Ray,
I looked up the Latin word "aeternum" in a Latin dictionary online and of course it says that it means "eternal,without beginning or end" and all that other garbage. Tell me,what did it REALLY mean back when the Holy Scriptures were written ? Thanks for your help.
Bruce
Dear Bruce:
Aeternum [eternalis, eterne, etc.] had virtually the identical mean of the Greek word "aeonian." They both represented that which is temporal with a beginning and an end. Actually aeternum and age are the SAME WORD! "The Latin word "aevum" is the equivalent of the Greek word "aion." Aevum produced "aevitas," which became shortened to "aetas. From this was formed another form, "aetaticum, a Low Latin term. In France this was slurred into "edage, then into aage, which arried in England as AGE" (From WHENCE ETERNITY? By Alexander Thomason). The Latin "aeviternus" [adjective--aeternus] is the original source of our English word "eternal." And so "eternal" meant "AGE." Aetum never meant "eternal" in Latin.
It was the Catholics who invented "ENDLESS ages." And why would they attach the word "endless" to the word ages? Because the word age, aevum, aeternus, etc., NEVER MEANT ENDLESS.
God be with you,
Ray
