An age: age
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αἰών is one of the most theologically loaded words in the NT and one of the most frequently mistranslated. Its primary meaning is not 'eternity' as an abstract timeless realm but 'age' as a structured period of time with a beginning, a character, and an end.
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Full entry for αἰών (G165) · Open the biblical lexicon
αἰών is one of the most theologically loaded words in the NT and one of the most frequently mistranslated. Its primary meaning is not 'eternity' as an abstract timeless realm but 'age' as a structured period of time with a beginning, a character, and an end.
The BSB source-word alignment has 124 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include forever (43), age (20), ever (20), . . . (13), ages (5).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 12:32. Its strongest book concentrations include Revelation (26), Hebrews (15), John (13), 1 Corinthians (8).
This entry includes 2 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
αἰών is one of the most theologically loaded words in the NT and one of the most frequently mistranslated. Its primary meaning is not 'eternity' as an abstract timeless realm but 'age' as a structured period of time with a beginning, a character, and an end. The NT uses αἰών in two fundamental ways: (1) the present age (ho aiōn houtos, 'this age') — the current period of history characterized by sin, death, and Satan's influence; and (2) the age to come (ho aiōn ho mellōn, 'the coming age') — the future period inaugurated by Christ's return, characterized by resurrection life, the renewal of all things, and God's full reign.
The NT's eschatological framework is built on this two-age structure, borrowed from Second Temple Jewish apocalypticism and transformed by the Christ-event. Jesus announces that the kingdom of God is breaking into the present age; Paul describes believers as those 'upon whom the end of the ages has come' (1 Cor 10:11); and Hebrews declares that Christ appeared 'at the end of the ages' (Heb 9:26).
The overlap between the ages is the central NT eschatological claim: the powers of the age to come are already at work in the present, even as the present age has not yet fully passed away. The phrases 'forever' and 'for ever and ever' in English translations almost always translate aiōn formulas: 'eis ton aiōna' (into the age) and 'eis tous aiōnas tōn aiōnōn' (into the ages of the ages).
These formulas are not statements about abstract eternity but about endurance through the entirety of whatever ages are in view — they are temporal superlatives, not timelessness claims.
αἰών appears approximately 122 times in the NT. The key theological uses cluster around the two-age schema (present age vs. the age to come), the formulas for divine endurance (eis ton aiōna, eis tous aiōnas tōn aiōnōn), the Pauline concept of being conformed/not conformed to this age (Rom 12:2), and the Johannine/Epistolary use of 'eternal life' (zōē aiōnios — life of the age to come).
Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the one to come.
Jesus' explicit use of the two-age schema: 'this age' and 'the age to come' as distinct periods with a structural relationship. The statement about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit uses the two-age framework to show the absoluteness of the restriction — 'not in this age nor the one to come' is a Semitic totality expression: never, under no possible regime of time.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Paul's direct engagement with the present aiōn as the force to resist: 'do not be conformed to this age.' The present age has a shaping power — it presses people into its mold of values, assumptions, and priorities. The counterforce is transformation by mind-renewal: the capacity to discern God's will requires that the present age's pressure be actively refused. This text establishes the two-age framework as ethically, not merely eschatologically, significant.
In which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
Paul's description of the present aiōn as a realm with a ruling power: 'the ruler of the authority of the air.' The 'course of this world' (ton aiōna tou kosmou) shows that the present age is not neutral — it has a character, a direction, and a spiritual authority that orients the unconverted life. The contrast with v.6 ('seated with him in the heavenly places') is a two-age contrast: the believer's identity is no longer located in the present-age order.
Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
Hebrews' placement of the Incarnation at 'the end of the ages' (synteleia tōn aiōnōn): the Christ-event does not occur in the middle of history as one event among many but at the juncture where the old-age order meets its completion. This is the overlap-of-the-ages in its sharpest form: the priestly ministry of Christ belongs to 'the end of the ages' — the present age is already at its consummation even though the age to come has not fully arrived.
Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.
Jesus' definition of zōē aiōnios (eternal/age-of-the-coming-age life): not an endless extension of the present life but the quality of life that belongs to the age to come — the relational knowledge of the Father and the Son. 'Eternal life' in John's Gospel is primarily a qualitative term before it is a duration term: it is the life characterized by knowing God, which is the definitive feature of the age to come (Jer 31:34: 'they shall all know me').
There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.
The great aiōn-formula of completion: 'eis tous aiōnas tōn aiōnōn' (into the ages of the ages) — the temporal superlative that describes the final, unending order of the new creation. The saints' reign in the new Jerusalem is described using the language of ages because the new creation is not the end of time but the beginning of the final, permanent age. The aiōn-formulas of Revelation are not denials of time but affirmations of unending temporal continuation.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. An age or era; theologically, either the present evil age or the future eternal age to come.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 128 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
an age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read versean age, a cycle of time
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 6 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 122 lexical occurrence verses.
αἰών is built from this root:
Demas' love for the present age illustrates the spiritual danger of prioritizing worldly values over gospel faithfulness. 2 Timothy 4:9-15
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The single most practically important fact about αἰών is that it does not mean what most English translations suggest when they render it 'forever' or 'eternal.' The NT's aiōn theology is not about abstract timelessness but about the two-age structure of salvation history: this age (characterized by sin, death, and the present disordered order) and the age to come (inaugurated by Christ's resurrection and yet to be consummated at his return).
Understanding this transforms several NT texts. Romans 12:2 is not a general call to avoid worldliness as moral contamination; it is a call to refuse the shaping pressure of a specific historical order that is already obsolete in Christ. 'Do not be conformed to this age' means: the present age is on its way out; the age to come has already broken in through the resurrection; live now from the reality that is coming, not from the reality that is passing.
Hebrews 9:26 places the Incarnation at 'the end of the ages' — not 2,000 years ago in the middle of history but at the hinge-point where the old order reaches its conclusion. The 'eternal life' of John's Gospel is zōē aiōnios — the life that belongs to the age to come, available now through relationship with Christ. Congregations who understand the aiōn-structure can understand why the resurrection matters: it is the irruption of the age-to-come life into the present age, the sign that the new order is not merely promised but already underway.
Matt.12.32
The Greek aiōn translates the Hebrew ʿōlām (H5769) in the LXX — a word that means 'long duration,' 'the distant past or future,' and in combination (leʿōlam waʿed) 'for ever and ever.' Like ʿōlām, aiōn is fundamentally about duration and order, not about timelessness. The philosophical concept of eternity as a 'standing now' (the nunc stans of Boethius and Aquinas) is not the biblical concept; it is a Platonic-Aristotelian import.
Biblical forever language is normally framed as enduring time rather than escape from time. The plural aiōnes ('ages') in Hebrews (1:2; 11:3: 'by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God') shows that aiōn can also refer to the created orders of the cosmos itself — the word-orders or world-ages that constitute historical reality.
The OT background of αἰών is primarily ʿōlām — the long, structured duration of covenantal reality. 'Eternal covenant' (bĕrît ʿōlām) in Genesis, Exodus, and Isaiah means a covenant that endures through all historical ages, not a covenant outside time. The NT's two-age framework is a transformation of the Jewish apocalyptic structure: this age vs. the world to come (ʿōlam hazzeh / ʿōlam habbāʾ in Second Temple texts), with the decisive transformation being that the NT locates the transition at the cross and resurrection rather than at the final judgment.
Jesus' 'the Son of Man will be ashamed of those who are ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of the Father with the holy angels' (Mark 8:38) assumes the two-age structure: the present age and the coming age with the Parousia as the transition. The church lives in the overlap — the age to come has broken in through the Spirit (the 'down payment' of 2 Cor 1:22), but the present age has not yet fully passed away.
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