All Men Shall Be Written in Thy Book: The LXX's Hidden Gem Against Open Theism

Every now and then, a golden nugget glints from an unexpected corner of Scripture—one that speaks directly to today’s theological debates. I was recently informed of one such gem that is buried in the Greek Septuagint (LXX) version of Psalm 139:16 (numbered as Psalm 138:16 in the LXX):

“Thine eyes saw my unwrought substance, and all men shall be written in thy book; they shall be formed by day, though there should for a time be no one among them.” —Psalm 138:16, LXX (Brenton)

Let’s unpack that.

What is the LXX and Why Does It Matter?

The Septuagint (abbreviated LXX) is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, completed by Jewish scholars in the centuries before Christ. It was the most widely used version of the Old Testament in the first century and is frequently quoted by the New Testament authors such as the Apostle Paul. In many ways, it was THE Bible for the early Church.

So, hermeneutically speaking, when the LXX adds interpretive clarity or expands on a Hebrew phrase, it’s worth paying attention—especially if it lines up with broader biblical themes and sheds light on key theological questions.

Everyone Written in God’s Book?

In the Masoretic Text (MT), Psalm 139 seems to suggest that at least David’s days were written in God’s book before one of them came to be:

“Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.”

That alone suggests God already knew David’s lifespan before his life began—and since David’s life, like ours, involved libertarianly free choices (including those of others who could even try to end his life), this already implies that at least some future-tensed propositions about free agents have truth values.

Some Open Theists have tried to dismiss this implication by claiming the verse applies only to David personally, and not to humanity at large. But the LXX blocks that escape by universalizing the claim:

“All men shall be written in thy book… even though there should for a time be no one among them.”

This isn’t just poetic reflection on prenatal development. It’s a metaphysical declaration: God’s book includes the life-stories of all people (not just David's)—including all people who don’t yet exist. Their days are known, their stories foreseen, even when they are not yet formed.<1>

That’s not mere fetology (as some Open Theists claim). That’s divine foreknowledge.

And not just generic foreknowledge—it’s knowledge of persons and their life histories before they come into being (even if we grant, for the sake of argument that God doesn't know all the details within these known lifespans). In theological terms, this points directly to the truth of future-tensed propositions and the knowledge of counterfactuals of creaturely freedom (CCFs). In other words: middle knowledge.<2>

Why This Undermines Open Theism

Open Theism denies that future-tensed propositions about libertarian free choices can be true until they’re actualized. According to Open Theists, God can’t know the detailed future of human actions unless He determines it and violates human libertarian freedom and agency (which makes Open Theists odd bedfellows with Calvinists). But both the MT and the LXX versions of this passage in Psalms point in a different direction: the MT clearly affirms that God knows the span of an individual’s life before it begins, and the LXX universalizes the claim to all people, emphasizing that God already knows the lives and stories of every person before they exist.

If God’s book already contains the days of people who don’t exist yet, and if those people are truly free in the libertarian sense—and human life (at least occasionally) begins and ends based upon free decisions of libertarian agents, then the Open Theist is stuck. Either:

1. God determines their future (thus sacrificing libertarian freedom),

2. God doesn’t actually know their future story (contradicting the Psalm), or

3. God knows what they would freely do—i.e., Molinism is true.

When paired with Jeremiah 1:5 (“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you...”), the message gets even stronger: God doesn’t just know that someone will exist—He knows who they will become, what they will freely choose, and what role they’ll play in history with other libertarian agents.

That’s not Open Theism. That's not Calvinism.<3> That’s divine omniscience on full display.

Molinism makes the best sense of the data.<4>

Even so, a fair-minded reader might object that the LXX rendering reflects an interpretive tradition rather than a word-for-word translation of the Hebrew Masoretic Text. That’s true—but it’s precisely why it’s so illuminating. The LXX shows how ancient Jewish readers already understood Psalm 139 to reflect a view of God’s exhaustive foreknowledge over all people and all their future days, not just David’s. And while Calvinists might argue this reflects that God writes everyone’s story in a deterministic script, Molinism better preserves both God’s exhaustive knowledge and humanity’s genuine and libertarian freedom (which is supported throughout the whole of Scripture). At minimum, this text is consistent with—and powerfully supportive of—the biblical doctrine of divine middle knowledge.

Conclusion

The LXX gives us a glimpse into the theological worldview of ancient Jews before Christ—a worldview in which God’s knowledge is not bound by time, contingency, or human freedom. The Psalmist rejoices that even before he was formed, God knew his unformed substance. And not just his essence—but all people’s.

Those stories, it turns out, were already known and "written." And that poses a serious problem for Open Theism.

Stay reasonable (Isaiah 1:18),

Dr. Tim Stratton

Notes

<1>The LXX here reflects a widely accepted interpretive tradition present in Second Temple Judaism. Even if one prefers the MT rendering, the theological point about God’s exhaustive foreknowledge remains well-supported by Jeremiah 1:5, the Masoretic rendering of Psalm 139, and other passages.

<2> Technically speaking, middle knowledge is counterfactual knowledge of non-deterministic events that God possesses logically prior to His creative decree.

<3>While determinists may affirm exhaustive divine foreknowledge, they do so at the expense of libertarian freedom, which both the biblical narrative and human experience strongly affirm. Molinism alone preserves God's middle and foreknowledge and human freedom in a libertarian sense.

<4> One might quibble that the LXX text shows that God knows “that someone will exist” and “all their days,” but it doesn’t explicitly say God knows what they would freely do. However, this is consistent with—if not explicit proof of—God’s middle knowledge. At minimum, it affirms that the future death of all people is fully known by God (whose lives often end because of libertarian free choices), including the contingent and libertarianly free choices of persons yet to exist.