Re: Eternity/eternal life

From: David Moore (dvdmoore@dcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us)
Date: Thu Nov 16 1995 - 16:05:22 EST


On Thu, 16 Nov 1995, Mark O'Brien wrote:

>
> Original message sent on Thu, Nov 16 5:22 AM by
> dvdmoore@dcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us (David Moore) :
>
> > A good question for discussion would be, is AIWNIOS, as it is used
> > in the New Testament, always in reference to quantity of time, or
> > does it sometimes express only quality. For instance, in 1 Jhn. 5:11
> > and 12 where the apostle speaks of ZWHN AIWNION that God has
> > given us in His Son, and whoever has the Son has this life. Is
> > AIWNION in reference to the eternity of the life that God gives, or
> > may we understand ZWHN AIWNION as a certain quality of life
> > without necessary reference to its being everlasting?
>
> And what about Jn 17:3, where Christ defines AIWNIOS ZWH as being
> knowledge of the Father and the Son? I guess that raises the
> question as to what is meant by GINWSKWSIN in this context. One
> would think it is probably more than cognitive recognition, and
> perhaps to be understood in terms of relationship. However one
> interprets GINWSKWSIN here, this verse at least does seem to remove
> AIWNIOS from being in the temporal realm entirely.
>

        There is probably no question that AIWNIOS, when used with ZWH,
has connotations of quality. What I wonder is if AIWNIOS in the NT
context is ever devoid of the idea of "everlasting" or if it may be
purely qualitative. I'm not sure this is exactly what Paul Watkins
<102737.1761@compuserve.com> was asking with his original question on
whether "eternity" means "eternity, but this is a question yours truly
has been mulling over for some time. So I hope it is a legitimate
question to insert at this juncture.
 

David L. Moore Southeastern Spanish District
Miami, Florida of the Assemblies of God
dvdmoore@dcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us Department of Education



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:37:32 EDT