Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

ETERNITY

Duration of time that cannot be measured.

The OT does not have a single word corresponding to our English word “eternity.” The concept grows out of such expressions as “from generation to generation” and “from age to age.” The understanding of God as the Creator and controller of history led to the understanding of his endless life span. Thus, God himself is designated by the adjective “eternal” (cf. Gn 21:33; Is 26:4; 40:28). The Hebrews simply understood that God is the God of the past and the God who will always be—in stark contrast to humans whose days on earth are limited.

The NT picked up these concepts from Judaism and the OT. In Greek the same root word is used to describe the ages of time and God’s agelessness. For example, the word “eternal” used in Romans 16:26 comes from the Greek root transliterated into English as “eon.” The God who rules the ages or eons is himself the ageless one who brings continuity and stability into the human life so severely bounded by this age. The clear understanding that time will come to an end, provided by NT revelation, added to the OT’s vivid understanding of creation, serves to underline and clarify the concept of an eternal God. God’s preexistence and postexistence is yet another way of expressing his eternal being.

The NT regularly spoke of the temporal sequences of God’s revelation in Christ in much the same way as the OT spoke of God’s self-revelation to Israel. The NT usage of prepositions with “eon” is particularly instructive: for example (translated literally) “out of the age” (Jn 9:32), “from the age” (Lk 1:70; Acts 3:21), “into the age” (Jude 1:13), “into the ages” (Jn 4:14). The first two phrases reflect an indefinite time preceding the present moment, and the last two point to a future indefinable time (often translated as “forever”).

The biblical concept of eternity stands in contrast to that of other cultures of the time, which often thought in cyclical terms. The Greek world particularly thought of time in the analogy of a circle—an ever-recurring sequence of events. Salvation was to find an exit from that vicious cycle, thus being freed from time in order to experience timelessness. The biblical concept pictures time as a line with beginning and end guaranteed by the eternal God. Thus, in the biblical view, salvation could not occur within a designated sequence; it only occurs in the experience of the individual and moves on to the historical consummation directed by the eternal God.

The contrast between Greek and biblical ways of viewing time raises the question of the exact nature of eternity. Is it to be understood as merely unlimited time or, in direct contrast to present time, as timelessness? The biblical view seems to be that eternity is not timelessness and does not stand in contrast to present time as its opposite, since present time and eternity share basic qualities.

The NT (following Judaism) uses “eon” or “age” to divide time into “this present eon” and “the eon that is about to be” or “the coming eon.” The contrast is not simply between time and timelessness, for the “eon that is about to be” is future and shares a specific and identifiable character. The biblical picture of the start of the “coming age” is dramatically painted with broad sequential brush strokes. The new age is not simply a restoration to the primitive and naive innocence of the earliest stage, but a consummation according to the purposes of him who is and who was and who is to come (Rv 1:4). Thus, it is designated as the new creation.

The NT clearly teaches that the “age that is to be” has now begun in the life and ministry of Christ, although there is a definite overlap in the two ages. The frequency of such terms as “the firstfruits,” “the earnest of the Spirit,” and “the last days,” reflects this understanding (e.g., Heb 6:5: “and have tasted . . . the powers of the age to come”). The believer enjoys the blessings of the future age imported into the present through Christ’s redemptive work.

The concept of eternity, then, does not stand in opposition and contrast to time as timelessness. Eternity is the unlimited and incalculable space of time bounded at its beginning by the introduction of the kingdom of God in Christ and stretching out into the unlimited future. Both time (“the present evil age,” Gal 1:4) and eternity are governed by God as the Lord of all time, the one who gives content and meaning to both.