[B-Greek] AIWNOS - eternity /of old in Micah 5:2 LXX?

Jim West jwest at highland.net
Wed Aug 16 09:37:54 EDT 2006



Carl W Conrad wrote:

> As for Micah 5:2, that's 5:1 in the LXX verse-numbering. The text:
> hAI EXODOI AUTOU AP' ARCHS EX hHMERWN AIWNOS
> 
> Here we have the noun AIWN rather than the adjective AIWNIOS, but the  
> same range is appropriate; AIWN in LXX Greek conveys the sense of  
> Heb. OLAM, which really means "creation" or "world-age" as a space- 
> time continuum of "creation."

Just one quick note about this.  "olam" in Mic 5:1 (MT), as in its many 
other occurances (451 of them) doesn't "really mean" "world-age as a 
space-time continuum of creation".  Olam means "long time" or 
"constancy" in the sense of lasting forever and hence, in a secondary 
way, "eternal"  but NOT in the philosophical sense.  It can also be 
understood  as "forever", or even "long ago" making reference to the dim 
past.  It comes from a root meaning "secret" or "hidden" by distance.

-- 
Jim West, ThD

http://web.infoave.net/~jwest  -- Biblical Studies Resources
http://petrosbaptistchurch.blogspot.com  -- Weblog



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