BEFO'RE, adv. In time preceding.You tell me what I knew before.In time preceding, to the present, or to this time; hitherto; as, tumults then arose which before were unknown.Further onward in place, in progress, or in front.Reaching forth to those things which are before. Phil.3.In front; on the fore part.The battle was before and behind. 2 Chron.13.

In some of the examples of the use of before, which Johnson places under the adverb, the word is a preposition governing a sentence; as, "Before the hills appeared." This is the real construction,however overlooked or misunderstood.