ETERNAL (עﯴלָם, H6409, long duration; Gr. αἰώνιος, G173, eternal; ἀίδιος, eternal). 1. Fundamentally, the Heb. noun in the sing. and pl. means duration, both of antiquity and futurity. Its meanings and occurrences are listed exhaustively by Gesenius (Lexicon pp. 761-763). Like the Eng. words “eternal” and “everlasting,” commonly used in tr., the Heb. word takes color from its context. To speak of a “bondman for ever” (Deut 15:17) manifestly limits the word to the duration of a human lifetime. To refer to “the everlasting hills” (Gen. 49:26) also obviously limits the word to the geological age of a feature of the landscape. On the other hand, the word is applied to God, His abiding acts, His covenants, promises, and laws and therefore signifies the eternal and everlasting in the literal and absolute sense of the term. Cruden’s Concordance summarizes the concept well (s. v. “eternal”): “The words eternal, everlasting, forever, are sometimes taken for a long time and are not always to be understood strictly.” For example, the possession of Canaan (Gen 17:8); the hills (Gen 49:26); the throne of David (2 Sam 7:16; 1 Chron 17:14); “eternal” in the strict sense in these two contexts demands a Messianic extension of the promise; Jewish rites and privileges (Exod 12:14, 17; Num 10:8).
2. The Gr. adjective aionios is derived from the noun aiōn, and bears the basic meaning, in consequence, of “belonging to time in its duration,” i.e., constant, abiding, eternal (Biblio-Theological Lexicon of New Testament Greek, Cremer, pp. 78, 79; also s.v. aiōn, pp. 74-79). It was found in this meaning in classical Gr.: e.g., Plato, Rep. 2:363D, “the fairest reward of virtue being, in their estimation, an everlasting carousal.” Biblical and ecclesiastical Gr. used the word commonly, the LXX, for example, as the standard tr. of the Heb. עﯴלָם, H6409.
In the NT, its most frequent application is to ζωή, G2437, “life,” and it is in these contexts that heretical sects in modern times have habitually misinterpreted the word. Ζωή αἰώνιος is found in Matthew 19:16, 29; 25:46; Mark 10:17, 30; Luke 10:25; 18:18, 30; John 3:15, 16, 36; 4:14, 36; 5:24, 39; 6:27, 40, 47, 54, 68; 10:28; 12:25, 50; 17:2, 3; Acts 13:46, 48; Romans 2:7; 5:21; 6:22, 23; Galatians 6:8; 1 Timothy 1:16; 6:12, 19; Titus 1:2; 3:7; 1 John 1:2; 2:25; 3:15; 5:11, 13, 20; Jude 21.
The frequency of its use in Johannine contexts is notable. The significance mingles future and present, for “eternal life” in Christian belief is not only a life of endless duration, but a quality of life in which the possessor shares by faith in God’s eternal being.
In his careful essay, More New Testament Words (pp. 24-32), William Barclay examines the word aionios in classical and NT contexts, with full analysis of the meaning and its spiritual applications. Eternal life, as he points out in conclusion, were it a mere duration, could become the burden which Tithonus, in the deeply meaningful Gr. myth, found it to be. “Life is only of value when it is nothing less than the life of God—and that is the meaning of eternal life.” It necessarily follows that it has no termination.
Other NT connections employ the adjective aionios (Matt 18:8; 25:41; Jude 7 [fire]; Matt 25:46 [punishment]; 2 Thess 1:9 [destruction]; Mark 3:29 [sin]; Heb 6:2 [judgment]; 5:9 [salvation]; 9:12 [redemption]; 9:15 [inheritance]; 13:20 [covenant]; 2 Tim 2:10; 1 Pet 5:10 [glory]; 2 Pet 1:11 [kingdom].
3. A rare word in NT contexts, but common enough at all stages of classical Gr. from Homer onwards, is aidios. It occurs in Romans 1:20 and Jude 6. See Life; Immortality.