αἰών and αἰώνιος: The Final Words

 

This groundbreaking study on αἰών/αἰώνιος offers countless new discoveries and insights into the meaning of this terminology and its historical development. This includes

• the meaning of αἰών when used in stock phrases like πᾶς ὁ αἰών; the historical origins of αἰών as “age, era”

• the semantic relationship between αἰών(ιος) and ἀεί/ἀΐδιος and other terminology of permanence (including a multidimensional linguistic analysis of this terminology used to indicate temporal aspects such as continuity, nnnnnynduration, and frequency — as well as statistical analysis of patristic usage of αἰών and ἀεί/ἀΐδιος terminology)

• the concept of permanence in relation to the rhetoric of war, kingship, death, and other common concepts in ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean languages and traditions

• deep understanding and engagement with recent scholarship on αἰών and αἰώνιος by those like Heleen Keizer, Sandra Šćepanović, and Ilaria Ramelli

• the concept of αἰώνιος afterlife punishment in non-Jewish Greco-Roman texts and its intersection with early Jewish and Christian tradition

• the background of αἰώνιος punishment in Matthew 25:46 and its relationship to texts in the book of 1 Enoch/Jubilees

• the allegedly unique usage of αἰώνιος in the gospel of John

• anomalous uses of adjectival αἰώνιος by those like Diodorus Siculus, Herodian/Phlegon, and John Chrysostom

• anomalous or semantically uncertain uses of nominal αἰών in Hesiod, Menander, and pseudo-Sophocles (=anonymous Hellenistic Jewish fragment);

• the process by which Hebrew and Aramaic terminology was rendered as αἰών/αἰώνιος in the Septuagint and elsewhere (and how this was rendered in early non-LXX Greek translation)

• early non-Christian Latin translations of αἰώνιος

• analysis of both newly discovered and overlooked usage of αἰώνιος in Origen of Alexandria and other early church authors

• multilingual texts such as the Rosetta Stone where αἰών/αἰώνιος is used alongside parallel terminology from other languages

• explicit discussions of the meaning of αἰών/αἰώνιος by various early church authors (e.g. Origen, Didymus the Blind, and Diodore of Tarsus)

• 19th century historiography on αἰών/αἰώνιος