The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Please can I have a list of all LXX occurrences of aionios?

I have all the NT occurrences and I realise there are also others in other literaturew/nios&lang=greek&sort=max) but I can’t find all the ones in Septuagint? :confused:
e.g. Jonah 2:6

After doing a search on E-Sword I came up with 116 occurrences in 112 verses.

Here, Alex: αιωνιος

Scroll down to the Occurrences in the LXX section, click “Select All” and then “Fetch LXX Verses.”

HTH,
Sonia

Wow, that’s a great tool Sonia! I’ve been picking at some of my bookmarked sources this morning and couldn’t get a search list that good!

Definitely bookmarking that site.

Cool, I didn’t realise E-Sword had the Septuagint, almost enough reason to buy Crossover so I can run it om my Mac.

Thanks Sonia, helpful as always! :sunglasses:

Yeah E-Sword is pretty great, I have Rotherham, CLV (both Old and New Testaments), Young’s Literal, Jonathan-Mitchell, William Barclay’s study bible and commentary etc. You can get all of these modules for free right here

alampthatburns.net/e-sword/eswmods.htm

Kata Biblon have changed the layout of their website so Sonia’s link doesn’t work anymore but I found the information here:
lexicon.katabiblon.com/index.php … OS&lang=el

aionios appears 240 times in the Bible, 163 of those are in the LXX and 77 in the GNT.

The searches described must include all forms of the word. I did a search of the LXX in my Online Bible Program, and found only these 15 verses containing the word “aionios” (I quote from Rotherham since he usually translates the word as “age-abiding”:

Genesis 21:33 ¶ Then planted he a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba,—and called there on the name of Yahweh, the age-abiding GOD.

Exodus 31:16 Therefore shall the sons of Israel keep the sabbath,—by making it a Day of Rest to your generations, as an age-abiding covenant:

Leviticus 6:22 And the priest that is anointed in his stead from among his sons, shall prepare it,— it is an age-abiding statute, that unto Yahweh, shall a perfume, of the entire gift, be made:

Numbers 15:15 In the convocation, one statute, shall there be for you and for the sojourner who sojourneth,—an age-abiding statute unto your generations, as ye are, so, the sojourner, shall be before Yahweh:

Job 33:12 Lo! in this, thou hast not been right—let me answer thee, For, GOD, is greater than, man.

Isaiah 26:4 Trust ye in Yahweh, unto futurity,—For, in Yah, Yahweh, is a rock of ages.

Isaiah 35:10 And the ransomed of Yahweh! shall return, And shall enter Zion with shouting, With gladness age-abiding, upon their head, Joy and gladness shall overtake them, And sorrow and sighing, shall flee away.

Isaiah 40:28 Hast thou not known, Hast thou not heard, That The God of age-past time—Yahweh The Creator of the ends of the earth Fainteth not neither groweth weary—There is no searching of his understanding:

Isaiah 61:7 Instead of your shame,—double! and Instead of disgrace, they shall shout in triumph over their portion,—Therefore in their own land, shall they possess double, Joy age-abiding, shall be theirs.

Jeremiah 50:5 To Zion, shall they ask the way, Hitherward, their faces, Come and let us join ourselves unto Yahweh, In a covenant age-abiding, which shall not be forgotten.

Daniel 4:3 His signs, how great! and, his wonders, how mighty! His kingdom, is an age-abiding kingdom, and, his dominion, lasteth from generation to generation.

Daniel 4:34 ¶ And, at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, mine eyes unto the heavens, did uplift, and, mine understanding, unto me, returned, and, the Most High, I blessed, and, to him that liveth age-abidingly, I rendered praise and honour,—whose dominion, is an age-abiding dominion, and, his kingdom, lasteth from generation to generation;

Daniel 7:14 and, unto him, were given dominion and dignity and kingship, that all peoples, races and tongues, unto him, should do service,—his dominion, was an age-abiding dominion, which should not pass away, and, his kingdom, that which should not be destroyed.

Daniel 7:27 And, the kingdom, and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under all the heavens, shall be given to the people of the holy ones of the Highest,—his kingdom, is an age-abiding kingdom, and, all the dominions, unto him, will render service, and show themselves obedient.

Yes, I see that my guess seems to be correct. I looked up Jonah 2:6 that was mentioned, and it doesn’t contain “aionios” but “aionioi”.

Is that a plural form of aion?

The CLV translates it in the singular:

“6 I go down to the fashioning points of the mountains; the earth, its bars are about me for the eon,
yet You wilt bring up my life from ruin, Yahweh, my Elohim.”

studybible.info/CLV/Jonah%202

How do you make sense of this verse?

I’m wondering where aionion/αἰώνιον is in this one you posted:

Job 33:12 Lo! in this, thou hast not been right—let me answer thee, For, GOD, is greater than, man.

Also your list seems not to include the 2 occurrences of αἰώνιον at Daniel 12:2:

blueletterbible.org/lxx/dan/12/2/s_862002

Yes…

Thank you, davo.

I am guessing the single form of aion at Jonah 2:6 CLV is based on different Greek MSS
than that referred to by Paidion.

Cheers.

Yes, it is an adjective whose antecedent is the plural "κατοχοι "(barriers) and so the adjective must be plural. Here is a translation of the Septuagint:

to the clefts of the mountains; I went down into the earth, whose bars are the everlasting barriers: yet, O Lord my God, let my ruined life be restored.

That is because the Concordant Literal Version is a translation of the Hebrew, and not the Greek Septuagint.

Right. As I indicated, my list contains only “αἰωνιος” the nominative singular, and no other cases or plurals, etc.
Just now, I looked up αἰώνιον. There are 68 occurrences of this form of the word (the accusative singular). Again, I quote from Rotherham who translates the word as “age-abiding”:

Exodus 29:28 so shall it belong to Aaron and to his sons for an age-abiding statute from the sons of Israel, for a heave-offering, it is,—and, a heave-offering, shall it remain, from the sons of Israel out of their peace-offerings, their heave-offering to Yahweh.
Exodus 30:21 so then they shall bathe their hands and their feet and shall not die,—and it shall be to them an age-abiding statute, to him and to his seed to their generations.
Exodus 31:17 between me and the sons of Israel, a sign it is unto times age-abiding,—for in six days, did Yahweh make the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day, he rested, and was refreshed.
Leviticus 6:18 Any male among the sons of Aaron may eat it, an age-abiding statute to your generations from among the altar-flames of Yahweh,—every one that toucheth them shall be hallowed.
Leviticus 7:34 For, the wave-breast and the heave-shoulder, have I taken of the sons of Israel, out of their peace-offerings,—and have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons as an age-abiding statute, from the sons of Israel.
Leviticus 7:36 which Yahweh commanded to give them in the day when he anointed them, from among the sons of Israel,—an age-abiding statute to their generations.
Leviticus 10:9 Wine and strong drink, thou mayest not drink,—thou nor thy sons with thee when ye enter into the tent of meeting, so shall ye not die,—an age-abiding statute to your generations;
Leviticus 10:15 The heave-shoulder and the wave-breast upon the altar-flames of the fat portions, shall they bring in, to wave as a wave-offering, before Yahweh,—so shall they be thine, and thy sons with thee, by an age-abiding statute, As Yahweh hath commanded.
Leviticus 16:29 ¶ And it shall become unto you, a statute age-abiding,—In the seventh month on the tenth of the month, Shall ye humble you souls And, no work, shall ye do, The home-born, Or the sojourner that sojourneth in your midst;
Leviticus 16:31 A sabbath of sacred rest, it is unto you, Therefore shall ye humble your souls, A statute age-abiding.
Leviticus 16:34 So shall this become unto you an age-abiding statute,—to put a propitiatory-covering over the sons of Israel because of all their sins, Once in the year. And he did, As Yahweh commanded Moses.
Leviticus 17:7 so shall they no more offer their sacrifices unto demons after whom they are unchastely going away,—a statute age-abiding, shall this be to them unto their generations.
Leviticus 23:14 And neither bread, nor roasted corn, nor garden-land grain, shall ye eat, until this selfsame day, until ye have brought in the oblation of your God,—an age-abiding statute unto your generations, in all your dwellings.
Leviticus 23:21 And ye shall make proclamation on this self-same day—a holy convocation, shall it be unto you; no laborious work, shall ye do,—an age-abiding statute in all your dwellings, unto your generations.
Leviticus 23:31 No work, shall ye do,—an age-abiding statute to your generations, in all your dwellings.
Leviticus 23:41 So shall ye celebrate it as a festival unto Yahweh, seven days in the year,—a statute age-abiding, to your generations. In the seventh month, shall ye celebrate it;
Leviticus 24:3 Outside the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, shall Aaron order it, from evening until morning, before Yahweh continually,—a statute age-abiding, to your generations.
Leviticus 24:8 Sabbath day by sabbath day, shall he order it before Yahweh continually,—from the sons of Israel as an age-abiding covenant:
Leviticus 24:9 so shall it be for Aaron and for his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place,—for most holy, shall it be unto him from among the altar-flames of Yahweh, a statute age-abiding.
Numbers 10:8 And, the sons of Aaron the priests, shall blow with the trumpets,—and it shall be unto you for a statute age-abiding, unto your generations.
Numbers 18:8 ¶ And Yahweh spake unto Aaron, I, therefore, lo! I have given unto thee the charge of my heave-offerings,—as to all the hallowed things of the sons of Israel—unto thee, have I given them. as pertaining to the anointing, and unto thy sons. for a statute age-abiding,
Numbers 18:11 This, therefore, shall be thine—the heave-offering of their gift even all the wave-offerings of the sons of Israel, unto thee, have I given them and unto thy sons and unto thy daughters with thee by a statute age-abiding,—every one that is clean in thy house, shall eat it.
Numbers 18:19 all the heave-offerings of the holy things which the sons of Israel shall heave up unto Yahweh, have I given unto thee and unto thy sons and unto thy daughters with thee by a statute age-abiding,—an age-abiding covenant of salt, it is before Yahweh, for thee and for thy seed with thee.
Numbers 18:23 So shall the Levites themselves perform the laborious work of the tent of meeting, and, they, shall bear their iniquity, a statute age-abiding, unto your generations, and in the midst of the sons of Israel, shall they take no inheritance.
Numbers 19:10 Then shall he that gathered up the ashes wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening,—so shall it be for the sons of Israel and for the sojourner that sojourneth in your midst by a statute age-abiding.
Numbers 19:21 So shall it be unto them for statute age-abiding,—and, he that sprinkleth the water of separation, shall wash his clothes, and he that toucheth the water of separation shall be unclean until the evening;
2 Samuel 23:5 When, not so, was my house with GOD, Then, a covenant age-abiding, he appointed me, Ordered in all things and guarded, Now that it is all my salvation and all my desire, Will he not make it shoot forth?
1 Chronicles 16:17 And confirmed it, unto Jacob, for a statute, unto Israel, as a covenant age-abiding:
Job 22:15 ¶ The path of the ancient time, wilt thou mark, which the men of iniquity trod?
Job 34:17 Shall, the very hater of right, control? Or, the just—the mighty one, wilt thou condemn?
Job 41:4 Will he solemnise a covenant with thee? Wilt thou take him for a life-long servant?
Psalms 78:66 So he smote his adversaries in the rear, Reproach age-abiding, laid he upon them.
Psalms 105:10 And confirmed if unto Jacob for a statute, To Israel, as a covenant age-abiding;
Psalms 112:6 ¶ Surely, unto times age-abiding, shall he not be shaken, In remembrance, age-abiding, shall the righteous one remain;
Isaiah 24:5 Yea the earth itself is profaned under them who dwell therein,—For they have Set aside laws, Gone beyond statute, Broken an age-abiding covenant.
Isaiah 33:14 Terror-stricken in Zion,—are sinners, Shuddering hath seized the impious,—Who among us can sojourn with a fire that devoureth? Who among us can sojourn with burnings age-abiding?
Isaiah 45:17 Israel, hath been delivered by Yahweh, with an age-abiding deliverance,—Ye shall neither turn pale nor he put to shame, unto the ages of futurity,.
Isaiah 54:4 Do not fear for thou shalt not turn pale, Neither feel disgraced for thou shalt not be put to the blush,—For, the shame of thy youth, shalt thou forget, And the reproach of thy widowhood, shalt thou remember no more;
Isaiah 55:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me, Hearken, That your soul, may live,—That I may solemnise for you a covenant age-abiding, The Lovingkindness to David, well-assured.
Isaiah 55:13 Instead of the thorn-bush, shall come up the fir-tree, And instead of the nettle, shall come up the myrtle-tree,—So shall it become unto Yahweh, a Name, A Sign age-abiding, which shall not be cut off.
Isaiah 56:5 That I will give unto them—In my house, And within my walls, A sign and a name, better than sons and daughters,—A name age-abiding, will I give him, which shall not be cut off.
Isaiah 60:15 ¶ Instead of thy being forsaken and hated so that none used to pass through thee, I will make of thee—An excellency age-abiding, The joy of generation after generation.
Isaiah 60:19 Thou shalt no more have the sun, for light by day, neither for brightness, shall the moon, give light unto thee,—But Yahweh shall become thine age-abiding light, And thy God thine adorning:
Isaiah 60:20 No more shall go in, thy sun, Nor thy moon, withdraw itself,—For, Yahweh, will become to thee an age-abiding light, So shall be ended the days of thy mourning.
Isaiah 61:8 For, I, Yahweh, am a lover of justice, Hating plunder, for an ascending-sacrifice, Therefore will I give their reward with faithfulness, And an age-abiding covenant, will I solemnise for them.
Isaiah 63:12 That caused to go at the right hand of Moses his own majestic arm,—Cleaving the waters from before them, To make himself an age-abiding name:
Jeremiah 5:22 Even for me, will ye have no reverence? Enquireth Yahweh, And because of me, will ye not he pained? In that though I placed the sand as a bound to the sea, A decree age-abiding, and it should not pass beyond it,—When they would toss themselves Then should they not prevail, When the waves thereof would roar Then should they not pass beyond it,
Jeremiah 18:16 To make their land a desolation The hissings of age-abiding times,—Every one that passeth by her, shall be astonished and wag his head.
Jeremiah 23:40 and will give unto you reproach age-abiding,—and disgrace age-abiding, which shall not be forgotten.
Jeremiah 25:9 Behold me! sending and fetching all the families of the North, Declareth Yahweh and Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon my servant, And I will bring them in against this land and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations, round about,—And I will devote them to destruction, and make them an astonishment and a hissing, and age-abiding desolations.
Jeremiah 25:12 And it shall some to pass—When the seventy years are fulfilled, I will visit upon the king of Babylon and upon that nation, Declareth Yahweh their iniquity, and upon the land of the Chaldeans,—and I will turn it into age-abiding desolations.
Jeremiah 51:39 When they are heated, I will spread their banquets, And let them drink that they may become uproarious, So shall they sleep an age-abiding sleep and not wake,—Declareth Yahweh.
Ezekiel 16:60 ¶ Therefore will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth,— And will establish for thee a covenant age-abiding.
Ezekiel 26:20 Then will I bring thee down with them that go down into the pit. Unto the people of age-past times And cause thee to dwell in the earth below Among the desolations from age-past times With them that go down into the pit That thou mayest not be dwelt in, Nor yet present thyself in the land of the living.
Ezekiel 35:9 Desolations age-abiding, will I make thee, And thy cities, shall not be inhabited,- shall ye know that I, am Yahweh.
Daniel 9:24 Seventy weeks, have been divided concerning thy people and concerning thy holy city—to put an end to the transgression, and fill up the measure of sin, and put a propitiatory-covering over iniquity, and bring in the righteousness of ages, and affix a seal the vision and prophecy, and anoint the holy of holies.
Daniel 12:2 and, many of the sleepers in the dusty ground, shall awake,—these, shall be to age-abiding life, but, those, to reproach, and age-abiding abhorrence;

They mean “lasting.” That which is lasting can last forever—or not.

To find out what a Greek word means, one should look up the word in many writings. Lexicons can be deceiving. Besides with a dozen of more “definitions” how can you know the primary meaning of the word? I find that the dozens of meanings which lexiconophers (newly coined word) produce are usually possible words that may be placed in translations to make sense. It doesn’t really help much to understand the word. I go also by the etymology of the word. I have studied Greek for several years, and my faith in lexicons has been steadily decreasing. I look up the words as they are normally used in the Septuagint (including the apocrypha), and in extra-biblical Greek writings.

The words which have been translated as “eternal punishment” are the Greek words “αἰωνιος κολασις” Let’s consider “κολασις” first. This word was originally used for “prune” as in pruning plants. Plants are pruned by cutting off certain parts so as to correct the growth of the plant. “κολασις” was used in classical Greek in reference to a means to correct an offender. Look at any Greek lexicon, and you will find “correct” is given as one of its meanings.

The word is found only twice in the entire New Testament — Matthew 25:46 in regards to the goats in Jesus’ parable, and I John 4:18 :
“There is no fear in love, but complete love casts out fear. Fear has κολασις. The one who is afraid is not completed in love.”

What could the statement “Fear has punishment” possibly mean? I can understand “Punishment has fear”, but not “Fear has punishment”. Do you know of anyone who has been punished because he is afraid?

However, I CAN understand “Fear has correction”. The context of this statement indicates what the correction is. A state of fear in a person can be corrected when that person is completed in love.

Now usually Matthew 25:46 is brought up in this discussion, where the goats are to be sent into “αἰωνιος κολασις”. If we agree that “κολασις” means “correction”, then what would “eternal correction” mean? If a person were corrected eternally, the correction would never be completed, and thus the person would not be corrected at all!

Fortunately “αἰωνιος” DOES NOT mean “eternal”. Indeed, it never means “eternal”. It is the adjectival form of the noun “αἰων”, which means “age”. So, I suppose we could translate “αἰωνιος” as “agey”, but as far as I know, the latter is not an English word.

The word was used in koine Greek (the Greek spoken from 300 B.C. to 300 A.D.) to refer to anything which is enduring. The word was used by Diodorus Siculus to describe the stone used to build a wall. The word seems to have been used as meaning “lasting” or “durable”.

Josephus in “The Wars of the Jews” book 6, states that Jonathan was condemned to “αἰωνιος” imprisonment. Yet that prison sentence lasted only three years.

But the clincher comes from the Homily of the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, written by Chrysostom. He wrote that the kingdom of Satan “is αἰωνιος (agey), in other words it will cease with the present αἰων (age).” So Chrysostum apparently believed that “αἰωνιος” meant exactly the opposite to “eternal”! ---- that is “ lasting” but in this case also “temporary.”

As I see it, the following would be a correct translation of Matthew 25:46
And they [the goats] will go away into lasting correction, but the righteous into lasting life.

Lasting correction is correction which endures. At some point it comes to an end. Lasting life is life which endures. But it just so happens that the lasting life we receive from Christ endures forever. But the idea of “forever” is not inherent in the word “αἰωνιος”.

The true Greek word for “eternal” is “αἰδιος”. That word is found in the following verse:

Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. (Romans 1:20)

Of all the things I have learned from you, Paidion, the translation of “lasting” is the best. Thank you very much. :slight_smile:

There are a couple of other cognates of kolasis in the NT (not counting the LXX), beyond the two mentioned by Paidion, but they don’t help the idea of a never-ending or otherwise hopeless punishment. In one case the disciplinary action is culturally intended to be remedial (synagogue punishment); the other is more ambiguous. (I know at least once place in the LXX where the term is remedial, too.) I’m not where I can look up my notes at the moment, but I wanted to mention it in case someone mentions or wonders whether the term only appears as a noun and if that makes any difference.

Also, {aidios} does show up in the NT in regard to spiritual punishment of rebel angels, namely Jude 6, so could be topically connected back to eonian kolasis at Matt 25 via Jesus paralleling that punishment with being sent into “the fire the eonian” reserved for the devil and his angels.

Paidion might be tacitly thinking, though, that the term isn’t actually ai-dios but the similarly spelled a-idios, a term for invisibility or the unseen (related to hades). Which I’d agree about, based on parallel statements in the Petrine epistles, but then I’m not committed to {aidios} meaning eternity instead of “unseen” or “invisible” in Rom 1:20 either; the nearby context can work either way.

Paidion, I wanted to PM you but it doesn’t look like I’m able to. What books do you recommend for getting a better understanding of the terms translated “forever” and “eternal”? Have you read any of Dr. Ramelli’s books?

Hi qaz,

I wonder why you cannot PM me. Others have successfully done so.

I haven’t read any of Illaria Ramelli’s books, since their price is very high. However, I have read, “Origen, Bardaisan, and the origin of universal salvation.(Critical essay) Harvard Theological Review.” It’s copyrighted, and I forget how I obtained a code to down load it. However, there is a somewhat similar essay by Ramelli that is not copyrighted, and is somewhat similar:

chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/5881

I have studied Hellenistic Greek for several years, and have gotten my information on“αἰωνιος” (lasting) and “αἰδιος” (everlasting) by consulting lexicons and finding out how these words were used in Greek literature. I have not read any books on the subject. I shared a bit about what I discovered concerning “αἰωνιος” in one of my previous posts to this thread.