Time may be defined as the indefinite continued progress of existence and events that occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future. It is inextricably connected to space in what is known in scientific circles as 'spacetime' or the 'space-time continuum'.
A. Times and Seasons
It is a striking feature of Tanakh (Old Testament) thought that, although the Hebrews had ways of measuring the passing of times (see Creation Calendar), they had no word for chronological time in the abstract. Hebrew does, however, provide a number of words for time and season in the sense of an appointed time (moed), the right time, and the opportunity for some event or action. The most common word is 'et (cp.. Eccl.3:1ff.) with zemam having the same meaning. Moed comes from a root meaning 'appoint' and is used of natural periods such as the new moon (e.g. Ps.104:19) and the appointed annual festivals (e.g. Num.9:2). In particular, all these words are used to refer to the times appointed by Yahweh-Elohim, the opportunities given by Him (e.g. Dt.11:14; Ps.145:15; Is.49:8; Jer.18:23). This usage is carried on in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) by the Greek kairos (cp.Lk.19:44; Ac.17:26; Tit.1:3; 1 Pet.1:11).
The Bible stresses not the abstract continuity of time but rather the Elohim (God)-given content of certain moments of history. This view of time may be called 'linear', in contrast with the cyclical view of time common in the ancient world. Yahweh's purpose moves to a consummation and things do not just go on or return to the point whence they began. But calling the biblical view of time 'linear' must not be allowed to suggest that time and history flow on in an inevitable succession of events. Rather the Bible stresses 'times', the points at which Elohim (God) Himself advances His purposes in the world.
Yahweh-Elohim is sovereign in appointing these times, and so not even the Son during His earthly ministry knew the day and hour of the consummation (Mk.13:32; Ac.1:7). Elohim's (God's) sovereignty extends also to the times of an individual's life (Ps.31:15).
In the Aramaic of the Book of Daniel 'iddán refers to chronological periods of time (e.g. Dan.2:9; 3:15), often apparently a year (Dan.4:16; 7.25, though not all interpreters agree that years are meant). Yahweh's sovereignty is still stressed (Dan.2:21).
The word chronos somestimes refers in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament), as in secular Greek, simply to the passing of time (e.g. Lk.20:9; Ac.14:28). The context may give the sense of 'delay', 'time or tarrying or waiting' (e.g. Ac.28:20,23) and this is probably the meaning of Revelation 10:6 rather than that 'time shall have an end'. Acts 1:7 may mean that Elohim (God) gives the times of opportunity and decision (kairoi) and also decides when they shall begin and end (chronoi) (cp. Ac.7:17; Gal.4:4).
B. The Creation
According to Scripture, the physical heavens and the earth were brought into existence by the Creator Yahweh-Elohim, through His Son, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) (Gen.1:1; Is.44:24; Ps.33:6; Jn.1:10; Col.1:15-17; 1 Cor.8:6; Eph.3:9; Heb.1:2,10). "In the beginning Elohim (God) created the heavens and the earth" (Gen.1:1, NLT) therefore marks the very start of time, space and matter.
Elohim (God) is full of 'beginnings' whilst Himself having no 'beginning'. He was already 'there' when the universe came into exsistence. A fundamental assumption of the Bible is that Elohim (God) exists 'eternally', that He has always been there, that He will always be there, and that He is the Elohim (God) or Power that is. Indeed, His very Name, Yahweh, which is a participle of the verb 'to be', signifies that He has always been and always will be, with or without time.
When Moses recorded the Book of Genesis, everybody knew Elohim (God) existed. It was an axiom of faith. Everyone assumed it. Therefore for them, as for us who are modern believers, there is no need to explain the existence of Elohim (God), but we do feel the need to explain the existence of everything else. This is the very opposite of modern thinking which assumes physical matter has always existed and that the real 'need' is to prove the existence of Elohim (God). Accordingly, for believers, the subject of Genesis 1 is the Creator - "In the beginning Elohim (God)..." - the creation, along with time and space, and everything and everyone in it, is the object, and is therefore of secondary importance.
To understand the nature and purpose of time requires that we understand the nature and purpose of the Creator. Elohim (God) is personal, powerful, uncreated, creative, orderly, singular as well as plural, good, living, communicative, both like and unlike us human beings, and fully independent. And in Scripture a clear distinction is made at all times between the Creator and the creation. To worship the Creator is emet (truth), to worship the creation - including time - is idolatry.
Upon its creation, time is immediately partitioned into seven periods in an orderly fashion. It is spread into six periods or yammim ('days'), which are themselves divided into two sets of three, which are then followed by a seventh period of resting which is called the 'sabbath'. Indeed, the whole of Genesis 1 is seen to have mathematical properties, with the numbers 3, 7 and 10 constantly reoccurring. The number 3 speaks of what Elohim (God) is, 7 is the number of perfection, and 10 is the number of completeness. The whole discipline of mathematics depends on orderly sequences of time.
The order in which creation took place, along with the age of the earth, our solar system, and the universe as a whole, are all examined on the Science website and elsewhere. Science itself is far from arriving at conclusive answers. The conflicting scientific methods that are available for dating the age of our planet have yielded results that range from several thousand to hundreds of millions of years. Theologians are likewise in disagreement as to the age of the earth, some claiming that creation took place over the course of six literal yammim (days), others over the space of 6,000 years (in six 1,000 year segments), and others over millions of years. Irrespective of what your position is, or how long you believe a Genesis 'day' to be, the question of time is by no means conclusively resolved by either theologians or scientists. The best that students of Scripture can hope to do to is to come to assured conclusions on the ethical and religious aspects of creation.
Even greater difficulties are to be encountered in attempting to explain time linguistically. Modern dictionaries reflect both the theological and secular positions, defining 'time', respectively, as 'duration' and 'indefinitely continued existence', the latter an assumption based on atheistic philosophy. One or more entire pages are typically occupied in explaining the different uses of the word 'time' in dictionaries. But 'time' is not the only word in our language used to express longer or shorter chunks of existence and events that occur in irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future. These include hundreds of words like 'age' (as both a chunk of time as well as physical age), 'period', 'duration', 'conclusion', 'climax', 'pause', 'resume', 'continue', 'start', 'end', 'finish', 'wait', etc..
C. Language Issues
Another problem we face in dealing with the biblical concept of time is the handicap that our own language - English - burdens us with. Indeed, all languages have this problem because language is never static. Even in the space of one century, let alone a millennium, language evolves, sometimes beyond all recognition. This is one of the legacies of the confusion of tongues imposed on mankind by Yahweh because of rebellion and idolatry at the Tower of Babel. It takes a lot of time and effort for most of us to learn another language properly. And if English is your mother tongue, you are speaking a language far removed in time from the original languages of Scripture: Hebrew, Aramaic and (many would argue), Greek.
A specific problem we face is that so many cardinal doctrines of the emunah (faith) are dependent on a correct understanding of biblical time. English is a hybrid of many other languages. To be able to express and explain these doctrines in English, we are forced to dip into a complex mixture of words that have meanings rooted either in paganism or in distorted versions of the Besorah (Gospel) such as Latin. Words like 'hell', 'heaven', 'eternity', 'damnation', 'salvation', 'spirit', 'ghost', 'sanctification', 'deity', 'God', 'sacred', 'glory', 'consecration', 'trinity', and hundreds of others all rely on extra-biblcal ideas for their explanation. Most in the partial list given above are derived from Latin which was not a language Elohim (God) revealed His Davar (Word), the Bible, through. A reason that in this ministry we use Hebrew words alongside English ones, e.g. Elohim (God), emet (truth), emunah (faith), Besorah (Gospel), le-olam-vad-ed (for ever and ever), etc., is because there are sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant and substantial, differences in meaning between the two. Worse, many of the words we use connect to pagan deities, whose names we are forbidden to even mention.
English is a pot pourri of Anglo-Saxon, Danish, Norwegian, Gaelic, Greek, Latin, German and French (a dialect of Latin). Because of growing multi-ethnicity in Anglophone (English-speaking) nations, words from many other langauages continue to be added and at an increasing rate. Accordingly, the English of the 1611 King James Version is very different not only from modern spoken English but also from modern versions of the Bible. With languages rapidly changing, it becomes easier to lose the original meanings of the Hebraic authors and the earliest translations into the Greek tongue of the Septuagint (LXX - the Greek Tanakh/Old Testament) and the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament).
A careful study of Hebrew Tanakh (Old Testament) and Greek New Testament words related to time becomes essential if we are to know the emet (truth). This may require the reader to redefine commonly accepted terms. We must place ourselves into the mindset of the ancients who were closest to the original revelation
of Scripture if we are going to think as Elohim (God) thinks and acts. And as you will see as you get further into this study, and the articles that follow it, Hebrew time is not the same as English time! This exercise will require a lot of unlearning and relearning.
D. Olam
The Hebrew word olam relates to 'time' and is derived from a root verb meaning 'to hide' or 'to conceal'. From the point-of-view of this moment of time we are standing in, olam carries the thought - conveys the sense - of time as being hidden, indefinite or uncertain. Thus olam may be said to be 'hidden time in the sense of being obscure and long, of which the beginning and end is uncertain or indefinite. Olam, then, cannot be expressed mathematically as either a fixed span like 'one thousand years' or something longer like 'infinity'. As we look at some examples of Bible translations of olam into English, the difficulties will become apparent:
"Be mindful of Your mercy, O Yahweh, and of your steadfast love, for they have been of old (olam)" (Ps.25:6, NRSV).
"...which you have shown from long ages past (olam)" (NLT).
"...you have shown them to Your people for a long time (olam)" (NIRV)
These (and indeed most versions) certainly convey the sense of a long, unspecified period of time. The problems arise when translators start using English words which convey other meanings and string them together in an apparently haphazzard manner:
"He stood, and measured the earth: He beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting ('ad) mountains were scattered, the perpetual (olam) hills did bow: his ways are everlasting (olam)" (Hab.3:6, KJV).
"He stood, and shook the earth; He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient ('ad) mountains crumbled and the age-old (olam) hills collapsed. His ways are eternal (olam)" (Hab 3:6, NIV).
"When he stops, the earth shakes. When He looks, the nations tremble. He shatters the everlasting ('ad) mountains and levels the eternal (olam) hills. But His power is not diminished in the least (olam)" (Hab.3:6, NLT).
As should be plain in looking at just three versions of this passage, translators often take great liberties. And if you use Strong's Concordance you will be none the wiser because the authors of concordances have their biases too. The New International Version has the best translation of these three and makes this important observation:
Olam, when used of Yahweh-Elohim the Creator (and here, His power) is literally 'eternal', 'everlasting' or 'perpetual' in the sense that the original Latin (æternum) means in our language, but when refering to created things like hills, mountains and people, an undefined period of time is being spoken of, one that has boundaries, viz. a beginning and an end.
Now, of course, when we are dealing with a genre of literature like poetic prophecy, which Habakkuk unquestionably is, then a certain amount of poetic licence may be expected and should granted. The Hebrews are famous for their hyperbole (exaggeration). To a human being, an ancient mountain may indeed seem 'eternal', but not in any literal sense, because a mountain had a beginning and will one day have an ending when all the elements melt prior to the glorification of the earth (2 Pet.3:12; Rev.16:20). This alone should serve as a warning not to take poetic or symbolic revelation too literally and to double-check English translations very carefully. So far we have not dealt with any salvational doctrines so a certain amount of liberty is permissible in translation, but when it comes to judgment and the eternities, upon which so much is being staked, we must be more precise and cannot afford to be so generous to the poets.
There is no dispute that when olam is applied to Yahweh, 'everlastingness' is being spoken of (e.g. Is.40:28; Ps.90:2; Hab.1:12; 1 Tim.1:17), without beginng or end. The Creator is above and beyond time, but His creation - anything and everything that was not originally 'Him' before He started spiritually or physically creating - is not. However, the Hebrew expression olam does not in itself mean 'forever', 'everlasting', 'eternal', or 'perpetual' for as we have seen it often refers to things that have an end. Accordingly, olam can accurately be translated as an 'undefined long period of time', meaning, their end is not specified.
A good example would be the Old Covenant Levitical Priesthood which, as we know from the Book of Hebrews (Heb.7:11-24; 10:1), has been superceded (replaced) by the New Covenant Melchizedek Priesthood, yet you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise reading our English translations:
"You shall anoint them, as you anointed their father, that they may minister to Me as cohenim (priests); for their anointing shall surely be an everlasting (olam) priesthood throughout their generations" (Ex.40:14-15, NKJV).
Similarly:
"Therefore say, 'Behold, I give to him My b'rit shalom (covenant of peace); and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting (olam) priesthood, because he was zealous for his Elohim (God), and made atonement for the children of Israel" (Num.25:12-13, NKJV; cp. KJV, ASV, RSTNE, AmpV, etc.).
Other versions use "perpetual" (NRSV, NASU, NASB, NIV), "forever" (NLT) and "for all time to come" (NIRV) all of which are wrong because you can't replace something that is eternal, everlasting, perpetual or for all time to come but you can replace that which has been established only for a fixed period of time, however long.
There is a word in Hebrew for unlimited, future time - for everlastingness, eternity, and so on, and that is, as we have already seen in one passage (Hab.3:6), 'ad (1 Chr.28:9; Ps.19:19; Is.9:6; 45:17). And as we saw earlier in Psalm 45:6, at times 'ad and olam can appear together and may be rendered 'forever' (or 'time-indefinite', 'eternity') and 'age-enduring' (or 'age-enduring, 'age-long'), respectively. Concerning the earth, the psalmist literally said - and notice the construction:
This puts translators into a quandry because the two words mean different things! The first means 'age-long' (a fixed period of time) and the second means 'forever' (a never-ending period of time). If you look at English translations they assume it is a double dose of 'eternity' so they typically render the concluding phrase, "it can never be moved" (NIV), "it should not be moved ('removed' - KJV) forever" (NKJV), "it will not totter for ever and ever" (NASU, NASB), "it shall never be shaken" (NRSV), "it can never be moved" (NIRV), "it would never be moved" (NLT), etc.
So what does olam 'ad combined mean? David is describing two periods of time in sequence. First, he is saying that the imperfected earth has been established by Yahweh and cannot be moved (in order words, the world will not be destroyed by a giant meteorite or comet, or by a nuclear war, or something calamitous like that) and it will be established forever after the Millennium as a glorified world for the children of the first resurrection (Rev.20:5-6)! Therefore the distinction between the two words is important. Accordingly we should properly render Psalm 104:5 as follows:
"You set the earth on its foundations that it should not be shaken in this age (olam) [and/or] in eternity ('ad)" (Ps.104:5)
There is another word in Hebrew which can denote 'eternity' (which is popular with kabbalists) which is netzah. Amongst ways it can be rendered are "forever", "perpetually" and "always" (Job 4:20; 14:20; Is.57:16; Ps.9:18). Indeed, netzah and olam can sometimes appear in parallel (Ps.49:8-9) and sometimes netzah and 'ad can appear side by side (Amos 1:11). And all three words are found in Psalm 9:5-6:
"You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked; you have blotted out their name olam 'ad (in age-long time and forever). The enemies have vanished in netzah (perpetual) ruins..." (Ps.9:5-6a).
In other words, Yahweh has wiped out the names of the wicked in the present age, for eternity, and in perpetuity (a double emphasis), which is about as complete you can get. And true to the prophecy, does anyone remember their names today? Barring a few notorious characters (like Goliath, Antiochus Epiphanes, Atilla the Hun, Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Pol Pot) the millions of wicked who have long since gone are wholly unknown to us, their names never being recorded for posterity.
Because olam, when speaking of the creation, refers to a fixed period of time, in later Hebrew it came to acquire the meaning, 'the world' (which is a finite, temporal sphere), of human 'knowledge' and 'intelligence', and that which has a past, present and future, as the following translations show:
"...also He hath set the world (olam - also DNT) in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that Elohim (God) maketh from the beginning to the end" (Eccl.3:11, KJV).
"...also, that knowledge (olam) He hath put in their heart without which man findeth not out the work that Elohim (God) hath done from the beginning even unto the end" (Eccl.3:11 YLT - Young's Literal Translation).
"...Also intelligence (olam) hath he put in their heart without which men could not find out the work which Elohim (God) hath wrought" (REB - Rotherham's Emphasized Bible).
"...moreover, He has put a sense of past and future (olam) into their minds" (Eccl.3:11, NRSV, NEB).
However, because Yahweh is Himself the Creator of all time-based systems, including olam, it may not be entirely wrong, as some translators do, to indicate that something of His eternal-ness has been placed in the hearts of human beings:
"...Also He has put eternity (olam - also NLT, NASB) in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that Elohim (God) does from beginning to end" (Eccl.3:11, NKJV).
Provided the distinction is clearly made between the finiteness of olam with reference to people and things, and the infiniteness of olam with reference to Elohim (God) the Creator, we will not fall into the doctrinal errors of Roman Christianity and its Eastern Orthodox and Protestant schisms. So to be perfectly clear, when olam is applied to the Elohimhead (Godhead) it denotes 'eternity', 'everlastingness', 'foreverness' but when it is applied to men as a length of time the meaning is essentially 'obscurity'. Though none of the translations of Ecclesiastes 3:11 is wrong, the Concordant Version sums up the essential meaning well:
"He (Yahweh) has made everything fitting in its season; however, He has put obscurity (olam) in their heart so that the man not find out His work, that which the One, Elohim (God), does from the beginning to the terminus (end)" (Eccl.3:11, CV).
This actually makes more sense in light of the context of the verse, which is time or seasons, from beginning to end. Simply, Solomon, who had great wisdom and knowledge from Elohim (God), also knew that some things relative to what Yahweh has done, and is doing, in time, from beginning to end, are obscure to man. Can anyone truly say that he understands all that Elohim (God) has done since He began to create the eons (ages, long chunks of time) through His Son? That He has set the ages (olam) in the hearts of men makes the Concordant translation very appropriate, given the context. Put another way, Yahweh has set the ages (eons) in men's hearts so that we cannot figure out everything that He has done, or will do, before and beyond the ages (eons), as well as in the ages themselves. This should remind us of Isaiah 64:4 which Paul quoted:
"From ages past (olam) ('since ancient times' - NIV; 'days of old' - NASU; 'from of old' - ASV, NASB; 'since the beginning of the world' - KJV, NKJV) no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any Elohim (God) besides You, who works for those who wait for Him" (Is.64:4, NRSV).
"But, as it is wrtten, 'The eye has not seen, nor has the ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, that which Elohim (God) has prepared for those who love Him'" (1 Cor.2:9, AENT).
Take special note of Paul's emphasis on the ages leading up to this quote:
"But we speak Elohim's (God's) wisdom, secret and hidden, which Elohim (God) decreed (predetermined) before the ages (æons, eons) for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Master (Lord) of glory" (vv.7-8, NRSV).
E. Eonian (Aeonian/Æonian) Time in the New Testament
Without doubt, most Christians and Messianics believe salvation and, for that matter, the Besorah (Gospel) or 'Good News', are all about what is called 'eternal life' and 'eternity'. After all, in the gospels, Yah'shua (Jesus) is quoted using the term 'eternal' or 'everlasting life' some 23 times, depending on the translation. But, what is 'eternal life'? Most would probably say it means an endless or immortal life, after death and generally in heaven, for those who manage to apply their free will to 'get saved.' To this, others might add that it is a quality of life even while occupying bodies of death (i.e. mortal bodies). But, what if the Greek word that is most often translated as 'eternal' or 'everlasting' does not necessarily mean 'eternal' as most think of it? What if there is a more appropriate adjective to be applied to the chayim (life) spoken of by Yah'shua (Jesus)? What if the Greek word, like the Hebrew olam, actually signifies something related to an indefinite period of time, such as an age or eon? Or, even more significantly, what if 'eternal life' is a relational term linked to the ages to come?
Our knowledge of the Greek language, like that of Hebrew and Aramaic, is constantly expanding. In particular, our knowledge of the kind of Greek used in the earliest translations of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) from Aramaic and Hebrew is constantly being enriched by the discovery of many thousands of papyrus documents in popular or non-literary Greek from about the same period. This research has enabled a better appreciation of the finer shades of idiom which sometimes clarifies the meaning of passages in Scripture. However, our knowledge and understanding of Greek 'time' words really has not changed at all. The problems tend to be linked with the later languages like Latin and English that have obscured and obfuscated the original sense. You will find in-depth discussions of these issues in other articles in the Register below.
Benjamin Wilson in his Emphatic Diaglott of the New Testament According to the Recension of Dr.J.J.Griesbach (Vatican MS No.1209) confirms what we have basically always known from the first centuries of the Messianic Community (Church), namely, that the Greek aio[o]n (age) is used in precisely the same way as the Hebrew olam, as one would naturally expect of a translation being made from the Aramaic. He writes:
"Aio[o]n, an indefinite period of time, past, present, and future. This is the proper translation of aion, which in the common version is often improperly rendered 'world', 'always', and 'forever'. The word occurs about 100 times, in its singular and plural forms. The adjective form of the same word, aionios, is found some 75 times, and is applied to zoë (life) 45 times, to fire 3 times, to glory 3 times, &c. Eternal or everlasting, as generally understood, is an improper translation of aionios. In fact, we have no proper equivalent in the English language. Being an adjective and derived from the noun, aion (age), it cannot properly go beyond its meaning."
The meaning of the Hebrew olam and the Greek aeon are therefore essentially the same. Both 'eternal life' and 'eternal hell/torment/punishment', so called, are therefore anarchronisms, being false translations. The reader of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) should properly render these as 'aeonian (or age-long) life' and 'aeonian (or age-long) hell/torment/punishment'.
Click here for a larger version of this chart & here for a link to the source website
Conclusion
Why do Messianic Evangelicals make a big issue of the 'eternal' verses 'eonian' question? There are five main reasons:
- 1. First, these passages of scripture speak to the fate of billions upon billions of men and women just like us. Are most destined for eternal punishment (or annihilation) and a remnant for eternal chayim (life), or are most destined for eonian chastisement with all eventually reaching eonian life in some form or other? That is an important decision that must be made. Our contention is that it is "Elohim (God) our Saviour, Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the emet (truth)" (1 Tim.2:3-4, KJV).
- 2. Second, Elohim (God) has a purpose and a multifaceted plan to accomplish His purpose which is neatly summed up by Paul:
"But when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who has subjected all things to Him, that Elohim (God) may be all things in all" (1 Cor.15:28, LITV).
- 3. Third, Elohim's (God's) plan is executed through His Son who will subject, head up, gather up, or sum up all things in Messiah, things in the heavens and things on the earth (Eph.1:10). The Weymouth New Testament captures the comprehensiveness of Elohim's (God's) purpose and the plan:
"And this is in harmony with Elohim's (God's) merciful purpose for the government of the world when the times are ripe for it - the purpose which He has cherished in His own mind of restoring the whole creation to find its one Head in Messiah; yes, things in Heaven and things on earth, to find their one Head in Him" (Eph.1:9-10, WNT).
- 4. Fourth, Elohim's (God's) people who have eonian chayim (life) in this age (or, the promise of having it in the ages) and who will be resurrected and transfigured into immortal chayim (life) for the next age are the ones through whom the Master Yah'shua (Lord Jesus) will sum up all things, for they will be His true complement, having been fully conformed to His image, the image of the Heavenly (1 Cor.15:49). They will be the complement of the One completing the all in all (Eph.1:23 CLNT); and
- 5. Finally, why are the ages so important to those who have eonian life and are His complement? They are important because the ages are part of Elohim's (God's) plan of becoming all in all, and He is raising up many sons and daughters of glory in the image of His Son that will be instrumental in implementing His plan for the ages. In other words, His conquerors won't be lounging on the clouds; they will be administering Elohim's (God's) Kingdom on earth and in heaven.
That is why we regard this subject to be so important, and more so for the Remnant who must be united in all emet (truth).
SUMMARY
THE SEVEN BIBLICAL ÆONS OF TIME
An æon (eon) is the longest segment of time known in the Scriptures which speak of seven distinct divisions of time called 'æons (eons)':
- 1. Pre-æonian time (2 Tim.1:9);
- 2. Æon #2 (in the past);
- 3. Æon #3 (in the past);
- 4. Æon #4 (in the past)
- 5. Æon #5 (the present æon);
- 6. The Æon of the æons (in the future, Rev.1:6, being all the generations of Eph.3:21); and
- 7. The Æon after the conclusion of the æons (Heb.9:26).
The word 'age' is not a suitable equivalent because it has been spoiled by misuse, being generally applied to an administration (e.g. 'the steam age', 'the electronic age', 'stoneage', etc.). Biblical æons synchronise with the worlds (Eph.2:2), the æons dealing with the time aspect and the worlds with the cosmic aspect of constitution. The word 'age' is properly used for the remainder of an æon.
The most misunderstood (and doctrinally misapplied) time concept in Scripture is the term "æon of the æons" that is commonly misrepresented as 'eternity' when not applied directly to Elohim (God) - see Rom.16:27; Gal.5:5; Phil.4:20; 1 Tim.1:17; 2 Tim.4:18; Heb.13:21; 1 Pet 4:11; 5:11; Rev.1:6,18; 5:13; 7:12; 11:15; 14:11; 19:3; 20:10; 22:5.
For a shorter and longer study of this important subject material on time, respectively, please carefully examine one or both of the next two articles:
(31 August 2018)
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