What does "eternity" mean in the Bible?
Eternity" in the sense of endlessness does not exist in the Bible.
What many people today imagine by “eternity” is unknown in biblical reporting. In our traditional understanding, eternity is perhaps most likely about an endless duration. The word “eternity” is quantified. It is given an exact duration, namely “endless”.
For the Bible writers and listeners, however, it did not have that sound. They knew no word for an endless duration. With the Hebrew “olam” or the Greek “aion” a duration was expressed, of course, but this duration was not quantified. “Endless” is also a quantification! An olam or eon was allowed to last a long time, but there was an end to every eternity. This is true even if the end was not known.
The Bible writers did speak of time, but the words olam or eon indicated an age. It was a certain long time in context, but not endless because of that. The end was simply not known.
They didn’t care about the quantity, but rather the quality of the statement. The “eternity”, that was in the Old Testament (the Tenach) more often only the “lifetime”. One knew that one would die, but when, that was not known. In the messianic context, the eternity to come was simply the coming messianic age. That is why Jesus spoke of the coming eon.
The “eternal” life, that was the life of those who would share in this messianic age. It was the life of the coming age. How long that would take, or what happens after that, was not a topic of the statements.
“Verily I say unto you: There is no one who has left his house, wife or brothers or sisters, parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, who will not in any case receive it again manifold in this term – and in the coming eon of eonian life.”
Lk 18:29-30
Or, in other words, “You will be there once the Kingdom is established. You will receive the life of this age in this coming age – with everything that goes with it.
When Jesus speaks of the kingdom of heaven in the gospels, it is about the fulfillment of messianic promises. Consistently translated according to tradition, however, the aforementioned verse should read: “and in the eternity to come eternal life”. But this contradicts the understanding of a single, endless eternity.
It is amazing what you discover when you trace the biblical terms and see how they are actually used in the Bible. It takes a critical look at the translations as well as at the interpretations attached to certain verses. I hope to contribute some thoughts on both of those things.
Further articles on the subject will appear here in loose succession.