Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Wisdom Needed Here

Hi Fellow Bloggers
Sorry I haven't written much lately, but have been designing the website in readiness for articles that survive the QA process of the blog.
However I would like to ask specifically for your help.

As you have probably heard me say before, there is nowhere in the Bible (that I know of) that speaks about "eternal life".  However, many of our English Bibles use the word "eternal" as the translation of the Greek word "aionios", and so end up with "eternal life" or "eternal punishment" etc. quite incorrectly.

"aionios" is the adjective derived from "aion" the noun, which literally means "eon" (a period of time, usually a long period of time, or an age), which has a beginning and an end.  So the adjective "aionios" should draw its meaning from the noun "aion", as all other adjective do - as sunny does from sun, golden from gold, australian from australia, etc.

The meaning of "aionios" therefore is eonian literally, or of an age, or age-lasting, or age-abiding, or age-during, or some other age-related English word.  "aionios" therefore cannot mean eternal, whose meaning is drawn from eternal, a concept without beginning or end.

I would like some help choosing which English word to use when translating "aionios" and discussing topics on the blog, and subsequently on the website and in the book.  "eonion" is clearly the best, but very quaint, and unlikely to be acceptable to most of our readers.

What would you suggest?  Add a reason for your choice if you would like to.

When you send your suggestion(s), please do so via the Blog at http://barrysgracespace.blogspot.com/.

Whenever a new post or comment is placed on the blogspot, everyone of us gets an email showing what's been added.  If you do a 'reply' to that email, only I will get it.  On the other hand, if you place a 'comment' on the blogsite, everyone gets an email containing your comment.

In this way, everyone is alerted by email when something is added to the blogsite and the blogsite keeps an orderly and complete record of the conversations (posts and comments) that any of us have.

Also, please remember to sign your comment after you finish writing it, so we all know where the wisdom came from. Otherwise the comment will only identify the commenter as anonymous.

Thanks Barry

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