Alúvios, æternus, sempiternus, perennis; i. e. eternal, everlasting, continual. Neither Schweighæuser, Valpley, Pickering, nor Schrevelius, gives air the definition of eternity. Pickering, Schrevelius, Hedericus, and Lutz, give age as the primary signifi Jones's definition: Alov, an everlasting age, eternity; (εiç ròv aiova.) forever, a period of time, age, life; (the present world or life, Matt. xiii. 32;) Matt. xxviii. 20, the Jewish dispensation; Eph. ii. 2, a good demon, angel, as supposed to exist forever; see also Heracl. 900; 1 Cor. x. 11; aiŭves, the eternal ideas of God, which he used as the patterns in the creation of all sensible things, to which all things will perfectly conform in the end; (rà Tehn Tüv alwvwv.) Heb. xi. 3, the completion of the eternal models, i. e. the events which fulfil or realize the patterns of the things in the divine mind. Heb. i. 2, that the eternal models of things were made by the word of God, i. e. by faith we comprehend that the worlds we see, did not proceed from sensible objects as their ultimate cause, or from the combinations of matter and motion, but from a spiritual, intelligent being, who planned all things conformably to perfect models previously formed in his own mind. Alúvios, everΑἰώνιος, lasting, ancient. Hinks's definition: — Alv, a period of time, an age, an after-time, eternity. Comp. Latin, ævum. Aivos, lasting, eternal, of old, since the beginning. Wright's definition: Alov, time, age, life-time, period, revolution of ages, dispensation of Providence, present world or life, world to come, eternity. Alúvios, eternal, ancient. Giles's definition: Alov, time, an age, an indefinite period of time, eternity, the spinal marrow. - Alúvios, lasting, permanent, ancient, eternal. Αἰώνιος Lulz's definition: - Alov, an age, time, eternity. - Alúvios durable, eternal. Schleusner's definition: - [English ed. abridged.]—Aidv. Any space of time, whether longer or shorter, past, present, or future, to be determined by the persons or things spoken of, and the scope of the subjects; the life or age of man; any space in which we measure human life, from birth to death; see Matt. xxviii. 20, " I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world;" σvνreheías Tov alwvos, per omnem vilam, "through your whole life." whole life." See Suidas and Hesychius. Aivos, a definite and long period of time, that is, a long continued, but still definite period of time. Passow's definition: - Alários, long continued, eternal, everlasting, in the classics. We will now quote some other writers on alov and alúvios. Macknight: — "These words being ambiguous, are always to be understood according to the nature and circumstances of the things to which they are applied." Though the Dr. claims the force of these words in support of the doctrine of interminable punishment, yet he remarks, "At the same time, I must be so candid as to acknowledge, that the use of these terms forever, eternal, and everlasting, in other passages of Scripture, shows that they who understand these words in a limited sense, when applied to punishment, put no forced interpretation upon them." See Truth of the Gospel History, page 28. Aristotle: Though Aristotle says the word air is from ì and v, always being, yet it is manifest, from a close inspection of the passage, (see Ewing's definition above,) that he understood the word to signify simply duration, or continued being, whether longer or shorter. For he says, "The consummation which contains the time of every life, which has nothing supernatural, is called its al." The word, he says, was divinely (Seiws,) spoken by the ancients; by which he probably means, that it was used in reference to angelic beings, the Eons of the ancient Greek, the Oriental, and Gnostic philosophers. A single instance of this usage, I am disposed to think, occurs in the New Testament, Eph. ii. 2, where the word is rendered course. In his work De Mundo, chapter 7, in fine, he says, "God was termed aioav, (Fate, or Providence,) dè del avoar, because always being, or always existing." See Clarke on Gen. xxi. 33. From the above, we should infer, that Aristotle understood the word to signify continued, rather than endless existence; and this appears manifest from another passage in the same work, thus, “ ἐξ αἰῶνος ἀτέρμονος εἰς ἕτερον αἰῶνα,” from an interminable aion to another aion. It is clearly manifest, that, had Aristotle understood the word to signify eternity, in the strict sense of the term, he would not have found it necessary to qualify the word in order thus to express a limited duration of great length. The poet Cleanthus, in a hymn written in praise of Jove, uses the phrase alèv lóvra, ever being, in the sense of continued existence, thus: Ωδὲ γὰρ εἰς ἐν πάντα συνήρμοκας ἐσθλὰ κακοῖσιν, "For thus hast thou connected the good with the evil in Ignatius, in his Epist. ad Ephes., uses the phrase, kpavɛpwin toïç alwow, in speaking of Christ; that is, "He was manifested to the ages;' or his meaning may be "to mankind." Eusebius, (in Praep. Evang. lib. i. cap. 10,) in speaking of the Phoenician philosophy, as set forth by Sanchoniathon, says of the darkness and chaos which preceded the creation, " ταῦτα δὲ εἶναι ἀπειρα καὶ διὰ πολὺν αἰῶνα μὴ ἔχειν περας, these were infinite, and, for a long time, (ovv aiva,) had no limits." (See Grotius, De Verit. lib. i. p. 23.) The following sentence from Amelius Platonicus, shows that ev signifies continually, and not eternally being : Καὶ οὗτος ἄρα ἦν ὁ λόγος, καθ ̓ ἐν ἀεὶ ὄντα τὰ γινόμενα ἐγίνετο, ὡς ἂν καὶ ὁ Ἡρακλείτος ἀξιώσειε. Le Clerc, (See Grotius De Verit. lib. i. 32,) translates the sentence as follows: Hæc itaque illa Ratio per quam semper sunt quæ sunt facta, quomodo et Heraclitus censuit. “And this, moreover, was that Wisdom, by which those things which continually exist were made, as also Heraclitus admits." In the Epistle of Barnabas, I find the following sentence, in which the word air appears to signify world, though not in the sense of the material world, but the future state or world; τί δὲ τὸ δίχηλον ; ὅτι ὁ δίκαιος ἐν τούτῳ κόσμῳ περιπατεῖ, καὶ τὸν ἅγιον αἰῶνα ἐκδέχεται. Le Clerc translates the passage (see Grotius De Verit. lib. v.) thus: "Quid vero bifidum ungulis? quia vir justus in hoc ævo ambulat, et alterum ævum expectat." The following, we think, would be a better translation, and more literal: "But wherefore is there a disagreement? since a just man lives in this world, and looks forward to a holy state, or a holy life." Philo Biblius from Sanchoniathon, quotes, #pwróуovos est; alwv.est, mortalium primi. "The first born is Adam; aion is Eve, the first of mortals." The name Eve signifies life; (see Clarke's Comment. on Gen. iii. 20.) Hence av was understood by Philo to mean life; (see Grotius De Verit. p. 48.) Josephus, on the book of Daniel, (Ant. fine libri X.,) says of the prophet, "He was held in the greatest favor and honor by kings and people, whilst he lived; and, having died, he is still held in (uvnum alíviov,) eternal remembrance." The same writer, in his work against Apion, says, "It is plain from this fact, how much faith we have in these writings ; for no one has dared, (τοσούτου αἰῶνος ήδη παρωχηκότος,) (so long a time having already passed away,) to add any thing, nor to diminish, nor to change any thing." Grotius De Verit. lib. v. p. 212, &c., lib. iii. p. 159. See The Orphic verses, according to Grotius, use alov in the sense of "life,"-pins aivos, sweet life. De Veritate, pp. 39, 315. Homer also uses the same expression, (see Univ. Quarterly, vol. iii. No. 3.) From the same Quarterly we take the following, which the writer (T. B. T.) informs us, he has gathered from Stephens's Thesaurus Græcæ Linguæ, and Robert Constant's Lexicon. "And these they called eternal, (alúvious,) hearing that they had performed the sacred rites for three entire generations," Tрuv yevéwv. In Solom. Parab., " Alter not the eternal limits or boundaries,” όρια αἰωνία. Bud. An epitome of this work, (Bud.,) says on alv: "Item seculum, id est, 70 annorum spatium, juxta Hieron." that is, "an age, the space of seventy years, according to Jerome." And it adds farther, that it is employed by Homer, Herodotus, and Xenophon, as equivalent to the Latin "ævum," or age. Plato has the phrase, on aluvios, "continual, or constant μέθη αἰώνιος, drunkenness." In a poem ascribed to Errina Lesbia, we find the word αἰών qualified by the adjective μέγιστος, as follows: Πάντα δὲ σφάλλων ὁ μέγιστος αἰὼν, Καὶ μεταπλάσσων βίον άλλοτ ἄλλως, "But the greatest duration, (ó péyitos aliv,) that overturns all things, and that changes the mode of life now one way and now another, for you alone, (viz. for Rome alone,) changes not the prosperous breeze of authority." See Græca Majora, vol. ii. p. 284. Maclaine, in his Mosheim, says, "The word alov, or aon, is commonly used among Greek writers, but in different senses; its signification in the Gnostic system, is not very evident, and several learned men have despaired of finding out its true signification. Av, or con, among the ancients, was used to signify the age of man, or the duration of human life. In after times, it was employed by philosophers to express the duration of spiritual and invisible beings." Josephus:-"Josephus generally applies the word alúvioc to the affairs of the present life. Thus he speaks of the everlasting name of the patriarchs; of the everlasting glory of the Jewish nation and heroes; of the everlasting reputation of Herod; of the everlasting memorial which he erected; of the everlasting worship in the temple of Jerusalem; of the everlasting imprisonment to which John, the tyrant, was condemned by the Romans, &c. See Antiq. b. 1, ch. xiii. 4; b. 4, ch. vi. 5; b. 12, ch. vii. 3; b. 15, ch. xv. 5; and ch. xi. 1. Jewish War, b. 6, ch. ii. 1; b. 6, ch. ix. 4. Aidios is the word which he commonly uses for eternal." Grotius, in refuting the argument of the Jews against Christianity, based on the assumption that their law was designed to be perpetual, says, "From this circumstance, the Hebrews ought to wonder less, who know that in their |