It's the WRONG word. Mounce got it WRONG and you don't know enough Greek to realize he got it WRONG!
Now, unless you can show me a manuscript or text that reads προγινώσκω instead of προέγνω this discussion is over.
The inerlinears I normally use and have been regularly told they were wrong uses Proegno for foreknowledge.
Then a search for Proegno I came to this,
http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2008/10/proegno.html
Proegno
BEOWULF2K8 SAID:
There are two "fore-" verbs in
Romans 8:29. There is proegno which is a conjugation of proginosko meaning "to foresee" and there is prowrisen which is a conjugation of proorizo "to predetermine." You are confusing the two. Now, because they mean different things, the passage says "whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate" (KJV) and "whom He foreknew, He also predestined" (NASB) and "whom he foreknew he also predestined" (NRSV) and "those God foreknew he also predestined" (NIV) and "whom he foreknew he also predestined" (ESV).
i) The meaning of proegno isn’t determined by Greek usage, but Hebrew usage. Paul is using a Greek word with a Hebrew connotation.
One doesn’t have to be a Calvinist to see this. All the major commentators appreciate this nuance regardless of their theological commitments, viz. Fitzmyer (Jesuit), Wright (NPP), Cranfield (Barthian), or Witherington (Arminian), to name a few.
As even Ben Witherington admits, “OT references to God knowing someone or his people, that is, to his inclination toward or love for them, sometimes refer to a concept of election (
Amos 3:2;
Deut 9:24;
Exod 33:12,
17;
Gen 18:19;
Deut 34:10), and such passages lie in the background here,” Paul’s Letter to the Romans (Eerdmans 2004), 246-47.
So Witherington, although a doctrinaire Arminian, doesn’t challenge the Calvinist reading on semantic grounds.
It’s a pity when theological opponents can’t even keep up with their own literature.
This is also corroborated by standard lexical reference works. When I say that proegno in
Rom 8:29 means “to choose beforehand,” that’s exactly the definition which is supplied by BDAG for
Rom 8:29. Cf. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (U of Chicago, 3rd ed., 2000), 866b.
ii) Even on a Calvinist reading, the two verbs are not synonymous. Both verbs carry a deterministic import, but proegno has a covenantal connotation while proorisen has a teleological connotation.
According to your MISINFORMATION, however, the passage ought to be translation "whom he predestined he also predestined" which is just plain asinine.
Not only are you ignorant of basic lexical semantics, you’re equally ignorant of basic syntax. How do these two clauses go together?
Paul uses proegno to establish the divine initiative in salvation. But that leaves open the question, for what did God elect those whom he called according to his purpose (8:28)?
Paul then uses proorisen as part of a purpose-clause to supply the goal of God’s initiative: to reproduce the image of Christ.
Therefore, the second clause advances the argument. This is the train of thought:
Before the foundation of the world, God chose those who are called according to his purpose.
And to what end were they so chosen?
They are predestined to reproduce the image of Christ.
And only those so chosen are predestined to reproduce the image of Christ.
Hence, God is responsible for both the origin and outcome of salvation.
Every translation cited above shows that there was both foreknowledge and predestination, and the predestination was based on the foreknowledge.
Popular translations are no substitute for Greek lexicons or learned commentaries.