[B-Greek] AIDIOS
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Oct 8 09:31:18 EDT 2003
At 11:20 AM -0400 10/3/03, Robert Beecham <Robee888 at aol.com> wrote:
>I've just found your address in a correspondence about the word aidios from 4
>years ago.
>
>I was searching the internet becauSe I have been wondering if the word aidios
>could mean invisible.
>
>My reasons are that Hades (Aides) is taken to mean the unseen world, and
>aidios looks very similar.
>
>Also the Hebrew word olam, which lies behind the Greek words aion and aionios
>throughout the Septuagint, comes from a root alam which means hidden.
This has gone for the better part of a week without an answer, so let me
make a tentative response.
I think I have seen somewhere (I can't remember where) in Greek literature
a suggested etymological linkage between AiDHS ("Hades" interpreted as "the
invisible one" from A- privative and fID "see") and AIDIOS, but I don't
think that there's any valid connection. Rather AIDIOS derives from the
adverb AEI "always." AIWN and AIWNIOS derive from the same element (AEI/AI
+WN/ON {EIMI}), but of course, usage rather than etymology is ultimately
what must govern our understanding of the meaning. Certainly the Greek word
doesn't derive from the Hebrew, even if it is used in the LXX or in the GNT
to represent the Hebrew word "Olam."
LSJ notes, at the bottom of its entry on AIDIOS, "AIDIOS is dist. fr.
AIWNIOS as everlasting from timeless , Olymp. in Mete. 146.16; but dist.
fr. AEIZWOS as eternal (without beginning or end) from everliving, Corp.
Herm .8.2. :
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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