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This article refutes the idea that aion means eternal, so why do so many modern Christians think it means eternal?
It is a vital question How was the word used in the Greek literature with which the Seventy were familiar, that is, the Greek Classics?
Some years since Rev. Ezra S. Goodwin(13) patiently and candidly traced this word through the Classics, finding the noun frequently in nearly all the writers, but not meeting the adjective until Plato, its inventor, used it. He states, as the result of his protracted and exhaustive examination from the beginning down to Plato, “We have the whole evidence of seven Greek writers, extending through about six centuries, down to the age of Plato, who make use of Aión, in common with other words; and no one of themEVER employs it in the sense of eternity.”
When the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek by the Seventy, the word aión had been in common use for many centuries. It is preposterous to say that the Seventy would render the Hebrew olam by the Greek aión and give to the latter (1) a different meaning from that of the former, or (2) a different meaning from aión in the current Greek literature. It is self-evident, then, that Aión in the Old Testament means exactly what Olam means, and also what Aión means in the Greek classics. Indefinite duration is the sense of olam, and it is equally clear that aión has a similar signification.
In the Iliad and Odyssey Aión occurs thirteen times, as a noun, besides its occurrence as a participle in the sense of hearing, perceiving, understanding. Homer never uses it as signifying eternal duration. Priam to Hector says,(14) “Thyself shall be deprived of pleasant aiónos” (life.) Andromache over dead Hector,(15) “Husband thou hast perished from aiónos” (life or time.)
Dr. Beecher writes(16) “But there is a case that excludes all possibility of doubt or evasion, in the Homeric Hymn of Mercury, vs. 42 and 119. Here aión is used to denote the marrow as the life of an animal, as Moses calls the blood the life. This is recognized by Cousins in his Homeric Lexicon. In this case to pierce the life (aión) of a turtle means to pierce the spinal cord. The idea of life is here exclusive of time or eternity.” These are fair illustrations of Homer’s use of the word.
Hesiod employs it twice: “To him (the married man) during aiónos (life) evil is constantly striving, etc.(17) Æschulus has the word nineteen times, after this manner: “This life (aión) seems long, etc.(18) “Jupiter, king of the never-ceasing world.”(19) (aiónos apaustau.)
Pindar gives thirteen instances, such as “A long life produces the four virtues.”(20)(Ela de kai tessaras aretas ho makros aión.)
Sophocles nine times. “Endeavor to remain the same in mind as long as you live.” Askei toiaute noun di aiónos menein.(21) He also employs makraion five times, as long-enduring. The word long increases the force of aión, which would be impossible if it had the idea of eternity.
Aristotle uses aión twelve times. He speaks of the existence or duration (aión) of the earth;(22) of an unlimited aiónos;(23) and elsewhere, he says: aión sunekes kai aidios, “an eternal aión” (or being) “pertaining to God.” The fact that Aristotle found it necessary to add aidios to aión to ascribe eternity to God demonstrates that he found no sense of eternity in the word aión, and utterly discards the idea that he held the word to mean endless duration, even admitting that he derived it, or supposed the ancients did, from aei ón according to the opinion of some lexicographers.
A similar use of the word appears in de Cælo.(24) “The entire heaven is one and eternal (aidios) having neither beginning nor end of an entire aión.” In the same work(25) occurs the famous passage where Aristotle has been said to describe the derivation of the word, which we have quoted on page 7, Aión estin, apo tou aei einai.
Mr. Goodwin well observes that the word had existed a thousand years before Aristotle’s day, and that he had no knowledge of its origin, and poorer facilities for tracing it than many a scholar of the present, possesses. “While, therefore, we would regard an opinion of Aristotle on the derivation of an ancient word, with the respect due to extensive learning and venerable age, still we must bear in mind that his opinion is not indusputable authority.” Mr. Goodwin proceeds to affirm that Aristotle does not apply aei ón to duration, but to God, and that (as we have shown) a human existence is an Aión. Completeness, whether brief or protracted, is his idea; and as Aristotle employed it “Aión did not contain the meaning of eternity.”
Hippocrates. “A human aión is a seven days matter.”
Empedocles, An earthly body deprived of happy life, (aiónos.)
Euripides uses the word thirty-two times. We quote three instances:(26) “Marriage to those mortals who are well situated is a happy aión.”(27) “Every aión of mortals is unstable.”(28) “Along aión has many things to say,” etc.
Philoctetes. “He breathed out the aióna.” Mr. Goodwin thus concludes his conscientious investigation of such of the Greek classics as he examined line by line, AION IN THESE WRITERS NEVER EXPRESSES POSITIVE ETERNITY.”
In his Physic(29), Aristotle quotes a passage from Empedocles, saying that in certain cases “aión is not permanent.”
It is a vital question How was the word used in the Greek literature with which the Seventy were familiar, that is, the Greek Classics?
Some years since Rev. Ezra S. Goodwin(13) patiently and candidly traced this word through the Classics, finding the noun frequently in nearly all the writers, but not meeting the adjective until Plato, its inventor, used it. He states, as the result of his protracted and exhaustive examination from the beginning down to Plato, “We have the whole evidence of seven Greek writers, extending through about six centuries, down to the age of Plato, who make use of Aión, in common with other words; and no one of themEVER employs it in the sense of eternity.”
When the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek by the Seventy, the word aión had been in common use for many centuries. It is preposterous to say that the Seventy would render the Hebrew olam by the Greek aión and give to the latter (1) a different meaning from that of the former, or (2) a different meaning from aión in the current Greek literature. It is self-evident, then, that Aión in the Old Testament means exactly what Olam means, and also what Aión means in the Greek classics. Indefinite duration is the sense of olam, and it is equally clear that aión has a similar signification.
In the Iliad and Odyssey Aión occurs thirteen times, as a noun, besides its occurrence as a participle in the sense of hearing, perceiving, understanding. Homer never uses it as signifying eternal duration. Priam to Hector says,(14) “Thyself shall be deprived of pleasant aiónos” (life.) Andromache over dead Hector,(15) “Husband thou hast perished from aiónos” (life or time.)
Dr. Beecher writes(16) “But there is a case that excludes all possibility of doubt or evasion, in the Homeric Hymn of Mercury, vs. 42 and 119. Here aión is used to denote the marrow as the life of an animal, as Moses calls the blood the life. This is recognized by Cousins in his Homeric Lexicon. In this case to pierce the life (aión) of a turtle means to pierce the spinal cord. The idea of life is here exclusive of time or eternity.” These are fair illustrations of Homer’s use of the word.
Hesiod employs it twice: “To him (the married man) during aiónos (life) evil is constantly striving, etc.(17) Æschulus has the word nineteen times, after this manner: “This life (aión) seems long, etc.(18) “Jupiter, king of the never-ceasing world.”(19) (aiónos apaustau.)
Pindar gives thirteen instances, such as “A long life produces the four virtues.”(20)(Ela de kai tessaras aretas ho makros aión.)
Sophocles nine times. “Endeavor to remain the same in mind as long as you live.” Askei toiaute noun di aiónos menein.(21) He also employs makraion five times, as long-enduring. The word long increases the force of aión, which would be impossible if it had the idea of eternity.
Aristotle uses aión twelve times. He speaks of the existence or duration (aión) of the earth;(22) of an unlimited aiónos;(23) and elsewhere, he says: aión sunekes kai aidios, “an eternal aión” (or being) “pertaining to God.” The fact that Aristotle found it necessary to add aidios to aión to ascribe eternity to God demonstrates that he found no sense of eternity in the word aión, and utterly discards the idea that he held the word to mean endless duration, even admitting that he derived it, or supposed the ancients did, from aei ón according to the opinion of some lexicographers.
A similar use of the word appears in de Cælo.(24) “The entire heaven is one and eternal (aidios) having neither beginning nor end of an entire aión.” In the same work(25) occurs the famous passage where Aristotle has been said to describe the derivation of the word, which we have quoted on page 7, Aión estin, apo tou aei einai.
Mr. Goodwin well observes that the word had existed a thousand years before Aristotle’s day, and that he had no knowledge of its origin, and poorer facilities for tracing it than many a scholar of the present, possesses. “While, therefore, we would regard an opinion of Aristotle on the derivation of an ancient word, with the respect due to extensive learning and venerable age, still we must bear in mind that his opinion is not indusputable authority.” Mr. Goodwin proceeds to affirm that Aristotle does not apply aei ón to duration, but to God, and that (as we have shown) a human existence is an Aión. Completeness, whether brief or protracted, is his idea; and as Aristotle employed it “Aión did not contain the meaning of eternity.”
Hippocrates. “A human aión is a seven days matter.”
Empedocles, An earthly body deprived of happy life, (aiónos.)
Euripides uses the word thirty-two times. We quote three instances:(26) “Marriage to those mortals who are well situated is a happy aión.”(27) “Every aión of mortals is unstable.”(28) “Along aión has many things to say,” etc.
Philoctetes. “He breathed out the aióna.” Mr. Goodwin thus concludes his conscientious investigation of such of the Greek classics as he examined line by line, AION IN THESE WRITERS NEVER EXPRESSES POSITIVE ETERNITY.”
In his Physic(29), Aristotle quotes a passage from Empedocles, saying that in certain cases “aión is not permanent.”
