I am still learning of noun and adjective. The Greek word for age/eon is the noun and aionios is the adjective. So, aionios is plural like ages/eons with the end of 's' is adjective? Does aion have plural like aions? If so, then what is mean aionios adjective? Hope you can help.
Thank you! O:)
Brett,
Let me try to answer as I understand this.
The Greek word for age isn't
eon, as you said...it’s
aion, and we
derive the English equivalent word, 'eon', from it. The Greek word aion and the English word eon are best defined as 'a long period of time', but they do not mean 'eternity'. If it meant 'eternity', then scripture which says
'in the ages/aion to come' wouldn't make sense (in the eternities to come???).
The word
aionios is
derived from the word
aion, and that’s the word (aionios) that bible translators incorrectly translate "eternity".
It is a fundamental law of grammar that a derivative cannot have a force greater than that which it is derived from. So, if the
noun aion means
an age or long period of time...the
derivative aionios cannot possibly be translated as
eternity.To give you an English example, take the word
hour which is a
noun. How many minutes are in an hour? 60 minutes! Now take the word
'hourly' which is an
adjective derived from the noun 'hour'. How many minutes are in 'hourly' meetings? 60 minutes again. So if you have hourly meetings forever, how many minutes are in those hours? The answer is still 60 minutes.
The word
hourly has more to do with a
quality of an hour than it does with the quantity of time in an hour. So also does the word 'aionios' have more to do with a quality of time happening within an age/aion. That's why the Young's Literal Translation always translates the aionios as
'age during'. It describes a quality of something taking place in an age/aion. In other words
aionian life isn't a quantity of years but a
quality of life taking place within those years. It speaks of God's life within the age. Does that mean God's life is only 'an age'? No, it just means His truly endless life being manifested within that time/aion/age.
Hope this helps.