What is the meaning of 'council'?
In this context, 'council' means a meeting of minds, a coming together to reach agreement, like a president's cabinet. It refers to the determinate counsel of the triune God, who in eternity past laid out the plan of the ages, including Jesus' coming and Israel's rejection.
Les teaches that the word 'council' here means a meeting of minds, a coming together to reach agreement. He compares it to a president's cabinet meeting, where the purpose is counsel and no decision is made until minds meet. He then applies this to Acts 2:23, where Peter says Jesus was delivered by the determinate counsel of God. Les explains that the triune God, at some time in eternity past, came together before anything was created and laid out the whole plan of the ages. In that plan was the coming of Jesus of Nazareth to the nation of Israel, and also the nation's rejection of their king. This was not an extended debate among the three persons; they didn't have to sit all afternoon batting things back and forth. Rather, the triune God purposed together the determining council—the predetermined plan—that included Christ's coming and Israel's rejection.
Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
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What does the word 'council' mean in the Bible?
The word 'council' (or counsel) means a meeting of minds, like a presidential cabinet, before a decision is made.