In the previous blog post, I showed that aion does not mean “world,” but an era. The translation “world” eliminates the temporal aspect and thus obscures the view of God’s actions in the successive aeons and of His plan of salvation. But what about the translation choice of “eternity” as a rendering of aion?
Why the word aion cannot mean eternity
Below are a number of texts in which it is clear that the word aion, or a conjugation thereof, indicates an era with a beginning and an end, and in which it clearly cannot be translated as “eternity”. We begin with the last verse of the Gospel of Matthew, where we have already seen that common translations render aion as “world,” which is not a correct translation. But the verse also makes it clear that aion does not mean “eternity.”
Matthew 28
20 And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the aeon.
The end of eternity?
1 Corinthians 10
11 … upon whom the end of the aeons has come.
The end of eternities?
1 Corinthians 2
7 … whom God predestined beforehand, before the aeons, for our glory.
Before the eternities?
Matthew 12
32 … it will not be forgiven him, neither in this aeon nor in the aeon to come.
An eternity to come after “this eternity”?
Hebrews 9
6 … but now once in the end of the aeons He has been revealed.
The end of the eternities?
not infinity
These examples make it clear that aion cannot refer to an infinite time without beginning or end. The text itself excludes such a meaning. Why is the translation of this one word so important? Because the entire picture of future events depends on its translation.
aeon
The word aion can be consistently translated as “eeuw” (Dutch, English: century), or better yet, aeon. The Dutch word “eeuw” originally meant an era, not a fixed period of a hundred years. This later, narrowed meaning only developed over time, but it easily causes confusion in our day.
That’s why I prefer the word aeon. While less well-known, it can easily be found in standard dictionaries. Moreover, it’s a term that isn’t burdened with incorrect associations like a hundred years (century) or everlasting (eternal).