, of which τεταγμενοι (“were ordained”), the perfect passive
participle of τασσω,
used only 8× in the NT, mostly in Acts (Mt 28:16; Lk 7:8; Ac 13:48; 15:2;
22:10; 28:23; Rm 13:1; 1Co 16:15). A similar word is ταξις, used mostly in referring to the “order”
of Melchizedek (Hb 5:6 to 7:21); or ταγμα (1Co 15:23). In each case there is an “order” to what happens, that
is, one thing happens first, followed by a second, third, or fourth thing.
Jerome was the first to use this passage to teach predestination, even changing
the Vetus Latina wording of ordinati (“ordering”) to praeordinati
(“preordering”) in the Vulgate (“quotquot errant praeordinati ad vitam
aeternam”: “as many as were predestined to life eternal”). But
predestination is not the primary context of this passage. The passage is
speaking of “order” in the sense that first the gospel is spoken to the Jews
because that was the order God set up (vr. 46a), but since the Jews
rejected the gospel, God turned to the Gentiles as the second thing God had
ordered (vr. 46b). If Paul had meant to teach predestination proper, he
would have probably used προτεταγμενοι (“prior ordering”)
instead of the regular τεταγμενοι (“ordering”).
Still, the syntax of the DR (“as many as were ordained to life everlasting
believed”) suggests that the person “believed” because he was “ordained to life
everlasting.” The actual syntax is: “and believed as many as were ordered to
life everlasting,” and could be read, “as many as believed were ordered to life
everlasting,” thus putting the cause on “believing” and the effect on “life
everlasting.” This syntax is permitted especially since επιστευσαν (“believed”) is a third person plural matching the third person plural
of εηαν τεταγμενοι (“were ordered”). (Robert A. Sungenis, Commentary on the Catholic
Douay-Rheims New Testament from the Original Greek and Latin, 4 vols. [State
Line, Pa.: Catholic Apologetics International Publishing, Inc., 2024], 2:570-71
n. 425)
