John Chrysostom on Election & predestination
Conditional — grounded in foreseen faith
for this was a sign of foreknowledge, that they were chosen from the very birth. That the election made according to foreknowledge, might be manifestly of God, from the first day He at once saw and proclaimed which was good and which not.
THE POSITION
He reads Romans 9 through foreknowledge from end to end. Jacob was chosen before birth because God, unlike men, does not wait on the outcome of a life to see what a soul is: He "knoweth which is the wicked and which not such" before the acts appear. The election is genuinely God's and no one else can make it, but its ground is something God sees.
11 Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand, 12 not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
3 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Archbishop of Constantinople and the most prolific preacher of the patristic era — the largest surviving body of Greek expository preaching is his. This entry rests on the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers translations of his homilies on Romans, 1 Corinthians, John, Hebrews and 2 Thessalonians, together with the Instructions to Catechumens.
Cite this page
"John Chrysostom on Election & predestination", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/chrysostom/election (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/chrysostom/election).