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

Craig J newsgroupstuff at gmail.com
Wed Aug 16 16:47:57 EDT 2006


> BDAG offers three levels of usage of the adjective AIWNIOS/A/ON: "1.  
> pertaining to a long period of time, long ago; ... 2. 
> pertaining to a  
> time without beginning or end, eternal; ... 3. pertaining to 
> a period  
> of unending duration, without end ... " Inasmuch as the adjective  
> AIWNIOS derives from the noun AIWN which means, essentially, "a long  
> period of time" or "an age," the range of usage that BDAG offers for  
> AIWNIOS shouldn't be surprising -- the English word "everlasting" is  
> just about as slippery a word, as you can ascertain from dictionary  
> and thesaurus entries.

Could we not summarize the meaning of AIWNIOS as 'pertaining to a AIWN'?


> TITUS 1:2
> EP' ELPIDI ZWHS AIWNIOU, hHN EPHGGEILATO hO AYEUDHS QEOS PRO CRONWN  
> AIWNIWN.
> 
> The first adjective, AIWNIOU, qualifies ZWHS and means "everlasting"  
> or "eternal"; the second adjective AIWNIWN qualifies CRONWN and  
> pretty clearly refers to the whole of temporal duration: "God is  
> without falsehood (since) before everlasting ages."

Could PRO CRONWN AIWNIWN be relating to EPHGGEILATO: "promised before the
times of the age"?

Could it mean that the promise was made before the age began, not referring
to time that never ends, but more about durations or passing of time in
history as we know it, and that the promise was made 'before any history
began'..?


> Rom 16:25
> TWi DE DUNAMENWi hUMAS STHRIXAI KATA TO 
> EUAGGELION MOU KAI TO KHRUGMA  
> IHSOU CRISTOU, KATA APOKALUYIN MUSTHRIOU 
> CRONOIS AIWNIOIS SISIGHMENOU.
> 
> Here AIWNIOIS is in the dative and qualifies the noun CRONOIS, but  
> the phrase CRONOIS AIWNIOIS qualifies the participle SESIGHMENOU and  
> the noun to which that refers MUSTHRIOU: "a secret kept silent for  
> age-long times"

Does it need to be 'age-long times'? Could it be 'times of the age'? In
other words, 'for all of history (up until now)'. If so, the meaning really
seems the same as in Titus 1:2.

 
> 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."
> 
> Here the sense of the LXX Greek text is  a bit odd: AP' ARCHS EX  
> hHMERWN AIWNOS: "from the beginning from the days of the world-age"  
> and the sense must be "as old as creation itself."

The LXX seems to be a literal translation of the Hebrew.

I wonder if hHMERWN AIWNOS is really equivalent to CRONWN AIWNIWN, 'days of
the age' or 'times of the age'? I think CRONOS often is used to translate
the Hebrew YOM, so I wonder if combinations of CRONOS with AIWNIOS are
related to Hebrew uses of YOM with OLAM..? Perhaps LXX sometimes literally
translated as hHMERWN where better Greek translation would have been to use
KRONWN instead..? But maybe that is just speculation on my part...! (I do
seem to remember that LXX may not always be consistent in translating YOM or
OLAM, but I haven't rechecked that...)


--
Craig Johnson
Brisbane, Australia
Blog Experiment: http://bloggledegook.blogspot.com/




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