Saturday, July 26, 2014

The Pleroma (5) - Charles H. Welch



















No.5. The Age-Times, when do they begin? 


In the great majority of cases the translations “everlasting”, “eternal” and “forever”, in the A.V., are renderings of the Greek aionios, aion and the Hebrew olam. The A.V., however, renders aion by “world”, “course”, “age”, “eternal” as well as “ever”, and in conjunction with various prepositions it gives as translations “since the world began”, “from the beginning of the world” and “while the world standeth”. 

Such translations of a word that can range from a “world” which had a “beginning” and will have an end, to “eternity” which confessedly has neither, are too wide to be of service, especially when the choice depends largely upon the theological views of the translator. 


Olam, the Hebrew word, comes from a root meaning something hidden or secret (Psa. xix. 12) and suggests a period of time of undefined limits. Aion is used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew olam, and this we must take as our guide. 

In the book of Ecclesiastes the word olam occursseven times, and is translated in the A.V. as follows: 

“The earth abideth for ever” (i. 4). 
“It hath been already of old time” (i. 10). 
“No remembrance . . . . . for ever” (ii. 16). 
“Set the world in their heart” (iii. 11). 
“It shall be for ever” (iii. 14). 
“A portion for ever” (ix. 6). 
“Man goeth to his long home” (xii. 5). 

Such variety provides no connected thought, but a consistent translation of olam reveals a definite line of teaching. 


Leaving these passages until we are more prepared to consider their teaching in detail, we pass to another group, this time in the N.T., namely, in the epistle to the Ephesians. There the word aion is translated as inconsistently as we found its parallel olam in Ecclesiastes. 

“This world” (i. 21). 
“The course of this world” (ii. 2). 
“The ages to come” (ii. 7). 
“From the beginning of the world” (iii. 9). 
“Eternal purpose’ (iii. 11). 
“Throughout all ages, world without end” (iii. 21). 
“Rulers of the darkness of this world” (vi. 12). 

Here we have a strange assortment. This world, which had a beginning, but which has no end, and the course of this world, and the eternal purpose which terms are hardly comparable. Translate the word aion consistently, and order, light and instruction take the place of human tradition and confusion. 


All lovers of the Word must see how great is the loss which we have sustained through the traditional translation. “The eternal purpose” sounds very grand, it gives a certain sound of reality and indefectibility to the purpose of God, yet it is a double violation. The noun aion is translated as though is were the adjective aionion, apart from the mistake of putting eternity where age should have been. What we have to learn is that the Bible does not speak of “eternity”. It was not written to tell us of eternity. Such a consideration is entirely outside the scope of revelation. Many, many undreamed wonders will doubtless be unfolded when the ages are no more. What they will be and what they will involve is idle and profitless speculation. The Word of God as it has been given is a complete system of teaching for us; it does not treat fully of the creation around us, much less of the time before or after the present six days’ creation. While we acknowledge that there is much which our curiosity would tempt us to ask, we do most readily acknowledge the divine boundaries of our studies, realizing that by the repeated emphasis upon the teaching of the ages, and the absence of teaching concerning eternity, the Lord is still showing us (as is expressed in Ecclesiastes) that the time has not yet arrived when we may “find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end”. 


Our Immediate Enquiry. 

Accepting the fact of the ages and of the age-times, we now enquire from the Scripture an answer to the question “when did they commence?” 

As a fuller contribution to the subject, we place before the reader some of the most important expressions that are found in the N.T. dealing with the time factor of the ages. Such expressions as “the end of the world”; “since the world began”; “this world”; “the world to come” are known to all; we now propose to submit them to a more careful scrutiny, so that the Scriptural association of time with the ages shall be better seen. The reader already knows that aion is often translated “world” in the A.V.; and while it is a good rendering, meaning etymologically “the age of man” (vir-eld), it simplifies the enquiry if we agree to translate kosmos by “world” and aion by “age”, thereby preserving the distinction that must be maintained between words of place and words of time. 

“The end of the world.” There are more words than one that can be translated “end”; the word used in this phrase is sunteleia. In Matt. xiii. 39, 40, 49; xxiv. 2 & xxviii. 20 aion is in the singular, but in the one remaining occurrence, namely in Heb. ix. 26, aion is used in the plural. What the significance of this change may be we do not pause at the moment to consider, but just make a note of the fact that nowhere else except in Matthew or Hebrews do we meet the expression sunteleia tou aionos. If there is a period that can be called “the end of the world”, there is also a period which speaks of a time “since the world began” or “from the beginning of the world”. We should remember when reading this expression that the word arche “beginning” does not occur in the phrase, all that is found in the original being the words ap aionos “from (an) age”, when used in Luke i. 70; Acts iii. 21 and xv. 18; and apo ton aionon the plural with the article, in Eph. iii. 9 and Col. i. 26. We observe that in the last reference the ages are coupled with the generations a term which we must consider separately. 

“The world to come” translates two forms, one in which aion is spoken of as erchomenon “coming”, Luke xviii. 30; and aion spoken of as mello “about to be” Matt. xii. 32; Eph i. 21 and Heb. vi. 5. 

“This world” and “that world” are contrasted, the former expression using toutou with aion, the latter using ekeinos. “That world” occurs but once, namely in Luke xx. 35, but “this world” occurs some fourteen times, and these will be given fuller consideration when the occurrences are being examined in detail. Variations of this expression are found in Gal. i. 4 which adds the words “present” and “evil”, and I Tim. vi. 17, II Tim. iv. 10 and Titus ii. 12, where the word nun “now” is added. 

One passage contains the phrase “before the ages” (plural) pro ton aionon, I Cor. ii. 7, the other passages which speak of “before the world” employ the word kosmos not aion. 

The word “generation” is used in association with the ages. Genea has three meanings in the N.T. It means the simple succession from father to son (Matt. i. 17); it means a company of men living at the same time and sharing similar characteristics; and thirdly it means a mark of time, “the successive lives of offspring being taken to indicate so many stages in the world’s history”. 

Aion “age” belongs to no one particular dispensation or line of teaching. It occurs in all but five of the twenty seven books of the N.T., the epistles that contain no reference are I & II Thessalonians, James, Philemon and III John. Aionios the adjective translated “eternal” and “everlasting” occurs in nineteen books of the N.T., being omitted in I Corinthians, I Thessalonians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, James and II & III John. The books therefore which contain both aion and aionios are the four Gospels, Acts, Galatians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Hebrews, I & II Peter, I John, Jude and the Revelation. We must examine some of these occurrences in detail, and we shall have to consider the bearing of apo “from”, pro “before”, and eis “unto” or “for”, before we can even begin to come to any conclusion as to when the age-times began. 

What does the Scripture mean by “age-times”? Is such a term a correct translation of the original? What light do parallel constructions throw upon the phrase? Where does the expression occur? What light do we get from the context? Are there parallel, though different expressions, that should be considered? Let us address ourselves to these and any related questions that may occur during the investigation. 

The rendering “age-times” is not found in either the A.V. or the R.V. In the A.V. the translation reads “before or since the world began” and in the R.V. the rendering is “through” or “before times eternal”. “Before the world began” is at least understandable, but “before times eternal” cannot be understood without a very drastic revision of the meaning ascribed to “eternal”. If eternal thing have neither beginning nor end, then it is impossible to speak of a period before times eternal—the translation is figurative, and does not contribute to our understanding or add to our knowledge. 

The occurrences of the expression are three in number, and we give them first of all as they occur in the A.V. 

“Now to Him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the 
preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: to God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.” (Rom. xvi. 25-27). 

“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ” (II Tim. i. 8-10).

“In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; but hath in due times manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour” (Titus i. 2, 3). 

The Greek words translated “before” or “since” the world began, are chronois aioniois in Rom. xvi. 25, and pro chronon aionion in II Tim. i. 9 and Titus i. 2. We observe that the expression in either form is exclusive to Paul, and that such an exclusive character is emphasized in the context by such added terms as “my gospel”; “through the gospel whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles”; “through preaching which is committed unto me”. 

Our first note therefore is that the term “before the world began” or “since the world began”, however we are obliged ultimately to translate the original, belongs exclusively to the ministry of Paul. 

Secondly we note that there is a difference between the phrase found in Rom. xvi., and those found in II Timothy and Titus. The former speaks of a period “since”, the latter of a period “before” the beginning of the world. We must be careful therefore to keep these two periods distinct, together with the revelations associated with them. 

Ignoring for the time being the preposition pro “before” or the dative case, translated by the A.V. ‘since’, let us examine the words chronon aionion. It is not a matter of debate that aionios is an adjective derived from aion the noun, or that chronos is a noun. If we read in Matt. xxv. 19 meta de chronon polun we naturally translate “but after a long time”. If we find the order of the words reversed as in John v. 6 polun . . . . . chronon, while the emphasis may be shifted, the translation must remain the same, polun still remains an adjective, chronon still remains a noun. The word chronos ‘time’ is not of frequent use in the epistles, occurring only twelve times in the fourteen written by Paul, and when we turn to Romans, II Timothy and Titus in the hope of observing the usage of chronos in those three epistles which use the phrase ‘since’ or ‘before’ the world began, we find but one passage, namely Rom. vii. 1 “the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth”, literally ‘for a long time’ eph hoson chronon. 

Aionios the adjective, is derived from aion, and must retain whatever essential meaning pertains to the noun. It is impossible that the noun should be translated ‘age’, which most certainly had a beginning, and will certainly have an end, and to translate the adjective ‘everlasting’ or ‘eternal’. Keeping to Paul’s epistles we find aionion translated ‘eternal’, ‘everlasting’, and ‘for ever’, except in the three passages before us, Rom. xvi. 25; II Tim. i. 9; and Titus i. 2, where we read ‘since, or before, the world began’. If chronos is translated ‘world’, then aionios must have been translated ‘began’, or if chronos has been translated ‘began’ because of its association with time, then aionios has been translated ‘world’. In any case the translation is exceedingly wide. The Revisers were evidently unsatisfied with this rendering for in the three passages they substitute ‘times eternal’, which though it adheres more to the actual words so translated, is still too poetic to be of use, for ‘times’ belong to one category and ‘eternal’ to another. We can speak of ‘a living death’ but only in a figure; we can speak of ‘times eternal’ but only in a figure. For the purpose of discovering at what point in the outworking of the purpose of the ages these ‘times eternal’ commence, such a translation is valueless. There is nothing for it but to adopt either the foreign-sounding phrase ‘eonian times’, or the cumbersome expression ‘age-times’. This latter has the advantage of presenting to the eye the fact that we are still within the bounds of the ages, and not dealing with either ‘the world’ as in the A.V. or ‘eternity’ as in the R.V. 

We must now return to those passages that are under review, to observe any particular features that will help us in our attempt to place them in the outworking of the Divine purpose. 

First, we will give Weymouth’s rendering of Rom. xvi. 25-27, with our own emphasis of each occurrence of aion and aionios. 

“To Him Who has it in His power to make you strong, as declared in the Good News which I am spreading, and the proclamation concerning Jesus Christ, in harmony with the unveiling of the Truth which IN THE PERIOD OF PAST AGES remained unuttered, but has now been brought fully to light, and by the command of THE GOD OF THE AGES has been made known by the writings of the Prophets among all the Gentiles to win them to obedience to the faith—to God, the only wise, through Jesus Christ, even to Him be the glory THROUGH ALL THE AGES” (Rom. xvi. 25-27. Weymouth). 

The words chronois aioniois in Rom. xvi. 25 are in the dative case. This case is used to denote ‘a space of time’, ‘for’, as in Acts xiii. 20; John ii. 20. (The A.V. use of the word ‘since’ is without precedent; this demands the preposition apo, or its equivalent.) In the space of time known as the ‘age times’, a truth had been ‘kept secret’. As the word musterion and its derivations express the idea of something ‘secret’, and as the word translated ‘kept secret’ in the original of Rom. xvi. 25 is sigao ‘to keep silence’ (see I Cor. xiv. 28, 34), the translation of the A.V. is misleading. The word does not indicate that the truth in view was never made known at all, or at any time, but that during the space of time known as the age-times it was ‘hushed’, that period ending with the revelation found in the epistle to the Romans, and referring, not to the Mystery of Ephesians, but to the inner portion of Romans, namely Rom. v. 12 - viii. 39, where instead of the law of Moses and personal transgression being the dominant theme, Moses retires into the background and Sinai is exchanged for ‘the law of sin and death’. Adam now takes the place of Moses, and the ruin of the creature is stressed rather than personal transgressions, ‘sin’ rather than ‘sins’. Since the call of Abraham, and during the period of Israel’s discipline this inner teaching of Romans remained unemphasized, but with the commission of the Apostle, the hour struck for its proclamation. A comparison of Rom. i. 1-7 with Rom. xvi. 25-27, will reveal some thins in common, and some that differ. 

The structure of the epistle to the Romans is exceedingly complex, as we can well believe of so mighty an epistle. Simplified to the extreme it appears somewhat like this: 


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