Translations of aion, aionios, and olam to our english.

[fullarmor2]

     I've heard a few different people argue that these Greek and Hebrew words are not to be translated literally.  They said its for idiomatic reasons?  So essentially they are criticizing bibles like the Concordant, Young's ,  Rotherham's, etc.....  I also read in a certain bible dictionary  which said, "not to be translated literally".    And I guess my question is,   whats this argument in which they say that these are idioms and thats why they are translated as meaning ,  not only age,  but world,life,eternal, everlasting, forever, and what ever else,   extragalactic, postmortem,giraffe  ,    just kidding!  Seriously though,   anyone heard this argument ,  that these are idioms and thats why they are not taken literally?  

[willieH]

     I've heard a few different people argue that these Greek and Hebrew words are not to be translated literally.  They said its for idiomatic reasons?  So essentially they are criticizing bibles like the Concordant, Young's ,  Rotherham's, etc.....  I also read in a certain bible dictionary  which said, "not to be translated literally".    And I guess my question is,   whats this argument in which they say that these are idioms and thats why they are translated as meaning ,  not only age,  but world,life,eternal, everlasting, forever, and what ever else,   extragalactic, postmortem,giraffe  ,    just kidding!  Seriously though,   anyone heard this argument ,  that these are idioms and thats why they are not taken literally? 

That no one IN ANY LANGUAGE can truly grasp the full meaning of EVERLASTING, FOREVER, or ETERNAL, and is thereby grounds for those words not to be argued, for no one really knows what they fully mean... 

Sure we can say that GOD has ALWAYS BEEN, but we cannot comprehend it... for all we know in this realm is "beginnings and endings"...  :dontknow:

We can slightly think toward NEVER ENDING, but NEVER BEGINNING yet existing, is completely beyond us to comprehend.  Anyone who claims they can GRASP this concept is welcome to explain it so the rest of us can GRASP it... Until it is FULLY EXPLAINED, it is terminology which is INVALID in any language.

...willieH  :icon_king:

[WhiteWings]

     I've heard a few different people argue that these Greek and Hebrew words are not to be translated literally.  They said its for idiomatic reasons?  So essentially they are criticizing bibles like the Concordant, Young's ,  Rotherham's, etc.....  I also read in a certain bible dictionary  which said, "not to be translated literally".    And I guess my question is,   whats this argument in which they say that these are idioms and thats why they are translated as meaning ,  not only age,  but world,life,eternal, everlasting, forever, and what ever else,   extragalactic, postmortem,giraffe  ,    just kidding!  Seriously though,   anyone heard this argument ,  that these are idioms and thats why they are not taken literally?  

Those that oppose literal translation first translate things in the way they like. Then this loosly translated text in interpretaded again. Seems asking for problems to me.
Plus this:
I agree with the common view that context is of importance. But how far does context stretch.
It's not unusual to see a commentary on for example Isaah. A verse is picked out and bend and twisted to fit a doctrine.
Then to prove the claim the same is done with a verse from Revelation.
But is reality they interpretated Revelation and then going back and force fit a straigthforward OT verse.
Nice you might say. the Bible is one big story. Not a collection without a mutual context.
The problem I have with such reasoning is that it means the OT people sorta where told semi-lies.
They where simple people just accepting simple straightforward words.
But according to some those words are only useful if put in context, read twisted, when mixed with words spoken centuries later. I said semi-lies because the 'putting in context' often changes the meaning of a verse quite a bit.

Greek and Hebrew words are not to be translated literally.  They said its for idiomatic reasons

The people listening to Isaah didn't have that luxery. Isaah himself had no clue what he said. And he even spoke the words in his own language. But what he didn't know is that he should wait 2000 years so he can read some commentary explaining what he actually said.

Well..... :laughing7:

[Tim B]

     I've heard a few different people argue that these Greek and Hebrew words are not to be translated literally.  They said its for idiomatic reasons?  So essentially they are criticizing bibles like the Concordant, Young's ,  Rotherham's, etc.....  I also read in a certain bible dictionary  which said, "not to be translated literally".    And I guess my question is,   whats this argument in which they say that these are idioms and thats why they are translated as meaning ,  not only age,  but world,life,eternal, everlasting, forever, and what ever else,   extragalactic, postmortem,giraffe  ,    just kidding!  Seriously though,   anyone heard this argument ,  that these are idioms and thats why they are not taken literally?  

Wah, wah, wah! They're just trying to sneak back in their eternal torment garbage. I don't think it can be taken seriously. Especially when it's realized that people like Augustine didn't even consider aionios to literally be forever. Besides, there's plenty of instances where "eternal" priesthoods/covenants/etc. really WEREN'T eternal, and so proves that the word really doesn't mean eternal.

[sven]

some claim that ages of ages means to infinity, that it's an "enhancement" of infinity, but thats a foolish notion as you can't enhance infinity, if you try to do so, you would rather weaken it than enhance it.

concerning olam - the New World Translation renders it pretty good:

e.g. Jonah 2:6

To the bottoms of [the] mountains I went down.
As for the earth, its bars were upon me for time indefinite [olam].

and Daniel 12:2

And there will be many of those asleep in the ground of dust who will wake up, these to indefinitely lasting life and those to reproaches [and] to indefinitely lasting abhorrence.