From Everlasting to Everlasting

We usually conceive eternal life as 'going on forever' into the future. Many have pointed out that, if that is true, eternity starts now - rather than when we die, as is often intimated. Others have gone further to indicate that our English translations of words like 'eternal' fail to capture the original Greek and Hebrew meanings, which relate not so much to duration, but rather to quality. In this post, I wish to make a minor addition: eternal life relates not only to the future and the present, but also to the past. Not only is eternal life never ending; it is also never beginning - that is, always existing.

One peculiarity of translation is that a single word which appears in several places in the original text may be rendered variously, depending on the contextual meaning interpreted from it. In the Old Testament, one of these words is "olam", which occurs 438 times and is rendered into 26 different words or phrases (see also ad and netsach). The most common rendering of olam in the Standard Bible is "forever", which however comprises less than a third of total renderings (136). The second most common is "everlasting", the temporal direction of which, in terms of connotation if not definition, is distinctly less clear. Meanwhile, several renderings of the word - "ancient", "ancient times", "days of old" - relate explicitly to the past.

Due to the frequency and ubiquity with which olam occurs, it would basically require a complete study of the Old Testament to elucidate its full significance. Hopefully, a single example will suffice to demonstrate the point of interest. In Jeremiah 6:16, the Lord tells Israel to "ask for the ancient paths". David appears to obey this commend, asking the Lord to "lead [him] in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:24). The same word - olam - is translated as "ancient" in the first case and "everlasting" in the second. One rendering involves the past; the other, though less definite, seems to involve the future. 

It is noteworthy that olam is mainly used to describe the the sacred facets of God - His existence, His covenant, His laws, His promises, His word, and His kingdom. These facets remind us that God is outside of time; and when this is taken into account, the dual meanings of past and future eternity can be construed as merely two sides of the same coin. This is clarified by the phrase "from everlasting to everlasting" - "from olam to olam" - which appears in three Psalms: once to declare praise to God (41:13), once to describe the nature of His existence (90:2), and once to characterise His lovingkindness (103:17). God is "the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (Revelation 22:13, emphasis added); He is the Great I AM (Exodus 3:14).

An analogous word in the Greek is aiónios (from the root aión), which is of particular interest due to its appearance in the verse most commonly associated with 'eternal life', namely John 3:16. Like olam, aiónios denotes a state of being that is simultaneously 'without end' and 'without beginning'; indeed, it is perhaps more explicitly indicative of timelessness (and quality) rather than merely perpetuity. Like olam, it refers to the things of God - His redemption, salvation, and glory, and also His judgement, punishment, and destruction. Moreover, in parallel to the Old Testament phrase "olam to olam", in Revelation 22:5 John envisions that the servants of God will reign "eis" - that is, throughout, beyond, or even before - "the aiōnas of the aiōnas".

How is it possible for us to assume the infinitude of God? The author of Hebrews (9:14) gives us the answer when he speaks of "the Spirit aiōniou", i.e. the eternal Spirit. That same Spirit has been joined with our spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17), which acts as a guarantee of our coming glory (Ephesians 1:13; 2 Corinthians 1:22; Colossians 1:27), testifying that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). The more Spirit and the less flesh that we become - and therefore the more like God we become (2 Corinthians 3:18, 5:17; Ephesians 4:22-24; 2 Peter 1:4) - the more aiónios and olam we become. We become not just people who will always exist, but also people who have, in a sense, always existed. Our past and future status in turn sheds light on our present - which, indeed, is often the tense in which both the Hebrew and Greek words are employed.

Inspiration, Motivation, and Enlightenment in the New Year

It is common at this time of year, when the momentum of January begins to subside and our good intentions begin to founder, to seek inspiration, motivation, and even enlightenment. I would like to encourage you that, if you have the Spirit of God dwelling within you, you are already inspired, motivated, and enlightened.

Let's start with inspiration. Etymologically, the word means to "breathe in". It seems to have derived its customary connotation - of providing an animus of some sort - from the original act of inspiration, the original act of animation: when God "breathed into [man's] nostrils the breath of life", "man became a living creature" (Genesis 2:7). Like us, Adam was - quite literally - an "earthen vessel", which nevertheless received an inspiration so powerful that it came to life (2 Corinthians 4:7). An analogous event occurred in the New Testament when Christ breathed His Spirit first onto His disciples (John 20:22) and then onto the Church as a whole (Acts 2:1-13).

While it was God's Breath that inspired man, moreover, it was his Word that created the soil to begin with. Breath and Word are inextricably related: a word can only be communicated if it is breathed (think of the diligent scribes who know the scriptures by heart, but whose hearts remain unchanged) just as breath can only communicate if it contains a word (think of spiritual experiences that fail to produce any sort of direction). "It is the Spirit who gives life", and His words "are spirit and are life", the Gospel of John (6:63, emphasis added; see also John 6:68; 2 Timothy 3:16) tells us. If you have the Spirit, you are by definition inspired, for the Word who existed before the foundation of the world - and who created the world itself - also existed before you, created you, and now dwells within you (e.g. John 1; 2 Corinthians 3:16; Romans 8:9).

Let's 'move on' to motivation, which, indeed, derives from the root word meaning "to move". Again we encounter the Spirit, and again we do so right at the beginning. Even before the seven days of creation began, when the earth was still "formless and void", we read that "the Spirit was moving" (Genesis 1:2). Paul later remarks that "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28, emphasis added). If you have the Spirit, you are motivated; for, although we often seek motivation as a means of achieving something, the motivation of God it is a matter of "being", not doing. Perhaps to be truly motivated we need to "be still and know that [He] is God" (Psalm 46:10).

Finally, we reach enlightenment. It should be obvious that the word 'enlightenment' has something to do with light. Indeed, the relationship between light and knowledge in the Bible is 'blindingly' obvious (cf. Acts 9). In Psalm 119:130, for example, we learn that "The unfolding of [His] words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple". It was, after all, "God, who," in the beginning, "said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness'"; and it is the same God "who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6; see also Ephesians 1:16-21). We normally think of enlightenment as something kind of end destination, a kind of final achievement; but God's act of enlightenment was actually His first act of creation (Genesis 1:3).

"New Year, new you" - that's what we are often told, and how we often think. This, however, is folly; for those of us who are in Christ have already been made new (2 Corinthians 5:17), are constantly being made new (2 Corinthians 3:18) , and will one day be made new once and for all (Revelation 21:1-8).

The Spirit of God and the Breath of Life: Creation and Recreation

Genesis presents two creation stories: the first, outlined in 1:1-2:3, involves the creation of the world in six/seven days, while the second, outlined in 2:4-7, involves the creation of man specifically. It is often pointed out that the first story uses the word Elohim for God, while the second story uses the word Yahweh. The trinitarian significance of Elohim is often highlighted, as is the covenantial significance of Yahweh. I find it especially interesting, however, that both of the creation stories - along with their respective names for God - are connected with the idea of breath.

In the first story, after Elohim creates the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1), we are told that "ruach Elohim moved on the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2). Ruach, though normally translated as Spirit, can equally denote wind or breath. In the six days of creation that follow, moreover, Elohim brings the world into existence by His words - that is, by His breath. On each day, Elohim creates something new by saying something new. This idea is reiterated in the parallel perspective on creation provided by John (1:1-5), according to which all things were created through the Word - that is, God, who existed in the beginning.

After the first creation story is finished, Elohim rests (Genesis 2:1-3), apparently 'catching His breath' before embarking on the second story. In this story, Elohim takes what He has already created through His breath - namely soil - and breathes into it "the breath [neshamah] of life" to create man as a "living [i.e. conscious] being" (Genesis 2:7). Thus, whereas the 'first breath' had created the substance of the body, this 'second wind' creates the substance of the soul.

Job (33:4; cf. 32:8, 34:14-15) alludes to this two-stage process when he states, “The Spirit [ruach] of God has made me, And the breath [neshamah] of the Almighty gives me life." In the same vein, Psalm 33:6 reads, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host." Ezekiel's (37:1-14) vision of the valley of dry bones is similarly germane, although it relates not to creation per se, but rather to resurrection - that is, recreation. In that passage, the "word" of God forms bodies by causing tendons and flesh to attach to the dry bones (Ezekiel 37:4) - which evokes the "dust of the ground" of Genesis 2:7 - while the "breath" of God causes these bodies to come alive (Ezekiel 37:10).

Ezekiel's vision was, expressly, a prophecy for Israel. In the Bible, though, all things - not least Israel - point to Jesus. Indeed, in John's (1:14) account of creation, we learn that "the Word" - note, the Word, signifying Jesus - became flesh and dwelt among us". Jesus coming to earth and taking on human form was therefore a cosmic act of (re)creation in itself, akin to Elohim breathing his neshamah into the mortal soil once again.  For that to occur, Jesus first had to let the breath of life depart from him (Mark 15:37). The final result is a (re)creation that surpasses even the second story of Genesis; for whereas "the first man, Adam, became a living soul", "the last Adam" - Jesus - "became a life-giving spirit" (1 Corinthians 15:45; cf. 1 Peter 3:18ff).

It is true that in the Old Testament, the ruach of God - the Spirit of Elohim identified in the first creation story - often comes upon people, as if it were "mov[ing] on the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2). However, it is only after Jesus breathes into His apostles (John 20:22) - an act which takes place on a wider scale at Pentecost, when a "mighty rushing wind" enters the room (Acts 2) - that the Spirit dwells within people (e.g. 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19; Ephesians 2:22; 2 Timothy 1:14). Indeed, although we normally translate John 1:14 as "dwelt among us", the Greek preposition is actually just en, which can also mean within (cf. Luke 17:21; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Revelation 21:3). Incidentally, this alternative rendering would tally with Ezekiel's (36:25-27, 37:14) prophecies over Israel.

A remarkable implication of this distinction is that, although all people are conscious beings, and therefore created through the breath of God in a way that sets them apart from the rest of creation, not all people have been recreated by what we might conceive as the 'third breath' - they are not spiritually alive, and will therefore not avoid the second death (Revelation 2:11, 20:6,14, 21:8; cf. Romans 8:9-11; John 11:25-26). The "God-breathed" Word (2 Timothy 3:16), which is "Spirit and Life" (John 6:63), continues to distinguish "between soul and spirit" (Hebrews 4:12), thus showing us "the life that is truly life" (1 Timothy 6:19).