Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 5:35 pm
Luke, thanks, you captured my view of language perfectly! (You also caught by implication to James that all views reject one or another 'standard definitions;' so e.g. I could reserve discussing pas's meaning only after you explain why you reject BDAG's "all" (the totality of members of the set indicated in context) when e.g. Rom. 5 explicitly says "all men" will be (future tense) justified, or "reconciled" (Col.1), or "made alive in Christ" (1 Cor. 15)).
You also rightly see that one's definition will be influenced by one's "larger view" of what other passages say on connected topics. So I'd say we question BDAG's standard definition because of many passages and uses of aioniois that appear incompatible with it. First, I'm struck that this word is not like "pas," whose original root appears to literally refer to an adjective for the totality of its' indicated set. But aioniois has no root or literal meaning that corresponds to "endless duration." It is derived from the noun which literally meant an "age." Thus, if #2, I see that numerous uses of it in the NT & LXX refer to events of explicitly limited duration, then limiting its' meaning to your citation of BDAG seems incorrect, whereas the literal meaning of the term (pertaining to the age) works well in such contexts. I have further found in the last 5 years in Q & A with those who teach NT Greek at Wheaton, Fuller, and Regent (Vancouver) that all these non-universalist authorities agree that aioniois at least sometimes cannot bear a meaning like "everlasting," and by implication that your understanding of BDAG's implications is incorrect.
Thus, I am left asking if there can be a reasonable explanation for BDAG's popular definition. And my bias is that popular views and translations have often way later been recognized as wrong. Here, I know that the Constantinian Roman Church (I think influenced by pagan Greek concepts) institutionalized the idea of infinitely extending torment as the necessity for sins in finite time as a powerfully motivating way to direct people's lives. It since has been embraced by evangelicals, who often tell me that challenging this traditional reading of aioniois would remove them from their scholarly livlihood. My bias is that such historically developed traditions of men are able to explain why BDAG and the traditional consensus are maintained that aioniois has such a non-literal meaning. If I'm right that its linguistic derivation cannot bear the weight of such a definition, then we are left to settle it, the way the usage of most words are determined, by wrestling with how the term is used in its total context.
You also rightly see that one's definition will be influenced by one's "larger view" of what other passages say on connected topics. So I'd say we question BDAG's standard definition because of many passages and uses of aioniois that appear incompatible with it. First, I'm struck that this word is not like "pas," whose original root appears to literally refer to an adjective for the totality of its' indicated set. But aioniois has no root or literal meaning that corresponds to "endless duration." It is derived from the noun which literally meant an "age." Thus, if #2, I see that numerous uses of it in the NT & LXX refer to events of explicitly limited duration, then limiting its' meaning to your citation of BDAG seems incorrect, whereas the literal meaning of the term (pertaining to the age) works well in such contexts. I have further found in the last 5 years in Q & A with those who teach NT Greek at Wheaton, Fuller, and Regent (Vancouver) that all these non-universalist authorities agree that aioniois at least sometimes cannot bear a meaning like "everlasting," and by implication that your understanding of BDAG's implications is incorrect.
Thus, I am left asking if there can be a reasonable explanation for BDAG's popular definition. And my bias is that popular views and translations have often way later been recognized as wrong. Here, I know that the Constantinian Roman Church (I think influenced by pagan Greek concepts) institutionalized the idea of infinitely extending torment as the necessity for sins in finite time as a powerfully motivating way to direct people's lives. It since has been embraced by evangelicals, who often tell me that challenging this traditional reading of aioniois would remove them from their scholarly livlihood. My bias is that such historically developed traditions of men are able to explain why BDAG and the traditional consensus are maintained that aioniois has such a non-literal meaning. If I'm right that its linguistic derivation cannot bear the weight of such a definition, then we are left to settle it, the way the usage of most words are determined, by wrestling with how the term is used in its total context.