Quick Question Regarding Hebrew Word Eternal

[TAO]

I while back, I know a reference was posted about the Hebrew word that is translated as Eternal in English not meaning the same thing as it does in today's dictionary.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the topic that it was originally in.

I'm trying to explain it to somebody right now, but I can't without the details, unfortunately. So, if anybody has a link (or better yet, can explain it again), it'd be really awesome!

Thanks a ton!

-TAO

P.S. I believe there was a reference made to a phrase that meant 'to the horizon and back again'. Thanks!

[volgadon]

I while back, I know a reference was posted about the Hebrew word that is translated as Eternal in English not meaning the same thing as it does in today's dictionary.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the topic that it was originally in.

I'm trying to explain it to somebody right now, but I can't without the details, unfortunately. So, if anybody has a link (or better yet, can explain it again), it'd be really awesome!

Thanks a ton!

-TAO

P.S. I believe there was a reference made to a phrase that meant 'to the horizon and back again'. Thanks!

I think you mean olam. Let me grab you a referrence.

[maklelan]

The Hebrew word commonly translated "eternal," עולם, comes from a word meaning "hidden." It basically refers to unknown antiquity. In the Greco-Roman period it developed the sense of "cosmos." In Jewish literature we find "King of the Universe" and "King of Eternity," which both come from the same Hebrew phrase.

[volgadon]

As noted in Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, the word "olam" is usually translated as "eternity" or "eternal," but is not to be understood in the philosophical sense. It usually meant a long period of time, which is why from olam to olam is used instead of saying olam just the once. Even the theologically-loaded "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia" writes that the OT "has no special term for 'eternity' that can be contrasted with 'temporality.' The Hebrew word most often used to express 'eternity' is olam. It is the same word that expresses duration of time, and it designates 'eternity' only in such statement as 'from olam' and 'until olam' (Ps. 90:2). Its meaning also shifts from a quantitative/temporal sense of a long span of time to a qualitative sense conveying the idea of permanence or immutability (2 Sam. 23:5; Ps. 78:69). Use in this latter sense does not deny the essential temporal quality of all OT thought when olam is used. While this word can shift in meaning to the qualitative ideas of greatness, power or transcendence when refering to God, it must be noted that these are qualities of God and are not implied in olam itself."

Here is another entry from the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible.

III, Taken by itself, the Hebrew term olam does not possess any connotation of divinity.

M. Dahood regarded olam as an archaic divine appellation, 'the Eternal', and referred to many psalms in support of his contention (M. DAHOOD, Psalms I [AB 16;

Garden City 1965] xxxvii, with ref. to Pss 24:7.9; 52: II; 66:7; 73: 12; 75: 10; 89:3; cf. also his interpretation of Ps 110:4).

Unfortunately, however, Dahood was forced to emendate or reinterpret the Masoretic text in many cases (so in Pss 31:2 1/ 71:1; 52:11; 75:10; 119:111.160).

The alternance posited by him between olam,'the Eternal One', and zu leOlam, 'the One of Eternity' (Ps 12:8 ), does nothing to reinforce his case either.

Nor does the expression zeroot olam in Deut 33:27 mean 'the arms of the god Olam' (pace A. VAN DEN BRANDEN, Les dieux des patriarches, BeO 162 [1990] 36).

The God of Israel may be reverentially qualified as 'eternal', but there is no biblical text which uses the abstraction 'eternity' as a divine designation.

Edited March 9, 2012 by volgadon

[volgadon]

In Jewish literature we find "King of the Universe" and "King of Eternity," which both come from the same Hebrew phrase.

And can be found in Jeremiah 10;10.

[Robert F. Smith]

I while back, I know a reference was posted about the Hebrew word that is translated as Eternal in English not meaning the same thing as it does in today's dictionary.

P.S. I believe there was a reference made to a phrase that meant 'to the horizon and back again'. Thanks!

volgadon almost put his finger on it. The phrase you are probably looking for is olam olamim, which Wycliffe translated as "world without end," and was rendered in Latin as saecula saeculorum. A Mormon would likely prefer "worlds without end," just as we put worlds into the Luther Hymn "How Great Thou Art." I don't recall that "horizon and back" reference, but that could be a metaphrase for olam olamim.

[TAO]

Thanks guys a ton! That really helped!

-TAO