Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Peter 1:20

"who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of times for your sake," — 1 Peter 1:20 (ASV)

Who truly was foreordained.—There is a sharp contrast intended between the two clauses of this verse, and in the Greek the tenses are different. “Who had been foreknown, indeed, before the foundation of the world, but for your benefit was (only) pointed out at the end of the times.”

St. Peter is returning once more to the great argument of 1 Peter 1:10–12. He urges, “Do not treat your share in the gospel liberation as if it were, at best, a piece of good luck, and so learn to despise it. Neither think of it as if Paul and Silvanus were preaching to you a novel invention out of harmony with the spirit of the old covenant, under which you were raised. God knew from all eternity who was to be His Messiah and His Lamb, but for your sakes the particular and personal declaration of Him was reserved until now. For you, the revelation of a secret that underlay the whole Old Testament system has been kept.”

The grammatical antecedent of the relative “who truly” is not “lamb,” but “Christ.” The word for “foreordained” is, literally, foreknown, as in 1 Peter 1:2 (see Note), with the additional notion of coming to a decision.

We see that St. Peter’s doctrine has not changed since the great day of Pentecost (Acts 2:23). The foreknowledge, as that passage would show, includes not only the knowledge and decision that Jesus should be the Christ, but also that the Christ’s history should be what it was. This seems to involve not only the doctrine that the Incarnation was no mere episode following the Fall of man, but also the doctrine that, “before the foundation of the world,” God had foreknown, and pre-decided to allow, the Fall itself.

The same doctrine appears to be involved in Revelation 13:8, though only indirectly. There, the words “from the foundation of the world” are to be attached not to the word “slain,” but to the word “written.”

Was manifest.—Better, was manifested, i.e., unambiguously shown, pointed out. The context shows that it does not simply mean the visible life of the Incarnate Word among men, as in 1 Timothy 3:16 or 1 John 3:5, but that the Messiah and Lamb of God was pointed out as being identical with the Man Jesus. And this was the work of John the Baptist, to say of the particular Person whom he saw walking by Jordan, “Behold the Lamb.” So St. John Baptist himself described his mission: “The whole purpose of my coming was that He might be manifested, singled out and shown to Israel,” as the Person around whom all their Messianic hopes were gathered (John 1:31).

In these last times—i.e., not merely “in modern times,” or “lately,” but “at the end of the times,” showing St. Peter’s belief that the end of the world was not far distant. (Compare once more Daniel 12:4; Daniel 12:9; Daniel 12:13.) Almost exactly the same phrase is used in Hebrews 1:2 and 2 Peter 3:3.