PMW 2026-084 by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.

Continuing from my previous article, we now come on the second “age” term to consider as we study the two age doctrine of redemptive history is the Greek noun ain, including its adjectival form ainios. The noun is frequent in the NT, occurring over 100 times, while the adjective appears seventy times. It also occurs in the LXX 450+ times, which includes 150 times in the Apocrypha (NIDNTT 3: 829). This common word is the equivalent (and frequent LXX translation) of the Hebrew ôlâm.

Thus, like ôlâm, the word aion also means “a long period of time” or “a segment of time as a particular unit of history, age” (BAGD 32). It can be defined “as an Indefinite Time … an indeterminate period of time” (EDT 19). Or we may more fully explain it as indicating “a long time, duration of time … an age, epoch, era (of the world)” (NIDNTT 3: 829). As Cullmann (1962: 39) notes it differs fundamentally from the Greek kairos, which “has to do with a definite point of time which has a fixed content, while aion designates a duration of time, a defined or undefined extent of time.”

NIDNTT also adds that aion can mean “eternity.” Significantly however, it notes that eternity is “not necessarily a timeless concept, but the most comprehensive temporal one which the experience of time has produced” (3: 826). Cullmann (1962: 62) expresses this more emphatically:

“To Primitive Christianity, as to Judaism, the Greek manner of distinguishing between time and eternity is quite foreign…. Primitive Christianity knows nothing of timelessness…. [In fact] the word used to express eternity, aion (‘age’), is the same word that is also applied to a limited division of time; otherwise expressed, between what we call eternity and what we call time, that is, between everlastingly continuing time and limited time, the New Testament makes absolutely no difference in terminology. Eternity is the endless succession of the ages (aiones).”

Perilous Times: A Study in Eschatological Evil (by Ken Gentry)

Technical studies on Daniel’s Seventy Weeks, the great tribulation, Paul’s Man of Sin, and John’s Revelation.

See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

And he reiterates on the next page: “time and eternity share this time quality. Primitive Christianity knows nothing of a timeless God” (1962: 63).

In Scripture the word aion can also mean “world.” As Gaffin (n.d.: 1) explains:

“The words for ‘age’ when they are used to make this distinction — in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and subsequently after the New Testament was written, in Latin — also have the sense of ‘world’ or ‘universe’ (e.g., in the New Testament, Heb. 1:2; 11:3). In other words, a comprehensive time word also took on an all-inclusive spatial connotation. The distinction, then, is between this world-age and the world-age to come.

Unfortunately, interpreters committed to a hyper-preterist theology err by limiting the interpretive range of aion (as they often do in their attempts at understanding Greek lexicography and grammar, e.g., their well-known misunderstanding of the Greek mello). For instance, a recent convert to the basic principles of hyper-preterism, Gary DeMar, mistakenly asserts that “aion refers to a period of time, not the physical world.”

But again in the case of ôlâm, so with aion “occasionally there occurs the meaning of world in the spatial sense” (NIDNTT 3: 829). Cullmann (1962: 45) can rightly argue, then, that aion “like the Hebrew ôlâm, takes on at times a spatial meaning and so comes to mean ‘world’; it thus becomes a synonym of ‘world,’ ‘universe’ (kosmos).” Bruner (2004: 474) concurs, noting at Matthew 24:3 that it “means world of time and space.” Gaffin (2022: 246) agrees, pointing out that both the Hebrew and Greek words for “age” eventually “took on the sense of ‘world’ or ‘universe.’ In other words, a comprehensive time word gained an all-inclusive spatial connotation,” i.e., world-age. Vos (1930: 13) agrees: “Now this word ‘kosmos’ with Paul occasionally occurs synonymously with ’ho aion hootos,’” and he lists: Romans 3:6; 1 Corinthians 1:20–21; 2:12; 3:19; 11:32; 2 Cor. 7:1; Philippians 2:15.

Perspectives on Pentecost (Richard Gaffin)
A careful examination of the New Testament teaching on the gifts of the Spirit. Makes a case for the cessation of tongues at the close of the apostolic era. Gaffin is professor emeritus of biblical and systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

See more study materials at: www.KennethGentry.com

Consequently, on occasion “aion approximates closely to kosmos” as when Paul’s reference to “wisdom … of this age [aion]” (1 Cor. 2:6) can almost immediately be re-phrased as “the wisdom of this world [kosmos]” (TDNT 1:203; cp. EDBT 13; BAGD 33).

Likewise, in Ephesians 2:1–2a we may observe this easy transition: “you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course [aion] of this world [kosmos].” Vos (2024: 26–27) notes in this regard:

“Here the supposition is that to the kosmos (conceived as evil) an evil time or life-complexion belongs. The one affects the other and is inseparable from the other. Yet nonetheless, they are conceptually and linguistically distinguishable. On the whole we shall have to say that the world-scheme follows the time-scheme, not the reverse. And this is not without theological importance for the interpretation of the Apostle’s idea of the kosmos as evil.”

Barrett well comments here: “Of this age (aion) and of the world (kosmos) appear to be used synonymously…. This age, in contrast with the other world, are not two completely distinct dualisms.”

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Ed. by Ken Gentry and Bill Boney
This is a collection of several key eschatological studies by the renowned Reformed theologian Geehardus Vos. We have modernized Vos’ grammar and syntax and updated his layout style according to modern publishing conventions (shorter sentences and paragraphs). We did this without changing any of Vos’ arguments.

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This seems clearly the case in Hebrews 1:2: God “in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made [poieia] the world [tous aionas].” Here the word “world” is almost certainly the proper understanding of the plural tous aiõnas (as per most versions, e.g., KJV, ASV, CEB, ESV, NASB, NIV, NKJV, RSV). “The word poieia is the same as barah (Gen. 1:1), to bring into being.” As Schreiner (2020: 55) points out while citing the NIV: “the phrase ‘the universe’ (tous aionas) is most often temporal, but here it designates the world God has made (cf. Wis. 13:9), and the author features the Son as the agent of creation (cf. John 1:3; 1 Cor 8:6; Col 1:16).” Cullmann (1962: 64) highlights this verse as an example of “the spatial use of the word aion, a usage attested elsewhere.” TDNT 1:204 observes that this use of aion “must be understood spatially as ‘worlds’ or ‘spheres.’”

The same is true in Hebrews 11:3, where we read: “by faith we understand that the worlds [tous aionas] were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen [blepomena < blepo] was not made out of things which are visible.” This is a clear allusion to Genesis 1 regarding the physical creation (which is “seen,” blepo). Consequently, the writer of Hebrews “denies the eternity of matter, a common theory then and now, and places God before the visible universe.” As Bruce argues: “Here, as in 1:2, the ‘worlds’ are the aiones (lit. ‘ages’); in both places the universe of space and time is meant.” Ellingworth agrees regarding 11:3: “tous aiones [refers] to the visible world, and thus [is] synonymous with to blepomenon.”

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A Preterist Commentary on the Mount Olivet Discourse
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