[thatjoeguy]

“You might want to re-think that claim in light of Ephesians 1:4 ...?”

Your confusing the knowledge of something with the existence of that something.

I can have ‘some’ knowledge (like their names and such) of my future son or daughter long before I get married and have children (added that last part for clarification in these times). That doesn’t mean they exist.

By the way, I’m a grandpa so the preceding was only an example.

[grey_whiskers]

I suppose you could make a case for that -- but Ephesians 1:4 says he "chose us before the foundations of the world" (as opposed to the verse it appears you are thinking of, Jeremiah 1:5 "before I formed you in the womb I knew you"). ...but even there, I don't know the original verb or the meaning of its tenses when that book was written, whether it meant "to kind of know about" vs. "we're best buds" or "I have it on reliable sources that..." etc.

And then you have the question of whether we existing and God chose us, or whether God had a catalog of potential people on a shelf, and went, "Hmm, I think I'll make one John, a Mary, and two Marshas...no, not *that* Billy, I think I'll make the other one."

I don't think eternity maps very well to our present time-space continuum; the focus is blurred further by the Incarnation; and the question of whether, even in Heaven, we will have the same perceptions, the just knowing, that God has, or merely a version with training wheels (we are still only limited creatures), I don't know...

Any Hebraic / Aramaic / ancient Greek scholars available for help on the text?

Cheers!