[B-Greek] word meaning
Brian A. Phillips
Brian.A.Phillips at insightbb.com
Fri May 23 10:36:51 EDT 2003
Hi,
I have a friend who believes the bible teaches the ultimate salvation of everyone, regardless of faith. I know this group does not promote one belief over the other, but perhaps you can help me examine some of his reasoning.
He interprets the NT Greek very literally.
1. He says that each Greek word has exactly one, and only one real meaning. True? I think he would look at all the ways a word is used and attempt a definition that fit each passage. Is that possible? One word that comes to mind for me is Paul’s use of “flesh”. I haven’t yet looked to the Greek, but I thought I remembered seeing a usage that included a reference to his race, and of course there is his use of that “which houses sin”.
2. He says that AION cannot ever mean “eternal” in the NT – that it is an AGE, with an unspecified amount of time, but having a definite beginning and end. An example of his reasoning is the question that the disciples asked Jesus: “What will be the sign of the end of the age”. If this is translated here as “eternity/forever” (as it is in many other passages in several popular translations), it would not make any sense at all (what will be the sign of the end of eternity). I think he has a good point with that word, but what I’m really interested in are the phrases “AION of AIONS”, or “AIONS of AIONS” (note the plural for both aion's in the last one). My friend would say these should be taken literally, like the Holy of Holies, and King of Kings – that they should be understood as “an age apart from all the other ages”, and “two ages apart from all other ages”. Most translations use “forever” or “forever and ever” for these phrases. Which is right? Are both translations legitimate (for the phrases)? Bill Mounce makes reference to the Jewish concept of time in Basics of Biblical Greek, but he doesn't go into detail. Did the Septuagint translate Hebrew terms for "everlasting" as "age of ages",... or, in other words, is the phrase "age of ages" a Greek idiom meaning forever? Does Koine Greek have idioms?
I don’t want to be burdensome, so I will wait to ask other questions later. (like the meaning of “of the faith of Christ”). ☺
Sincerely,
Brian A. Phillips
ARCO Cleaning, Inc.
317-578-2726
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