So the secular games, celebrated every century were called «eternal» by the Greeks
‘The word by itself, whether adjective or substantive, never means endless.» – Canon FARRAR «The conception of eternity, in the Semitic languages, is that of a long duration and series of ages» -Rev. J. S. BLUNT – Dict. of Theology. «‘Tis notoriously known,» says Bishop RUST, «that the Jews, whether writing in Hebrew or Greek, do by olam (the Hebrew word corresponding to aion), and aion mean any remarkable period and duration, whether it be of life, or dispensation, or polity.» «The word aion is never used in Scripture, or anywhere else, in the sense of endlessness (vulgarly called eternity, it always meant, both in Scripture and out, a period of time; else how could it have a plural – how could you talk of the aeons and aeons of aeons as the Scripture does ?» – C. – See HUET, Orig. ii. p. 162.
In Num
Again, a point of great importance is this, that it would have been impossible for the Jews, as it is impossible for us, to accept Christ, except by assigning a limited – nay, a very limited duration – to those Mosaic ordinances which were said in the Old Testament to be «for ever,» to be «everlasting» (aeonian). Every line of the New Testament, nay, the very existence of Christianity is thus in fact a proof of the limited sense of aionios in Scripture. Our Baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, our Holy Communion, every prayer uttered in a Christian Church, or in our homes, in the name of the Lord Jesus: our hopes of being «for ever with the Lord » – these contain one and all an affirmation most real, though tacit, of the temporary sense of aionios.
KINGSLEY
As a further illustration of the meaning of aion and aionios, let me point out that in the Greek version of the Old Testament (the ong the Jews in Our Lord’s time, from which He and the Apostles usually quoted, and whose authority, therefore, should be decisive on this point – these terms are repeatedly applied to things that have long ceased to exist. (más…)