AUTHORITIES.
The oldest lexicographer,
Hesychius, (A. D. 400-600,) defines
aión thus:* “The life of man, the time of life.*” At this early date no theologian had yet imported into the word the meaning of endless duration. It retained only the sense it had in the classics, and in the Bible.
Theodoret(9) (A. D. 300-400) “
Aión is not any existing thing, but an interval denoting time, sometimes infinite when spoken of God, sometimes proportioned to the duration of the creation, and sometimes to the life of man.”
John of Damascus (A. D. 750,) says, "1, The life of every man is called
aión. . . . 3, The whole duration or
life of this world is called
aión. 4, The life after the resurrection is called ‘the
aión to come.’ "
But in the sixteenth century
Phavorinus was compelled to notice an addition, which subsequently to the time of the famous Council of 544 had been grafted on the word. He says: “
Aión, time, also life, also habit, or way of life.
Aión is also the eternal and endlessAS IT SEEMS TO THE THEOLOGIAN.” Theologians had succeeded in using the word in the sense of endless, and Phavorinus was forced to recognize their usage of it and his phraseology shows conclusively enough that he attributed to theologians the authorship of that use of the word. Alluding to this definition, Rev. Ezra S. Goodwin, one of the ripest scholars and profoundest critics, says,
(10) “Here I strongly suspect is the true secret brought to light of the origin of the sense of eternity in
aión.
The theologian first thought he perceived it, or else he placed it there. The theologian keeps it there, now. And the theologian will probably retain it there longer than any one else. Hence it is that those lexicographers who assign eternity as one of the meanings of
aión uniformly appeal for proofs to either theological, Hebrew, or Rabbinical Greek, or some species of Greek subsequent to the age of the Seventy, if not subsequent to the age of the Apostles, so far a I can ascertain.”
The second definition by
Phavorinus is extracted literally from the “Etymologicon Magnum” of the ninth or tenth century. This gives us the usage from the fourth to the sixteenth century, and shows us that, if the word meant endless at the time of Christ, it must have changed from limited duration in the classics, to unlimited duration, and then back again, at the dates above specified!
From the sixteenth century onward, the word has been defined as used to denote all lengths of duration from brief to endless. We record here such definitions as we have found.
Rost: (German definitions) "
Aión, duration, epoch, long time, eternity, memory of man, life-time, life, age of man.
Aiónios, continual, always enduring, long continued, eternal."
Hedericus: “An age, eternity, an age a if always being; time of man’s life in the memory of men, (wicked men, New Testament,) the spinal marrow.
Aiónios, eternal, everlasting, continual.”
Schleusner: “Any space of time whether longer or shorter, past, present or future,
to be determined by the persons or things spoken of, and the scope of the subjects; the life or age of man.
Aiónios, a definite and long period of time, that is, a
long enduring, but still definite period of time.”
Passow: "
Aiónios, long continued, eternal, everlasting, in the classics.
Grove: “Eternity; and age, life, duration, continuance of time; a revolution of ages, a dispensation of Providence, this world or life; the world or life to come.
Aiónios, eternal, immortal, perpetual, former, past,
ancient.”
cont…
