Common English Bible doesn't translate Jonah 2:6 as forever!

[Alex_Smith]

at the base of the undersea mountains. I have sunk down to the underworld; its bars held me with no end in sight.

Unfortunately they aren’t consistent in translating aionios this way everywhere, otherwise it would be a revolutionary translation, especially as the CEB is replacing the TNIV at Fuller Theological Seminary

Anyway, every time a major translation acknowledges that aionios shouldn’t be translated forever/everlasting, is one step closer. As David Konstan said to me recently,

I think it will take time for changes to be registered in standard translations of the Bible, and our book Terms for Eternity which goes to great lengths to show why aionios shouldn’t be translated everlasting] has not been warmly accepted in all quarters – though oddly enough, not because anyone has claimed we were wrong, but because our critics wanted more theology – just what we tried not to invoke, because if we did, our argument might appear circular.

  As for doubters, well – we all have hard lessons to learn when our cherished ideas are challenged, and we have to be patient.

[phillip_macdonald]

Well we will take what we can get, eh?
I really want a copy of Terms for Eternity. Where do you recomend I get the best deal? it’s really pricey (but worth it…?)

[Alex_Smith]

Well we will take what we can get, eh?

Totally!

I really want a copy of Terms for Eternity. Where do you recomend I get the best deal? it’s really pricey (but worth it…?)

I’ve begun reading Terms for Eternity and admit it’s very hard going on some pages (I have no formal Greek or Classical training), however, as it’s such an important topic I’ll persevere & hopefully at least pick up the general gist

Probably the best way to get it is Terms for Eternity paperback now available & on special too! (I also consider it a donation to both authors’ ongoing work).

[phillip_macdonald]

Thanks for the link Alex. Yes, you are right, kind of a pivotal point in the overall discussion, in the particulars anyway. Obviously the overarching truth of God’s character is the paradigm for which to interpret the intended meaning of the “olam/aionios”. I think I will break down and get it.

[JasonPratt]

at the base of the undersea mountains. I have sunk down to the underworld; its bars held me with no end in sight

.Unfortunately they aren’t consistent in translating aionios this way everywhere, otherwise it would be a revolutionary translation, especially as the CEB is replacing the TNIV at Fuller Theological Seminary

Anyway, every time a major translation acknowledges that aionios shouldn’t be translated forever/everlasting, is one step closer.

To be fair, “no end in sight” could pretty easily be regarded as “forever”, too.

I like that rendering, though, as it captures the flavor of the horizon metaphor behind the Hebrew term.

[Alex_Smith]

To be fair, “no end in sight” could pretty easily be regarded as “forever”, too.

I think “no end in sight” is excellent because it is correctly undefined, whereas “forever” is defined as infinite, which is problematic for something that ends up only being 3 days.

I like that rendering, though, as it captures the flavor of the horizon metaphor behind the Hebrew term.

I agree.

[AllanS]

the horizon metaphor

And they thought the horizon was a finite distance away.

[JasonPratt]

the horizon metaphor

And they thought the horizon was a finite distance away.

One of the words was “to the horizon” and the other was “beyond the horizon”; neither one necessarily had to be taken literally.

So the former could be like “as far as the eye can see”, an indistinctly large area that might be all the area (i.e. no end in sight), not necessarily only literally as far as the eye can see (500 yards north to that treeline, and three miles west to that ridgeline, and twenty miles south to the horizon).

But the latter, on the other hand, could in principle involve some (probably still unknown) stopping point “beyond the horizon”. Or not.

(If I recall and understand correctly, Jonah 2:6 is the latter one, “beyond the horizon”.)