Today we conclude our look at Otis Q. Sellers’s critique of the traditional translations of the Hebrew עוֹלָם (olam) and the Greek αἰών (aion) as “eternal” or “timeless” and what it means for eschatology. (See Part 1 and Part 2) Sellers found the idea of “outflowing” to be the key to their meaning. Here is his etymological case for this:
As an example [Sellers wrote] of the thread of truth that runs through a family of words let us consider the word “purse,” indicating the bag which my lady carries. Does this have any relationship to the bursa in my shoulder that at one time flared up into bursitis? And is it also related to pursing the lips, or to the famous Bourse, the French stock exchange? At first glance one might say no, but the fact is that they are all closely related, and the thread that runs through all of them is the idea of hide, that is, a stripped-off skin.
It seems that it all started with the Greek word bursa, and the equivalent Latin word, both of which mean “leather.” [Sellers inadvertently conflated things here. The Latin bursa is the equivalent of the Greek Προύσα (prousa), which means “sack” and is the name of a city in northwestern Turkey.—A.F.] This filtered into the French as bourse, which means “purse,” a leather sack in which money is placed, and became the name of the French stock exchange. And since we have little sacks in our shoulders, these are called bursas. Furthermore, when we contract our lips into folds and wrinkles, it resembles a moneybag when the strings are pulled, and this is called “pursing the lips.” So, as different as some of these words seem to be from one another, there is an essential thread that runs through all of them. (“What Does Aion Mean?,” Seed & Bread 128; all quotations here are to this issue.)[1]
How does this insight illuminate our handling of olam, aion and their cognates?
Since aion was selected by divine inspiration to express the word olam in New Testament quotations of passages containing this word, it is then normal to expect that the same basic idea of “flowing” should be found in every occurrence. . . . I am not suggesting that aion be translated “flow,” “flower,” or “flowing” in any [given] occurrence. In translating I will always use the anglicized forms “eon” and “eonian” to render noun and adjective, but I will know from long and careful study what these words mean. In Ephesians 2:2 where the King James Version reads “the course of this world,” I will translate it “the eon of this world,” but will know that it means “the flow of this world.”
Here’s the background for his translation:
[Joseph Henry] Thayer says that The Etymologicum Magnum (a book giving the derivations of all Greek words) states that aion is so connected with aemi (to breathe) that it denotes properly “that which causes life, vital force.” Thus, the earliest history of this word shows its use in relationship to that great out-flowing of life which constantly comes from God, apart from which nothing can live. It is even as Paul declared the universal truth: “In Him we live, and move, and have our existence” (Acts 17:28).[2]
Now things get interesting: because aion is a corruption of an earlier spelling that has left many cultural traces in Western culture. You see, aion
. . . was not originally spelled aion, but ainon . . . . In the New Testament this spelling persists in a place name that is given as Aenon in our versions. In John 3:23 we read: “And John was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there.”. . . [A]ll lexicons agree [that Ainon] means a spring, that is, a free-flowing fountain of water…
The word aion is found in the Latin as aevum which, according to Thayer, “is aion with the Aeolic digamma.” (The digamma was a letter of the original Greek alphabet representing a sound that approximated the English w, which early fell into disuse. It was called “digamma” because of its resemblance to two capital gammas placed on top of each other.)
Thus when aion was carried into the Latin it became aevum, and was used to denote a cycle of time. It is from this we get our word “age” which we use to designate a period of time dominated by some central figure or clearly marked feature.
. . . The name Avon is given to several rivers in Great Britain, the most famous of these being the one on which Shakespeare’s town of Stratford is located. The Encyclopedia Britannica declares that this name is of Celtic origin, appearing in Welsh . . . as afon, in Manx as aon, and in Gaelic as abhuinn (“avain”). . . . In the British Islands it appears in such forms as Evan, Aune, Anne, Ive, Cuney, Inney; in France as Aff, Aven, Avon, Aune; in Italy as Avenza and Avens; in Portugal as Avia; in Spain as Avono. These are all names of rivers, that is, of flowing waters, and they all trace back to a common ancestor, the Greek word aion.
Sellers dug further:
Etymologists think that the ai portion is actually aei, an adverb which means “always,” and is used in Scripture in the sense of perpetually or incessantly. The on portion is the Ionic and Doric spelling of Dun, which is another adverb. Liddell and Scott declare this is used to continue a narrative, and Thayer says it is often used as a conjunction indicating that something follows from another necessarily. . . . Thus in the word aion we have the sense of “always-flowing,” just as we also have the sense of something flowing in our word “then.” For example: “He walked through the door, then turned.”
Classical Greek writers used the word aion . . . as a descriptive name for the spinal cord. . . . Since the brain is everflowing, from the moment of conception to the moment of death, it is the most important eon in our bodies. Its messages pour into the brain stem (another eon) and from it to the spinal cord (another eon) which also flows out in nervous impulses to other nerves (also eons) which continue to other nerves until they have reached their extremity. Thus, it can be seen that such terms as “the eon,” “the eon of the eon,” “the eon of the eons,” and “the eons of the eons” could all be applied to the system that operates in the human body.
Its relevance to the future manifest Kingdom of God on earth should be clear:
In many places in the New Testament this entire period of time is simply called the eon. This is not at all strange, since that condition of things upon the earth is produced by God in Christ flowing out and flowing down in many streams, each one producing its beneficent effect upon the earth and those upon it.
. . . If God’s government should come today, bringing in this glorious eon, there are many who would perish in relationship to it. There is no place in the coming eon for such as those described in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. God will determine (judge) who among the living will be allowed to continue to live in that time of the outflow of His blessings (2 Timothy 4:1).
Finally, here is Sellers’s rendering of John 11:25-26 (which has traditionally come down to us with the words “shall never die”) Jesus Christ said:
I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he may be dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall by no means be dying in respect to the eon. (John 11:25, 26)
What does that mean for you and me?
If I should be dead when God assumes sovereignty, then I will be raised, and this because I have believed in Him. If I am living, then I am in no danger of being eliminated from that eon to come, and this too will be because I have believed in Him. Believers have the guarantee of life in the coming eon. This is the promise of eonian life.
That is, life on earth in the Kingdom. Traditional translations, like “eternal” and “everlasting,” obscure this precious promise. Etymology harnessed to the Principle of Divine Interchange illuminate it.
Notes
[1] Seed and Bread was Sellers’s series of four-page leaflets that set forth his research. He produced 196 of them in late 1970’s and early 1980s. They are freely available online at seedandbread.org. In this post I cited SB128. Clicking on its link at seedandbread.org will download the pdf of that issue.
[2] See the entry for αἰών in A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, being Grimm’s Wilke’s Clavis Novi Testamenti, translated, revised, and enlarged by Joseph Henry Thayer, D.D. T&T. Clark, 1901, page 18. 
Links to previous posts on Otis Q. Sellers
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- Discovering Otis Q. Sellers: an autobiographical vignette
- Otis Q. Sellers: Maverick Workman (2 Tim 2:15)
- Getting to know Otis Q. Sellers, subversive heir to the Bible conference movement
- Otis Q. Sellers in New York, 1978
- Sellers’s Eschatology: Some Distinctives
- The day Otis Q. Sellers received Christ: November 23, 1919
- God’s Next Move? The Second Coming, not of Christ, but of His Spirit
- From (mostly) Jewish “ekklesiai” to anti-Jewish “churches” in 80 years: Dean Stanley’s questions