8:28 Verse 28 is a widely quoted and often misunderstood passage. It is sometimes interpreted to mean that good fortune favors nice people, or that things are not as bad as they seem and that everything “will work out in the end.” But this is to confuse wishful thinking with Christian faith.

The first part of verse 28 was in fact an axiom in both Hellenism and Judaism. Plato says in the Republic:

This must be our notion of the just man, that even when he is in poverty or sickness, or any other seeming misfortune, all things will in the end work together for good to him in life and death: for the gods have a care for any whose desire is to become just and to be like God (Republic, 10.613).

Judaism likewise abounded with stories (e.g., Ruth, Esther, Judith) in which adverse circumstances …