Aion & aionios - Dr. Marvin Vincent
Dr. Marvin Vincent, a noted New Testament scholar, wrote the following regarding the words aion, aionios, and their variations:
Αιων, transliterated aeon, is a period of time of longer or shorter duration, having a beginning and an end, and complete in itself. Aristotle (περι ουρανου, i.9, 15) says: "The period which includes the whole time of each one's life is called the aeon of each one." Hence, it often means the life of a man, as in Homer, where one's life (αιων) is said to leave him or consume away (Il. v. 685; Od. v. 160). It is not, however, limited to human life; it signifies any period in the course of events, as the period or age before Christ; the period of the millennium; the mythological period before the beginnings of history. The word has not a "stationary and mechanical value" (De Quincey). It does not mean a period of a fixed length for all cases. There are as many aeons as entities, the respective durations of which are fixed by the normal conditions of the several entities. There is one aeon of a human life, another of the life of a nation, another of a crow's life, another of an oak's life. The length of the aeon depends on the subject to which it is attached.
It is sometimes translated world; world representing a period or a series of periods of time. See Matt. xii.32; xiii.40, 49; L. i.70; 1 Cor. i.20; ii.6; Eph. i.21. Similarly οι αιωνες the worlds, the universe, the aggregate of the ages or periods, and their contents which are included in the duration of the world. 1 Cor. ii.7; x.11; Heb. i.2; ix.26; xi.3.
The word always carries the notion of time, and not of eternity. It always means a period of time.
Otherwise it would be impossible to account for the plural, or for such qualifying expressions as this age, or the age to come. It does not mean something endless or everlasting. . . . The adjective αιωνιος in like manner carries the idea of time. Neither the noun nor the adjective, in themselves, carry the sense of endless or everlasting. (pp. 58-59, vol. IV, Vincent's Word Studies of the New Testament)
As Dr. Vincent explains, these words do not convey the concept of "eternity" or "endlessness" as we understand it.
He is not the only one to hold this position; several other Greek scholars and writers have overcome theological tradition and recognized this also. The following information on the use, meaning, and origin of the word aionios comes from Greek language experts James H. Milligan and George Moulton:
Without pronouncing any opinion on the special meaning which theologians have found for this word, we must note that outside the NT, in the vernacular as in the classical Greek . . . it never loses the sense of perpetuus . . .
In the Sanskrit ayu and its Zend equivalent the idea of life, and especially long life, predominates. So with the Germanic cognates (Gothic aiws). The word . . . is a primitive inheritance from Indo-Germanic days, when it may have meant "long life" or "old age" . . . In general, the word depicts that of which the horizon is not in view . . . (p. 16, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament)
Milligan and Moulton clearly state that, in contradiction to the "special meaning" which theologians seem to have found for aionios in the New Testament, in both common and classical Greek this word simply refers to an unspecified, but finite, period of time.
Dr. Marvin Vincent, a noted New Testament scholar, wrote the following regarding the words aion, aionios, and their variations:
Αιων, transliterated aeon, is a period of time of longer or shorter duration, having a beginning and an end, and complete in itself. Aristotle (περι ουρανου, i.9, 15) says: "The period which includes the whole time of each one's life is called the aeon of each one." Hence, it often means the life of a man, as in Homer, where one's life (αιων) is said to leave him or consume away (Il. v. 685; Od. v. 160). It is not, however, limited to human life; it signifies any period in the course of events, as the period or age before Christ; the period of the millennium; the mythological period before the beginnings of history. The word has not a "stationary and mechanical value" (De Quincey). It does not mean a period of a fixed length for all cases. There are as many aeons as entities, the respective durations of which are fixed by the normal conditions of the several entities. There is one aeon of a human life, another of the life of a nation, another of a crow's life, another of an oak's life. The length of the aeon depends on the subject to which it is attached.
It is sometimes translated world; world representing a period or a series of periods of time. See Matt. xii.32; xiii.40, 49; L. i.70; 1 Cor. i.20; ii.6; Eph. i.21. Similarly οι αιωνες the worlds, the universe, the aggregate of the ages or periods, and their contents which are included in the duration of the world. 1 Cor. ii.7; x.11; Heb. i.2; ix.26; xi.3.
The word always carries the notion of time, and not of eternity. It always means a period of time.
Otherwise it would be impossible to account for the plural, or for such qualifying expressions as this age, or the age to come. It does not mean something endless or everlasting. . . . The adjective αιωνιος in like manner carries the idea of time. Neither the noun nor the adjective, in themselves, carry the sense of endless or everlasting. (pp. 58-59, vol. IV, Vincent's Word Studies of the New Testament)
As Dr. Vincent explains, these words do not convey the concept of "eternity" or "endlessness" as we understand it.
He is not the only one to hold this position; several other Greek scholars and writers have overcome theological tradition and recognized this also. The following information on the use, meaning, and origin of the word aionios comes from Greek language experts James H. Milligan and George Moulton:
Without pronouncing any opinion on the special meaning which theologians have found for this word, we must note that outside the NT, in the vernacular as in the classical Greek . . . it never loses the sense of perpetuus . . .
In the Sanskrit ayu and its Zend equivalent the idea of life, and especially long life, predominates. So with the Germanic cognates (Gothic aiws). The word . . . is a primitive inheritance from Indo-Germanic days, when it may have meant "long life" or "old age" . . . In general, the word depicts that of which the horizon is not in view . . . (p. 16, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament)
Milligan and Moulton clearly state that, in contradiction to the "special meaning" which theologians seem to have found for aionios in the New Testament, in both common and classical Greek this word simply refers to an unspecified, but finite, period of time.
