Aeternus/Aeternum

[Michael]

For those interested in the meaning of the Latin word “aeternum,” it’s well known that it was originally used loosely (by classical writers):

What, now, are the facts as to the Latin usage of the word aeternus? I answer, in popular usage, it very rarely denotes endlessness. I have examined its usages in Virgil, of which there are at least twenty-six, and in other authors, and will state some facts. It means, frequently, during life. Thus, in Plautus, “Captivi,” iv., 1-13, “I hope that, because of this message, I shall obtain eternal food” (aeternum cibum). He did. His king was restored, and he had abundant food for life, not for eternity. Again (Most. i., 3, 37, 38). A friend says to a confiding young girl, enticed by a deceitful lover: “You are a fool to think that he will be an eternal friend to you” (that is, a friend for life); “I warn you that, by reason of increasing age and satiety, he will desert you.”

Again (“Captivi,” iv., 2, 117), “I will give you eternal food, if you speak the truth.” In this case, food for eternity was out of the question. Food for life was the meaning. Hence we see clearly that the meaning life, in aion, still lived in the Latin aeternus.

In view of these cases, Facciolatus, in his great “Lexicon,” says, “It is very frequently used to denote what endures for life.”

A striking instance occurs in Cicero (“Catiline,” iv., 5), in the debate on the punishment of Lentulus, an associate of Catiline. In that, Cicero speaks thus of the opinion of Caesar, that he should be confined for life, “That very mild and merciful man doesn’t hesitate to consign P. Lentulus to eternal darkness and chains.” Caesar had just disavowed a belief in a future life, in the hearing of Cicero. All that eternal so used can mean, is, for life.

Ovid says (“Trist.,” v., 2, 15), “Telephus, wasted by an eternal disease, would have died, if the right hand that wounded him had not brought a cure.” Telephus was wounded by Achilles, and cured by him by the rust of the wounding spear

History of opinions on the Scriptural doctrine of Retribution, By Edward Beecher, D.D.

What has been of some interest to me (primarily because of my Communion’s reverence for the Athanasian Creed, now believed to have been composed in the 5th century) is the question of whether it retained some element of ambiguity in later centuries.

In that regard, I find the following quote very interesting.

“The Eon, aevum. is an enduring age, whose beginning and end are not known. The Greeks call them Greek text], eons, a term they sometimes use for saeculum, sometimes for aeternum; whence the Latins derived it.”

Isidore of Seville’s Etymologies (XXXVIII. Generations and Ages.)

Isidore of Seville died in 630 A.D., and this work was quite authoritative at the time (and for centuries thereafter):

Saint Isidore of Seville (Spanish: San Isidro or San Isidoro de Sevilla, Latin: Isidorus Hispalensis) (c. 560 – April 4, 636) was Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, “le dernier savant du monde ancien” (“the last scholar of the ancient world”). Indeed, all the later medieval history-writing of Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern Spain and Portugal) were based on his histories…Isidore was the first Christian writer to essay the task of compiling for his co-religionists a summa of universal knowledge, in the form of his most important work, the Etymologiae (taking its title from the method he used in the transcription of his era’s knowledge). It is also known by classicists as the Origines (the standard abbreviation being Orig.). This encyclopedia — the first known to be compiled in medieval civilization — epitomized all learning, ancient as well as modern, forming a huge compilation of 448 chapters in 20 volumes. In it many fragments of classical learning are preserved[citation needed] which otherwise would have been hopelessly lost but, on the other hand, some of these fragments were lost in the first place because Isidore’s work was so highly regarded that it superseded the use of many individual works of the classics themselves, which were not recopied and have therefore been lost.

Isidore of Seville

[JasonPratt]

Super-nifty!

Though it occurs to me that ‘to be punished after death for as long as they continue to live’ would seem to be quite consonant with never-ending hopeless punishment. (It could even be consonant with a type of annihilationism: they’re punished so long as they remain alive in any way, including after death, until God annihilates them utterly removing all life.)

On the other hand, “This is the second death–the lake of fire.” (Rev 20:14b) And “Happy and holy, the one who is having part in the former resurrection! On these the second death has no jurisdiction, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and they will be reigning with Him the thousand years.” (Rev 20:6; the “former resurrection” is that of the souls executed because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the Word of God, who do not worship the wild beast and its image and did not get the emblem on their forehead and on their hand, v. 4. The rest of the dead do not live until the thousand years are finished, v.5.)

That would tend, on this application of aeturnum, toward either annihilationism (as described above) or to universalism of some kind (i.e. anything other than ECT.)

[Michael]

Super-nifty!

The quote from Isidore was particularly interesting to me, but it contained one minor typo (in the form of a period that should have been a comma.)

It should read:

“The Eon, aevum, is an enduring age, whose beginning and end are not known. The Greeks call them [Greek text], eons, a term they sometimes use for saeculum, sometimes for aeternum; whence the Latins derived it.”

Isidore of Seville’s Etymologies (XXXVIII. Generations and Ages.)

Though it occurs to me that ‘to be punished after death for as long as they continue to live’ would seem to be quite consonant with never-ending hopeless punishment. (It could even be consonant with a type of annihilationism: they’re punished so long as they remain alive in any way, including after death, until God annihilates them utterly removing all life.)

On the other hand, “This is the second death–the lake of fire.” (Rev 20:14b) And “Happy and holy, the one who is having part in the former resurrection! On these the second death has no jurisdiction, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and they will be reigning with Him the thousand years.” (Rev 20:6; the “former resurrection” is that of the souls executed because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the Word of God, who do not worship the wild beast and its image and did not get the emblem on their forehead and on their hand, v. 4. The rest of the dead do not live until the thousand years are finished, v.5.)

That would tend, on this application of aeturnum, toward either annihilationism (as described above) or to universalism of some kind (i.e. anything other than ECT.)

Interesting.

But I think Beecher was merely trying to show that the meaning of aeternum (at least in classical Latin) is a little ambiguous.

The most relevant quote he offered (at least in the section I pasted here) was from Ovid.

Ovid says (“Trist.,” v., 2, 15), “Telephus, wasted by an eternal disease, would have died, if the right hand that wounded him had not brought a cure.” Telephus was wounded by Achilles, and cured by him by the rust of the wounding spear.

Relevant, because if Telephus was cured–his disease wasn’t of infinite duration (or even life-long.)

An equally relevant quote he offered (which I inadvertently omitted when referencing his work) was from Virgil.

Virgil (“Aeneid,"”ii., 154), calls the sun, moon, and stars eternal fires. So, by an inspired writer, the same worlds are called eternal. And yet both writers believed that they would pass away and be dissolved.

If Virgil (like the inspired author Beecher alludes to) believed that the sun, moon, and stars would pass away, he clearly used the word aeternum to speak of something more than a human lifespan, and something less than infinite duration.

It seems to me that aeternum, aionian, and olam could be used of the lifespan of an individual, a species, a world, a solar system, or the entire (present) universe–and that makes them pretty broad in meaning.

G-d Bless.

[JasonPratt]

Out of curiosity, was Telephus stricken by a god’s authority in his disease (distinct from his wounding by Achilles)? If so, we may be looking at Ovid applying to a Greek nuance for ‘eonian’ as meaning ‘heavenly’, from the essence of deity.

Good point about the use of aeturnum for the disease, btw!

[Michael]

Out of curiosity, was Telephus stricken by a god’s authority in his disease (distinct from his wounding by Achilles)? If so, we may be looking at Ovid applying to a Greek nuance for ‘eonian’ as meaning ‘heavenly’, from the essence of deity.

I don’t know, but that possibility is very interesting.

[Michael]

Out of curiosity, was Telephus stricken by a god’s authority in his disease (distinct from his wounding by Achilles)? If so, we may be looking at Ovid applying to a Greek nuance for ‘eonian’ as meaning ‘heavenly’, from the essence of deity.

Good point about the use of aeturnum for the disease, btw!

I’ve done a little brushing up on my Greek Mythology, and (as interesting as the suggestion is) I can find no evidence that Telephus was stricken by a god’s authority.

(It seems he was merely defending his city from an attack by Achilles and his men–who mistakenly believed that they had landed at Troy.)

[JasonPratt]

Ah well; thanks for looking it up anyway, though!

[Melchizedek]

Those are great examples of something I’ve known for awhile now.

So, it would seem that our modern notion of “eternal” (time without end, or endlessness) comes primarily from the English word, not the Greek aion aionion aionios or the Latin aeternum/ aeternus.

Does anyone know if the English word eternal has changed meaning over time, or did it always mean what it does now? (Not that it really matters, but it would be interesting to know.)

I just popped over to Merriam-Webster online and found this:

Main Entry: 1eter·nal
Pronunciation: \i-ˈtər-nəl
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin aeternalis, from Latin aeternus eternal, from aevum age, eternity — more at aye
Date: 14th century
1 a : having infinite duration : everlasting b : of or relating to eternity c : characterized by abiding fellowship with God <good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? — Mark 10:17(Revised Standard Version)>
2 a : continued without intermission : perpetual b : seemingly endless
3 archaic : infernal <some eternal villain…devised this slander — Shakespeare>
4 : valid or existing at all times : timeless

So it would seem that the English word has had two primary meanings: Infinite duration and Perpetual, although it would appear that Aeternalis/ Aeternum/ Aeternus from which it was derived did not carry the primary meaning of infinite duration.

As noted above, the English word has only been around since the 14th century.

[JasonPratt]

Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin aeternalis, from Latin aeternus eternal, from aevum age, eternity — more at aye

Thus the underlying real-world linguistic link between ‘eye’ and ‘aye’ as used in my novels.

(“Aye” is considered a religious oath of affirmation in the books; God is known as “the Eye”. I also run a similar but far more obscure (and linguistically non-related) real-world cross-cultural pun in the background, too: zhi, in Chinese, means heaven, often as a metaphor for God; but in Zulu it’s a special affirmation of success used in combat. So again in Mikonese it’s an ancient religious military affirmation: “the ancient cry for justice.” Or, a little less literally, it’s treated as a cry of “justice!” Sometimes I’m so clever I even scare myself… )

Sorry, back to the regularly scheduled commentary.

[JeffA]

We are not worthy… {bow, grovel}

[sven]

Aristotle wrote as far as I know, that each man’s life has been called his “aion”, to understand aionios/aeternum as merely lifelong does however not neccessarily support an universalist understanding, for one’s lifetime can be called one’s “eternity”, for when you are punished for lifetime, your are punished for the whole course of your existence and perceive no positive ending and in this manner it might be called everlasting, I hope you understand what I mean.

I have however read that to ancients the idea of literal endlessness was foreign, I once examined the use of aion in the Septuagint, where I also compared it with the Latin translation and came to similar conclusions, you can read it there:

a look on the phrase eis ton aióna

I wrote a longer “article” examining the meaning of the phrase eis ton aióna, maybe it helps anybody, though most of you know I suppose. eis ton aióna – “in eternity” or “for the age” or something else? My secular Ancient-Greek dictionary (Langenscheidt Taschenwörterbuch Altgriechisch – Deutsch) gives following definitions (translated into English): αιων: life, lifetime, generation, time span, (period of) time, age, eternity Now there are an amazing variety of meanings, the difference betwee…

[Alex_Smith]

I was looking into what aeternus meant at the time of Jerome & earlier & I came across: thetencommandmentsministry.us/ministry/free_bible/whence_eternity

Hard to know how accurate it is Has anyone else looked into this?

[Alex_Smith]

We suggested indeed that Latin, lacking a terminological distinction between aionios and aidios, used aeternus for both, and that this may well have contributed to the later confusion, along with ideological motives of the sort that led Augustine and Jerome to insist on eternal condemnation (this took root much more firmly in the Latin west than in the Greek east). I’m away on vacation, with a bad internet connection, so I’ve not read the article in full detail, and there are many points made there; but that Latin had some of the blame seems right to me.

I think that’s helpful.

[sven]

I wanted to bring this topic back as I stumpled accross an interesting verse:

I Maccabees 14:41

The Greek:

καὶ ὅτι εὐδόκησαν οἱ ᾿Ιουδαῖοι καὶ οἱ ἱερεῖς τοῦ εἶναι Σίμωνα ἡγούμενον καὶ ἀρχιερέα εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ἕως τοῦ ἀναστῆναι προφήτην πιστὸν

The Latin:

et quia Iudaei et sacerdotes eorum consenserunt esse eum ducem suum et summum sacerdotem in aeternum donec surgat propheta fidelis

English translation:

Also that the Jews and priests were well pleased that Simon should be their governor and high priest for ever, until there should arise a faithful prophet;

The Vulgate also has two times “in aeternum et ultra”, “in eternity and beyond” (Exodus 15:18, Micah 4:5) and even speaks about perptual eternities in plural (Daniel 12:3)

ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-te … 21&page=14
hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chron … 45.html#14

I also came across this quote from Augustine, could anyone translate it as literally as possible? It is from De Civitate dei, book 16 (XVI), chapter 26 (XXVI), he explains the meaning of aion(ios) in Latin, I only found a German translation so far which I think is not rendered 100 % correctly.

Et dabo tibi et semini tuo post te terram, in qua tu incola es, omnem terram Chanaan in possessionem aeternam, quo modo accipiatur impletum siue adhuc expectetur implendum, cum possessio quaecumque terrena aeterna cuilibet genti esse non possit: sciat aeternum a nostris interpretari, quod Graeci appellant aionios, quod a saeculo deriuatum est; aion quippe Graece saeculum nuncupatur. Sed non sunt ausi Latini hoc dicere saeculare, ne longe in aliud mitterent sensum. Saecularia quippe dicuntur multa, quae in hoc saeculo sic aguntur, ut breui etiam tempore transeant; aionios autem quod dicitur, aut non habet finem aut usque in huius saeculi tenditur finem.

PS: I found an English translation:

And when it is said, “And I will give to you, and to your seed after you, the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession [possessionem aeternam],” if it troubles any one whether this is to be held as fulfilled, or whether its fulfilment may still be looked for, since no kind of earthly possession can be everlasting [aeternam] for any nation whatever, let him know that the word translated everlasting [aeternum], by our writers is what the Greeks term αἰώνιον, which is derived from αἰὼν, the Greek for sæculum, an age. But the Latins have not ventured to translate this by secular, lest they should change the meaning into something widely different. For many things are called secular which so happen in this world as to pass away even in a short time; but what is termed αἰωνιον either has no end, or lasts to the very end of this world [better “age” = saeculi].

I also found Isidore’s quote, I will look for a suitable translation:

38 De saeculis et aetatibus. Saecula generationibus constant; et inde saecula, quod se sequantur: abeuntibus enim aliis alia succedunt. Hunc quidam quinquagesimum annum dicunt, quem Hebraei iubileum vocant. 2 Ob hanc causam et ille Hebraeus, qui propter uxorem et liberos amans dominum suum aure pertusa servitio subiugatus, servire iubetur in saeculum, hoc est usque ad annum quinquagesimum. 3 Aetas plerumque dicitur et pro uno anno, ut in annalibus, et pro septem, ut hominis, et pro centum, et pro quovis tempore. Unde et aetas tempus, quod de multis saeculis instruitur. Et dicta aetas, quasi aevitas, id est similitudo aevi. 4 Nam aevum est aetas perpetua, cuius neque initium neque extremum noscitur, quod Graeci vocant αἰῶνας; quod aliquando apud eos pro saeculo, aliquando pro aeterno ponitur. Unde et apud Latinos est derivatum. 5 Aetas autem proprie duobus modis dicitur: aut enim hominis, sicut infantia, iuventus, senectus: aut mundi, cuius prima aetas est ab Adam usque ad Noe; secunda a Noe usque ad Abraham; tertia ab Abraham usque ad David; quarta a David usque ad transmigrationem Iuda in Babyloniam; quinta deinde a transmigratione Babylonis usque ad adventum Salvatoris in carne; sexta, quae nunc agitur, usque quo mundus iste finiatur. 6 Quarum decursus per generationes et regna ita inspicitur.

penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/R … 5*.html#28

PPS:

This translation appears suitable,

books.google.de/books?id=igxC93_ … CDEQ6AEwAA

Two remarks from me:

Concerning #2

This refers to Exodus 21:6 and Deuteronomy 15:17 where the Vulgate uses “in saeculum” (Exodus 21:6) and “in aeternum” (Deuteronomy 15:17) interchangeably, the Greek has “eis ton aiôna” in both instances.

Concerning #4

Aevum from Greek aiôn is more likely a continuous age (aetas perpetua) rather than an “everlasting age” since it has both beginning and end, which is simply not know.

To me it seems that Augustine considered aeternum to literally mean everlasting whereas Jerome must have considered it terminable and interchangeably with saeculum. Maybe this be due to different Latin dialects that have developed, see here:

thetencommandmentsministry.us/mi … e_eternity

Jerome was born in what is now Slovenia and died in Jerusalem, whereas Augustine was born and died in what is now Algeria.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo

[AllanS]

Ovid says (“Trist.,” v., 2, 15), “Telephus, wasted by an eternal disease, would have died, if the right hand that wounded him had not brought a cure.” Telephus was wounded by Achilles, and cured by him by the rust of the wounding spear.

I do like this quote.

Transcribing, “Sin is a deadly and eternal disease, a wasting away of the soul caused by our rebellion against God. But the right hand (Christ) of the one who wounds us (God) will also heal us, and the weapon that hurt us (God’s just punishment) will provide the means.”